You have probably come across a site that instead of hiding their content behind a paywall, they instead hide it behind a Google Consumer Survey, which requires visitors to answer a survey question before users get access to the content.

Something new with the publisher program however, is a new option where a user can select “you can skip the survey for now and be prompted again next time”, something that definitely doesn’t appear on some larger websites using this program.    NY Daily Times, which has been using the surveys as a paywall for quite some time, don’t have an option for visitors to press a button and skip a survey, but do have an option to Like on Facebook or tweet instead.

When it was first announced Tuesday, it was restricted to US only, however it now has been updated to allow publishers from the US, UK and Canada only.  However, publishers in other countries can contact Google for more information.

The program was initially started back in 2012, although it was restricted to larger publishers.  At that time, publishers received $0.05 for every completed survey, an amount which is unchanged today, however some surveys can have a longer optional survey for which a publisher will receive $0.05 for every question answered.  Once a survey is completed, the user will have unrestricted access to the site for a set period of time.

To sign up, the program is linked to your Google AdSense account, so you need to have a valid AdSense account to participate.  They only request a bare minimum amount of information to apply, but it doesn’t seem that there is any waiting period, as the instructions say after agreeing to the publisher agreement, you can find the code, settings and reporting.  However, for the first 7-10 days, Google will have test surveys on the site to gauge whether the consumer surveys are meeting quality requirements, and publishers will not be paid for these test surveys.  But Google will work with the publisher to work to improve response quality.

There is a minimum requirement to stay in the program for publishers once accepted.  You will need to have a minimum 10% survey completion rate to remain active in the program.

The revenue share for publishers is pretty tiny at only 5 cents per survey, however the market rate for consumer surveys seems to be about 10 cents per survey.  It would have been nice to see the possibility of higher revenue for sites that tend to produce higher quality survey responses, since they are clearly tracking it.

For those interested in trying it out, you can find all the survey’s policies here , the AdSense publisher policies here and sign up for an account here.