How to Conduct Cheap Polls

eHow
April 26, 2011

The emergence of the Internet has created new possibilities for opinion polling. Researchers have access to a large, global population for sampling, and polls and surveys can be disseminated quickly and efficiently. A number of inexpensive Web sites provide advanced technology for generating polls and synthesizing results. Free Web-based polling interfaces may satisfy basic, small-scale polling needs, but offer limited features. More advanced polls exist for a fee, and pricing is typically based on the number of questions and respondents, and the availability of the resulting data.

Step 1
Explore Web sites that meet your polling needs. Zoomerang.com and SurveyMonkey.com offer free basic services and options to upgrade for a fee. KwikSurveys.com features unlimited questions and several download options for results at no charge. PollDaddy.com is a more costly but well-respected poll generator. A search engine inquiry will provide results for other poll generators as well.

Step 2
Design the poll. Include questions about demographic information if they are relevant to the research. Polling Web sites allow the creator to customize responses for each question, and some allow for randomization of the order of responses.

Step 3
Run a pilot for the poll. This exercise can help identify bugs in the Web site and problematic poll questions before the poll is fully launched. Some Web sites do not allow changes to the poll once responses are generated.

Step 4
Launch the poll. Many poll generators provide codes for embedding the poll on a Web site or blog. This option is likely to yield the most respondents because it is most convenient. Others require respondents to follow a link to a Web site. Some provide the creator the option to require a password to verify respondent identity.

Step 5
Collect the data. Some Web sites allow the creator to export results to an Excel spreadsheet, which can then be imported to data-processing software. Others may offer only a simple statistical analysis, like percentages for each response. It is helpful to know how the data will be processed before choosing a polling interface.

Warnings
Online polls are time-saving and cost-efficient, but don't always provide the greatest validity. There are several concerns about self-administered surveys and polls. There is no way to verify the identity of the respondent, and respondents may answer polls more than once, skewing results. Web surveys can rarely be used to represent the general public, since survey respondents have access to computers and the skills necessary to engage in a poll. Web surveys are best used in combination with more traditional polling methods, like interviews, telephone surveys and paper surveys, to expand the sample and improve reliability.

References
Pew Research Center: Internet Surveys

Resources
Online Journalism Review: Best Practices for Online Polls