It's what we all want: to sit at home at the computer and earn a few extra euros while having the freedom to organise our time. One method is market research via the Internet. But how does it work and does it work at all?
A personal experience report.


First of all, it is possible; you can earn money on the side through online market research. The only question is whether it's worth the effort in the end.

I earned money through online market research at www.ciao.de. In three months I raked in a whopping €17, and I spent countless hours in front of the computer. My hourly wage was the equivalent of a joke.
 
The problem with online market research is that on average only €0.50 to €2 is paid per questionnaire and questions always take longer than stated. A questionnaire that was supposed to take only 15 minutes always took me twice as long. So you spend too much time on the questions for too little money.

But the main problem was that many questionnaires rejected me because I "didn't belong to their target group", but only after I had to answer up to 20 questions. So I wasted my time and got NOTHING in return. Not to mention that the companies in question were still able to gather certain information about me in the introductory questions.

My conclusion is: if you don't know what to do with your time anyway, it might be the right thing for you. I've given up in the meantime because I see it as a waste of time. In my opinion, it's not worth the time spent for the few euros.