Prolific – Best Survey Site To Fund Your Site? 

We all want to make some extra money to help fund our online projects. The most reliable and easiest method is usually by completing surveys but it can become mundane sometimes especially with the low pay rates. But what if there was something different available? Prolific is a unique survey site that pays you to take part in special studies and tests. But is it worth your time? Let’s find out.

How does it work?

Prolific (previously known as Prolific Academic) is a survey site dedicated to helping academic researchers with their research and papers. The site brings “people together to power the world’s research”. And in return for helping researches with their papers, you as a participant get rewarded.

When you first register, you will need to complete a few initial questions that will help determine whether or not you are eligible for surveys. These are extremely easy and quick to complete. Once completed, you will start to receive your first surveys.

The biggest issue with a lot of survey sites is that you may spend hours wasting time trying to find out if you are eligible for a survey. But Prolific takes that away. Prolific only shows you surveys that you are eligible for and when you start the survey, you know that you will be able to finish it and be rewarded for it. It’s important to pay attention whilst completing the survey though as you may still be screened out if you are trying to zoom through the surveys by clicking anything and everything.

Rewards are manually approved within 1-3 days of completing the survey. Very rarely, you may complete a survey that will not get approved by the researcher (this has only happened to me once out of 144 surveys!). But don’t worry, Prolific will automatically approve the reward if it has passed 21 days.

Am I eligible?

Prolific is open to a lot of users. However, they have recently restricted the countries that it operates in. This is a temporary restriction although no confirmed date is given for when they might open up to users from all around the world.

Currently users from AT, AU, BE, CA, CH, CL, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, KR, LU, LV, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PL, PT, SE, SI, TR and the US can join and participate in studies.

Users will also be required to confirm their email and their phone number or Facebook account before being allowed to take part in studies. Don’t let this worry you, this is to confirm that you are a legitimate user and not someone with multiple accounts.

How much can I make?

A lot. Prolific is one of the highest paying survey sites that I am a member of. What makes them great is that they require all studies to have a minimum payment per hour of £5. For example, if there was a study that took 30 minutes to complete, the researcher would have to pay you £2.50 but can choose to pay more if they wish.

Researchers are also encouraged to give out bonuses to participants that go above and beyond when answering surveys. This may also be used by some researchers to give out rewards based on how you answer certain surveys. For example, one survey that I completed had each participant put in a team and choose whether to give a bonus to someone or not. If you choose to not give someone a bonus, you would get it instead.

Survey rewards can vary. You may sometimes get a one question survey that rewards you with £0.14 or a 30-minute survey that pays you £3. The number of surveys that you receive each day may also vary especially based on whether you are the target demographic for a large number of surveys.

You can also earn money for referring your friends to Prolific. Unfortunately, you won’t make a percentage of your referrals lifetime earnings but you will earn 10% of their first payment. So if they decide to cash out when they reach £10, you will receive £1. It’s not a large amount but it’s nice as a little bonus to your survey earnings.

Do they really pay?

They do and payments are always prompt. I have included my latest payment to get rid of any doubts that you may have regarding Prolific.

What payment types are available?

At the current moment, both PayPal and Circle are available. Unfortunately, with PayPal, you will have to pay PayPal’s fees which is 2.9% + £0.20. With Circle, there are no fees for UK & US residents if you request payments above £20. Anything below that will have a 1% and £0.10 fee.

Payments are made every Tuesday and Friday afternoon. However, if you have made at least 3 cashouts, any payments requested to PayPal will be instant!

Will it help me fund my online project?

Of course. With payments available via PayPal, you can use the money that you earn with Prolific to fund any aspect of your online project including domain purchases, monthly hosting costs and themes etc. Additionally, with their steady stream of high-paying surveys, you can rely on Prolific to fund your site without having to worry about having to put your hand into your pocket for your project costs.

I have included my latest submissions to show how frequently I get surveys, how well paid they are and my total earnings from Prolific to ease any doubts that some may still have regarding Prolific.

Conclusion

For me, Prolific is one of, if not the best survey site out there. It’s one of the few sites that I log on to straight away when I wake up to check if there are any studies available. With its high paying and fun surveys, you won’t get bored of Prolific and will be able to fund every aspect of your online project easily and quickly.

As ever, if you have any questions or issues, feel free to leave a comment below or send us an email. And if you’ve started using or have used Prolific before, let us know how much you love it as well.