Survey Downline Review – Scam or a Smart Way to Earn Money?

The Survey Downline Panel is a new and exciting survey site which is owned and operated by Precision Sample, LLC. The company behind them was founded back in 2009. The mission statement on their website is ‘is to make it easier, faster and cheaper for all companies and organizations to connect with their current and prospective customers to improve their products, services and offerings.’

At Survey Downline residents of the UK, USA, Canada and Australia can earn cash by taking paid surveys and referring other people to the website.

They realize that other survey panels only pay their members a small percentage of what they earn. Here they pay 35% of all the revenue they earn to their members and up to as much as 15% extra by referring other people to the panel. They state that this is more like a partnership rather than just treating you as a member. We think this idea is based on a multi-level marketing compensation plan which may not be a bad thing if it allows you to earn more money.

Taking Surveys and Referring Friends to Earn Money

After registering at Survey Downline you have two ways in which you can earn. You can refer friends to the site who go into your 3 tier ‘downline.’ When these direct friends take surveys you are paid 10% of the revenue they make. When your friends refer people and these ‘friends of friends’ take surveys you earn an additional 5% revenue. When you, yourself take surveys you get 35% of the revenue that the site makes. This means that you can earn a total of 50% of the website’s revenue depending on how many people you refer.

Product Evaluations, Focus Groups and Shopping Assignments

As well as standard paid surveys they also offer ‘product evaluation’ surveys which allow you to earn a little more. These pay in the range of $2 – $20 each and often involve registration for a product or service. Sometimes these ‘product evaluations’ may require you to make an initial purchase before you are paid.

The site is entirely upfront with their product evaluations and do state in their FAQ’s that if you are not interested in these types of surveys then you can just disregard them.

As they work with many other market research organizations at least once per month you should receive an invitation to take part in a focus group. Other members have reported earning as much as $150 from focus groups.

To get your money from Focus Groups you will probably need to travel to a location near your home and take part in a discussion about a new product or service. This is why Focus Groups pay a lot more than standard surveys as they require a lot more effort and time.

You may also get invites for shopping assignments where you are typically paid around $5 each. You need a Smartphone to take these. They may involve taking pictures in the Supermarket or writing short reviews about various products. Some members have reported that the links that they send for these do not actually work or if they do work they you are often screened out so you really need luck on your side.

Rewards and Redemptions

There are no complicated points systems on this site. You are paid in USD for each survey you or your friends complete. They state that the amounts you can earn are between $1 – $20 per survey. Unless you are in a highly desirable demographic then it’s unlikely you will receive many surveys that pay as much as $20 each. On average members report earning between $0.50 and $2 each.

Once you have accumulated $20 in your account you can cash out. It’s worth noting that it can take 4 – 6 weeks to verify the money that has been added to your account so you may be waiting a little longer before you can cash out. Once you have made a claim your money is sent to your Paypal account. They process payments on the 1st and 16th of the month so you could be waiting up to 2 weeks for a payment which isn’t too bad in comparison to other survey sites.

You can alternatively choose to have your money sent to you via Facebook credits or Magazine subscriptions depending on which country you live. If you choose any other method but Facebook you can cash out at a lower threshold of $10 or $15.

The minimum thresholds by country are as follows:

USA:

– Magazine Subscriptions – $10 minimum
– 150 Facebook Credits – $15 minimum
– PayPal Cash Payment – $20 minimum
– Canada, UK & Australia:

UK, Australia and Canada

– 150 Facebook Credits – $15 minimum
– PayPal Cash Payment – $20 minimum

Facebook credits and Magazine subscriptions are sent instantly via email.

Concluding Thoughts

We would say that Survey Downline is a fairly decent, free and legitimate survey website offering you numerous ways to earn money and lots of ways to cash out. The site is very easy to use and navigate around. There can be a few glitches on the website but for the most part it works well.

They have a full privacy policy on their site which states that your personal information will not be shared with any third parties apart from for market research / survey purposes.

Their website states that you could be earning hundreds per month but this isn’t really possible from online surveys alone. You would really need to be referring a lot of friends and taking their product evaluations.

The product evaluations are not really surveys at all they remind me a little of what a cashback website would offer sharing their commission for buying a product / service. Although you may boost up your balance you are actually paying out money to earn which we think kind of defies the point.

If you only want to earn money by taking standard paid surveys then this site may not be the right choice for you. However, if you have a lot of friends to refer and are looking for other earning opportunities then Survey Downline would make a great choice.