My Commonplace Book

Is making $100 productive enough for the day?

For 90 minutes of talking about and demonstrating how I search for health information on the Web, I was paid a hundred bucks. This wasn't a focus group, it was an individual interview. The interviewer was great -- she wasn't fazed by anything I said, and I say some pretty nonstandard things because I have different ideas about marketing than most people.

(I'll never forget the focus group on paper products where the interviewer asked what we think of when we see "New and Improved" on a package. Every single person in that room but me said they liked it, because it meant the product would be better. I said I hate seeing that, because usually it means either there's less of it or that they've made a random change just so they could raise the price. "I like my toilet paper the way it is," I told them. "I don't want it changed." Everyone looked at me like I had suddenly grown antennae on my head -- including the interviewer.)

( Description of today's interview )

Last time I mentioned a focus group, someone asked me how you get connected with them and I probably forgot to answer. (I love comments and very much appreciate them ... but despite my best intentions I don't always manage to get back to answer them.)

So here is the answer: Focus Forward is a national company that accepts enrollees from all over the country. There are two things to sign up for -- you can complete surveys online for $1 to $5, and/or you can register for in-person focus groups, phone interviews and product testing. I signed up for both, and they were the source of today's largesse.They ask for a lot of demographic info, but they need it in order to get appropriate subjects for their studies -- I can vouch for them being a legitimate market research company, not a front for spamming or sales.

The other two companies I've done focus groups for are local to the Baltimore area. One is House Market Research, but they never call me any more -- I don't know why, maybe they got turned off by my answer in that paper products study. They always tell you to be completely honest, and to give you opinion even if you don't like what they're presenting, but not all group leaders can deal with it.

The other is Baltimore Research, which I found just by googling market research maryland. I'm willing to travel a little to make $100 for a couple of hours of giving my opinions! (The last time I went there, a few weeks ago, I didn't even have to stay for the study! They always recruit a few more people than they need in case of no-shows, and the extras are dismissed but paid the full amount anyway, so I got a crisp $100 bill just for showing up!)

( Making the trip worthwhile )

Awwww, I didn't get to do the car study yesterday.

They always schedule more people than they need in case some don't show up, but this is only the second time I was dismissed. I wasn't happy about it -- this one seemed like it would be particularly interesting and I had been looking forward to it.

So I drove 50 miles, half of it in very heavy rush-hour traffic, and waited around for a half hour, only to find myself all dressed up with no place to go, as it were. But I can't say it was all for nothing. If you show up you get paid, whether they use you or not, so I got my $125 and used the time to do some shopping at the nearby Trader Joe's instead. I like Trader Joe's, and that's actually the nearest one right now, but they're building one about 5 miles away from me, and I'm eager for it to open (I think it's scheduled for November).

But I'm disappointed that I didn't get to show off my car or talk about what I like about it, or get comments on my collage (they took it, but I didn't get to talk about it). It was a tiny study -- five of us were in the waiting room, and only three were taken, two men and a woman.

I don't know how they choose the participants from among the people who show up, whether it's random selection or they choose which ones they want. While the other rejected woman and I were getting paid, though, someone came out and reported a problem. One of the men had to be removed -- either he was being loud and unpleasant or he had a relative who works for a car company, I couldn't tell which from the cryptic conversation. I can't see how it would be the latter, since they screen that pretty carefully on the phone when they qualify you for the study, so maybe he was being uncooperative and when they realized two outsiders were standing there they tried to put a good face on it.

But I don't know where I can break a $100 bill! I guess I'll just take it to the bank. The twenty and the five will be noooo problem.