Greenfield? No Field. No Green. Forget It.
Written: Jun 30 '04 (Updated Jun 30 '04)
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On the surface, the concept of Greenfield Online looks promising: register, fill out a profile, and then fill in surveys to pick up a little cookie-jar cash. What could be simpler and more fun?
I don’t know; lots: Root canals, maybe? I can personally attest that arthroscopic surgery is more rewarding...
The concept is simple: Greenfield serves as a clearinghouse for marketing departments who want to poll the consumers - make no mistake, this is all about consumer goods – a great tie-in with Epinions, to tell the truth. The folks who fill out those surveys can earn a few dollars for their time (at least in theory); the marketing guys get valuable(?) feedback, and Greenfield takes a rakeoff for their time. Isn’t that a great idea?
You can either stop by the Greenfield home page and visit their "take a survey" page, or simply follow the links in the periodic emails that "Sara Williams" (Sara is Betty Crocker's sister-in-law, I hear) sends you. Qualifying participants are either entered into a "sweepstakes" or they’re rewarded with a cash payout. Sounds like fun, eh?
Greenfield got some things right, especially early on – you really did get paid for your questions. You could occasionally fill out some surveys on interesting topics, and they’d even invite you to join special panels – on automotive topics, health and fitness, and the like.
Greenfield got most things wrong, however: Every time you fill out a survey, you have to answer the same set of questions – age, ethnicity, income, gender, education, and where you live. Every damned time!!! Why the idiot software engineers couldn’t figure out some way to access your member profile and load the information each time is beyond me.
Greenfield has structural problems: Bad ones. For instance, one day, I got three invitations to surveys. The first one was closed when I got there (five minutes after the email hit my inbox). The second one kicked me out as soon as I entered my age: hey – they invited me, and my age and birthdate are in the information on file in my profile! The third one kicked me out as soon as I entered my ZIP code, which is also on file at Greenfield.
What’s worse is that I can go in any time I want and take a survey for 18-24 year-old African-American females who live in New York City, and Greenfield doesn’t seem to notice that in the previous survey I took I was a 50-54 year-old Caucasian male living in the upper Midwest. I sure hope that the companies who pay them to give surveys are aware of this…
They also have a distressing tendency to have dead links within their website. For two weeks, clicking the "Take a Survey" link from their home page sent users to the dreaded "404 File Not Found" error message. You'd think they'd test it out?
Greenfield doesn’t pay diddly: I joined in fall of 2002, and cashed out earlier this year. In over a year and a half, after filling out easily three hundred surveys, I raked in exactly $126. And people at Epinions think that the Income Share is low around here? Gimme a break! The check was requested in early May, and cut in early June – my income since the request (for twenty or more surveys) is a whopping $0. Sure, I’m entered into their sweepstakes, but I wouldn't hold my breath - I would imagine that the odds of winning are in the millions to one range.
You know what I think? I say don’t bother with Greenfield Online. You can make more money by looking for spare change under the cushions of your couch – and in a lot less time.
Recommended:
No
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