Article by Charlie Wright

Ever heard of the Bandwagon Raiding Machine?

Neither had I, until this week.

All of a sudden, emails asking for more information about this have come flooding in. (Probably not a good phrase considering last weekend’s weather.)
 
Agora Lifestyles and Streetwise are both pushing this hard, each using their own promotional copy. Whatever the spin, both websites explain that by plugging in a ‘robot’ you can make money from the US property cash.
 
Will that robot suddenly lurch from your PC and run amok through your house, bleating “EXTERMINATE”?

….I don’t know.
 
Will it shoot laser beams at your TV and try to strangle your cat?

…I don’t know.

Truth is…. I know nothing about robots.
 
I don’t have any inside information about this opportunity at all. But if you’ve tried it, please drop me a line at Charlie@bizoppjungle.com.
For my part, I’ll keep my eyes and ears peeled. (Can you keep ears “peeled”? Is that the right phrase? I don’t know that either.)
 
Onto things I DO know about…

Why most survey opps are best avoided

In my experience, biz opps that involve you filling out surveys for cash are bad news.
 
Okay, so they sound good on paper. The blurb explains that all you have to do is fill in some answers as part of a company’s market research.
 
You send in the survey, they send you cash. The more you do, the more you make.

Lovely jubbly, right?

I wish this was the case. If you’re tempted, please take heed of this warning from one of your fellow readers. She has personal experience of 3 opps – Ciao, Zoompanel and Consumer Lifestyles….
 
“One of these sites (Ciao Surveys) has sent me a lot of surveys and I have spent ages filling them in but everyone has come back saying that I have not qualified but have been entered in a draw, after they have already had a load of information. Most of the surveys only offer 10p anyway. A second site, Surveys.com has only sent me 2 surveys but the result was the same, do not qualify. Zoompanel.com offers points but the prizes are pretty cheap.”

So far, so unrewarding….
 
Then my reader came to a survey that appeared to offer cold hard CASH.
 
But this turned out to be a waste of time, too…

She explains…
 
“Consumerlifestyles-uk.com said it would  pay me £10 – but I didn’t notice that I should  have clicked on that to get more  details. After I had spent a considerable  amount of time filling in a survey I had been  awarded £15 and was directed to another  site – vouch4me. This gave you vouchers  for answering some questions. I got enough  vouchers to claim a free case of wine – after  I had paid £80 for the first one.

When I went to claim my £15 – guess what?  It was in the form of 3 lots of £5 vouchers  for bingo and scratch card games for which  you have to register, one even wanting  bank details. I have 2 sites left that haven’t  come back yet. If I actually get any money  from them I will let you know.

Needless to say, my inbox is now full of  spam and I have received a phone call all  the way from Phoenix, Arizona offering me  a ‘Business Opportunity’.”

Having done some digging around on forums and other websites, I’ve found nothing to counter this criticism.

Even the people who’ve had a GOOD experience with survey opps are hardly dancing a jig round the maypole.
 
Here’s what one successful survey-user says online:

“I must warn you… this is not something that  you can support yourself on, but just a little  extra cash every-now-and-then, as it takes  a while to accumulate the points for the  rewards.”

So you may be able to get some vouchers and freebies from this type of opp. But probably not a consistent second income.

And to finish today….
 
If you’ve made a success of a survey ‘work at home opportunity’… and you think I’m being too scathing in my criticism, then please leave a comment below.