It’s important to understand that a survey company get paid to perform the most accurate marketing research for its clients.
For example, a 20-question study may cost $3 per respondent.
It’s not cheap because they usually need at least 100 participants to get statistical significance!
Therefore, their goal is to deliver highly targeted and high-quality responses.
In other words, they are always looking for specific demographics and honest participants.
But how?
Simply by asking you several background questions to make sure you are the right candidate and maybe spot any contradiction.
So, the reasons why you may get disqualified are the following:
1. You are not a good match
Usually, you will get declined after spending 2-5 minutes answering a few qualification questions.
If your answers don’t match with the ones that the survey provider is looking for, then you will be disqualified.
For example, there is a marketing study looking for 18-25-year-old males who play Xbox for at least 10 hours per week.
You may be a 20 years old guy who has an Xbox, but you play less than 10 hours a week. So, in this case, you won’t qualify!
How to avoid this?Â
There is nothing you can do in this situation because you can’t predict who is their ideal candidate.
You may be tempted to lie or even create a fake profile that you think will fit into most surveys.
For example, you may say that you play video games, have a car, and buy different services to increase your chances.
I don’t recommend doing that because they have smart techniques in place to spot any inconsistencies.
If you get caught out, they can not only disqualify you but also ban your account and forfeit all your earnings.
2. The Quota Was Filled
You can get disqualified immediately after answering basic questions such as your age, marital status, household income, etc.
This can happen because the quota for a particular demographic was filled.
For example, a study may be looking for people of different age groups. They want a total of 100 people aged between 18 – 25 and another 100 people aged between 26-33. If the quota for the first group is filled and you are 20 years old, you will get disqualified.
How to avoid this?Â
Always check your email for new invitations and start taking the survey as soon as you can.
Some reward website and apps have push notifications that will help you grab the opportunity even faster.
Apart from that, there is nothing else you can do.
3. You Are Not Taking it Seriously
In this situation, you can get disqualified halfway through the survey, or at any time!
All survey providers use techniques to detect whether you are reading all the questions and giving consistent and thoughtful answers.
These are usually in the form of quality control questions.
Here are some quality check examples:
What’s the next number if counting down 7, 6, 5, 4? If you get it wrong, it means you are not paying attention.Â
They can ask “do you have a car?” to which you answer no. Then after a few questions, it asks “which car do you have?” and you answer Audi A4. You are inconsistent.
The survey should normally take 5 minutes until question 10, but you got there in just 1 minute. You are going too fast, which is a sign that you are not reading or giving careful thought to the survey.
How to avoid this?Â
Read all the questions carefully. I know you want to complete this as soon as possible to earn more money.
BUT…
As the saying goes…
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
4. You Are Not Giving Truthful Answers
This goes hand in hand with not taking surveys seriously.
The company will never know whether you are lying or being negligent.
Either way, you may get immediately disqualified if the company spot any sign of inconsistency between two or more answers.
How to avoid this?Â
To avoid survey disqualification, giving honest answers is always the best way to go!
Why?!
Well, it’s much easier to be consistent when you always tell the truth.
If you try to masquerade as someone else to avoid disqualification, you may actually shoot yourself in the foot.
Survey companies don’t like when a participant gives contradictory answers because it only means two things:
Either you lying or you are not taking it seriously.
Sometimes, you can make a mistake and give a different answer to the same question. That can happen to anyone!
If you think you have been penalised unfairly, send an email to the survey company and ask them to reconsider.
Survey Panel That Pay For Disqualifications
Luckily, there are a couple of survey panels that will give you a small compensation if you get disqualified.
I think all survey panels should do the same. What do you think?
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The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
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The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
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The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.