There’s a growing feeling that if you’re not already making money online, you’re missing out. That may be true in some ways, but it also means there are more scams out there chasing your money. In this review I’ll talk about Panel Payday being a scam. Are they a scam? It’s not a simple answer.
I’ll also explain how Panel Payday works, and if they are a good place to earn extra money online, or not…
Disclaimer:
Please note, I am not a member or an affiliate for Panel Payday. This review has been researched with information and testimonials that are available online in the public domain. Any conclusions drawn by myself are opinions.
What is Panel Payday?
At first glance, Panel Payday appears to be an online survey site. When you look a little closer though, you find they are only referring, or sending you to other survey sites and earning referral commissions.
In theory, there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing. In fact, Panel Payday is providing a service by bringing you all of these income-earning “opportunities” together into one place.
In practice however, intentional or not, Panel Payday is leading people down a potentially dangerous path.
I know it can be tempting… who doesn’t want $25 – $75 to fill out a survey.
In all my time researching online survey and referral companies like Panel Payday, I’ve never seen anyone get paid that kind of money for a single survey. I also get regular emails from survey companies but never one that pays $25 – $75.
The rare exception would be a targeted survey for a specialized field. A dental supply company for example, may need to survey dentists.
For general topic survey’s (where a large group of people qualify) you will never see legit $25 – 50$ surveys. Most real surveys pay less than $5. Of course… some money is better than no money.
And if $5 is not what you were expecting, there are other strategies you can use to make money online which are also free.
How Does It Work?
The people behind Panel Day are “affiliate marketers”, and they earn affiliate commissions (or referral commissions) from each company they send you to.
For example, one of the companies they refer you to currently is Vindale Research. When you sign up Vindale Research, one way you can earn income is by referring other people.
Vindale will provide you with a unique referral link, and when people sign up using your link you earn a small commission.
It sounds good in theory, and as an affiliate marketer myself, you can earn a significant income online this way (not specifically with Vindale, but with affiliate marketing in general).
But, to do this successfully, you need a legitimate strategy. You can’t just spam your referral link everywhere online (as most survey companies expect you to). That may have worked 10 or 15 years ago, but not anymore.
With Panel Payday, you are seeing one such strategy at work. The people behind Panel Payday are doing affiliate, or referral marketing on a mass scale.
They are not only earning referral commissions from Vindale, but dozens of other programs as well. And, instead of posting links in social media which is the most common thing that people do, Panel Payday is an actual “web property” that brings in traffic.
Where affiliate marketing (and Panel Payday) go wrong in my opinion, is when people start promoting programs and offers they know nothing about, just for the money.
What Happens When You Join?
And speaking of offers they know nothing about… Panel Payday floods you with them. From the moment you decide to join, you’re given 5 pages of seemingly irresistible offers.
A common theme with scams are these “limited spots available” scarcity tactics that give you a sense of urgency.
When more people take a survey, more data is gathered. The more data you have, the more accurate your results will be.
It makes no sense to limit the number of people who can take a survey… unless, it’s an in-person focus group and there are only so many chairs in the room.
Otherwise, don’t buy into the “only so many spots left” trap.
I’ve seen this countless times before, but to be fair, I logged in later with a different account to see if anything had changed. Sure enough… the same number of spots were left.
Is Panel Payday A Scam?
To answer the question, is Panel Payday a scam, there are a few different areas we need to understand.
One of those areas is affiliate marketing, which we already talked about.
Affiliate marketing is a legitimate way to make money online and many people have built well-known and highly respected businesses with it. Companies like Apple, Nike and Amazon have affiliate programs and will pay you commissions when you recommend their products. You can learn more about that HERE.
But there is a wrong way to do affiliate marketing, and Panel Payday does it the wrong way.
Does this make them a scam? In some ways, maybe…
A scam is defined as an attempt to gain someone’s confidence simply to get their money.
You could say that Panel Payday is trying to gain your confidence by looking like a legitimate survey site… and then sending you to potentially dangerous websites and scams to earn money.
Also, using deceptive tactics such as false scarcity, in my opinion, qualifies as a scam.
But Panel Payday also has some legitimate “offers”, making it hard to call them a flat-out scam. If they’re guilty of anything… it’s that they’re not properly researching the companies they’re working with.
Or… it’s possible they just don’t care…
One offer I checked out promised a brand new Samsung Galaxy just for answering a quick survey. I wasn’t expecting anything… but for the sake of “research”, I signed up and answered the few questions they had.
As you can probably guess… I never did see that Galaxy phone or hear anything about it (this was a month ago and I see they still have that offer up). It’s a ridiculous claim, but these are some of the sketchy offers Panel Payday is associating themselves with.
Below is a screenshot of another “offer” I clicked on.
Who knows why my anti-virus flagged that specific website, but the two examples I’m giving you are the first two I tried. That’s doesn’t give me much confidence in Panel Payday.
Another area to understand are phishing scams.
What Is a Phishing Scam?
Phishing Scams usually come in the form of emails, but they can also be found on social media and various other online media.
They vary in complexity, but one of the best examples is when you receive an email from your bank saying your balance is in the negative.
That email will have a “link” to your bank account’s website. Some people, in a panic and worried they have no money, will click the link and sign in to their account.
But the website is fake and what they just did was give the scammers (phishers) their bank login information.
So… how does Panel Payday relate to phishing scams? Well… why would someone ask you to fill out what appears to be a meaningless 3 question survey in exchange for a free cell phone?
To get your email (and quite often a bunch of other information you wouldn’t want normally give out).
I once did a long survey for Opinion Outpost that asked me what bank I did business with, what credit cards I used… and whether I had investments and so on… (screenshot below)
With all the offers that Panel Payday is presenting you with and a clear lack of concern for what those offers are… It’s almost certain that Panel Payday is leading some people down a dangerous path of getting ripped off.
What I Like About Panel Payday
- There are some legitimate programs that Panel Payday has associated with (these are also programs you can sign up for without going through Panel Payday).
- They have a unique affiliate marketing model, and if they cleaned out the garbage it could be a real service to people.
- Their website is clean and designed well, not slapped together quickly.
What I Don’t Like
- The bad offers. Again, I can’t say they’re doing it on purpose. But they’re clearly not screening the companies they work with to make sure you don’t get ripped off. In other words… they don’t care about you.
Final Thoughts
I usually have a bigger list of pros and cons, but the fact that Panel Payday is leading you to websites that expose you and others to phishing scams and software viruses, makes them dangerous in my opinion.
If you do decide to use Panel Payday, my recommendation would be to research each individual offer they present you with.
My Recommendation For Making Money Online
I’ve tried the scams and listened to the gurus, and spent years looking for a legit system. I finally found a real way to earn real money online. Click HERE to learn what I do, how I do it, and why it works.
I hope my review of Panel Payday was helpful, and if you have any questions, comments, or a review of your own, please share in the comments section below.
