15 Best Online Focus Groups that Pay Over $150/Hour

Are you looking for awesome online focus groups that you can join today and make some extra money on the side?

A focus group is a group interview involving a small number of carefully selected people with the same traits or characteristics such as age, geography, background, etc.

It is part of a marketing research strategy in that they give opinions on a predetermined topic for research and the feedback is used to make insights and refinements on the product.

The interviews will involve questions on the candidates’ opinions, perceptions, views, beliefs, attitudes towards a particular topic, or different topics.

Non-verbal behavior from the participants also plays a role in the research results.

Focus groups can be conducted online through a link that lets you access the group or in person with a group of other participants.

There is usually a facilitator to ask the questions and take notes to record the research findings.

The amount of money participants get paid depends on the hours they spend doing the interview.

You will have to choose wisely though since not all focus groups pay the same.

The form of compensation is also not the same in all of them.

Some will pay you with their products, in cash, checks or even gift bags.

Since they look for very specific interests, it is not always that you will get picked or chosen.

Rather, join as many as possible to maximize your chances of getting chosen or qualifying.

Other time, the challenge is not qualifying but finding legit companies.

That is where we come in through. As much as you should always do a background check to see if it is legit, we have summarized a few that we know are legit.

 

Top 15 Online Focus Groups

1. Survey junkie

Survey junkie is a legitimate survey site that mostly gears toward online surveys where 1000 points equal $10, but pays more when it comes to focus groups as long as you meet the requirements of the program.

They pay up to $150 for these sessions whether online or in person.

They have actually had over six million surveys paid out, whether big or small.

These focus group links are mostly generated once a month so it is best to be on the look out and have a reminder on survey junkie focus groups.

Better yet, sign up on survey junkie for free, answer a few questions to pre-qualify for any focus group interviews and then keep an eye for any other offers that might interest you.

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It has made it clear that it is their business to work with literally any legit companies in need of this kind of feedback.

With survey junkie, it can offer other ways to make money and as we have seen, are really popular with surveys compared to focus groups.

So in case you are done with focus group interviews, you can explore other ways to make money on survey junkie.

You can sign up for a free account here.

 

2. Respondent.io

Respondent.io can pay you $140 an hour for just your opinion.

It also offers both in-person and online interviews.

When you sign up, you will key in personal information like birth date, name, email address, home address and phone number so they can present various surveys based on your background.

The whole system is designed to give you only relevant surveys and so they might also ask for your demographic information;

• Ethnicity
• Education background
• gender

You can sign up with an existing account and if you have none, your email address will do.

Once you do, the system will take you to their main page where you will see ‘marketplace projects’ which is exactly what you are looking for.

All projects have additional information on how long it will take you to finish and what they are looking for in a candidate.

Completing all those steps will have you taking surveys right away for the ones you are most qualified for.

Respondent.io will also pay you to make referrals to your friends.

If they join and complete a survey, you will earn $20 to $50. Your referral link is right under the ‘my referrals’ feature in your account.

 

3. User interviews

Making an account on user interviews will only take about two minutes and you can start filling up questions to qualify for the focus groups.

They follow a certain methodology where the interviewer prepares quite a number of topics to cover, record the findings from the conversations and then analyze them keenly afterwards.

They will gather information on the candidates’ motivations, emotions and routines that judge how they use the product in question,

In compensation, user interviews has paid over $15million in incentives and presents a lot of new studies every month to enable frequent compensation.

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Also make sure you are satisfied with the payment method and method of compensation before you sign up for a focus group, this is because some will pay in cash, pay pal, and others in gift cards or with their own products while you expect payment in form of money.

The sign up process is not any different from the rest but has a bit more information required from you.

Once you hit start button for sign up, they will generate a form with all the personal information they need from you.

Examples of the demographic information they might ask for are;

 

• Ethnicity
• Marital status
• Level of education
• Household income
• City address

 

4. Fieldwork

Fieldwork offers focus groups covering a wide range of services and industries e.g.

 

• Fashion and style
• Beauty and makeup
• Sports and athletics
• Technology
• Real Estate
• meals

Your focus group sessions will range from 1 to 2 hours with compensation starting from $75. Other ways of compensation will include gift cards to use specific websites or visa gift cards that can be transferred to cash.

They only have locations in the US;

 

• Seattle
• San Fransisco
• Los Angeles
• Denver
• New York
• Phoenix
• Dallas
• Minneapolis
• Chicago
• Atlanta
• Boston

 

You will usually engage in a round table discussion for in-person interviews being facilitated by a market research professional.

 

5. Probe Market Research

It is a marketing research recruiting company based in New York and San Fransisco, established in 2005.

They provide in-depth perspectives from a multitude of consumers, non-customers and brand royalties.

Focus group services have compensation starting from $50 to $400.

Only you have to decide if the lowly paid ones are worth your time especially if you have to travel for in- person interviews.

You can have the surveys sent to you on different platforms like Facebook for filling and if they need additional information, they might call you.

A Non-Disclosure Agreement is also supposed to be signed before any payments are generated.

Probe Market Research company also offers other services apart from focus groups which are as follows:

• Website usability tests
• Intercepts
• Product trials
• Nationwide

Whether the focus group interviews are performed online, on phone or in groups {in-person} by the qualified candidates, depends on the amount of time assigned to that particular session.

It is a really good pay in a ridiculously short amount of time.

 

6. Ipsos I-say

Ipsos I-say is open to anyone over the age of 18 from all over the world since every country has its own i-say website.

Sign up, confirm registration and star qualifying for surveys and focus groups.

If you do not qualify for a certain survey, you will get 5 to 10 points for participation.

Once you sign in, you have to be active else your account will be deemed inactive and your earned points removed if it takes more than 45 days.

Participants in Ipsos I-say are presented with polls that relate to personal interests, entertainment, and global products.

These polls are generated every day ranging from various topics.

Compensation starts from $50 to $100 per hour.

You can even earn points from completing the surveys that can be redeemed for a variety of rewards.

You can choose to get paid with gift cards for Amazon and iTunes or choose a prepaid visa.

You just need to voice your opinion on different products and brands in literally every other field you can think of like entertainment.

They even have a mobile app that you can sign in to allow you to take surveys on the go.

 

7. Survey squad

Survey squad’s focus groups are both available online and in-person depending on the requirements that need to be met or you.

When signing in, you can earn up to 2500 points just by filling in a questionnaire for your profile.

The points can later be redeemed to money or gift cards.

For in-person interviews regarding the project that might take long, you will get paid from $100 to $300 instantly to compensate for your time, ideas and transport.

The online part of it will only earn you half as much in form of a check, 6 to 8 weeks after the completion of the focus group session.

Participants include business professionals, consumers and anyone in the medical field.

 

8. Brand institute

Brand institute, based in Miami, seeks participants willing to take part in pharmaceutical market

research.

They are in fact he world’s top pharmaceutical branding consultant hence the specializing in medical products.

Their target is on doctors and nurses or anyone in the medical field to have surveys exclusively on the medical field.

Despite all that, anyone can join and take part in any other surveys while the medical surveys are off limits unless you have the qualifications.

The surveys will be very detailed and interesting thus the reasonable good payments people get from Brand Institute.

Your payment will however be generated after the whole survey has closed which takes about 3 to 4 weeks.

Forms of payment are either on check or pay pal.

You choose whichever is suitable for you.

Aside the focus group options is the referrals feature that will earn you just as much by telling your friend to join and take up a survey or focus group option.

 

9. Survey feeds

In survey feeds, you can earn anything from $50 to $475 in the focus groups, one-on-one interviews, online surveys, phone interviews, web conferences and clinical research studies.

They mostly share their best and most profitable market research studies on their Facebook pages where you can easily scroll through to get one that is the most suitable for you.

If you complete that, you get more like them for more opinions, which will pay more since survey feeds collects the best paid research opportunities.

Survey feed will set these research opportunities online or offline.

The online ones will pay up to

$300 per study while the offline ones will pay up to $2000 per study.

 

10.FocusGroup.com

Focus Group pays from $50 to $250 per session in a focus group or survey.

It offers surveys, focus groups and clinical trials so anyone in the health care industry would find Focus Group ideal for them.

They will pay in form of money or with their products which are drugs with the argument that their prescription method will be in connection to whatever is ailing you, for free.

Sometimes it is never a good idea since the drugs are on a test run hence the focus groups so the side effects are not yet determined.

Payments are awarded in points that are later redeemed into pre-paid gift cards.

The form of payment and amount is revealed to you prior to taking the surveys or being a candidate in a focus group.

 

11. Plaza research

Joining a focus group in plaza research will have you trying out their new products, watching a commercial or input your ideas on future products related to what the company produces.

You will first have to fill an online form filled with standard and personal questions to qualify.

You will then receive an email to tell if you qualify and start inviting you to focus groups.

The amount of pay you get will depend on the length of the session, which ranges from $50 to

$200 per session if it lasts for two hours.

Plaza research is diverse with their target market;

 

• Parents
• Students
• Teens
• Kids
• Physicians
• Business professionals

 

12. Mindswarms

Mindswarms has its own mobile app that you can install on your smart phone, sign in and answer questions on the go.

The other way to sign up and participate is with laptop or pc with a webcam.

Like every other focus group firm, you will need to answer a couple of questions before you are deemed qualified and relevant opportunities will load based on your demographics.

Even after you are chosen you will need to answer seven questions in total through the video which should take 10 to 20 minutes.

Questions can be presented in any language you prefer and you should submit your answers in the same language the questions were presented in.

Payment start from $50 and so on and it will be sent to your pay pal account.

If it is inform of points, you can redeem them and if you also want to redeem your money or earnings, you can redeem to a gift.

 

13. Engage

Engage offers both in-person focus groups and online meetings for the qualified participants.

You can choose whatever panel you want i.e., if you are a consumer, you choose the consumer panel, and if you are in the healthcare field, you pick the healthcare or medical panel.

Other than those mentioned panels, Engage offers studies and focus groups on various fields and topics like, cars, food, music, technology, etc.

Their payments start from $50 to $250 via pay pal or in form of a check which might take longer as compared to payment via PayPal.

 

14. American Consumer Opinion

American consumer opinion usually partners with very big companies to help evaluate their advertising and marketing strategies, review new products and analyze customer service.

To sign up, you will fill in general information such as your age, employment status, answer personal questions to create a member account, and then take a general household survey to share details about your lifestyle.

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What makes it unique is the age qualification to be a participant which is 14 years unlike the other focus groups where you have to 18 years of age.

It is available anywhere in the world.

Other ways to make money in American consumer opinion is through referrals, ad reviews, and sweepstakes.

 

15. SIS International

SIS international partners with companies and brands worldwide therefore signs up people from all over the world.

Focus groups discussions can be held remotely via your phone or zoom.

Sign up and find a wide range of available well-paying focus groups that you can take part in after submitting your application holding your personal and demographic information.

It also employs other methodologies like in-depth interviews, online bulletin boards, taste test, ethnography among others.

 

Conclusion: How to Make $150 in an Hour with Focus Groups

If any focus group firm interests you, it will obviously have internet presence where you can look it up for reviews about its services and legitimacy.

Better Business Bureau is a site that enables you find only legit companies, therefore confirm if the focus group is accredited by BBB and start earning.