Two New Ways to Make Money with ICS

Instant Cash Sweepstakes, a popular mini-survey site with a phenomenal referral program, has recently started offering two new ways for its member to make money. First, it has now introduced an Ask Your Target Market referral program. Ask Your Target Market is the client end of ICS' business -- it's where people who want to conduct market research go. Thus, you make money with the AYTM referral program by referring survey makers rather than survey takers. The next new feature is the PRO membership program. PRO members will be able to take surveys which carry guaranteed cash awards; membership is free, but it is selective. Currently, those invited to become PRO members must record an introduction video explaining why you want to join. A certain comfort level with making videos is thus a prerequisite for membership -- indeed, one interesting aspect of PRO membership is that it includes video surveys in which respondents are asked to respond by video. I'm glad to see ICS continuing to innovate and explore new areas. Still, I suspect most users will earn more from taking the regular surveys on the site and referring other users than from either of the new methods.

Referring new companies and individuals to Ask Your Target Market has the potential to be quite lucrative. If a referrer purchases at least $29.95 worth of market research from the site, you will receive $10. I like the sound of that in theory, but there's just one little problem...where exactly do you run into people interested in conducting market research? I think just a small number of people will be able to really take advantage of this simply because survey takers and survey makers are such different folks. People with contacts at businesses or startups might be able to interest their friends in the offer. People who maintain blogs or web sites related to market research and business in general might draw in audiences quite interested in AYTM's services. I rather doubt sticking up a link or graphic on a general interest blog would do the trick, however. (Of course, it doesn't hurt to try!)

PRO membership is a long-awaited feature and has more general appeal. What people tend not to like about ICS at first is that they don't get cash for every survey they take. Instead, you receive periodic cash prizes and chances to win the daily and weekly drawings. PRO membership allows people to get paid for every survey they take (well, for every PRO survey they take at least). In the future, I would guess that PRO membership is going to be something that draws people in to join ICS as it will not always require a willingness to record video responses to surveys. For now, the video thing is going to hold some people back. It cuts off people who don't have webcams or don't feel comfortable using them. It also peels away the veil of privacy that survey takers tend to expect to a degree -- you're now very close to interacting with the company doing the market research directly. I think people are more likely to be honest, especially when it comes to criticism, if they can retain their privacy as much as possible, but on the other hand the YouTube generation is very accustomed to sharing their views on camera for the world to see. They might very well actually prefer taking surveys by video. Surveys by webcam is a concept that some will embrace and some will flee from, but I certainly think it's a logical and innovative step for the market research industry to take.

Luckily, ICS remains a fine site for people to use even if they can't refer companies that want to conduct market research and don't even know how to turn on their webcams. The basic multiple choice mini-surveys, instant cash prizes, prize drawings, and matching referral earnings will continue to be features of the site.

Instant Cash Sweepstakes? Great. PayPal Fees? Not So Great

Instant Cash Sweepstakes is a really interesting take on online surveys. Surveys are one of the best ways for Americans to make money online, but they aren't always easy: usually full-length surveys are designed with a particular demographic in mind so many won't qualify to take them and for those you do qualify for many will be quite long. ICS offers a different experience: it specializes in short surveys (three multiple choice questions usually) with no qualification questions. Takers of these mini-surveys are rewarded with entries into the daily cash draw for $50 and the $100 weekly draw, coins with which they can buy extra entries, and occasional cash prizes.

You might be thinking, "Oh, it's one of those sweepstakes sites. You never win those!" at this point. What really makes ICS a great site is that those occasional small cash prizes actually come in steady and often -- you really don't need to win the daily or weekly prize to make money there. Sometimes I find myself comparing it to NeoBux because it's easy to go there and at least pick up a few cents a day. ICS also has a fantastic referral program: you get matching prizes and tickets from your referrals. In other words, if your referral wins $0.05 and 5,000 tickets, you too will receive $0.05 and 5,000 tickets. Winning the big prize is frankly probably very unlikely (I can't say I've ever won it even though I believe I joined the site fairly early on in its existence), but Instant Cash Sweepstakes can be quite a lucrative site even if you never do win the big one.

What I like least about Instant Cash Sweepstakes is that PayPal fees eat up a sizable portion of your payout. I lost 36 cents off of a recent $2.01 payout. For this reason, some people wait a while and cash out a larger amount so they don't get double or triple fee'd. Oh well -- that's an issue with PayPal, not with ICS. PayPal fees aside, I give Instant Cash Sweepstakes my very strong recommendation! Note: this is a US only site. Unfortunately, this is typical of survey sites...those outside just a few countries have quite a limited selection of sites and a limited selection of surveys from those sites that do let them join.