Smart Phone Users Required
Mobile media authority, M:Metrics, the only research firm to measure the audience for mobile media, provides the most accurate metrics on actual mobile content consumption by applying trusted media measurement methodologies to the mobile market.

One of their products is MeterDirect, which is the first service that tracks directly and continuously the way that subscribers used their smartphones. This enables them to measure how often and for how long subscribers of many different operators surf the Internet with their phones, which games they play, which sites they visit, how many e-mail messages they send and what other features they use.

The purpose of the Smart M:Panel campaign is to recruit mobile phone users for their research panel. Mobile users will be rewarded for voluntarily installing a software client on their mobile device. Panelists get £10 when they activate their account and and ongoing incentives including entry into a monthly cash prize draw.

If you have a smartphone and are interested in joining the panel visit M:Metrics for more information. Also available to US smartphone owners

Home of Research is a new market research panel - choose which surveys you want to complete and earn points which can be exchanged for cash, vouchers or even donated to charity. 100 points = £1 and with up to 500 points attached to each survey, the money soon adds up! You can redeem your points once you have over 2,000. It's up to you what you do with them: convert them into Amazon vouchers, cash (for PayPal account holders) or donate the equivalent value to charity.

What I particularly like about this company is they tell you in the e-mail what criteria they are looking for, so if you aren't going to qualify you don't need to waste time completing pre-screeeners.

panelbase.net was first launched in 2004 and has become one of the fastest growing research communities on the internet. For every survey that you complete, you will be rewarded in one of two ways. Some questionnaires will carry rewards between £0.50 and £3, which is added to your panelbase.net account. In addition to receiving cash, other surveys may include entry into prize draws where you could win anything from a case of wine, to an iPod or a plasma TV. As soon as you reach the redemption threshold of £10 (you get £3 just for signing up) you can withdraw your money or convert it to high-street vouchers.

• World Wildlife Fund
• British Red Cross
• Oxfam

Anyone aged 16 years or older with access to the Internet, a land line or mobile phone can join the panelbase.net research community. As they conduct research in a variety of ways (via the Internet, telephone, SMS, product testing, focus groups or postal) you can participate in a range of surveys that are not solely reliant upon you having access to the Internet.

Join ZoomPanel and earn points, prizes or gift certificates when you complete eligible surveys. The ZoomPanel exists strictly to conduct online market research for large consumer products companies. They may want to know what you think about new products that they are working on or may ask for your point of view about package designs, television ads, etc. Panel members will be invited to take a survey no more than 4 times each month. Some surveys offer ZoomPoints (exchangeable for gifts/vouchers in their online catalogue); some offer prizes; sometimes sweepstakes entries are your reward. You also get one entry into a sweepstake for a chance to win a Plasma Television for every eligible survey completed.

ZoomRewards program is open to legal residents of the UK, the US, Canada, France and Australia.

SSI is a Dutch research company that have recently expanded into the UK through their Choozz website. They operate an Instant Win Game program which gives you a chance to win thousands of pounds in cash & prizes every time you take a survey. For surveys that take more-than-usual effort, you can receive personal cash rewards or special prizes like iPods, flat screen monitors, games & CD vouchers plus much more. They may also need you to test products at home & give your opinion about them later. Of course, you get to keep the products.

Register now and you also have a chance of winning a helicopter ride!

You must be between 13 and 35 to be a Choozz member. US Panel also available

Valued Opinions, (formerly The Mobile Channel) pay you for every survey that you complete, (typically with between £1 and £2). The value of the reward can vary from 25p for taking part in a text poll, to £50 or more for attending a focus group. When your account balance reaches £10, you can exchange it with a gift voucher for one of a range of well-known high street and Internet shops, including Amazon, HMV, Tesco and WH Smith. I receive several surveys ever week from this company, earning enough for a payout nearly every month as well as test products.

Open to residents 16 and over. Also available in Ireland

Nielsen//NetRatings is a global leader in Internet media and market research. NetRatings, Inc., part of the Nielsen family, which has long been considered the industry's global standard for Internet and digital media measurement and analysis. Whilst Nielsen family members have been influential in determining the popularity of television programs for over 50 years, they are currently looking for internet users to participate in Nielsen's panel for the Internet. Today, they are asking a select group of people to join the Nielsen/NetRatings Internet Panel to help them chart the course of the world wide web of tomorrow. It's free, it's easy to signup and everyone over the age of 18 years can participate. Panel members are asked to fill out a short profile and download software to receive surveys that will most interest them.

You are rewarded for your participation with 2 chances to play the Wave and Win Instant Rewards game and win one of 857 different prizes. In addition, you receive 2 entries in the £5,000 quarterly prize drawing. Every month you remain in the panel, you receive 2 more chances to win instantly and even more entries into our grand prize drawing. Want to earn more daily game plays? For every survey you complete you earn two Instant Rewards plays & two Grand Prize drawing entries and two Instant Rewards plays & four Grand Prize drawing entries when you refer a friend.

Whilst not available to everyone, if you're an IT or Business professional in any business sector (includes most people running their own business) one site I'd strongly recommend is QNA. Once you join QNA, every survey you take earns a financial reward. You can either collect it personally in the form of Amazon or Virgin vouchers or donate it to one of their partner charities. Unlike other sites where you might wait weeks for payments, you can expect to receive your Amazon vouchers within an hour of completion (working hours only) with Virgin vouchers being posted out to you the next day! The one I completed yesterday has already paid me £5 and took no more than a couple of minutes to complete.

An online survey will carry an incentive of £5 or £10 (the typical online survey will be worth £10) with telephone surveys paying £5 to £10 and face-to-face interviews or focus groups offering a reward of £25 to £75

As a member your name is placed in the QNA Monthly Draw - whether you have completed a survey in that month or not. The prize is usually a typical "must-have" techno-gadget such as the latest iPod.

Find out more from QNA Surveys

Open to UK residents, 16 and over.

IPSOS Interactive Services is one of the world's leading market research agencies. By joining their research panel, you'll earn points that can be exchanged for High Street vouchers. One of the more active panels - I receive survey requests most weeks from this agency. They are also one of the best for sending out new products to test.

Available to UK residents over 18 plus US and Canadian residents plus much of Europe (see European page for current European requirements).

• Registration earns you 1,500 points
• Quick votes, each time you take part earns you 15 points (there are always loads of these on the site so visit regularly. They take a matter of seconds to complete.)
• Product testing, registering for each trial earns you 75 points even if you're not selected to take part
• Surveys earn you between 3,000 and 30,000 points
• Referring a friend, for each person who joins Test&Vote because of you, you will earn 500 points
• Subject panels - complete these to get 500 points per subject.

You can either exchange your points for gift vouchers or use them to buy tickets in the monthly lottery.

Visit testandvote to get further details and register for the UK site or click on the relevant country below:

• Czech Republic
• Germany
• Italy
• Russia
• Spain
• Austria
• Ireland
• Switzerland

Contrary to appearances suggested by the name, American Consumer Opinion™ is made up of consumers worldwide who have agreed to participate in surveys over the Internet. Occasionally, these consumers are asked to participate in mail surveys or telephone surveys, but generally the surveys are all conducted over the Internet.

As a panel member, you will participate in several surveys a year, typically. The average survey will take 10 minutes or so to complete, and the questions are usually easy to answer.

Panel members can expect to receive a "screener" (a short questionnaire) every six weeks or so.

All registered members participate in a monthly drawing to win cash awards, just for being a member.

If you answer a screener (a short questionnaire), you will be entered into a drawing for cash awards and when you participate in a survey (a longer questionnaire), you will always receive some type of incentive in the form of a free product to test, cash, a check, or a gift.

Incentives typically range in value from £3 to £25, per survey, depending upon the length of the questionnaire and the time it takes to complete it. If a survey is extra long, then the award could be £25 or more. Participants in online focus groups generally receive more than £25.

I've received many payments from this company

Lightspeed Consumer Channel are an international research company and have been one of the more active in the UK over recent years. Until recently the only reward for completing surveys were entries into prize draws. Now however they've revamped their scheme so that you still earn prize draw entries for completing qualifiers but whenever you complete a survey you also earn points exchangeable for a range of high street vouchers. You only need to earn £5 to claim so there's no long wait to get rewarded.

Lightspeed also operate in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, France and Germany

GlobalTestMarket has a very active survey division and requires participants worldwide over the age of 14. If you've got children under 14, you may receive requests for their opinion but the invitation will go to the parent for the child to complete, rather than to the child direct.

You earn "marketpoints" each time you respond to a survey request - the closer you fit the demographics for the survey, the higher the points earned but you'll always earn 2 or 3 even if you don't qualify at all. A typical survey of 30 questions that takes approximately 12 minutes to complete will earn 60 to 80 MarketPoints. You can also earn extra points when you refer others. Each point is worth $0.05 and you need 1000 points to qualify for payment by cheque.

They seem to be fairly active. I'm receiving 2 or 3 survey invitations nearly every day at present and have received several payouts. For full details and registration form, visit GlobalTestMarket

Originally conceived as a site where you could publish your opinion on products, services etc. Ciao is now also one of the more active sites offering paid surveys. Ciao pays in cash, with a threshold of just £10.

Open to residents aged 14 and over.