Opinion World Review

Opinion World is a global community of market research websites, and amongst them they cover most major metropolitan areas in the world. Opinion World is therefore an Internet community where members can have their say, express their views and make themselves heard on a wide variety of issues, from public policies, to products and services.

According to Opinion World, multinational companies, governments and a range of other organisations are always interested in your views, and those of the people around you. They will use this important information gathered from these various studies and feedback sessions to influence a number of important aspects of their business. As such, it is often a rewarding experience to participate in studies such as these, because you will often get to see the impact of your feedback in everyday items.

Opinion World conducts surveys on a whole range of different topics, from television commercials and shows to food, cars, and everything in between. As a participant in these surveys, you will also be eligible for various rewards. You can also choose to donate your winnings to charity, and after this you will be automatically entered into their instant win game, which puts you in line to win various prizes.

General Information

• Accepts Members From: International (All Countries)
  
   
• Age Requirements: 14
  
   
• Type of Rewards: Charity donations, cash prizes.
  
   
• Sweepstakes, Prize Draws or Competitions: Instant win prizes for each survey, cash prizes from $150 to $25,000 USD.
  
   
• What is The Minimum Payment. This is the Amount Needed to Request a Redemption or Payout: No minimum payment is mentioned.
   

Company Information

• Physical Location of this Survey Company’s Office:

  3000 AE Rotterdam,
  The Netherlands

  
  
• Type of Market Research They Conduct: Online Surveys

Member Ratings & Reviews

Write a review based on your experiences with this paid surveys panel to be entered into our monthly draw for $50 Cash, 2 runners up will also receive $20 Cash each (Payments are made via PayPal). Read the full Terms & Conditions for this contest. See our previous Winners.

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Comments Overall Rating: Survey Frequency: Survey Incentives: Panel Legitimacy: Recommended: Comments By: pk From: US Comment: This was a terrible experience and i will not recommend opinion world to anyone! glad to be rid of them. don't bother, there are many other much, much better survey sites available! Date: Jul 24, 2011 Overall Rating: Survey Frequency: Survey Incentives: Panel Legitimacy: Recommended: Comments By: Allan From: United Kingdom Comment: Opinion World (UK) (a panel of Survey Sampling International LLC) - www.opinionworld.co.uk Hi again, In my previous review of Opinion World I stated that "I cannot find any information about minimum redemption threshold levels." I just discovered the following on the Opinion World website:- "To claim your reward you must reach the minimum of 1000 points." Thanks again... Allan Date: Apr 05, 2011 Overall Rating: Survey Frequency: Survey Incentives: Panel Legitimacy: Recommended: Comments By: Allan From: United Kingdom Comment: Opinion World (UK) (a panel of Survey Sampling International LLC) - www.opinionworld.co.uk Hi, Opinion World is an international survey (only) panel with a presence in many countries around the world. This review applies to the United Kingdom site of Opinion World only (www.opinionworld.co.uk).Terms and Conditions, Prize Draw rules and in particular any rewards, may be different for Opinion World sites serving other countries. The Opinion World (UK) website is simple and looks impressive but can be frustrating sometimes. When looking for information, the page I am looking at always seems to contain a link to click for more information. I click the link and the new page offers some additional information plus another link offering even more information. After a few clicks, I discover that I am just going round in circles and have still not found the information I am looking for. Opinion World, of course, is not the only website guilty of this phenomenon – but why can’t website designers put all the information about a topic on a single page? Apart from this common problem the website is very attractive, well laid-out and professional. According to the current website, rewards include PayPal payments and an excellent range of vouchers for high street shops and stores. Apparently 100 points are needed to redeem for a 1GBP voucher. I cannot find any information about minimum redemption threshold levels – so is it safe to assume that the minimum redemption is GBP1? This would need to be tested but I’m afraid the opportunity may not arise - I won’t go into detail about rewards too much because it is almost irrelevant – more about this later. The website places overwhelming emphasis on the help they give to charities and full details are provided on the website concerning donations made to the various charities – both current and in previous years and claim to have provided GBP1,140,615.79 in donations so far at the time of writing. It is not clear if this is from Opinion World UK only or globally. I discovered that I couldn’t substantiate the claims made on the website by looking at their website alone. I emailed Opinion World support and politely but specifically requested links to the websites of their various past aided charities where I could find references to, acknowledgements of or even “notice of thanks” to Opinion World (or Survey Sampling International LLC) for their donations. The rather disappointing reply I received merely provided a link to the charities page on their own website – the page I was already referencing. I visited the websites of several of the charities Opinion World claimed to have helped in previous years. I could find no reference to donations made from Opinion World (or Survey Sampling International LLC) although one well-known charity web site did provide a list of many other corporate donors and details of their donations. Now for the important stuff – the surveys. I first joined Opinion World in autumn 2008 with the prospect “Get Rewards that fit YOUR lifestyle!” and “Get rewarded for participating and sharing your opinions” and “Every time you complete a survey you have the chance to be rewarded!” Shortly after completing my profiles, the survey invitations started arriving in my Inbox. No complaints about the email invitations - they were very attractive, varied in design and contained most of the relevant information such as Survey Reference, time to complete and even a reminder of my login name and password. As you will know if you have read my other reviews on Yellow Surveys, this is important information you will need to be able to track and reconcile your points and rewards you have earned for your surveys – but to be quite honest this is almost totally irrelevant - the reason I will provide later. At that time the website and email invitations explained how, by completing their surveys, “Your opinions help bring change” or “Your perspective helps companies meet your needs in the future” or “Your ideas are needed” but most importantly “On some of our more special surveys we offer you a chance to earn points!” and “Get Rewards that fit YOUR lifestyle!” Sounded promising - all very encouraging - but anyone joining Opinion World may not realise that it is no ordinary survey site as that description does not paint a full picture. The site continued –“just check your invitations in your mailbox” and “At the end of the questionnaire you’ll also have a chance of supporting a charity as well as being able to play our Instant Win game!” Most surveys I received invitations for were quite long – usually between 20 and 35 minutes and one or two of 5 or 10 minutes. I noticed on the first few emails that the reward was “a chance of supporting a charity as well as being able to play our Instant Win game”. A little disappointing and puzzling - no mention of a personal reward – where is my incentive? I completed a couple of 5 minute surveys to see how the charity support feature worked and so that I could experience an “Instant Win Game” – just to be aware of the potential. After completing my survey I was presented with a choice of three charities. After choosing a charity, I was presented with a new screen detailing how much Opinion World claimed they had collected for each charity and the percentage reached of their target amount so far. There was no indication of who determines the “target amount”. Also, and most importantly, there was no way of knowing how much money I personally had just contributed to my chosen charity since no figures are offered before the contribution is made. The “Instant Win Game” turned out to be a simple “Scratch and Win” game – the type found on dozens of websites and for which many people believe – no one ever wins. However, the last remaining “Instant Win Game” winner listed on the website is for the quarter April/May/June 2010 – indicating that there was only ONE Instant Winner per quarter, the prize was for GBP16,000. A very generous prize indeed, but since it seems there is only one prize each quarter, the chances of winning are very slim indeed. I prefer the philosophy of providing smaller prizes but more of them so increasing the chances of winning something. Between 28 November 2008 and 6 April 2009, I received no less than SIXTY FOUR invitations to surveys. This sounds very impressive indeed – but wait! Only ONE of those SIXTY FOUR invitations offered a personal reward – of 1GBP for a 30 minute survey. So when I said earlier that the details the web site offers regarding personal rewards was “irrelevant” – now you can understand why. The editorial review of Opinion World states “You can also choose to donate your winnings to charity” – this isn’t quite correct – firstly there is no choice, secondly – most of the time - there are no winnings. I think it is fair to say that the main reason why most people, me included, join a survey panel is to earn rewards. Now I am not a selfish or greedy person and I think Opinion World supporting charities is quite an admirable thing to do – but unfortunately it doesn’t help to pay my Broadband bill. Presumably, the reason they can send out so many survey invitations is because they hardly ever offer a reward. I didn’t bother participating in any further surveys and after 6 April 2009 I received no more invitations, I discovered that my login and password did not work anymore and so I assumed that Opinion World had cancelled my membership – without any warning and without asking why I wasn’t taking surveys (presumably they already knew why). I then discovered that Opinion Worlds Terms & Conditions state that a member must “…participate in a survey or study, at least, once every six (6) months. SSI reserves the right to de-activate your account...” – little else needs to be said. On 19 February 2011 and after an absence of almost two years, I received from a third party another invitation to join Opinion World which awakened my interest in this survey panel. A little hesitant at first, but with the prospect of compiling this review in mind, I decided to rejoin Opinion World so as to glean the latest information about this panel. After re-exploring their website I noticed that NEW members are entered into a quarterly prize draw to win one of twelve prizes:- Ultimate Experience Voucher worth GBP100 (x10), WII worth GBP300 (x1) or GBP1000 cash (x1). Also another change I noticed were the claims:- “Our NEW WebShop offers you great rewards”, “We have a brand new WebShop where you can exchange your points for vouchers”, “We wish you lots of fun shopping and spending your well earned points!” This gives the impression that whilst being a member of Opinion World, the rewards come thick and fast and the “WebShop” is a busy place where members are having “lots of fun shopping and spending” their “well earned points”. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Bearing in mind the first time I was a member, out of SIXTY FOUR survey invitations I received only ONE offered a reward of 1GBP – there wouldn’t be much opportunity to spend those “well earned points”. The website also includes the opportunity to participate in mini-polls; simple, one-click polls about topical subjects – more seriously revealing information from this later. Since rejoining, I have received a further SEVENTEEN email invitations - be assured that not a lot has changed – NONE of them offer a personal reward. Furthermore, most often - there is no longer an estimate of how long the survey will take. I completed a 5 minute survey. After completing the survey I could still make a donation to a choice of three charities, there is still no way of knowing how much money I am actually contributing to my chosen charity for my time and efforts. The biggest change is that I can no longer play the “Instant Win Game” – after completing a survey I am now entered into a quarterly prize draw where there is just ONE prize of GBP5000 – so, the only prize that participants can win has been reduced from GBP16000 to GBP5000 - but see below. Opinion World does publish a list of winners of their competitions and draws on their UK web site; however, the only information provided of the winners is First name, the first letter of the Last name and their country. The list provides all thirteen prize draw winners per quarter. Considering the revenue that must be earned from the plethora of surveys conducted, this short list of winners is not very impressive. It is made even less impressive when you discover that the list is NOT only for United Kingdom winners but for ALL participating countries. For the last two quarters there were only TWO winners from the UK for each quarter. Email invitations also contain the statement “Earn a prize draw entry, where the UK winner has a chance of winning our GBP5,000 cash prize draw”. However, examining the list of prize winners for the various quarterly prize draws, I came across the following statement I’ve copied and pasted straight from the webpage:- “Unfortunately, after holding three (3) alternate drawings in compliance with the official rules for the Survey Sampling International, LLC (“SSI”) Prize Draw, SSI was unable to identify a winner and therefore, the prize for the UK will not be awarded for this entry period (15 - 30 June 2010).” According to the Prize Draw rules, what this appears to mean is that the first random drawing of a prize draw winner from the eligible entries did not “comply with all terms and conditions of these Official Rules” and so was disqualified. Then after 3 alternate random drawings (i.e. total of only four drawings) the Administrator could not find a prize draw entrant from the remaining eligible entrants who complied with the terms and conditions of the Official Rules. What this means simply - is that NO ONE WON the prize draw and there is no indication as to why the entrants were disqualified. Since “Every time you complete a survey your name will be entered into our prize draw” I find it quite extraordinary that no winner could be found out of the supposedly huge number of participants. And why stop at only four drawings – surely the drawings should continue until a winner is found? Anyone joining Opinion World hoping to earn rewards from surveys they complete, or hoping to win in the prize draws should read the Terms and Conditions and the Prize Draw rules very carefully since it seems that there is lots of scope for SSI to refuse awarding prizes. Re-examining my experience with Opinion World, I realised that when I first joined I was a member for about 4 months, quite a long time considering I completed about THREE surveys. Of course, I could have resigned much sooner after only a few weeks, but I decided to remain a member just to see if anything changed and eagerly awaiting my first paid survey. But it did make me wonder how long people remain members of Opinion World after they discover that they actually pay very few rewards. My query was answered. How? – On their very own website. You recall earlier I mentioned that the website also includes the opportunity to participate in mini-polls; simple, one-click polls about topical subjects. Upon revisiting their website one such poll asked the question:- “How long have you been a member of Opinion World?” The response to their own poll is remarkably revealing. Out of a total of 2823 votes (at the time of writing - including mine) the results were:- Less than 1 year - 68 % 1-3 years - 18 % 4-5 years - 4% More than 5 years - 2% Can’t remember - 5% Not a member - 2% I find these figures quite astonishing and may indicate one of two things. Opinion World has a rapidly increasing membership over the last year only, OR People who become members of Opinion World do not remain active members for long. From my own experience, I would suggest the latter and this opinion is strengthened by the fact that inactive accounts are automatically cancelled after 6 months – indicating that members lose interest (just as I did) when they realise there are no rewards. If a survey panel is a fair and successful panel then its members will stay with that panel indefinitely – this obviously is not the case here. It seems that Opinion World has a high turn-over of members and this is supported by offering “new-recruits” an entry into the quarterly “New Members” draw thereby drawing in a steady stream of new members and then soon losing them instead of concentrating on retaining an established member base. Their own website claims 5 good reasons for being a member - here they are in their original order of precedence:- 1) Influence the world around you 2) Find out about new products before they come onto the market 3) Collect points and win prizes 4) Support charities 5) Represent the views of people like you. This gives “Collect points and win prizes” priority above “Support Charities” – but obviously that is not entirely the truth. I would prefer that Opinion World be more honest with their claims and emphasise that for most of the time participants are using their valuable time completing surveys FOR NO REWARD but to help charities only. As I mentioned earlier, personal opinion of this site may be favoured by the apparent but unsubstantiated help provided to charities, which is very commendable, but that doesn’t pay the Broadband fee of participants. If you enjoy completing long surveys for no reward but enjoy helping charities by doing so – then sign up and get going. If you are looking for rewards to help with your Broadband fee, then forget Opinion World – it is virtually a no-earner, your chances of winning a prize are incredibly slim – even when a prize is offered – your time would be better spent with other survey panels – even low-earner survey panels. Regrettably I find myself having to provide yet another negative review about a seemingly popular survey site. I feel it is important to give priority to the negative sites if only to prevent my fellow survey enthusiasts from wasting time with sites that claim good rewards but don’t deliver the goods. I hope my review has helped you decide whether to join (or indeed remain with) Opinion World. Thanks… Allan Date: Mar 30, 2011 Overall Rating: Survey Frequency: Survey Incentives: Panel Legitimacy: Recommended: Comments By: turan akca From: Turkey Comment: it's wonderful survey site Date: Jul 07, 2010