Our Windows Live (Hotmail) members were curious how to add GlobalTestMarket to their email Safe Sender list. We checked it out and here is how you do it: We have inserted some screen shots to help you set it up.

[1] Go to your e-mail account. On the right hand side of the main page, click on Options, then More options:

[2] Now go to Safe and blocked senders. That’s just below Junk e-mail:

[3] You’re almost done… Go to Safe Senders:

[4] After clicking on Safe Senders, enter globaltestmarket.com in the field (as show in the picture) and click on Add to List. It will then show up in the Safe senders and domains list on the right hand side:

Hope that helps Luke and our other Hotmail users!

Dear Members,

If you have any questions or issues related to a missing payment, or missing MarketPoints for a study that you participated in, I would encourage you to contact the Members Support Team directly via the web form to assure prompt assistance.

Why? Unfortunately, I am not equipped with the adequate resources and tools to treat such inquiries and would rather invite you to contact the right Team directly. Shortly after submitting your inquiry via the web form, a Representative will get back to your via email and will work with you at resolving the issue. Thank you for your understanding.

Many potential members inquire about the legitimacy of GlobalTestMarket. We recruit people all over the globe to complete market research surveys, and in return we award MarketPoints. Once you hit 1,000 MarketPoints our members can redeem for $50.00 USD. That has to be too good to be true, right? It is true and it is that easy.

How can I be sure GlobalTestMarket is legitimate?

The company that operates GlobalTestMarket opened their doors in 1999, and the GlobalTestMarket community was launched the following year. GlobalTestMarket was one of the first established online research companies, and we have kept our doors open for over 9 years. GlobalTestMarket does not charge a fee for membership and never will charge a fee. We have offices across the globe and maintain a staff of nearly 300 employees.

Since 2004, GlobalTestMarket has been an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau. Although, this is not an endorsement, it establishes that GlobalTestMarket makes good faith efforts to resolve consumer complaints. The BBB reviews and facilitates this process (Please use our customer support before engaging the BBB).

GlobalTestMarket adheres to an aggressive privacy policy.

“When you are on a GlobalTestMarket site and are asked for personal information, you are sharing that information with GlobalTestMarket alone, unless it is specifically stated otherwise.“

Some clients qualify members to participate in their online focus groups or to participate in diary studies. Since there is a “long term” relationship those clients may ask for personal information. GlobalTestMarket demands their request is crystal clear before the member agrees to sharing their personal information. Finally, we are ESOMAR members and adhere to their strict online research standards.

Our membership is in the millions, and they earned over $7,000,000 USD last year in redemptions. If GlobalTestMarket was illegitimate, then we are executing a poor business plan. However, the truth is the GlobalTestMarket community is legitimate. I hope that addresses the concerns of those wanting to join, but are doing their homework before signing up. In this Internet day and age we agree it is important to investigate an online community before joining.

A GlobalTestMarket Blog visitor was curious how GlobalTestMarket works and how they can earn money by joining the GlobalTestMarket community. Below is a step by step process:

[1] Join GlobalTestMarket. Please provide complete and accurate information when registering. GlobalTestMarket does not share your information for advertising purposes and has a detailed privacy policy. After completing the registration form you must check your inbox for the double opt-in confirmation email. This is critical because GlobalTestMarket only sends email to members on our double opt-in email list to remain compliant with SPAM laws;

[2] Access your GlobalTestMarket account;

[3] Complete all your profiler surveys found on the Surveys page when you are logged into your account. This will qualify you for more market research surveys. Market research surveys will be sent to your inbox so add GlobalTestMarket to your Safe Sender list. You may also complete our client surveys in your account underneath the profiler survey section. The more surveys you receive and complete the quicker you can earn 1,000 MarketPoints. Members must complete market research surveys to earn points;

[4] Members must earn a minimum of 1,000 MarketPoints before they can redeem their points for money. Once at 1,000 MarketPoints you must select the MarketPoints link on the navigation bar. Then select the Redeem button found on that web page.

[5] The next page will ask how many MarketPoints you want to redeem. You must have at least 1,000 MarketPoints. However, if you have more than 1,000 you can redeem the total amount you earned. For example, if you have 2,238 MarketPoints, then you can redeem all 2,238!

Please note the fun surveys offered on the blog do not award MarketPoints.

Our Excite members were curious how to add GlobalTestMarket to their email Safe Sender list. We did some research and found the answer. These instructions are from the Excite website:

Add Custom Filters to your Excite Email account.

You can define up to 11 filters to route incoming emails to folders of your choosing by setting up Custom Filtering.

To do so, click on the “Mail Preferences” link on the far right of the upper navigation bar while signed in to Excite Email. On the resulting page, under the heading of “Message Options/Filtering” you will see the following options:

* Filters Summary
* Custom Filters
* Safe List
* Block ListClick “Custom Filters” and do the following:

• Select if you want to filter by Subject, From Name, From Address, To or CC line

o Subject will look within the subject line of an incoming message
o From Name will filter based on the sender name of the incoming message
o From Address will filter based on the email address of the sender of the incoming message
o To or CC line will filter based on the address within the To: or Cc: line of the incoming message

• Select the criteria for matching the filter from either includes, doesn’t include, starts with, contains word/ phrase, ends with, or exactly matches.

• Enter the text that you would like the filter to match against

• Select the appropriate folder to route messages into. You can select either system folders such as “Sent” or “Trash,” or folders that you created within your account.

Please be sure to check the “Enabled” check box above any filter that you are setting up in order to turn that filter on.

When you have finished setting up all your filters, click on the “Save” button at the top or bottom of the Custom Filter page. If you do not click on the “Save” button, your changes will be lost.

Moving a filter up or down in the Custom Filter Hierarchy

The Excite Custom filters are processed in the order that they are displayed in the custom filter page. If you would like to change the order of these filters, you can do so using the “Move Up” or “Move Down” buttons.

To move a filter one step towards the top of the filter hierarchy, click on the “Move Up” button to the right of that particular filter.

To move a filter one step towards the bottom of the filter hierarchy, click on the “Move Down” button to the right of that particular filter.

You can move a filter multiple steps up or down by clicking the “Move Up” or “Move Down” button multiple times.

Tips for setting up Custom Filters

• To create a new email folder for filtered messages, click the “Add” link next to the “All Folders” header in the right column. Enter the new folder name and click “Add New Folder.”

• Move individual filters higher or lower on the page to establish your preferred filtering priority order. Emails meeting more than one filter’s criteria will be filed by whichever filter has higher priority. (Remember to click Save after reprioritizing your list.)

• You may enter up to 50 characters into your filter’s text box (located to the immediate left of the Move Up/Move Down buttons).

• You may enter only 1 email address or domain name per filter (when using the “From Address” option)

• When entering an email address into your filter’s text box, please use the following format: sendername@domainname.com

• When entering a domain name into your filter’s text box, please use the following format: @domainname.com < @globaltestmarket.com >

Hope that helps Greg and our other Excite users!

Some comments were sent to the blog asking about sign up costs for online survey companies. I will not comment about other companies, but GlobalTestMarket does not charge any fees for membership.

GlobalTestMarket believes it is important to communicate this message to potential members. Sign up is absolutely free! Just click on the Join button in the top navigation bar.

Recently a few members have inquired about the exact same question.

Where is my check?

GlobalTestMarket is back on track to deliver on our 4 to 6 week promise to US members and our 6 to 8 week promise to our International members. That being said, some members might not receive their payment. A bulk of our returned checks is due to an incorrect mailing address. We already mentioned GlobalTestMarket members need to update their mailing address information before redeeming.

Can mail go missing entirely?

This rarely happens in the grand scheme of things, but the answer is yes. For that reason GlobalTestMarket must follow certain procedures directed by our Accounting department.

What are those procedures?

We contact our vendor and ensure the payment was mailed. Then our vendor verify if the funds have been deposited or not. When the funds have not been deposited GlobalTestMarket stops payment on the first issued check, and then begins processing a second issued redemption payment.

GlobalTestMarket confirms if the check was deposited?

Yes. An over-whelming majority of our panel members are outstanding contributors. The market research industry would not survive without your effort and willingness impact decisions causing change. There are a handful of members that have deposited their redemption check, and then request another one, and then another one. GlobalTestMarket cannot pay a member over and over again for the same redemption request, so we must verify the check’s status.

So, we stop payment on missing checks that have not been deposited and then reissue a new payment.

What is the best way to ask about a missing check?

Please visit the GlobalTestMarket Contact page. These inquiries are escalated and reviewed in the same manner. Because we must reach out to our payment vendor these inquiries cannot be resolved in a few days. Members may need to wait a week or longer.

I hope this helps and look forward to hearing any comments.

Some of our largest payouts ever were processed in December, and nearly 11,000 redemptions were requested. We also saw an increase in missing payment inquiries, and I know how we can decrease a majority of those situations.

Obviously, we review each account when we receive and inquiry. We must know the exact date the redemption request was made, so we can figure out which redemption file to review. We also check the account information. Most of our missing payment requests are attributed to an improper mailing address (physical mailing address or postal address) or incomplete name.

The GlobalTestMarket User Agreement requires all members to provide,”…accurate, current and complete information…” which includes “…your full legal name, your date of birth, the address of your primary residence, your phone number and your working email address.”

Some members list their first name as “J” and their last name as “M.” So when we print redemption checks to J M, and then address the envelope J M, there is an increased chance the payment will not be delivered. A vast majority of our missing payment inquiries are caused by incorrect or incomplete account information. Please ensure your account details are accurate and complete.

Sending email is a simple task for anyone. Receiving email can be challenging. Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have very aggressive SPAM filtering. GlobalTestMarket only sends survey invites to members that have completed the double opt-in registration process. However, sending email to confirmed members does not guarantee delivery.

What an agonizing conundrum. Many members have asked what they can do to help ensure GlobalTestMarket survey invites are delivered to their inbox. Add GlobalTestMarket to your Safe Senders list in your email options or filters. Those using Microsoft Outlook can follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Preferences tab, under E-mail, click Junk E-mail.
3. Click the Safe Senders or Safe Recipients tab.
4. Click Add.
5. In the Enter an e-mail address < frontdesk@globaltestmarket.com >or Internet domain name < globaltestmarket.com > to be added to the list box, enter the name or address you want added, and then click OK.

For Yahoo email, you must follow these steps:

1. Click Options.
2. Click on Filters and then Create and Edit.
3. Click Add.
4. Enter frontdesk@globaltestmarket.com in the “From header:” text box.
5. Then select the Add Filter button.

Let us know if you are having problems with other email services.

Our Legal team enjoys making rules and encouraging, uh hmm, I mean requiring us to enforce them. The nondisclosure rule is extremely important. Many of our clients run market research studies that involve products or ideas that have not been introduced to the public yet.

As GlobalTestMarket members, you might get a sneak preview to an upcoming video game, Hollywood movie, advertising campaign or new logo design. We promise our clients that the contents of their study will remain confidential. We also promise our clients that our members will do the same. Here is the exact User Agreement provision:

• Non-Use and Nondisclosure. Information and content made available to you in the Service may contain trade secrets or other confidential or proprietary information of GMI’s suppliers or licensors. You must hold in strict confidence and not disclose to any other person any information and content that you access or learn in connection with your participation in any survey, project, questionnaire, or other market research activity related to the Service. You must not use any such information or content for any purpose other than your participation in the Service in accordance with this Agreement. You hereby agree to notify GMI immediately if you learn of or suspect any use or disclosure of, or access to, any such information or content other than as specifically authorized in this Agreement.

Reading the fine print might be painful, but is necessary. A violation of this rule will result in immediate account closure, and forfeiture of MarketPoints. So please do not publicly reveal the contents of a GlobalTestMarket survey.