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Below please find a brief Question and Answer session, at the bottom of which are links that will help you begin.

If you've logged in before please use our navigational menu located at the top right of the screen and feel free to jump ahead to any particular program that we offer.

On Opinion Giving

Giving an opinion is second nature to us. Many times a day we offer up our thoughts and feelings on the goods and services we use and receive. We use a new beauty product and we evaluate its effectiveness. We see a film and discuss its merits. We try a different brand of cereal and form an opinion on the taste. Opinions make up the bulk of our discourse and comprise the majority of our thoughts.

Because of how natural our opinions are to us, it's hard to imagine that there are people willing to pay us money just to hear what we think. To understand why our opinions are such valuable commodities and why companies are willing to pay big bucks to hear what people have to say, it's important to understand a little bit about market research, what it is, and how it works.

In today's competitive business environment small and large companies alike are faced with the challenge of continually seeking out growth opportunities. Companies may look to grow in a number of ways. Some of the most common growth opportunities are: developing a new product or service, expanding an existing product or service line or identifying new markets.

Product and service market development is costly and high-risk. Branching out from the status quo presents a new and potentially dicey challenge to companies. Plunging into new product terrain without the proper knowledge and information can be a death sentence for a company or corporation. That is why it is crucial that companies fully evaluate the feasibility of their product and service opportunities by undertaking proactive market research before committing resources to new product or service development.

Market research is a cost-effective way of finding out what people believe, think, want, need or are looking for. It is information that cannot be obtained from any other source. It takes unbiased consumer views to really test the potential profitability of a good. Industry, commerce and governments use research to help them produce goods, services and policies that accurately and efficiently match up to consumer needs and wants.

Market research is learning all about your prospective market before you try to enter that market. The most important role of market research is to minimize risk by researching a product or service before delivery. All companies realize that it is quicker and cheaper to research a new concept and get that concept right rather than rolling out a product only to find out it doesn't match the needs of buyers.

The marketing plan for a new product relies heavily on market research. It is essential to pick your market carefully. Companies have to know just whom their product appeals to and why. Each market is uniquely different. Not only are there differences in gender, geography, and profession, there are also language and culture differences as well.

On Focus Groups

Businesses and other organizations use focus groups to research consumer and public opinion concerning a variety of issues. Corporations look to focus groups for general help in selling their products to the world at large instead of any type of direct marketing efforts.

Focus groups are usually conducted by Market Research companies. Market research companies are hired by the big corporations such as Coca-Cola and Nestle. The reason they do this is because the market research companies have the experience and expertise to make sure the focus groups are accurate and unbiased. If the corporations did this themselves they may not get impartial information and could make mistakes costing them millions of dollars (not to mention their jobs!)

Generally there are two types of Focus Groups: Offline and Online.

Offline

These are small, roundtable discussion groups on topics ranging from the latest features on internetworking hardware to new flavors of ice cream. They usually involve about 10 participants plus the group leader or moderator. Each session usually lasts about 2 hours and the discussion is "focused" on a particular topic, about which group members share their opinions. An honorarium of $40-$80 for time and effort is very common. It is not unusual for observers from the client corporation to watch the group in action.

In focus groups, unlike telephone surveys, people can be shown products or ads and can be given an opportunity to express how they feel and what they think in a normal, conversational setting. As a research method, the use of focus groups is less about statistics and numbers and more about qualitative matters such as whether people find an ad humorous, and why they find it humorous, or if people believe a product is appealing and why they think so.

Online

Online focus groups are a cost effective alternative to conventional "face-to-face" focus groups. Online focus groups generally invite 8 to 10 people to join for a specified period of time (90 minutes to two hours) in a specialized chat room. This controlled environment allows participants to view text, graphics, sounds/jingles, video or multimedia for evaluation and testing. It is not uncommon for observers from the client corporation to watch the group in action and send private messages to the co-moderators as the group is progressing.

On Getting Paid for Offering your Opinion

Market research companies can pay you in different ways. Incentives depend on the company and on how much time and effort is spent participating in the focus group or survey

The main 3 ways you can get paid are:

• Cash - via a check sent by snail mail or in person after Focus Groups.
• Merchandise - depending on the retail value of the product, you may keep the product afterward
• Prizes - Entries into Sweepstakes or Drawings for filling out quick surveys. Most companies give out several prices and your chances go up as you enter into more drawings.

Getting Started

Here is a basic checklist for you, before you begin.

1. New Email Address: We recommend that you create a new email address as you will be filling out a lot of online forms and you will be getting responses that you want to receive and also not confuse with your personal mail. We recommend Gmail.com or Yahoo! Mail as both are easy to use and offer over 1 gigabyte of storage - that will be plenty of room for your replies.
   
   
2. Automated Form Helper: Because of the number of forms you'll be filling out, we recommend software you can use to click a button, and fill out virtually any form. We recommend RoboForm (free download). You can also try Google's Toolbar, also free. You'll save yourself a lot of time!
   
   
3. Updated Operating System and Browser: Make sure you're running a relatively updated version of Windows or Mac OS and an Internet browser so that you can access all of the resources we provide without a problem. This shouldn't be a problem for most people but this is worth mentioning.
   
   
4. Keep Good Records: Whether you use a notebook or an Excel spreadsheet, make sure you keep tabs of every website you've signed-up for, how often they invite you to participate in focus groups and surveys, the quality of the incentives, and how responsive they are. You will find that with time you will gravitate to a few really good companies that you favor.
   
   
5. Voicemail, phone, or cell phone: It sounds obvious but make sure you have either a voicemail you check frequently, a cell phone, or a regular telephone. A lot of times, market research companies will call you the same day or evening for a face-to-face focus group and you don't want to miss out.
   If you don't like to receive commercial calls, We recommend to use Vbuzzer.com .
    
                                                 
6. Decent Internet Connection: While you don't have to have a high speed connection to participate in most online focus groups, you should have at the very least a reliable Internet connection so you don't get dropped off in the middle of an activity.

On Participating in Surveys

Once you start filling out surveys we suggest that you keep the following in mind:

1. Be honest. There is no advantage for you to lie, these companies are looking for regular consumers, if you lie you may raise a flag that will remove you from being a potential participant.
2. Answer all the questions on the application. Most times there will be screening questions included in the application that categorize you into different demographic groups. These questions may include personal information such as your age, race, political affiliation. You are usually not disqualified for NOT providing this information however if you don't answer a particular question and they need this information for a particular research project you may not qualify for that particular project. The best course of action is to answer all questions.
3. Complete all the demographic sections of the application. Many times there will be sections that ask you to indicate your hobbies and interests or ask you to indicate which products you own or plan to buy. Be sure to complete these sections completely as they will be used to screen your qualifications for different research projects.
4. Select all answers that apply to you. However, don't over do it. You may be tempted to check all the items in each section to improve your chances of being selected but do not do this as you may be disqualified. Again, be honest.
5. Double check that your name, mailing address and email address are filled out correctly on the application. If you provide inaccurate information the company will be unable to get in touch with you -- a lost opportunity for you that could have been avoided.