When I was little I remember my mother taking my brother to a few marketing surveys, one for a happy meal at White Castle and the other for a new concept at the time child proofing lighters. I was so jealous that my preschool aged brother was getting to try new and never seen before products and I had to sit in the lobby reading my Charlotte's Web. Scoot along a few years to my mallrat years and I loved being stopped by the interviewers around the fountains with clipboards, I sought them out. I didn't even care so much about the pay as much as I loved the concept of being in direct (indirectly) contact with large corporations telling them what you think about current products, products you need or flaws in areas of life without any product or the creme de le creme a new product that does what they claim and you now know before every one else. #hippiehappy
Since college I have been finding online surveys for pithily amounts, mostly you do thousands of surveys for little to no pay out. Then as I went on in my own life I found local places in Cincinnati that offer surveys onsite like J and R Coordinating or Various Views, or the Wolf Group.
I swear I am not digressing this time, winks. I love trying products and telling people my opinion on them and I love brainstorming in groups of strangers that I will never see again that is mainly what the local consumer panelists are centered around. When I could no longer get my fix from these groups, I started blogging to get out my opinions on things in between what me and my husband call "STRONGLY WORDED LETTERS" when a product fails to live up to what it claims and it comes with a guarantee on the side. My strongly worded letters are not rude and they are not demanding anything. I truly want companies to know when what they say and what their product does do not meet in the middle. I work, scrimp, save and plan where almost every dime in my budget goes and I expect what I buy to do what it claims especially if there is a money back guarantee. Okay, that was a little digression.
My blog started off as a way to help my writing, all authors have blogs so I started one years ago. I wrote like a blog a year until 2014 when I read a blog that talked about Tomoson a site that united bloggers and companies looking for people to review their products. Ding DING DING. Did I hear you correctly? You will send me things for free or pay me to write a blog for trying your product? Yes please. I signed up with Tomoson last year and slowly only did a few reviews last year mostly because my epilepsy meds kept my mind too foggy to put thoughts in order in a timely manner. The first few blogs for Tomoson took days to write and now without the L med I can write a blog in an hour. No accounting for taste.
Social Spark- Has a great set up. Once you complete the registration, there will be a part where you can bid on projects (twitter campaigns, blogs, etc) and when you click on the title of the project and see who the company is, what they are expecting, and when they will take bids till. I am still learning this one and I will continue to report on Social Spark and their partners in the weeks to come. I put in three bids, the amount a free account allows you (I don't pay anyone to make me money, seems counter productive.)
https://socialspark.com/r1GKQ
Tomoson-- Almost all of the reviews I have completed so far have been from Tomoson. I love this company and use it daily. I have received over thirty items so far to review and the application process it simple. Tomoson has a daily updated composite list of companies looking for product testers
Influenster-- I have received 2 boxes from them so far. They give you a voxbox with a product in it, for instance I got a pack of Carefree pantyliner's with the assignment to tweet, Facebook, and Instagram #freshisfierce for a month. It is two fold. You get free products and get to let brands know what you think about their products.
Use this link to sign up: www.influenster.com/r/921134
Boost Insider-- USing this one, have to make 10 dollars. Use this lead http://bst.is/Rm7NW8
This one gives you assignments like Diet Combo: Garcinia Cambogia XT + Natural Cleanse Plus where I am asked to share a link like this http://bst.is/dnDPW8 and for each link that people click http://bst.is/dnDPW8 I will get a set amount of money like a cent to fifteen cents for a person to click on the link you have listed. But you have to hit the $10 limit to cash out. So you are going to do some work for this money not out of the universe, defintely a light at the end of the tunnel and even easier the more work you put into this one.
The other great part of Boost Insider is that it some of the businesses are so super cool and give back to the greater good and not just for profit companies. The first assignment I got was a program called Kidstarter fundraiser site for STEM learning projects for kids.
