Respondent

Respondent review

Respondent is a market research company that enlists individuals to answer highly specific questions for generous pay.

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How it works

Respondent enlists business professionals to provide their opinions on a wide array of topics, from remodeling to tech. This site has a fairly simple sign-up process. You fill out information about who you are and what you do, including your specific areas of expertise.

Once signed up, you can view a laundry list of potential surveys, which specify what type of person they’re looking for and how much they pay. Like many focus group sites, answering these one-on-one surveys can pay generously.

Well-paid research

For instance, one survey is looking for parents of athletic teens in Los Angeles to talk for 75 minutes about beverages. Pay $125. Another seeks people suffering with memory loss who have sought medical help in the past few years. The 2.5-hour interview with the patient and his or her carepartner pays $500 — about $50 an hour for each of the two participants. Another $75 survey seeks immigrants who regularly send packages to Bulgaria, Romania or the Philippines.

However, there are also lower-paid gigs for “audio enthusiasts” ($10) and those who recently spoke an auto-finance company’s customer service agent ($35).

Getting gigs

There are two ways to get gigs here — you get contacted by email because a survey fits your profile and the site would like you to apply; or you apply to gigs listed on your dashboard.

But even when contacted directly, your chance of qualifying to complete any given survey is relatively small. That’s because each survey is looking for one or two people who have unique experience. And because what they’re looking for is so specific, you get weeded out more often than not.

That said, if you happen to know somebody who fits the specific requirements needed for a survey, the site also pays generous referral fees. You can get $20 to $50 for a successful referral.

Applying for a survey

What happens when you think you could qualify to complete a survey?

Click on the offer and answer a few more questions. The client offering the job will then review your application and accept or reject it.

If accepted, you’ll choose among available times to complete the research. In some cases,  surveys can be completed on your own. However, pay attention to the deadlines. They must be completed on schedule to receive payment.

Commissions & fees

In addition to charging researchers to post jobs on the platform, Respondent takes 5% of the pay provided to freelancers. So, if you earn $100 from a study, you’ll cash out $95.

Pay

Payments are made through PayPal after the researcher has approved your participation.

If there is a dispute over whether you completed your survey, you’ll need proof of having participated from either emails from the researcher, screen shots or both. However, users say Respondent’s customer service people will hop on the matter promptly.

Recommendations

This a great little side hustle, even if it doesn’t pan out very often. You can sign up for Respondent here. Also consider Maven, which works much the same way.

If you like this type of work, you may want to sign up with focus group companies too. Consider FindFocusGroups, FocusGroup and Shifrin-Hayworth.

What their users say (from G2)

The compensation provided if you are chosen for and participate in a research study is very fair and is delivered promptly. The studies and surveys I have participated in are also very pleasant and engaging. But some times there are not many, if any, surveys or research studies that you will qualify for. Or you may have to fill out a significant amount of screeners or do some extensive scrolling to choose ones that may apply to you. And for all of the screeners that you may fill out, you will likely not be chosen for most of them.

As someone who participates in online research studies and surveys on a regular basis, I’ve used a number of different platforms over the years. However, Respondent has quickly become one of my favourites, thanks to the many benefits it offers participants, including fair compensation rates: interesting and relevant studies; opportunity for meaningful feedback; and questions asked in the Respondent.io surveys are designed to stimulate thoughtful responses from the participants. But there are long periods of time between available studies.

Some companies pay well; Respondent pays GREAT.

Helpful service

The most helpful about respondent is if a company doesn’t put the money on my Paypal on the day they say, all I have to do is call Respondent and the customer service team will have the money on my account in hours! I’ve been working with them over a year and have participated in over ten surveys and product testing. Alot of people I see giving Respondent one star it’s because they don’t know how to set up there profile correctly and that’s why they never get calls for jobs!