Pinecone Research Review – An Exclusive Survey Platform Reviewed
The search for trustworthy survey platforms ended with the discovery of Pinecone Research?
Maybe you have been invited exclusively to Pinecone Research through an invitation?
Or maybe you are still hesitating on whether to click on the invitation email sent to your inbox?
If you are thinking of giving Pinecone Research a try, then how about the tasks that you can potentially participate in?
How often can you receive the survey tasks?
Besides the survey, are there more ways to participate and earn?
More importantly, how much can you potentially earn with this platform?
Let us discover the answers together in this review.
What Is Pinecone Research?
I can still remember in the early years of 2000, market research companies utilized the yellow pages and phone calls to conduct surveys.
Fast forward 20 years, today, the majority of these companies are utilizing the power of the internet to gain valuable feedback and opinions.
One of them is none other than the big brother within the market research industry, Nielsen.
A company that manages Pinecone Research.
Pinecone Research is a pretty straightforward survey company that doesn’t play hide and seek.
It is a company that selectively chooses what audience and niche market for participation suitability.
Here are some of the measures it is adopting.
- The specific age group of people
- Specific demographic location
- Area of expertise
As a platform that is uniquely distinguishable from the rest of the crowds, Pinecone Research doesn’t allow everyone or random individuals to join.
Instead, you will need to be invited to be a part of the family.
The requirements for the invitation vary from one person to another due to many variables and metrics that Pinecone Research may consider, all for one ultimate purpose, which is to achieve the best interest of its advertisers and the company itself.
So, if you are thinking that anyone can just land on its website and signup, then, that’s incorrect!
In fact, Pinecone Research’s website doesn’t have a signup page at all.
Here’s what I mean.
As you can see, there’s no opening for new member registrations at the time of writing.
The only way to join is through a private invitation or by contacting them directly.
The strict requirement to join the platform is a good thing for the market research industry.
If you are a seasoned survey participant, then you surely know how little time one can have when participating in answering survey questionnaires.
Many people might go through all the available surveys quickly without giving the most valuable thoughts and opinions.
As a result, merchants can’t fully understand the real needs of consumers in a real-life situation.
So, I think that this company is implementing the whole concept correctly and brilliantly.
A little elaboration on Pinecone Research’s parent company, The Nielsen Corporation.
This is a company that has been in existence for almost a century, pioneering and bringing the market research industry to greater heights.
It is founded in Chicago and headquartered in New York City, The United States Of America.
So, if you have a chance to be invited and become a part of its data and analysis research, that will be a wonderful experience.
How Do You Earn With Pinecone Research?
There are two ways to play your part once you have been accepted into its awesome family.
Let’s identify each of them individually in detail so that you can get a clearer picture of how the participation works.
Survey participation
Offering survey tasks is the primary reason Pinecone Research existed.
Those who are accepted can log in to the member’s dashboard to locate all the available survey tasks.
Survey availability is highly dependant on demographics, type of audiences, as well as the advertisers’ requirements.
Do take note that even if you have been accepted to participate, there’s a strict rule that only one person can represent the entire household to participate in any specific surveys.
In my opinion. I think this rule is to ensure the best quality opinions so that advertisers can proceed to innovate and enhance their products and services.
Quality always triumphs over quantity, it’s a relatively powerful implementation.
So, how much can you potentially earn per completed survey?
Well, Pinecone Research pays you $3 for every survey that you participated.
Depending on which country you live in, you can choose to receive the payment in the United States Dollar or the British Pound.
It also offers other means of redeeming your earning as well in the form of rewards. (I will elaborate more on this in just a moment.)
One sweet thing worth mentioning here is that this company has a dedicated mobile app available on Google’s Android phones and Apple’s IOS phones.
So, I highly recommend you download and install the app.
It eases your job as a participant knowing that you can participate wherever you go.
Also, it’s much more convenient to look for all the available surveys directly from your mobile phone.
Next, let’s proceed to the second method to earn with Pinecone Research.
Products testing
Before you signup to be a unique member, Pinecone Research does give you a hint that you have the privilege to test pre-launched products.
Yeah, you heard that right, my friends.
Let’s take a look below.
As you can see, you have all the opportunities to test new products before they are introduced to the mass market.
Wow, what a privilege right?
What types of products will I be testing?
Well, that’s a good question!
It depends on the needs of various merchants and advertisers.
The world is growing at so high pace that merchants and manufacturers around the world are creating new products to enhance human life.
Product creation has become a part of the world we live in, that’s the truth.
The products that you could potentially test can be physical or consumable.
Don’t get me wrong here with the term “consumable products”.
By all means, I didn’t mean products such as health supplements.
Rather, it’s more like products that can be consumed externally so that consumers will replenish and rebuy products for the short and long terms.
That’s how the big companies earn their big bucks with high level of customer retention.
One example can be shampoo or conditioner.
As for the physical product, it’s relatively self-explanatory.
Let me illustrate an example so that you can get a clearer picture.
Scuba diving is a great hobby and passion for many people.
Underwater exploration is getting highly popular around the world, and I’m sure many companies within this distinctive niche market will be leveraging this popularity.
One good product example is the underwater camera.
So, product creators may come up with an innovative underwater camera that is much more affordable without compromising on the quality.
Now, this is the moment you can play your unique role by testing the product extensively.
Your valuable feedback opinions do matter.
They matter to a huge extent.
For example, you can feedback on pressure durability, lighting clarity, design, ease of use, lens suitability, and more.
So, you get the idea right?
That’s why every member will receive different products to test based on demographics, area of interest, expertise so on and so forth.
That’s one of the brilliant ways to identify a quality candidate for product testing.
How much can you earn for testing products?
Is it also $3?
No, you will not be compensated with $3 for testing products.
You will be compensated with much higher rewards for your time and effort in providing valuable feedback.
For example, a merchant may allow you to keep the tested product.
The company may also assign you for future similar product testing for a specific niche market.
Besides, you can have an awesome feeling of being the very first customer to test a product before it’s mass manufactured and introduced.
Depending on the specific merchants, sometimes, you may be required to return a tested product.
So, it all depends on the needs of the advertisers who are associated with Pinecone Research.
Sometimes, with the sole decretion of the merchants, you may be compensated monetarily as well for testing products.
How Do You Get Paid?
Now, here’s the part that excites many people.
Pinecone Research is one of the best market research companies that take care of its participants.
As soon as you completed one single survey, you will be eligible to request for payout.
The minimum withdrawal threshold is $3 which is exactly the amount you will earn for completing one entire survey.
As a participant, you can choose to withdraw your earning in numerous ways.
Let’s identify each of them individually.
Before I proceed, Pinecone Research adopts a point accumulation system within its compensation structure.
Every time you completed a survey, you will be rewarded with 300 points instantly which is also equivalent to $3.
Now, let’s proceed to the various withdrawal options.
PayPal
Withdrawing survey earnings to PayPal account is one of the most likable methods for many survey participants.
Pinecone Research knows that and that’s why you have the option to withdraw all your earnings directly to your registered PayPal account.
The withdrawable amount depends on how many surveys you have completed.
The beauty part of receiving earnings to your PayPal account is that there will be no processing fees involved.
So, you get to keep all your hard-earned points, no strings attached.
Physical check
Yeah, you heard that right, my friends!
Pinecone Research offers an old-school way to receive your earnings through physical checks sent to your house’s mailbox.
Do note that it may take up to 15 days for the check to be delivered to your mailbox.
Here’s an example of the $5 value redeemable earning.
Gift cards
You can also withdraw your earnings through various gift cards.
This withdrawal method is one of the most common within the survey and GPT industry.
Let’s take a look at the examples below.
You may need to accumulate more points to redeem higher value gift cards.
So, it’s highly recommended that you check for survey availability from time to time.
The more surveys you can complete, the more points you can earn.
How Good Is Pinecone Research?
By now, I think we know precisely that Pinecone Research is a top-notch survey platform.
Even though not everyone is qualified to be on board, but then those who are with Pinecone Research are selectively chosen.
Meaning that quality control is there and is playing its role in ensuring the best result for the market research industry.
In this section, let’s head to the Trustpilot website to identify happy and unhappy members’ feedback.
First and foremost, let’s take a look at Pinecone Research’s overall rating.
As you can see, it’s only 2.4.
What happened?
I will pick a few to show here and you certainly can check out the rest of the feedback when you have the time.
Let’s begin with the happy members, shall we?
This happy member has been around with Pinecone Research for a long time.
He or she averagely earns approximately $100 in a year with 3 surveys available in a month.
Not bad for a long time supporter of Pinecone Research.
Though, $100 in a year is relatively low but then that’s the reality with paid survey compensation.
Here’s another positive comment from a happy member.
This member is happy about timely payment. Apart from minor flaws, it’s all good.
Next, let’s proceed to identify unhappy feedback.
Here’s one example.
This member complained about the unfairness that exists within Pinecone Research.
The good old days of earning good points with Pinecone Research were gone.
On top of that, he or she has been removed completely from Pinecone Research’s system with the reasoning of criteria irrelevance.
So…
That’s a relatively sad scenario.
Let’s take a look at another unhappiness scenario before we proceed to the next part.
This scenario shows us that returning tested product punctually is a defining factor of getting compensated or otherwise.
So, do take note of this to all the potential product testers.
The Pros – What I like About Pinecone Research
- It’s a legitimate market research company
- Offers an acceptable rate of $3 for survey participation
- Offers an opportunity to contribute to the market research industry
- Low withdrawal threshold
The Cons – What I Dislike About Pinecone Research
- Not everyone will be accepted
- Limited numbers of surveys
- Unattractive overall rating on Trustpilot (there are many unhappy members)
My Final Thoughts
Pinecone Research isn’t a platform that promises the luxury of traveling to the moon.
For this reason alone, we can know that earning with this platform can be very limited.
This is the truth with all the survey platforms but Pinecone Research took it one step further by choosing its members selectively.
If you are one of those who are invited to join, I highly recommend you to participate in all the available surveys.
After all, the number of surveys can be very limited as well.
According to one of the feedback we discussed earlier, there are only 3 surveys for you in the entire month.
So, if you are fortunate and keen to continue to be a part of the Pinecone Research community, monetary rewards should be ditched completely from your mindset.
Instead, you will be participating for the sake of contribution to the market research industry.
It’s more appropriate to think like this rather than the monetary part to avoid big disappointments.
Now, if you ask me, David, are there much better alternatives to earn money online?
Well, the answer is yes, there are.
I highly suggest you check out my Freecash review, it’s a detailed article on everything about the platform, specifically the earning parts.
Freecash is arguably one of the best rewarding platforms in the world.
It’s phenomenal in every aspect, and more importantly, there are plethoras of ways to earn coins that are redeemable for lots of rewards including cash withdrawals.
Additionally, I also encourage you to check out my PrizeRebel review.
It’s also my top recommendation when it comes to generating extra income online.
You can participate in various tasks such as surveys to kickstart your earning journey.
So, I hope you found value in this article.
If you still have any questions related to Pinecone Research, feel free to leave me comments below.
Are you an existing or previous member of Pinecone Research, I would love to hear your experiences, simply leave them in the comment box below.