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Background: My business is surveying individuals about their particular career, repackaging this information and publishing it. I have used many tools to acquire these surveys including MTURK and I have partnered with colleges and universities with good success. I have also offered contests, giveaways and have even paid users for their survey.

My problem is the majority of the surveys I receive now are from entry level careers that do not pay more than $50,000. This is because college grads on average start at $36,000/year and the majority of workers on MTURK do not earn a lot of money elsewhere. (Why would you do mundane tasks for hours and for pennies if you feel financially sound?)

In order to expand my business and my offering I need these higher earning careers. My user base primarily consists of users that are in the before mentioned demographic so offering incentives to them does not solve the problem.

I am willing to pay decent money for these surveys... up to $10 if I can target specific careers. I would probably even go higher knowing they were legitimate.

Any ideas on how to get these individuals interested?

Anybody with experience advertising directly on LinkedIN? Specifically, would you give me 5-10 minutes of your time for a $10 gift card?

Thanks for the help!

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I know you are calling it "decent money" but what you are proposing is not. You will have to offer substantially more money (say $50). Better yet, you need to find something more valuable than cash to offer. Without knowing your space I can't say what that is but I can tell you the characteristics. It needs to be something highly sought after (like ten bucks is not), or something exclusively available by cooperating with you (like backstage passes, as it were). Another thing you might deliver would be clout or status among a group they care about. In this case, you really must be able to deliver it and it must really matter to them.

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Hi Kenneth, thanks for the input! I see what you are saying. Quite honestly, I would be willing to pay $50 or something similar if I can real narrow down and target the surveyee. The more targeted, the faster I can turn my investment around. For instance, if I am approaching Software Programmers... I can say that a $3000 investment would provide 60 surveys and I can make a profit after X. – Tyler May 8 '11 at 16:30
I suppose my question is... how do I get there? I am tempted to try advertising on LinkedIn. Anyone with any experience? – Tyler May 8 '11 at 16:36

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