Opinion Outpost

Opinion Outpost Review

Opinion Outpost is one of the largest survey communities in the US, offering virtual points which can be redeemed through PayPal and Amazon. The main task you can earn money on is taking surveys, although you might occasionally get invited to other types of surveys, such as product testing and online focus groups. The panel is only available through a browser (no app support) and is owned by the market research data provider Dynata, based out of Dallas. 

Opinion Outpost background

The Opinion Outpost panel was originally created in 2005 by the Utah-based market research provider Western Watts, using an original western-theme for its website design. 

Screenshot from Archive.org, showing the OpinionOutpost website in 2005 when the brand was created by Western Watts.

Western Watts, headquartered in Orem, Utah, was later rebranded to Opinionology and merged with Survey Sampling International (SSI) in 2011. SSI was later rebranded Dynata, which the company is known as now. Since 2005 the panel site has come a long way, featuring a modern, sleek design and several engaging features for members, such as multiple rewards levels.

Quick registration process

OpinionOutpost is available in major countries around the world, such as the US and the UK. The registration process is really quick, requiring email, name, address, postcode, age, and gender to sign up. You also need to confirm your email account before you can get started taking surveys. After the registration process, you are prompted to fill out your member profile, answering questions about things you own and activities you participate in. By filling out your profile, OpinionOutpost will be able to match you with paid surveys. So even if it’s a pain to answer all the questions, it’s worth it for the long term. Also, make sure you fill out all the questions honestly and consistently. If they spot strange answer combinations which do not make sense, they have the right to suspend your account.

Is my data safe with Dynata?

OpinionOutpost’s main purpose is to obtain data from you as a user, which can then be sold to buyers of market research data. Luckily, the owner of Opinion Outpost, Dynata, is a legit and serious company that will treat all your data properly. At the same time, it’s important to be mindful of the data you submit. E.g., if you don’t feel comfortable sharing details of your medical history, you shouldn’t do that. It’s perfectly fine to reject certain survey topics; they won’t kick you out because of that. All the data you submit on OpinionOutpost should only be used for market research purposes. For example, your email address cannot be sold to another company for you to be spammed by email offers.  

Low redemption threshold, but average incentives

Dynata’s panel communities are usually not the best-paying survey sites, and Opinion Outpost is no exception. Payment per survey will range from $0.20 to $3.00, but most survey opportunities will earn you $1 or less. This places OpinionOutpost among many other survey sites offering similar amounts. The positive aspect is that you only need to accumulate points worth $5 to redeem a gift card. While plenty of sneaky survey sites require as much as $20 to redeem your first reward, Opinion Outpost has made it relatively easy to get your first reward. Good on them for that. They’ve also made an effort to make the survey experience more engaging for the user by creating multiple rewards levels: 

• Silver
• Gold
• Platinum
• Diamond

You’ll move up the levels by consistently taking surveys over time and potentially earning higher rewards. This is similar to classic loyalty program schemes offered by airlines. While we applaud the efforts to make an elaborate member scheme like this, we favour more straightforward member programs. Becoming a Diamond member on a survey site will probably never have the same ring as becoming a Diamond member of an airline… From our perspective, this is overkill and only makes it more difficult for the user to figure out how much they’re actually going to earn. In our opinion, the survey payment should be as transparent and simple as possible for the user.

Lack of information 

Transparency is always high on our agenda when we review survey sites. What we hate the most are survey communities which give the impression that it’s really simple to earn money and then make it extremely difficult to redeem your reward once you’ve taken a few surveys. Opinion Outpost is not the worst in class when it comes to promising the world on the front page, but there is a distinct lack of information. 

Where is the information about redemption levels? What about explaining how the different levels work? Without going to an external review site such as HuginX, there’s no way a user will be able to assess the earning opportunity by simply looking at the website. This is not good enough. 

The real reason why many companies, such as Dynata, are restrictive in displaying information linked to reward levels or rewards value is that these values can be changed on short notice. The panel company decides how much their virtual points are worth, and if they need to save costs, they can increase the number of virtual points required to redeem. Or increase the minimum redemption level. This is not unique to Dynata’s panels but works similarly across the industry. It’s bad for the users, though, as it makes it almost impossible to predict how much you’ll be able to earn from a specific site.