If you want to make money by answering surveys online, Opinion Outpost is an option that will most likely turn up in your search.
But how much money can you make, and how does it compare to its competitors? In this Opinion Outpost review, I’ll outline what I found after a dozen hours of research including information on the rewards options that the company offers and the types of surveys available.
Table of Contents
- What Is Opinion Outpost?
- How Opinion Outpost Works
- Opinion Outpost Review: How Much Money I Made
- Opinion Outpost Review: My Experience With Surveys
- How Opinion Outpost Pays: Visa, PayPal, Gift Cards
- Is Opinion Outpost Worth Your Time?
- Opinion Outpost Pros
- Opinion Outpost Cons
What Is Opinion Outpost?
Opinion Outpost is a survey company that allows its users to make money online.
Incorporated in 2009, Opinion Outpost is a subsidiary of Dynata.
The parent company originated in the 1980s as Survey Sampling. Dynata also owns and operates brands such as Vindale Research, OneOpinion and QuickThoughts.
Unlike the sites of many of its competitors, Opinion Outpost is streamlined; you earn money by completing surveys and not much else.
How Opinion Outpost Works
I signed up for my free Opinion Outpost account by providing my name and email address.
Applicants must be at least 18 years old.
After I signed up, I had to take the following steps before I could start to make money.
1. Confirm Email Address
I received a five-point activation bonus for doing this. Five points are the equivalent of $5.
2. Complete Profile
Opinion Outpost and multiple reviewers of the site stress being thorough about answering the profile questions (demographics and interests).
There are a lot of these questions. They’re organized by topic. You don’t have to answer all of them. But I earned another five points for completing a certain percentage of this “welcome survey.”
The company claims that filling out these details helps it match you with the right surveys (and reduces your fail rate).
3. Answer Multiple-Choice Survey Precursor Questions
The Opinion Outpost website is much more streamlined than its competitors.
The main menu includes four options: Surveys, Rewards, Badges and Explore.
If you click on one of the surveys, Opinion Outpost will first ask you a series of multiple-choice questions. This is a continuation of Step 2 (“Complete My Profile”) and is ostensibly a part of matching you with surveys that fit well. However, I noticed that some of these questions get repetitive.
You must power through these multiple-choice questions to get to the part of each survey that will actually earn you money.
4. Fill Out Surveys
Opinion Outpost tells you how much money you’ll make (in points) if you complete each survey.
It also estimates how much time it will take to complete each survey. However, I found that the company sometimes underestimated that.
Other Things To Know About Opinion Outpost Compensation
I saw multiple reviews of the site that referenced a referral program. Purportedly, the program pays $1 per successful referral up to a maximum of $5. I wasn’t able to find any information about this program on the Opinion Outpost website. And at a cap of $5, you’re not going to earn much money from it even if it does exist.
The company offers a 1,000-point giveaway each month. That’s the equivalent of $100. Users receive what’s essentially one raffle ticket per survey attempt.
It also offers a tiered rewards system composed of five levels: bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond.
The benefits of each tier aren’t clearly explained on the site. But one reviewer said you can earn additional points through this system. They may show up in your survey history page labeled as “community achievement,” although I achieved the silver tier and did not get any such notification.
In order to move up to gold, I needed to:
- Take a survey in consecutive weeks.
- Complete at least 10 surveys.
- Redeem my first reward.
- Complete 50% of my survey profile.
Opinion Outpost also emailed me consistent reminders that new surveys were available to me.
Opinion Outpost Review: How Much Money I Made
During my Opinion Outpost review, I earned the equivalent of $20.20 in 10 hours; that’s $2.02 an hour.
And it’s at the upper end of the spectrum in terms of the survey-based sites I’ve reviewed.
If you’re trying to make money online as a job, survey sites such as Opinion Outpost won’t give you the income you need. It’s more of a paid time killer than a job replacement.
Also, if you do a little internet digging, you’ll find complaints online from people alleging that their Opinion Outpost accounts got suspended before they were able to cash out.
In its terms and conditions, the company states that it will suspend your account until the end of the year if you achieve the equivalent of $599 in rewards; you have to submit a verified W-9 to reactivate your account. If you make $600 or more, it will suspend your account indefinitely until you’ve submitted a verified W-9.
When someone makes at least $600, United States-based companies must submit that information to the IRS when they file their taxes.
Opinion Outpost Review: My Experience With Surveys
I completed 20 of the 53 surveys I attempted. That’s a 37.7% success rate.
That’s the lowest rejection rate I’ve experienced while reviewing survey sites.
Anecdotally, these surveys took more time to complete than the other survey sites I’ve tested — in some cases, much more time.
A handful of times, I completed an entire survey only for Opinion Outpost to notify me that it had already received its full complement of responses. I did not earn any points in those instances.
The survey topics varied a good bit. I watched and provided feedback on video advertisements for an online bank, gave opinions on my favorite fast-food slushies and milkshakes and explained whether COVID-19 has disrupted my consumer and business practices.
My biggest reward for completing a survey was 25 points: the equivalent of $2.50.
How Opinion Outpost Pays: Visa, PayPal, Gift Cards
In the Opinion Outpost system, 10 points equals $1 and 100 points equals $10.
You’ll be able to cash out starting at 50 points ($5) via an Amazon gift card.
There are 11 other rewards options. All of them require at least 100 points ($10). Those 11 options fall into two categories: gift cards and money.
The money options:
- PayPal
- Visa prepaid card
The gift card options:
- Apple
- Chili’s
- CVS
- Domino’s
- GameStop
- Macy’s
- Nike
- Target
- Home Depot
I tried to cash out via PayPal. After a series of mobile and email verifications, I got an error message. It stated that before cashing out, I needed to wait at least 72 hours for my account to be verified.
The company’s terms and conditions also state that you’re limited to two rewards redemptions every 24 hours.
Is Opinion Outpost Worth Your Time?
Like the other survey sites I’ve reviewed, Opinion Outpost should in no way be considered a job replacement.
It took me more than a full business day to earn $20, and it was a bit of a hassle to cash out.
However, if you like answering surveys when you have time to kill and pocketing a small amount of money when you do, Opinion Outpost isn’t a bad choice. It’s probably my favorite survey-based site of those I’ve reviewed.
Opinion Outpost Pros
Here are some of the best things about the company:
- Solid customer support. The company offers a chat robot that seems to turn into live chat during certain hours. It reportedly responds well to email. It’s also active on its Facebook page, including Facebook messenger.
- Lower rejection rate on surveys. Although I still failed out of more than six in 10 surveys, that’s a substantially lower fail rate than the other survey sites I’ve tested.
- More streamlined platform. The menu is simple. You can take surveys, view the rewards options and check out the tier you’ve achieved within the loyalty program. Because there aren’t so many optimized marketing gadgets (“Complete these 10 tasks and earn an extra $0.25 today!”) and there aren’t one dozen ways to earn points, you can turn off your brain to an extent and blast through surveys.
- Flexible schedule. You can theoretically work from anywhere at any time. You can also start and stop whenever you want.
Opinion Outpost Cons
Here are some of the worst things about the company:
- No mobile app. You can access Opinion Outpost from a computer or by visiting the website from your phone, but there’s no dedicated app.
- Very low hourly pay rate. You’d be hard-pressed to earn more than $3 per hour. That’s magnitudes below the federal minimum wage.
- Limited ways to make money. You can take surveys, and doing so enters you in a monthly $100 sweepstakes. I like this because it streamlined my time on the site. But if you prefer exploring multiple ways to earn money or get discounts, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
- Reports of account suspensions. I have no way of verifying this. And I suspect in many cases it’s due to the W-9 rules as people get close to accumulating $600 in earnings. But anecdotally, there are claims that the company sometimes suspends accounts without much explanation.
- Limited rewards options. Your gift card choices are extremely limited relative to some competitors.
Final Thoughts
I’ve yet to find a survey site that pays enough per hour to be considered an actual job.
If you’re comparing Opinion Outpost to everything you can do to make money online, it just doesn’t pay enough. We’re talking between $1 and $3 per hour.
However, if you’re comparing Opinion Outpost only to other survey sites, it may be the easiest and most pleasant option.
