About this site

What this site is

G'day — I'm Tom. Tom's Survey Notes is an independent comparison and review site covering paid survey panels available to Australians. It exists because every "best paid surveys Australia" article on Google is auto-generated affiliate rubbish that just copies whatever the panels say about themselves, and I reckoned Aussies deserved better than that.

I spent weeks digging through each panel's terms of service, support docs, Trustpilot complaints, years of Reddit and Whirlpool threads, OzBargain discussions, and ATO guidance, and I put the lot in one place so you could see which panels are actually worth your time and which ones are a waste. Everything factual on this site is traceable back to publicly available sources, all listed on the sources page.

About "Tom"

"Tom" is a nickname. I'm a real Aussie who runs this site, but I've chosen to stay anonymous online. It's a privacy thing: I'm not a journalist, I don't have professional credentials in market research, and I'd rather not plaster my real name across a small affiliate review site. Using a pen name is pretty common for personal blogs and review sites, and I'm being upfront about it here so nobody feels misled.

What you should know is that the person behind the site is real, the research is real, and the opinions are mine.

About me (the site operator)

• I'm a current member of Octopus Group. I mention this because the site has a referral link to Octopus Group, and that's the only commercial interest I have in any panel on the site. I don't work for Octopus, I have no contract with them beyond being a regular member, and I'm not any kind of official representative.
• I'm not affiliated with any other panel mentioned on this site. I don't earn a single cent from PureProfile, Prolific, Toluna, YouGov, OpinionWorld AU, Swagbucks, AttaPoll, or anyone else I discuss.
• I'm not a journalist or accredited market research professional. This is an independent personal project, not professional journalism. Treat it accordingly.
• I'm not accepting unsolicited contact. There's no email address, contact form, or social media account tied to the site. It's a one-way info resource.

How I actually researched this site

My methodology was pretty simple and consistent across every page:

1. For factual claims about a panel (pay rates, cashout thresholds, eligibility, payout methods, terms of service): start with the panel's own documentation, then cross-reference against what members actually say to check for accuracy and currency.
2. For sentiment patterns and recurring complaints: Trustpilot Australia, ProductReview.com.au, and recurring discussion patterns on r/beermoneyAus, r/AusFinance, Whirlpool, and OzBargain.
3. For practical advice and tips: community best practices from Reddit and forum threads, plus the panels' own support docs.
4. For tax, legal, or regulatory questions: defer to ATO guidance or recommend talking to an actual professional. I'm not one.
5. For company verification: ABN Lookup for Aussie-registered companies; basic checks of corporate identity, physical presence, and history of operation.

The full source list — every URL I referenced — is on the sources page.

My editorial approach

• Sourced claims, not invented experience. Pay rates, panel mechanics, complaint patterns, and earnings ranges are all sourced from publicly available information. I'm a real Octopus Group member, but I don't make up specific first-person claims about earnings, payouts, or support interactions.
• Negative information is included. Trustpilot ratings, common complaints, account suspension patterns, screen-out frustrations — the unflattering bits are discussed honestly even for panels I recommend. Hiding them would defeat the whole point.
• No copy-paste from panel websites. Everything on this site is written in my own words. I link to panel websites but don't reproduce their content.
• Marketing claims are evaluated, not repeated. Claims like "earn $100/hour from surveys!" get explained in context (and usually dismantled), not parroted as fact.
• Errors get fixed. If I spot a factual error, or someone flags one through community channels, the affected page gets updated.

Affiliate disclosure (full version)

This site contains exactly one referral link, and it's to Octopus Group. It appears on the Octopus Group review page and is disclosed inline wherever it appears elsewhere on the site. Per Octopus Group's published Tell-a-Friend program (effective from 1 June 2023):

• I get $2 when a new member I referred completes their first qualifying Campaign survey
• I get another $1 for each of the next 23 qualifying Campaign surveys they complete
• Maximum I can earn per person referred: $25

You get no sign-up bonus from using my referral link. Your standard Octopus Group membership is identical whether you arrived via my link or signed up direct. The commission I earn is paid by Octopus Group out of their marketing budget — it's not deducted from your earnings.

If you'd rather skip the referral link, the direct URL is octopusgroup.com.au. I don't benefit from this disclosure or from your decision either way — I'd genuinely rather you sign up directly than feel weird about using my link.

I have no commercial relationship with PureProfile, Prolific, Toluna, YouGov, OpinionWorld AU, Swagbucks, AttaPoll, Pinecone Research, Branded Surveys, or any other panel mentioned on this site.

Privacy policy

This site collects absolutely nothing about you:

• No Google Analytics, no Facebook Pixel, no third-party tracking scripts of any kind
• No cookies (the site sets none)
• No JavaScript at all — every page is plain HTML and CSS
• No email signup forms, no popups, no newsletters
• No advertising (the only commercial element is the Octopus Group referral)

The site is hosted on Cloudflare, which has standard server logs like any web host. Nothing gets forwarded to me. If you visit this site, I know literally nothing about you. That's intentional — I'd rather have no data than any data.

Not financial, legal, or tax advice

Nothing on this site is financial, legal, or tax advice. The ATO stuff is general information from public guidance and may not apply to your specific situation. For personal financial or tax questions, talk to a qualified professional. I'm not an accountant, financial planner, or lawyer, and this site isn't a substitute for proper advice.

Independence

Tom's Survey Notes is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or partnered with Octopus Group, PureProfile, Prolific, Toluna, YouGov, OpinionWorld AU, Swagbucks, or any other survey panel, market research firm, or company. It's run independently by me (an anonymous Australian Octopus Group member) as a personal project. Any claims that this site is "official" anything, or affiliated with Octopus Group's corporate operations, are not true.

No published contact

I don't accept unsolicited contact. There's no email address, contact form, or social media account. If you spot a factual error and want to flag it, mention it in a Reddit or forum thread and I'll pick it up when I next check — I do sweep community channels for feedback periodically.

Last reviewed

This page and its sources were last reviewed in April 2026.