Having once worked for a Consumer Research firm, I thought I might offer some insight to those with frustrating questions. No I do not work for NPDOR. What I say may be off the mark. -But as a user of the sweepland site and a NPDOR poll taker, I too had questions. Lots of questions.

So to start off, yes, the company that collects the data in question potentially makes a LOT of money from your data. Personally, I don’t mind putting in my two cents, as I really do want to tell companies what I think of their (usually) lame constructs. . so to me the fact that I COULD win something is kinda a side thing. I wasn’t too impressed with that aspect because as I said- I used to be the guy asking the questions, so to speak.

As another user noted they never tell you any true numerical data on how many entrants there are per drawing, nor how many on the site as a whole, nor what your true odds are for winning. This isn’t “lazy” of them- it’s deliberate. They are selling you on the survey taking on the hope that you might get something out of it. As outsiders it always seems like maybe 10,000 or 20,000 that are using the site.. people have trouble picturing larger numbers for anything really.. well, let’s say that is probably not right.. likely in the 50-80 thousand range. This does include a lot of 40+ yr old ladies in Canada.. as well as in the US, and about 3% of their users are from elsewhere in the world.. this ain’t a little drawing for a cake at your local church. There are about 14 sites linking to Sweepland, upping the possibilities on new users substantially. And that truly is their bread and butter.

The clients want a wide range of new users.. NPDOR is severely imbalanced in their demography.. mostly those over 40, and mostly females from the US. So really they are only going to to send out just so many for those in the standard age groups. Also, they likely don’t send out surveys that won’t fit you demographically based on your info. So if you’re wondering “why aren’t I getting many surveys?” -Boom, there’s your answer, your demographic is full. More than likely that or your surveys are not turning out valuable info. If you aren’t a big time consumer, or under 40.. you might be getting a slightly low flow in correspondence from NPDOR. Not your fault bro/sis.

The Sweepland instant win game… is quite frankly, a funny, and badly written flash file. I have been observing this as a person who loves statistics, for quite a while (3 years).. and the results are usually the same: “Oh I got 20 points again!! Wow.. that’s exactly what I always get..” -Sorry, that’s not even close to how a random game of chance is supposed to work. This actually shows that they do not depend on much repeat traffic, or they would mix it up a bit with some depth to their algorithms.

As far as the drawings.. I have to say even their own data is fishy. I have seen in their list of winners the same name for different prizes on a number of occasions, within short periods of time. Baring in mind what the consensus here tends toward.. this seems highly unlikely- and more likely to indicate some type of breach in ethics.. not necessarily on the part of the site.. but again highly suspicious.

So in summation, I will keep at it, however I will never expect to win. Like the lottery, this is an incredibly unlikely thing to win. And in that they control all the information on the statistics, one can only say- why not be honest with the users? It does portend to a dark meaning somewhere. More than likely, they are having issues of some type.. either with their clients pulling out on sponsored prizes, real issues not delivering on the needed demographics, or perhaps something more nefarious.

Good luck guys!

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