New openings may be available in your area to apply for Nielsen’s Homescan Consumer Panel. I’ve heard from my readers who are active in this program, and many find it a rewarding and easy way to earn free merchandise. Opportunities are limited based on where you live (they aren’t recruiting new households in my area) but I encourage you to apply to find out if there are openings in your area.
Here’s what one of my readers, Geraldine, said about it:
“We have been doing this for several years now & you can’t imagine how quickly the points add up. Last summer, we got a sand & water table for the grandkids, shipped to our door completely free! This is the large one that retails for $80-90 everywhere. The kids love it & the price was perfect! I have several thousand points now, just waiting patiently for a nice Christmas gift for the grandkids this year. If at all possible, you definitely should try this. It’s fun & you get incredible free stuff!“
Please be aware that this can be time-consuming as you have to scan all of your purchases, so it is certainly not something that everyone would be willing or able to do. But since I’ve gotten positive feedback from several readers I thought it would be worth sharing with you.
I’m listing it my “Money 4 Mom” series because I consider it an opportunity to earn things of a higher value than you normally would in a word-of-mouth program. But it is also a way to share your opinion and be rewarded for providing data for consumer research.
Who is Nielsen? A well-known marketing company that produces the TV ratings, and they also are known for sending people cash in the mail in hopes they’ll complete a short survey about their TV viewing habits. Nielsen also named me as a 2009 Power Mom, a list of 50 influential mom bloggers. It’s quite an honor for me to have made that list!
You’ll find more useful resources in my Money 4 Mom series where I’ve shared how you can make money by blogging, working online, doing in-person market research, taking surveys, participating in University studies, selling on eBay, and even viewing YouData ads on my blog. I hope you find this series a useful resource if you are looking for sources of extra income.
Make money, read Money 4 Mom
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Sheryl – Yes, I'm posting this Homescan Panel opportunity as an affiliate offer. It's definitely not something that everyone would want to do, but as long as I get some positive feedback from readers participating in it, I'll continue to promote it.-HeatherFreebeis 4 Mom
I've been a member for about 4 months and I love it. Yes it does take some time to scan everything after you get home from the store, but points add up quickly, especially if you do all of the extra surveys (they don't take very long) I already have enough for some of the smaller items in the catalog.
I agree with ShirkyI had one and sen tit back after 1 week. You think its like working at Target. Beep, Beep, Beep…..WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!By: Mildred Miller
Congrats on being chosen as a "Nielsen Power Mom"But I must say I have heard more bad then good about this company. Just too much effort for the time given. Do they pay you for blogging about them?-Sheryl D.
This sounds totally fun. I filled out the questionnaire (longggg) and it says I'm on the waiting list. I hope that means that they're accepting people in our area. I always hear good things about the Nielsen programs and would love to participate.
I concur with the previous commenter, this was an insane amount of effort. Scanning sounded fun and easy, you just point the gun and zoop zoop right? But you have to enter the price for every single thing manually and also any discounts you used to buy it and ugh it was terrible. For that kind of work I would need to be paid with cash rather than points.
Be forewarned that this requires an unbelieveable amount of time and effort. It's not as simple as scanning…for each item you have to refer to your receipt, enter the price for that item, answer a host of other questions about each item, etc. For me, it just wasn't worth the time, aggravation and stress. I sent the equipment back after several months. I don't know anyone who has this much time on their hands!
I tried signing up for the homescan panel, but it says my address is not recognized. That's my address! Any pointers?
Heather, I love the "Money4Mom" series! I've been trying to join Nielsen Homescan Panel for a few months – just nothing open in my zipcode yet. I'll keep trying though!Congrats on being chosen as a "Nielsen Power Mom"! That's awesome!~ ElizabethThe Thrifty Divas