Connect by CloudResearch Review
If you are looking for a way to earn some extra money online, you might have come across Connect by CloudResearch. This is a survey site that claims to pay you for sharing your opinions on various topics. But is it worth your time and effort? In this review, I will give you an honest and unbiased overview of Connect, its pros and cons, and how it compares to other survey sites.
Is Connect by CloudResearch legit?
It’s clear that Connect is not in the business of scamming people. Users are paid for their time and opinions, and they can withdraw their earnings via PayPal or Amazon gift cards. Moreover, users are not asked to provide any financial information such as credit card numbers or bank accounts, which reduces the risk of identity theft or fraud.
This makes Connect by CloudResearch a legitimate survey site, but it is not perfect. Users should be aware of the negative aspects highlighted in our review and be critical when redirected to third-party platforms offered through their portal. Connect can be a good way to earn some extra cash, but it is not a reliable or consistent source of income.
What is CloudResearch?
Connect by CloudResearch is a website that connects market researchers and participants in online studies. It is owned by Prime Research Solutions LLC, a company that was founded in 2016 and is based in Clarkston, MI, United States. According to Crunchbase.com, the company provides cloud-based research tools and services for academic and commercial researchers. According to SimilarWeb.com, Connect receives around 577,000 visitors per month and is most popular in countries such as the US. Some of the similar websites that offer online research platforms are mTurk, Prolific, and Respondent.
What’s the concept?
The site is owned by Prime Research Solutions LLC, a company that sells access to research participants to various clients, such as academic researchers, market researchers, or product testers. The site offers different gigs that users can apply for, but each gig has a very specific set of criteria that determines who will qualify for it. For example, some gigs may require users to be of a certain age, gender, location, income level, employment status, or occupation.
Based on our experience, we only qualified for 20% of the gigs that we applied for, which means that we had to spend a lot of time screening out of the ones that we did not qualify for. This is something that potential users should be aware of before signing up for Connect by CloudResearch. While the site is a legitimate way to earn some extra cash by taking surveys, it is not a very efficient or consistent one. We found the site to be friendly and easy to use, but also somewhat frustrating and disappointing due to the low qualification rate and the limited availability of gigs.
How much can I earn?
This survey site offers a variety of rewards for completing gigs, such as PayPal, bank transfer, and Amazon vouchers. You can choose the reward that suits you best and get paid when you reach $1 in your account. That’s right, you don’t have to wait for weeks or months to cash out your earnings.
However, before you sign up, you should know that Connect by CloudResearch is not a perfect survey site. The gigs are not always interesting or relevant to your profile, and sometimes they are full or closed before you can finish them. The site also has some technical issues that can affect your experience, such as slow loading or crashing pages. In our experience, the average compensation for a 10-minute survey is around $0.65, which is slightly higher than similar survey sites we have tested. However, it is still not very generous for the time and effort you put in.
So, if you decide to join Connect, be prepared to face some challenges and frustrations along the way. It is not a bad survey site, but it is not a great one either. You can make some money with it but don’t expect too much from it.
Researchers can grant an extra bonus to participants
What about my data?
One of the survey sites we evaluated is Connect by CloudResearch, which has a privacy policy of 2,789 words. According to our analysis, this would take an average reader about 14 minutes to read, and it has a Flesch reading ease score of 41. This means that the privacy policy is longer and more difficult to read than the average of the other survey sites we tested, which had 2,500 words and a Flesch score of 46.
While we understand that most people skip reading the privacy policy, we think it is still important to consider what you are agreeing to when you sign up for a survey site. For example, did you know that Connect by CloudResearch may share both your profile information and your survey answers with a wide range of third-party companies, without giving you much control over this process? This could have implications for your privacy and security and we recommend that you read the privacy policy carefully before joining.
Positives and negatives
Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of this platform.
On the positive side, the panel site has a low payout threshold of only $1, which means you can cash out your earnings quickly and conveniently. It also pays via PayPal, which is a secure and popular payment method. Moreover, you can choose to receive cash payments instead of gift cards or other rewards, which gives you more flexibility and control over your money.
Another advantage of Connect by CloudResearch is that it offers varied earning opportunities, such as surveys, studies, product testing, and more. You can choose the tasks that interest you and match your profile. The reward system is also transparent and fair, as you can see how much each task pays before you start it.
On the negative side, there are some drawbacks that may affect your experience and earnings. One of them is the infrequent survey invitations, which means you may not have many opportunities to earn money on a regular basis. Another issue is the repetitive profiling questions, which can be annoying and time-consuming.
You may have to answer the same questions over and over again before you qualify for a survey or a study. Additionally, some users have reported technical glitches, such as surveys not loading properly, errors in submitting answers, or payments not being processed correctly.