Tip #1: Use a different email address for surveys / offers.

One of the side effects of giving your email address to a few of these surveys companies is that they will start sending you offers and other unsolicited mail to the email address you provide. Some companies are worse than others, and it’s difficult to tell which companies are , so it’s just a factor that you have to deal with.

The easiest way to keep the unwanted email from reaching your email is to create a secondary email address just for the surveys / free offers. On my primary email account the only CashCrate related emails I receive are confirmations when offers have cleared and the earnings have been added to my account:

I am a big fan of Gmail, their webmail service works really well (spam filtering, searching, etc.). You can sign up for your own Gmail address here. (or register a few addresses, it’s very easy!)

Which brings me to the next tip

Tip #2: Learn how to separate spam from real email (confirmations).

Once you have your secondary email account set up for offers you need to be able to identify the real email (confirmation and activation emails) quickly and accurately.

First off, a word about how surveys and offers work. The only way CashCrate can operate successfully (i.e. getting paid by the companies who provide surveys and offers so they can pass the earnings to users who fill them out) is if they can guarantee that the users are entering real data. One of the ways they do this is by sending you a confirmation email to ensure that your email address is valid. Once an email address is validated you are much more likely to have CashCrate confirm your offer and deposit the earnings in your account. Quickly confirming an offer by clicking on an activation link could be the difference between receiving your earnings and not receiving anything at all.

Here’s how I quickly find and confirm the activation emails:

• First, before you sit down and start doing offers delete all the Spam in your Spam box (since some confirmation emails will show up in your Spam box). In Gmail you do this by clicking “Spam” and then “Delete all spam messages now”. This will give you a clean slate to let you more easily see which new emails are legitimate and which are spam.
• Next, go to the CashCrate site and complete an offer. When you reach the end of the offer / survey go to your inbox right away and look for any new email (I like to keep two windows open, CashCrate / offers in the first window and my Gmail inbox in the background). If you see any new spam go ahead and delete it. If you see a confirmation email open it and follow the link inside. Here are some example subject lines of confirmation emails:
  • Please Confirm Your MySurvey.com Registration
  • Thank you for registering. Please open for important information.
  • Welcome aboard (name)
  • Your RecipeRewards registration: please confirm
  • EliteMate.com Registration Confirmation
  • (name), Activate your SendEarnings Account!
  • Dear (name), Welcome to Pandaresearch
  • Welcome from Winning Surveys
  • IMPORTANT: Please confirm your registration

• Always check your spam as well as your inbox. For me Gmail has classified a few of the confirmations as spam. You can tell Gmail not to mark something as spam by clicking the “Not Spam” button. Try to keep your unread messages and spam messages to a minimum so you can more easily see incoming activation emails.

Note: I usually submit offers to CashCrate right after I finish the offer. I don’t necessarily wait for the activation links. I think the most important thing is that you click the activation link within a reasonable amount of time for it to count towards your earnings.

Those are the most useful tips for me right now. If you’re thinking about signing up, please use my CashCrate link so I can keep bringing you more reviews and tips in the future!

—

Elitemate - $2.50 (completed)
nothing too out of the ordinary
I checked my inbox after signing up… it looks like they send you a lot of emails (11 showed up from elitemate soon after I registered), I’ll write a little in an upcoming blog entry about how to deal with spam
4 minutes to complete

50k Scholarship - $1.25 (completed)
I don’t care for this company’s offers (the ones the repeatedly mention “Shopper’s Choice”)
they ask you multiple pages of the same questions (Arthritis, Macular Degeneration, etc.)
after 4 minutes I saw the message “Thank You! Your information was received successfully and you have now been entered to win.”
Right after that they try to get you to fill out more offers (free cars), this offer has nothing to do with CashCrate, so I chose not to fill it out
A few minutes later I received the confirmation in my spam: “Welcome from Winning Surveys” -> clicked link -> “Thank you for confirming your interest in WinningSurveys.com!”

Opinon Direct - $1.00 (bailed out)
requires an address up front, didn’t like the looks of it

Panda Research - $0.80 (completed)
very easy
only took 2 minutes to get to “THANKS FOR COMPLETING OUR SURVEY !”
checked my spam: “Dear ___, Welcome to Pandaresearch” -> clicked activation -> “Your email has been verified”
this offer also was approved by CashCrate very quickly

Tickles Your Pickle - $0.80 (bailed out)
requires address up front, didn’t seem worthwhile

SendEarnings - $0.75 (completed)
took 2 minutes, very easy!
checked my email -> “Activate your account” -> clicked link -> “Thank You! Your SendEarnings account is now active!”
Nice site design btw, looks attractive
But it looks like they send you a lot of emails, might have to block them

GroupLotto - $0.75 (bailed out, but received credit anyway)
after you enter your info it takes you to 2 more offers, I hit the very small “NO THANKS” link at the top of the page
complete two silver offers? complete two gold offers? complete two platinum offers? do I really need to do that?
seems like rubbish, I stopped after 6 minutes, maybe it’ll give me credit, maybe it won’t
Got a confirmation 20 minutes later in my spam, “Click on the Submit button below to confirm your status” -> took me back to the beginning of the survey (I guess that means it’s okay)

Obopay - $3.00 (bailed out)
looks like they want to call my cell phone
(note: Ryan in the comments below said that Obopay only uses your number to send you an authorization code, I’ll have to try them again)

Recipe Rewards - $0.40 (completed)
looks like the same company as GroupLotto
make sure you click the small “If you don’t want this special offer, click here.” links
I don’t like these offers, they provide multiple pages with no clear ‘end’ to the offer
Eventually it took me to a page for ITT tech -> clicked ‘no thanks’ -> “Thank you for your time. No data was captured.” (not sure what that means)
took 4 minutes to complete, I’d say it’s not worth 40 cents
Later I got a confirmation email in my spam box: “Please confirm your registration by clicking the “YES” button below.” -> took me back to the original survey page (just like GroupLotto)

Gas For a Year - $1.00 (bailed out)
same company (onlinerewardcenter) as the other two?
Same silver / gold / platinum offers
Took me to surveypanelgroup.com, bailed out here
not sure if I’m going to get credit for this one
4 minutes

TheNetPanel - $0.50 (not eligible)
“You are already registered with TheNetPanel.com. You are being redirected to participate in other surveys.”
looks like I can’t do this one twice despite it showing up in my list again

SurveyClub - $0.50 (completed)
it played really loud music as soon as I entered the page… please don’t do that
pretty easy…
finished in 2 minutes, got the confirmation in my spam, “To confirm your account, please click the following link” -> “Your SurveyClub account has been successfully confirmed!”

NFO - $2.00 (completed)
very easy to signup (2 minutes)
got a confirmation one minute later in my inbox, “Click on the link below to confirm your interest in MySurvey.com membership.” -> took me to a very clear confirmation page
But! It says you need to “complete one survey” in the cashcrate description;
Went back to the site and did the “First Chance Survey” -> “Thank you for your time. Please click here to return and receive credit”
ok looks good! worthwhile for $2.00
—

Summary:

• $8.95 earned
• spent ~1 hour
  • 32 minutes spent filling out surveys / offers
  • approximately 30 minutes in between surveys, taking notes on the offers, checking email for confirmations, etc.
• even though they were a bit of a pain, GroupLotto and Recipe Rewards were both confirmed quickly by CashCrate

So… I did about the same as August 3rd, (expect for the bigger one-time offer for Stamps.com I completed). Spending an hour or two per day at CashCrate still seems like a good deal to me, and I’m sure I’ll get better and pick up some techniques as I continue. Keep on keepin’ on

Before I start here is the format I follow:

• First I give the exact name of the offer that you click on in the members area of CashCrate
• Next, I give the payout (e.g. $1.00, $0.50)
• Finally I give my impression / brief review of the offer (how easy it was, how long it took, what information they asked for, if they sent a confirmation email, etc.)

—

First I started off with the Daily Surveys ($0.80)
I didn’t qualify for the first one
The second one was about cell phone service, took about 5 minutes

Deal or no Deal - $1.00 (completed)
very easy, 1-2 minutes

Poetry contest - $1.00 (completed)
pretty easy, my poem was awesome by the way!
took less than 10 minutes

Stamps.com - $13 (requires credit card, completed)
very simple, took less than 5 minutes to finish
my only concern was if they are going to charge you after the trial is over
They cleared this up in their welcome email:

If you decide that Stamps.com is not right for you, cancel
your account before your 4-Week Trial ends and you will
not be charged any service fees.

Memo to self… cancel account when the money clears

Opinion Direct - $1.00 (bailed out)
didn’t like the look of the site, didn’t seem reputable

Mcdonalds - $1.00 (completed)
took 1 minute to complete
email confirmation came soon after

FastWeb - $1.00 (bailed out)
requires SSN, staying away from this one

Classmates.com - $1.00 (completed)
Need to sign up for a free account
Wow my high school actually has ~50 people listed
2 minutes to complete, very easy, and I might even use the site in the future

Nielsen Net Ratings - $1.50 (completed)
I did this one because Nielsen is a pretty trustworthy name
They ask you to install their monitoring software on your computer
Memo to self… uninstall software after the money is approved
4 minutes to complete, pretty painless

Synovate - $1.00 (completed)
pretty easy, had to do email confirmation
4 minutes to complete

—

Summary:

• $20.30 earned
• approximately one hour worth of work
  • 30 minutes spent on the surveys
  • 30 minutes spent in between surveys, checking email for confirmations, etc.

$20 in an hour, pretty good (mostly because of the Stamps.com offer). I feel a lot of potential with CashCrate; if you could spare an hour a day, or 15 minutes here and there, you can make a pretty nice sum at the end of the month.

My initial impressions are that the CashCrate site has a good design and the service is well thought out and easy to use. They offer a quick one page tutorial which tells you everything you need to know to start completing offers and getting some earnings.

It seems the average amount of money you get for a simple survey is anywhere from $0.50 to $1.00, and a survey can be completed in anywhere from a few minutes to around 10 minutes (depends on the survey provider). Offers are a little more lucrative, usually paying out $1.00 or more, and take a similar amount of time to complete.

—

My basic process so far seems to be:

1. Pick a survey or offer from the list in the members area (the tutorial says to start off by sorting the offers by 100% Free + sort by Rating)
2. Clicking an offer will redirect you to that offer’s site. Once you’re there you fill out a series of pages or answer some questions.
3. When finished you go back to the CashCrate site, hit ‘Submit’ for that offer, and the amount will be added to your (pending) earnings.
4. Within a few hours you should receive a confirmation from CashCrate saying that the offer was accepted and the pending money has been moved into your current earnings.

So far its been a good experience! Stay tuned for more updates, I am now keeping a detailed journal of my experience and I’ll definitely be going in to more detail in the upcoming posts.

For those who don’t know, CashCrate is an online “Get Paid To” (GPT) program where you complete offers (some free, some require a credit card) and surveys and get money in return. Although many similar sites exist, it’s easy to get lost in the sheer number of shady sites out there (e.g. the ones where you pay the site, not the other way around). As far as I can tell, CashCrate seems to be one of the most legitimate and reliable sites (see this forum thread on payouts for some examples).

A little about me: I am a poor modestly living college student with a lot of big ideas that I want to pursue. Although my goal is to follow my dreams (building my own business, giving back to others) the most important thing for me right now is a stable and easy way to support myself. During the summer I do not have a steady source of employment (occasional web design contracting), but I do have a steady source of debt (tuition), so now seems like a good time to start trying new things. After doing some research I have decided to start off with CashCrate and document my experience here.

Thanks for reading… More will be coming soon! -Alan