A new service from Google offers digital publishers a new way to earn money, without trying to get consumers to pay directly for content. Voluntary short “microsurveys” offer consumers a way to access content free of charge, which providing marketers with useful data. Could this work on community and niche news sites?...

Google announced its Google Consumer Survey service at the end of March. Since then some publishers have been kicking the tires on it.

Some publishers have been field testing Google microsurveys Journalism.co.uk reported that over the last eight months of testing, the Texas Tribune is earning about $5,000 per month from this service.

How do these one-question surveys work? According to Google product manager Paul McDonald, “When a site has implemented this option, the user will see a prompt that offers a choice between answering a market research question or completing another action specified by the publisher (such as signing up for an account or purchasing access). All responses are completely anonymous—they aren’t tied to your identity or later used to target ads. Publishers get paid for hosting surveys.”

According to Journalism.co.uk, “Market research companies pay Google 10¢ a question and Google passes 5¢ of that on to the publisher.”

Does this sound familiar? A while back the journalism crowdfunding site Spot.us began offering community funded sponsorships where marketers create short surveys, and they pay Spot.us to offer those surveys to users. Spot.us users who opt to take those surveys earn $5 credit to help fund the story pitch of their choice.

“I hate to sound like that guy at the bar who says ‘that was my idea,’ as I cry into my whiskey because it’s not just about the idea/concept. It’s execution,” Spot.us founder David Cohn recently wrote. “And certainly anything Spot.Us (or really any startup) does can be executed at a grander scale by the big three (Twitter/Facebook/Google).”

Can the survey approach pay off? Cohn noted:

“Some people value money greatly and won’t spend it on journalism. For this large subset of society, the surveys are ideal. What we found on Spot.Us was that the number of folks who valued time over money (preferred to donate rather than take a survey) was below 1%, whereas when we offered a survey the number of people who engaged rose to be closer to 10%. Moreover, these people were more than willing to take new surveys as they came about. Some members of Spot.Us have taken every single survey we’ve ever offered. (With a sales force of one—this is not exorbitantly high—but still a positive indicator.)

“On a long enough time line an individual who took surveys was more valuable to the organization than an individual who donated hard cash. People who gave money on average gave $40 twice—separated by 60 days. So after 70 or so days I could say a donor was worth $80 to the organization. But in 160 days I couldn’t say they’d be worth more. A survey taker was worth $5 a pop, which means after 16 surveys they are just as valuable as a donor. Anything after that is gravy and perhaps a reason to shift gears.”

Want to try Google Consumer Surveys on your site? Complete the publisher signup form.

The News for Digital Journalists blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.