Why does it seem like survey companies want to know so much about you? That's because they function by learning about you and knowing which survey types they should send you. If a survey company does not know information about you, they are less likely to send you survey invites. They don't want to flood your inbox with irrelevant survey invitations.
When you join a survey panel, you are asked basic information needed to join. After that, you are usually asked relevant questions about yourself that the survey company needs to categorize you. Often survey companies group these additional questions into sets called profiles.
Companies like Ford, Microsoft, Google, or even your local plumber go to survey companies when they want to ask certain people questions. For example, Microsoft may create a survey targeting users who are still on Windows XP and find out what it may take to encourage them to upgrade. Others, like a plumber in Las Vegas, may create a survey and want to target people who own a home and live in that area.
Here's where the survey company comes in--their job is to look at their member profiles and send invitations to those who are more likely to qualify to take the survey. For example, for the Microsoft research, the survey company would search their database and look for people who have been profiled and say they still use Windows XP. For the plumbing project, the survey company would target respondents in the Las Vegas area who are profiled and say they own homes.
This is why legitimate survey sites will ask you profile questions. They need this data so they can more easily find you surveys you will most likely qualify. The more surveys you qualify for, the better your payoff for taking them.
The following are the typical categories of profile questions that survey companies ask you to complete:
Basic demographics profile
Survey sites ask basic demographic questions such as age, gender, ethnicity, location, education, marital status, and various other data points to help send surveys that are relevant to you. If you do not fill out the basic profile, you will probably not get many survey invites from any company. You may still get emails with links to surveys, but they will try to ask questions before they put you into certain surveys, if the demographic information is necessary to qualify.
Household profile
These questions will ask you about your household composition, if you are single, married, or divorced, if you are living with your children ages 17 and below, or if you just had a baby. You will be asked if you are renting, if you own your residence, or if you live in an RV, how you buy your gas, which company provides you with electricity services, who you usually contact to take care of home painting or plumbing, or if you drink tap water or purchase filtered water. Other questions may cover pets, general income levels, and other areas that will help identify what you know and experience regularly and would therefore be able to take surveys about. Each company will have a different set of questions.
Shopping habits profile
This is one of the most important profile categories you need to fill out because a lot of research is done on shopping habits. Companies want to ask their customers or future customers questions about products and services. This section of questions will include questions such as where you shop, types of things you may shop for, how often you go out to eat, and other types of places you may visit often.
Professional profile
Filling out this profile may help you qualify for higher-paying surveys. Many professionals are busy and do not have time to take surveys. For this reason, surveys covering topics such as your employment may pay a little more. The profiles will often ask about the industry in which you work, your position in the company, the number of employees in the company, if you are a decision maker, and other topics about your company. The purpose of many of these is in targeting specific people in certain industries and targeting people in certain company sizes.
Leisure and recreation profile
Survey companies will ask you about some of your recreational habits and things you like to do. For example, you may be asked about magazines you read, if you travel, how often you travel, if you read books, types of exercise you like to do, online gaming, and other topics like smoking or drinking habits. They ask various questions so they can be prepared for any company that may come to them asking to target groups such as people who enjoy yoga because they are doing research on a new brand of yoga apparel and want feedback before they launch an expensive ad campaign.
Cars and automobiles profile
These are questions that will ask about the year of your car, the make and model, purchase or lease options, and other questions. The purpose of these is to help prepare for companies like Ford that may be targeting surveys for their brand and who want to find out what their loyal customers think. They may also be targeting people who own their competitors' cars and looking to test an ad campaign to see if the campaign will encourage people to be their customers.
Health profile
These are questions about your health condition or health conditions of people living in your household. Surveys on medicines or medical treatments usually seek out the opinions of patients whose needs they are looking to meet through their products and/or services. If you are a Diabetes Type II patient, it will be easy for companies to find you to take surveys for medications and treatments for Diabetes Type II.
Household technology profile
Survey companies will ask you to tell them things such as which appliances you have, brands you may be loyal to, and things such as current technology you use. You may not get a lot of surveys on this topic, but they capture this data to prepare you for future studies which may become available.
Other types of Profiles
Some survey companies may create profiles on very specific topics to better prepare you for future studies. These profiles may cover topics such as mobile phones, pets, television programs, website and internet activities, magazines, restaurants, and even your political views.
Completing profile questions is optional and you can always choose not to complete them, but please note that filling all of these out will increase your chances for the survey company survey to send you surveys fit for you. This means more opportunities for you to qualify to make money taking surveys.
Want to learn how to boost your chances of completing more surveys and mount up more earnings for your time? Read How to Qualify for More Surveys.