GlobalTestMarket is very familiar with SPAM. Since we send email invites for our surveys we must be SPAM compliant. That is why we have a double opt-in registration process. We only want to send email to people that actually want to receive our email.

FrontDesk wishes they only received email from our members. Unfortunately, FrontDesk receives hundreds upon hundreds of SPAM mail each day. Their response time to member inquiries is suffering because they must sift through junk email. We are taking aggressive steps to resolve their SPAM issue and thus improve their ability to cater to our members’ needs.

Very soon members will not be allowed to initiate an inquiry by sending an email to FrontDesk. Members must use the web form to start any inquiry.

So, if I wanted to know the status of my redemption payment I would not be able to open up my Yahoo or Hotmail email account and just fire off an email to FrontDesk. They will not receive it. I would need to use the web form to file my inquiry.

FrontDesk will then review each inquiry sent through the web form. They might send an email to you requesting clarification or further information so they can accurately resolve your issue. You must reply to that email. FrontDesk will receive those reply emails.

1. Member needs to start an inquiry for FrontDesk
2. Member must use the web form to contact FrontDesk to start inquiry
3. FrontDesk will respond via email, and may ask the member questions
4. Member must reply to that email (the only email FrontDesk can receive)
5. FrontDesk now will resolve the issue quicker

How do I find the web form?

If you are not logged into your GlobalTestMarket account the link is in the website footer.

If you are logged into your GlobalTestMarket account the web form link is located in the header.

This will solve the FrontDesk SPAM problem and will improve their ability to address member needs. If there are any questions about this process please comment here and I will respond as soon as I can.

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.

GlobalTestMarket is a website where anyone who likes voicing their opinion about anything can join, take online surveys, and directly contribute to the development of new products, services and technology. We try to keep everything simple, but there’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that you probably don’t know about…

GlobalTestMarket has been around for years and has established itself in the top ten of online paid survey sites around the world. We pay out nearly $5 million USD annually to members who take surveys, but what you may not know that the surveys - and the money - don’t just come out of nowhere.

GMI, the company that runs GlobalTestMarket, works with many of the top market research firms in the world (and lots of smaller ones, too). We do not control which questions go into the online surveys - our clients do. In turn, we work closely with them to create surveys that are fair, pay a reasonable amount to our members and are applicable to a specific audience. Specifically, this is how a project might work:

1. A company will come to us and say, “We need 1,000 women living in France who own dogs and drive German cars.”
2. We will help them program their online survey and set an appropriate value of the survey (paid out in MarketPoints to members).
3. We send the online survey out to members who match their criteria (have marked they are female, live in France, own a dog and drive a German car).
4. Sometimes, if the demographic is hard to reach or we don’t have all of the necessary information (we may know which members are female, live in France and own a dog, but might not know if those members have recently purchased a German car), we may contact additional members who meet some of the criteria.
5. The online survey will contain additional questions to make sure members match the criteria. If they don’t, they will be screened out and redirected to a more appropriate survey with SurveyShuttle.
6. Members complete the online survey and are paid MarketPoints, which are redeemable for cash (in this case, the members would most likely receive Euros as they are living in France).
7. GMI/GlobalTestMarket compiles the data and provides the company the tools to analyze the data and make business decisions based on the market research you helped provide.

There’s even more to it than that, but that’s the process in a broad sense. So if you’re not receiving as many online paid surveys as you’d like, make sure you keep your profiling surveys up to date so we can properly target you in the future.