Although the company has its headquarters in Toronto, Canada, it also maintains an official presence in cities like New York and London.<\/p>\n
This is a firm that specializes in market research and has operations in more than 19 countries around the world. The brand is known to conjure up innovative surveys that are also highly consumer friendly.<\/p>\n
Just to give you an idea on how innovative this company is, it ranks number one when it comes to spending the most amount of money to update its research methodologies and bring further revolutions in the same.<\/p>\n
The firm is a member of some of the most important and globally recognized marketing research associations such as AMA (American Marketing Association)<\/a>.<\/p>\n As for the companies standing with the Better Business Bureau, it gets a B- rating on a scale of A+ to F. There were a total of 6 complaints against the site in the last 3 years or so, but it is not clear if these are complaints from panel members or companies they conduct studies for.<\/p>\n Either way, it’s not a big deal, since even the biggest and best companies will encounter few complaints from unhappy customers here and there.<\/p>\n Hotspex has a unique name for all its members; \u2018Innovators\u2019. What impressed me though was that the site was open to everyone. This means that regardless of which country you stay in, you can join this panel. This is in stark contrast to many other popular survey websites.<\/p>\n You can sign up with Hotspex by clicking on the \u201cSign Up Now!\u201d tab present on the main page. You\u2019ll be asked to enter some demographic info and after doing that, remember to confirm the email ID you provided during the sign-up. You\u2019ll receive an email from Carly@myhotspex.com to which you need to respond.<\/p>\n It might well be a few weeks before you start receiving survey invites. The site normally sends me 1-2 survey invitations per week but there have also been instances where I didn\u2019t receive anything for almost weeks on end.<\/p>\n So, if you do not receive any invites for some time, don\u2019t let that disappoint you as the site is indeed quite sporadic with its invites.<\/p>\n You are able to view your survey invites (mostly the \u2018fun\u2019 ones, whose explanation you can find below) on the main page. Your BUX balance too is displayed at the very top.<\/p>\n There are two ways in which you can take Hotspex surveys. You can either take them through email invites or you can pick them up from the “Survey List”, which can be found in the main page once you login.<\/p>\n However, these surveys listed on the site are not the same as the ones you receive via email. These are, as the site calls them, “fun” surveys that pay almost nothing (10 minutes of your time equals just about 1-5 BUX).<\/p>\n Because of their time hogging nature and almost negligible pay, I avoided taking these fun surveys. Instead, I\u2019d advise that you are better off waiting for surveys through email invitations as they are much more valuable.<\/p>\n A typical survey invite will carry information on the survey\u2019s title\/topic, the number of BUX you get on completing the survey, the duration of the survey<\/a> and if you\u2019ll be provided with any incentive in case you do not qualify for the main survey.<\/p>\n There are also the \u201cimpact on new products\u201d rating and the \u201cfun\u201d rating and frankly speaking, I can\u2019t make out the difference between the two.<\/p>\n I found their surveys to be pretty simple and organized. I didn\u2019t have any technical issues to speak of either. Before any survey, you are put through a minor questionnaire to gauge your suitability for that survey.<\/p>\n If you qualify for the same, you are directed towards another page where a confidentiality agreement awaits you. For signing it, you need to enter your name. After that you are taken to the survey\u2019s main questions, which are quite self-explanatory.<\/p>\n The site also has a \u201cSpin the Wheel\u201d game that comes up right in the middle of your surveys, which gives you a chance of winning an iPod Touch or even more BUX.<\/p>\n Once the survey ends, you can leave feedback on your opinion of the survey. The rating screen look something like this:<\/p>\n The panel also conducts monthly sweepstakes where you are entered in after finishing a survey.<\/p>\n If you want to check the surveys you\u2019ve taken till now, hit the \u201cMy Profile\u201d tab located at the top of your homepage. This will cause a drop-down menu to open up and here you need to click on the \u201cMy Surveys\u201d option. Each and every survey you\u2019ve taken till now is arranged by the date you took it, the amount you earned in the process, and the topic of the survey.<\/p>\n Their mode of payment is through \u2018BUX\u2019, which by now you must have guessed is the site\u2019s own version of redeemable points. You receive BUX points as compensation for answering surveys.<\/p>\n You can exchange your accumulated BUX through what is known as Prize XChange. With this, you get the option to exchange your BUX for various rewards.<\/p>\n And although majority of these prizes involve redeeming BUX for entries into sweepstakes, the other prizes are all expensive and top of the line stuff. Some examples of the same include cameras, camcorders, iPod Touches, and even video gaming systems.<\/p>\n Personally speaking, I\u2019ve never bothered with these kinds of sweepstakes as I\u2019ve never won anything with them. I doubt I\u2019ll do so in future and as such, would prefer saving up my precious BUX for bank payments, which is also something that this XChange system offers.<\/p>\n Known as Bank XChange, here you can opt for a PayPal credit or gift cards from Amazon.com in return for your BUX. To be able to access Bank XChange, you should have completed at least 5 surveys; doing so gives you VIP member status as well.<\/p>\n This is a praiseworthy move by the site as it didn\u2019t even have such a payment system a year or two ago. Bank XChange is also one of the reasons why I have started taking surveys with them. As for the waiting period, your payment normally reflects in about 1-2 weeks.<\/p>\n The site also has another feature known as the \u201cHotPot\u201d. You can chip in with a certain amount of your BUX to this pot in return for entries to a sort of sweepstakes, where you can win 10,000 or even more BUX. A lucky winner, selected at every month\u2019s end, stands to take home one half of this money.<\/p>\n As for the other half, it\u2019s given to any charity that the winner chooses. Again, I refrain from participating in this while preferring instead to hold on to my BUX for Bank XChange.<\/p>\n Also, you can only order payments worth $50 a month. Additionally, this has to be a combination of PayPal funds as well as Amazon Gift Cards.<\/p>\n So, in case you order $40 worth of payments via PayPal<\/a>, you can order an Amazon Gift Card worth $10 in the same month. I haven\u2019t seen this methodology used in other survey sites and hence, can\u2019t see the reason behind it. However, this doesn\u2019t bother me much as I don\u2019t make more than $50 per month from this site anyway.<\/p>\n 100 BUX are also waiting for you in case you successfully refer a person to the Hotspex. In order to do so, navigate to the \u201cRefer a friend\u201d page and write your friend a personal message with the simple tool provided.<\/p>\n Once your friend signs-up and completes his\/her first survey, your account is credited with 100 BUX.<\/p>\n![\"Hotspex](\"http:\/\/surveysatrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Hotspex-Logo.jpg\" "\\"Hotspex"){kind=logo}
Getting Started as a Panelist<\/h2>\nTaking Surveys<\/h2>\n
![\"Hotspex](\"http:\/\/surveysatrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Hotspex-survey-review.jpg\" "\\"Hotspex")
<\/p>\nRewards<\/h2>\n
![\"Rewards](\"http:\/\/surveysatrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Rewards-Options.jpg\" "\\"Lots")
Referring Friends<\/h2>\nMy Review of Hotspex<\/h2>\n