Surveys and lending

I started to do an online survey today relating to getting loans online, and gave up: the questions became increasingly ridiculous, and I couldn't be bothered. I started doing online surveys when I was out of work in 2006, having been assured time and again that these surveys would bring heaps of money. I am so naive it's not funny. But when you're feeling rather desperate after giving up a reasonably paid job, anything seems possible.

I have had some benefits from them - one in particular is getting a couple of cinema tickets every so often as a result of doing the surveys. But that's about it; the other amounts that turn up are pretty minimal. You'd have to be doing surveys all day long, and I'm already crazy enough without contemplating such a way of spending my time.

Anyway back to getting loans online: a lot of these kinds of loan are of payday loan type, where you can get money lent to you using something like your car as collateral. Not a terribly good idea, especially if something happens to your car. Borrowing money is something we've all had to do at times, and there are plenty of opportunities for the unwary to get themselves into hot water these days. If you're going to borrow money, go to a place that can be trusted, has a good reputation and won't fleece you silly.

There are more than enough of these around; the loan mightn't happen instantly, but neither will it cost you an arm and a leg, items that most of us can do with, rather than without.

Online surveys - and an acquisition

Back when I was out of work last year, I started (amongst many other things online) doing more surveys online. Sorry, market research, not surveys.

In spite of what’s said about doing surveys online, it’s not a very lucrative way of earning money, and some of the research places don’t actually offer cash direct, but various other ways of spending the points you earn, which personally I could do without.

I’m one of those people who enjoys doing surveys, although I must admit that some online surveys are very boring in their layout. They don’t fit on the screen well, and they ask the same questions over and over, on screen after screen – until you want to scream.

I’ve always thought face-to-face surveys that just asked the same questions for page after page were badly organised, and it’s the same online. I’ve thrown the towel in with some of them, because they get tedious, and all you can think is: when will this ever end?

On the other hand, some survey companies have made use of the Net’s capabilities rather more, using short videos, and even recreating ads on screen. This is a far better way to go, and shows that some researchers have become more innovative. Let’s hope others follow in their footsteps.

Apropos of all this, I see that yet another NZ company has been taken over, this time Research Solutions, which has been acquired by Synovate. Well, well, NZ will soon be entirely owned by overseas interests and then we won’t have to worry about anything any more!

Who's lurking in the fridge?

Some online surveys I’ve done lately have an idea that we somehow view products in human relationship terms. Thus, I’m asked if I would think of milk as one of the following:

A loyal spouse or partner
A fling or flirtation
A trusted friend or confidante
A Distant friend
A close member of the family
A colleague or associate
A complete stranger
An opponent or enemy

Are the people who write these surveys serious? Who on earth thinks of a bottle of milk in terms of a loyal spouse, or a flirtation. Do I really go to the fridge looking for a close member of the family? Would I be surprised to find an opponent or enemy lurking there? Have you ever seen milk as a confidante? Oh, puleease.