Is Valued Opinions a Scam? That’s what people were asking all around the Internet. Some members said it’s a scam but other ones told they were paid. So, what’s the truth?
I wrote this unbiased Valued Opinions review to answer all your questions. I am not affiliated with their website so you can trust in my words here.
I can already tell that Valued Opinions is not a scam. They have a good reputation and millions of people all around the world have used their services. Still, I don’t use it myself and I recommend that you wouldn’t use either. Read until the end of the article to find out the reasons.
Valued Opinions Review
Name: Valued Opinions (VO)
Founded: Originally in 2000. Bought by Now Research in 2009.
Type: Online Surveys
Short Review: Valued Opinions is a typical online survey site. It’s a legitimate website that pays for their members like they have promised. However, the earning potential is so small that it isn’t worth the hassle. (If you have read my other reviews of online surveys, you know the story 😉 )
My #1 Recommendation for making money online (especially for beginners) is Wealthy Affiliate. If you have are ready to learn, start their training for completely free and you’ll learn how to make a living online like I do.
What Is Valued Opinions?
Valued Opinions is an online survey website which has been around already for years. It was originally founded in 2000 and bought by Research Now Ltd in 2009.
The company gathers information from consumers that will be helpful for their partner companies. Huge players like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Amazon, Ikea and literally any big company will benefit from the feedback of their clients. It will help them to make their marketing more targeted in the future and improve their products to meet customers’ needs.
Valued Opinions operates in many countries but their online surveys are available at the moment in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. However, sometimes they have enough people answering their surveys so they don’t always look for new participants.
How to Make Money with Valued Opinions?
Earning rewards with Valued Opinions is simple. It works in the same way like other similar websites. The following image from their website explains the process in a nutshell:
Step 1 – Create Your Profile
So the first step is to create your profile. It happens usually in a little while if Valued Opinions is accepting new members. When you have signed up and confirmed your email account they’ll ask you some pre-qualification questions like,
- “How many children do you have?”
- “Where do you live?”
- “How much is your annual net income?”
- Etc.
This kind of questions will help them to target future surveys suitable for you. Let’s say that they want for some survey: Men who live in the US, have 1-3 children and earn $30-50,000 per year.
You won’t get paid for signing up and answering pre-qualification questions on Valued Opinions unlike on some other survey websites like PrizeRebel, CashCrate, and InstaGC.
Step 2 – Participate in Surveys
When you have filled out the basic information about yourself they start offering you surveys. Notice that there isn’t a constant flow of new surveys. There will be a new survey every now and then. They will inform you about new surveys by email.
How much can you earn per each survey?
Valued Opinions advertises that you can earn up to $5/£5 per each survey. However, many members report that they have never seen a survey that would pay more than £2.
Based on my experience of 80 online survey site I can say that I have never seen a survey that would pay $5. On the other hand, I have seen many sites that talk about it. The reality has been a bit different.
Most people estimate that your hourly earnings will be maximum £3 or $5 per hour. Notice that I am talking here about the maximum income. 10 days ago I just met a guy in Lisbon who is making +$100,000 per month with affiliate marketing. I have also written an article about friends that make consistently +$10,000/month online.
The truth is that you could probably never reach even $500 per month with online surveys. That’s one reason why I think surveys aren’t worth it. If you are interested in making money online with affiliate marketing like I do, just click the picture below and I’ll teach you more.
Step 3 – Cash Out Rewards
After you have answered enough surveys on Valued Opinions you can cash out your rewards. I want you to know that on VO you can’t get money, check or bank transfer.
It means that you can only get paid through gift cards and vouchers. The most common gift card is probably a $20 gift card for Amazon.
Valued Opinions has a relatively high cash out limit. The smallest Amazon gift card they offer has a value of $20. However, you first need to earn $22 to get it. So, they take a $2 fee there.
Earning your first gift card on Valued Opinions can take a few months. Notice that you don’t get your rewards to your account immediately. It can take extra 4-6 weeks that your points are rewarded after answering the questions.
Valued Opinions Affiliate Program
Valued Opinions has also an affiliate program where you could get paid in the following way:
It’s a typical process of affiliate marketing. You share the link and you get paid when new members join the program and start earning money.
However, I don’t want to promote Valued Opinions so I am not part of their affiliate program. I don’t recommend online surveys for you. I could consider using this kind of websites to gather information for a company but answering questions isn’t really worth it.
My principle as a full-time affiliate marketer is that I only promote services that I find valuable and I would recommend even to my best friends and family members.
Valued Opinions Reviews & Complaints
In my reviews, I usually tell you what other people think about this opportunity as well. So, I took a look at Valued Opinions reviews to find out.
Almost all people said it’s an honest company and they pay you in time (even though it takes time but at least they pay as they have promised). However, I found some major complaints that I’ll show you:
1.Low Rewards
As I explained below, the rewards on online survey sites are really low. That’s the case with Valued Opinions as well. I don’t know many people that would be satisfied a salary of $3 per hour.
2.Lack of Surveys
They don’t offer you new surveys all the time. They’ll send you an email every now and tell, “There’s a new survey available!” However, most of the time you just need to wait…
3. Disqualified from Surveys
If you have ever used online survey sites, you know the following scenario:
You get an email that says, “We have a new survey available for you. Start now and earn rewards!” You click the link and start answering questions. However, after 5 minutes of answering their questions, they inform you, “Unfortunately you weren’t qualified for this survey. We hope you have a better luck next time.”
The following short review by Valued Opinions member says the most important thing. Look at the title: (Don’t worry about the typo)
Conclusion – Is Valued Opinions Worth It?
Even though Valued Opinions is not a scam, it’s not worth answering their surveys. Rewards are so small that you would be earning 10-50 times more on other websites at the same time by doing even more interesting activities.
I have talked with tens of online entrepreneurs and also with people are just starting out with earning money online. Usually, all of them say that they tried online surveys in the beginning but stopped doing them when they realized how low the earning potential really is. I have the similar experience.
Nowadays I research new survey websites just for the curiosity but usually, I know that they aren’t worth the hassle. Some of them pay a little bit more but the “salary” is still way below the minimum wage.
If you are interested in earning money online, I have good news for you. I can teach you how to do it. My recommendation is that you still continue your regular job and start earning money with Wealthy Affiliate on the side. That’s how I did it. Nowadays I’m a full-time online marketer and most likely I will never go to back to a 9 to 5 job.
If you want to start making money right away, freelancing is one good choice. There are tons of websites where you can get paid for your writing, designing, editing, translating and other skills. But I highly recommend that you don’t only rely on freelancing. It’s still like a ‘job’ and usually, the earning potential isn’t huge.
Start the training in Wealthy Affiliate for free and you’ll learn how to earn big money online.
Would you like to learn to earn a living online as well? What do you think about affiliate marketing?
It’s true, survey sites are low pay. I need to find something profitable in terms of extra income. I have 5 more months before my contract ends, so I should know all the possibilities. Now I can tell myself that taking surveys are not enough. Anyway some survey sites requiring credit card details? is it safe? I wanna know more about Wealthy Affiliate.
In Wealthy Affiliate you don’t need a credit card to get started (except if you are living in Nigeria, Philippines and a few other countries).
Read my comprehensive Wealthy Affiliate review and let me know if you have any questions to get started. You can certainly make a full-time income with WA but you need to put in the work.
Way back 2013, I tried several survey sites. I got so frustrated because it took quite long for me to finish a few surveys and like what you said, I experienced being informed with the message, “Unfortunately you weren’t qualified for this survey. We hope you have a better luck next time.” I am not qualified most of the time.
I don’t consider it a reliable source of regular income. I was never given the chance to answer surveys so whether it’s a scam or not, I won’t bother trying it again. Besides, you are right. The pay is too low. It’s not really worth my time. I don’t even recommend paid surveys to my friends.
Hi Krisleen,
that is so true! 🙂
I heard the same experience already probably from 100 different people. I’m happy that people quickly walk away from online surveys because the earning potential is really small.
I guess this is just like all the other survey sites out there. Although they are not scams, you spend so much time doing them but earning too little. It’s just not practical to do it and I consider it quite stupid.
I have done a lot of this in the past when I was still learning about online jobs and I indeed feel a bit stupid that I sacrificed sleep but earned nothing.
Yeah, Valued Opinions isn’t better than other low paying survey sites.
Don’t blame yourself for the past. 🙂 They were learning experiences and now you can to avoid survey sites.
I would try this but it isn’t available in Asia like the Philippines. i would love to hear if they need more but I think that’s impossible for some freelance here in our country. Anyways I am still looking forward t more posts about this kind of topics.
Hi Pandooh,
yeah, it’s not available in the Philippines. Anyway, I think it wouldn’t be worth the time.
Why don’t you just use Wealthy Affiliate to make money online? Their training really works and will make you a living if you are willing to put in the work.
For so many years, I have attempted taking survey, but couldn’t make any reasonable income therefrom. That was one of the programs I first tried when I got started online. Sometimes, I would receive up to five survey invitations, but would hardly succeed in taking one. I found out that most of these survey sites are not really promising and the reward is not sincerely worth the time.
I am deeply interested in the Wealthy Affiliate Program, but was contemplating if I would be required to submit a website first before joining. I’m very good at referral or affiliate programs, but don’t have a website. I’m strongly convinced that the best way to make money online is Affiliate Marketing Program. I know Wealthy Affiliate to be a reputable affiliate program, but am not sure if a blog owner can join.
Hello there!
I know your story with survey sites. I have heard it from so many people as well. 😉 I’m happy to hear that you don’t use them anymore.
About Wealthy Affiliate… You don’t need to have a website or anything else to get started. I had 0 experience about affiliate marketing when I started their training.
It walks you through every step you need to take. If you are a blog owner already, you have a great start then. Get started on Wealthy Affiliate through my website for free and I’ll provide you my 1-on-1 support and mentoring. I want to help you to succeed.
Let me know if you have any questions.
I’ve tried so many survey sites and found out that the site owners are just advertising their sites, not giving money making opportunities to the people as they claim. There’s no single survey site ever tried that proved so promising and legitimate to me. At one time, you may attempt taking a survey and be told that this survey is not available in your area.
At other times, you may hear that this survey is no longer available. To me, those messages are enunciating and frustrating. In the first place, taking survey takes so much time and the pay is not worth the commitment. If I am sent four invitations per day, I may not be able to take one successfully due to one excuse or the other from the site owner. This is coming to a stage whereby no one would ever want to hear anything similar to surveys.
I am set to start something better than survey online, but still, need the advice of an expert. I have an active US Paypal account but don’t know how to earn using it. The account has been empty for some years now with a balance of $0.08.
Can I really make money online? Is it that easy to make money online? Can I know the truth about making money online so I can prepare for it? Kindly tell me the next step to start earning from Wealthy Affiliate.
You mentioned the exact reasons why I don’t promote any survey sites. They are just time-wasters for people who try to answer them. For companies they can offer some valuable information.
Yes, of course you can make money online. Easy and fast ways to earn money don’t usually pay much. If you want to make a fortune and earn like +$10,000 per month online, it requires hard work and commitment.
With freelancing you can make some money fast but in the long run it’s not even close so profitable like affiliate marketing. Your next step to start earning money is to create a free account on Wealthy Affiliate and start their free step-by-step training.
In that comprehensive training you will get answers to most of your questions. If you have any other questions, you can always feel free to ask me.
The process of affiliate marketing goes like this:
1.Choose your interest/passion. (With affiliate marketing you can do what you love.)
2.Create a website. (It’s possible in 30 seconds with my instructions.)
3.Attract traffic to your website. (From Google and social medias)
4.Earn revenue. (When visitors buy stuff through your links.)
Legitimate website but not worth it. The only good thing to hear from them is they give what they have promised and you will surely know form the very start if you will continue or not. No more curiosity must be tolerated on how you will earn from this website because it is not worth a try such a waste of time. Thank you Mr. Roope for letting us know.
Yes, that’s exactly how it goes. You’re welcome Jemuel 🙂
It takes months to be paid by these sites. It would benefit more people if they lower it.
Yeah, it takes lots of time to earn any significant money on survey sites. That’s why I don’t use them and I don’t recommend them for my readers either.
I don’t think that leaving Valued Opinions for some people that are in living in most of the cheap countries in Africa is really a bad idea. However, there is a saying that if there is a better option out there, why stick with status quo? So, I don’t like to waste my time on Valued Opinions as well since I can get better deals out there.
Since they pay, I do not see the reason anyone starting out won’t want to have a try anyway. I’m glad you have been teaching us how to make it online with a comprehensive review of lots of sites.
Yeah, there are certainly better options out there. I know that many people in cheap countries don’t want to invest in Wealthy Affiliate premium membership (or other similar training) because it’s quite expensive for them. However, I know some people from India and Indonesia who did it and it’s paying off for them.
Surveys are easy and fast but the rewards are small. Better income requires usually some financial and time investments.
When I read about wealthy affiliate program over and over again, I had the urge to start off irrespective of the expensive nature of getting trained on it. However, I’ve made this point on one of my replies, I noticed that it is not acceptable or valid in Nigeria. So, earning from some of these other sites is an option till I save up funds to move to a new country where Wealthy affiliate is working fine.
I understand. I’m sorry to hear that WA isn’t available in Nigeria at the moment.
Valued Opinions is not a Scam. Along with being in good standing with big-time research companies, they also are the biggest market research company in the world. With that recognition and amount of members; both survey takers and companies, they have plenty of surveys to offer.
Additionally, they operate globally, not just in the US, to get a wide net of answers to surveys. With that being said, you can be anywhere in the world and still have access to Valued Opinions. This is a great attribute for a company to have, because of how many people they can now have access to.
Hi Karlo,
you are right that Valued Opinions is not a scam.
However, the earning potential is so low for users that it’s not worth the time. You could earn 20-50 times more on other websites like Wealthy Affiliate.
As always, I trust your honest reviews on site and platforms like Valued Opinions. I just had to read the “what is” paragraph in order to draw a conclusion because you’ve said it all.
Valued opinions might not be a scam as officially reviewed. But scam or no scam isn’t all about being legit. If a platform takes weeks to make just a single dollar, then it is scam to me.
Valued opinions like you stated above isn’t recommendable as the earnings are extremely low. Though surveys are generally the same, some pay better than others. Valued opinions isn’t among the some.
Hi Rumu,
yes, technically many survey sites aren’t scams but their rewards are so low compared to their promises that some people may call them scams.
Of course, there are some survey sites that pay honestly as they have promised but the rewards are still pretty low. That’s why I don’t recommend survey sites for my readers even though I would earn money by doing that. I want that all my readers would find great ways to earn money online instead of answering boring online surveys 😉