How CrowdVille works
Come già accennato in opening of the post, CrowdVille is a crowdsourced testing platform that allows companies to test products and services through the opinions of users: this means that, after registering for the service and entering all the information relating to your profile (residential address, equipment, knowledge and skills , preferred payment method, etc.), you have the opportunity to try products and services in preview in order to receive compensation for your testing activity (activity during which you have to report any bugs found and, often, fill out questionnaires to provide a detailed account of their experience).
To test products and services, one must adhere to CrowdVille campaign, which can be found in the section Campaign> Future of the site, in the section Crowd News di Otium (the social network integrated into CrowdVille) or, in many cases, in the emails that are automatically delivered to subscribers to the service.
Would you like to have some practical examples of the campaigns available on CrowdVille? I'll settle you immediately: at the time of writing, the campaign is available TV Series Challenge - First episode which allows you to win 5 Amazon vouchers worth £ 45 by giving a vote to your favorite TV series and filling out the appropriate questionnaires. Another campaign that appeared on the platform is the one called The Greatest Journey, which allows you to be rewarded - and reimbursed - for traveling. In short: there really is everything!
Once you have carefully read all the necessary requirements when running a campaign, have verified that you have all useful tools upon its completion (in some cases, specific devices may be needed, e.g. smartphones or tablets equipped with certain operating systems or specific models of set-top boxes) and having consulted the list with the actions that can be done or not done, you must send your membership request by pressing the appropriate button on the campaign page itself. In some cases, the campaigns foresee a limited number of participants and therefore the compilation of a prestaffing form, in order to send your application.
Once the campaign has started, you must follow the procedure provided by it and, if all the steps are carried out correctly, you will receive compensation for your work. If the rewards provided for by the campaign are in cash, these are paid through PayPal, TransferWise o Bank transfer, based on your preferences and the data provided in the section Become a Crowder of your profile.
During the testing activity, it is possible to get in touch with other crowders, ask for information and exchange opinions using Otium, the social network included in CrowdVille (whose operation is quite similar to that of Facebook, I'll tell you more about it in a dedicated chapter of this tutorial).
Requirements for using CrowdVille
The requirements to participate in CrowdVille campaigns may vary from case to case. Either way, you must definitely have some free time to be dedicated to the testing of products and services (which must be thorough and not superficial), a good supply of technological devices (computer, smartphone, tablet etc.) and you have to use a web browser between Chrome or Firefox.
Other useful tools for the activity of crowder are the ones for the making screenshots and computer screen recording. In fact, in many campaigns the creation of screenshots and videos is foreseen to prove that certain operations have been carried out, or to report bugs found during the use of apps or services.
If you don't know what tools to use to take screenshots on your computer, take a look at my tutorials on how to take screenshots on your PC and how to photograph the Mac screen. computer, consult the guide I dedicated to the topic.
How to register with CrowdVille
If you want to subscribe to CrowdVille, the first step you need to take is to connect to the official website of the service, place the mouse pointer on the button SUBSCRIBE (located at the bottom) and click on one of the two buttons that appear on the screen: Subscribe to register via email or Facebook to register with your Facebook profile.
Subsequently, in the case of registration via Facebook, you must consent to the connection of CrowdVille to your social account. In the case of registration via email, however, you must fill out the form that is proposed to you with all the required information: name, last name, email address, date of birth, country of residence, Password to be used to access the service (to be repeated in the field Confirm password), Nickname (which will identify you in the CrowdVille community) e security code.
Then put the check mark next to the item I accept the Terms & Conditions and Privacy and Cookie Policy and presses the button Subscribe to create your account. Finally, to validate the newly created profile, open your e-mail box, select the message you received from CrowdVille and click on the link click here contained in the latter and then access the site with the data you chose during registration.
Complete the profile
After signing up for CrowdVille, to actively participate in the campaigns available on the site and start earning, you must complete your personal profile by entering all the required information in it.
Then connect to the CrowdVille main page, log in to your account (if necessary) and click on the item Profile located at the top right. You will be shown a screen with the general overview of your profile, then with the list of bugs reported and accepted, questionnaires reported and accepted, the amount of pending gain (to be collected) and del total gain performed on CrowdVille. To complete the profile, click on the entry Complete your profile placed under the icon oflittle man.
On the page that opens, select the tab Generali and make sure that all your personal data (name, last name, e-mail, date of birth e nickname) are indicated correctly, otherwise modify them or enter them in the appropriate text fields. By clicking, instead, on the icon of thelittle man at the top left, you can set the photo to use as yours profilo's photo.
At this point, move to the tab Become a crowder and fill out the form that is proposed to you with all the required information: name, last name, gender of belonging, telephone number, residence information (country, province, city and address) e birth information (country, province and city). The section deserves a separate chapter Payment information, where you have to enter yours fiscal Code and the details of the payment method you want to use to receive payments from CrowdVille, then the address of the PayPal account or data of Bank account (holder, IBAN and Swift). Then remember to click on the item Upload identity document (bottom right) to upload your valid ID. If you have activated a CrowdVille prepaid MasterCard card, you can enter the data in the appropriate fields also located at the bottom right. Once everything is complete, press the button Save to save the information.
Another very important section of the profile is the one dedicated to the equipment and services available. In fact, it is on the basis of one's own devices and services that one can be selected and participate in certain campaigns.
To enter all the details related to your hardware and software equipment on CrowdVille, select the tab allocations on the profile page and fill in the fields that are proposed to you indicating mobile devices, mobile telephone operator, provider servizi video entertainment (e.g. video streaming services), provider servizi music entertainment (e.g. music streaming services), banking service provider, internet service provider e other electronic devices you have, then click on the button Save to save the information.
In conclusion, move to the tab Knowledge and skills and fill in the fields related to your knowledge and skills, then school or university frequented, degree or diploma achieved, company name you work for, task carried out within the latter and yours skills in the professional field. Again, to save the information, you have to click on the button Save.
If you have filled in all the fields and done it correctly, a progress bar will appear next to your profile photo telling you that you have completed your profile at 100%.
How to participate in CrowdVille campaigns
After completing your profile, you are ready to join your first CrowdVille campaign! As already pointed out above, campaigns can arrive directly via email, they can be found in the section Campaigns CrowdVille (by selecting the Future of the latter) or can be consulted through the section Crowd News by Otium, the CrowdVille social network.
To give you a practical example, I'll tell you about the campaign Test campaign, which is aimed at new crowders, to allow them to become familiar with the functioning of CrowdVille (as easily understood, without any gain in economic terms). To participate in the CrowdVille trial campaign, connected to the home page of the site, log in to your account (if necessary) and click on the item Campaigns which is located at the top right.
At this point, go to the tab Future, select Test campaign , move the mouse cursor over the button Participate (located at the bottom of the page) and click on the item first Read it and then on the button I accept the contract to read the campaign contract and officially join the campaign.
You will then be able to access all accepted contracts on CrowdVille by clicking on the icon v located at the top right, by selecting the item Settings from the menu that opens and then going up Documents.
As already mentioned above, some campaigns are limited and, to join them, it is not enough to click on the acceptance button: you must first fill in the prestaffing questionnaires to be sent to CrowdVille for acceptance. In these cases, you will find all the instructions to follow for sending your application directly on the campaign presentation page.
Another important thing to know is that every campaign has one start and end date. Even after clicking on the contract acceptance button, you will have to wait for its official departure date to participate in the campaign. The same thing goes for the campaign: to complete your work you will have until the last date indicated in the campaign (in the left sidebar or under its cover image).
Once you have signed up for a campaign, you just have to go to the section Campaigns CrowdVille, click on the tab Participate and select the campaign you are participating in. A page will open with all the instructions to follow: in the case of the CrowdVille test campaign, it involves completing the profile, inserting a screenshot of your profile page, reporting a bug in the campaign (entered voluntarily by CrowdVille staff), appear in the Otium group "Your first campaign in Crowdville" and fill out a final questionnaire. For other campaigns, this may involve installing apps, subscribing to online services, reporting bugs encountered while using them and / or filling in questionnaires.
The form of each campaign is divided into various sections: the initial one which contains all the instructions to follow; that To do with some specific operations to perform (eg filling in a questionnaire); that Additional instructions with, if necessary, additional instructions to follow for completing the campaign and those Actions allowed e Actions not allowed in which, instead, some actions that can be carried out or that are prohibited within the campaign are listed (eg. "the tests must be done under the Wi-Fi network" or "actions that have the aim of violating website security "). Finally, there is often a field through which it is possible to attach screenshot o desktop video: I'll tell you more about it shortly.
Once you have completed a campaign, you can view it (along with all those you have already completed) by going to the section Campaigns CrowdVille and selecting the tab Pass from the latter.
Fill in the questionnaires
Many campaigns involve filling in questionnaires. To fill out a questionnaire, all you have to do is access the page of the campaign you are participating in, move to the section To do of the latter and click on the button Fill out the questionnaire, making sure you have completed any preliminary steps required to complete it (for example, you may be asked to fill out a questionnaire only after trying an app or service).
On the page that opens, answer the questions that are asked of you by placing the check mark next to the available answers or by filling in the appropriate text fields and, to conclude, click on the button Submit which is located at the bottom. Instead of the "Fill in the questionnaire" button, the button will appear on the campaign page Thank you for completing the questionnaire.
To find out if a questionnaire has been accepted or not, simply consult the CrowdVille notifications list by clicking on the Wake-up calls located at the top right of all pages of the site.
Attach screenshots and videos
Some campaigns involve sending screenshot o video to prove that you have performed certain operations (e.g. completed the profile page, in the case of the CrowdVille trial campaign). Attaching screenshots and videos is an operation of disarming simplicity: now I'll explain how to do it.
After connecting to a campaign page, scroll down to the campaign page and you will find a button named Choose file: click on it, select an image or a video to upload to the campaign and press the button Submit to complete the upload.
If you want to attach multiple files at a time, after selecting the first image or video to upload to the campaign, click on the button +1 and select the second file. Proceed, accordingly, with all the screenshots and videos you want to upload and press the button Submit to start uploading.
Report bugs
La bug report it plays a very important role in CrowdVille campaigns and often leads to the earning of money or coupons to spend in stores or other online services.
Before reporting a bug found in an application or a service tested for CrowdVille, make sure it is reproducible: that is, try to make it reappear several times. Also, make sure it hasn't already been reported by other crowders. To find out about all the bugs reported by the participants in a campaign, select the campaign in question and go to the tab Feedback which is located at the top left.
If the bug you have detected (and verified several times) has not yet been reported on CrowdVille, open the campaign page referenced by the service or app you are testing, then click on the tab New report and fill out the form that is proposed to you.
Then type a title you want to assign to the report (e.g. video error), provide a Description details of the bug and indicates i steps to reproduce it. Then indicate the level of reproducibility of the bug by selecting an option between always, some time, random o impossible to reproduce in the appropriate drop-down menu, enter the date you took the test and use the buttons Choose file e +1 located on the right to attach images, videos or Excel / PDF documents to support your report. Finally, press the button Save and send to forward your report to CrowdVille staff (who will verify it as soon as possible).
Later, you can check if your report has been accepted or rejected by CrowdVille by returning to the tab Feedback of the campaign and filtering the reports based on your name. If you have any doubts or disputes, you can get in touch with CrowdVille support by sending an email to [email protected].
Request payments
After completing a campaign, you can claim your compensation by going to the section Earnings CrowdVille (by selecting the appropriate item located at the top right), by selecting the tab Matured e clicking on your button Request related to the campaign you participated in.
Once the payment request has been submitted, you will have to wait for it to be accounted for (usually monthly, in some cases every two months) and for a payment receipt to be provided to you.
By moving to the tab In progress, you can accept payment receipts and choose the payment method that best suits your needs. Please take into account that PayPal applies a commission of approximately 7,7% of the compensation to be received (after the exchange made from the pound sterling to the euro), TransferWise instead it applies a fee of 2 euros out of a maximum amount of 400 euros.
If you want to avoid commissions, you can activate the CrowdVille prepaid MasterCard card and receive your payments on the latter. To request the CrowdVille prepaid card, connect to the section Profile of the site and click on the button Click here found at the bottom of the card description. To continue, you will need to have sufficient credit to collect.
Request refunds
Participation in some campaigns requires the payment of sums of money (eg subscription to a service to be tested), which are then reimbursed by CrowdVille. You can manage your refunds by going to the section Earnings of the site and selecting the tab Refund request. In the event that a refund is declined (often because a refund is requested in euros instead of sterling for campaigns that included a refund in pounds), you can contact CrowdVille support at [email protected].
Consult the rankings
Each month, CrowdVille draws one ranking of the most active crowders, i.e. users who participated in the largest number of campaigns and reported the largest number of bugs. To consult the current ranking, connected to the CrowdVille main page, log in to your account (if necessary) and click on the item Standings which is located at the top right.
If you invite your friends and challenge them in campaigns, you will have special rankings for your challenges, accessible through the section Friends of the page dedicated to the rankings (below).
Peace come usare
CrowdVille offers a real social networks, through which to get in touch with other crowders, receive support about the conduct of campaigns, answer quizzes, surveys, share photos, videos, music and much more. His name is Otium and you can access it by visiting this link or by connecting to CrowdVille and clicking on the item Otium which is located at the top right.
The operation of Otium is not very different from that of Facebook, and even its interface closely recalls that of the most famous social network in the world: in the top right, in fact, there are icons relating to notifications, private messages e personal profile, while further down there is the navigation menu to quickly access the various sections of the platform (Home to return to the main page of Otium, People to search among the people registered on the social network, Blog to read the latest news from the CrowdVille world, Crowd News with news on upcoming campaigns, Groups with discussion groups linked to the various campaigns, Progetto business to return to CrowdVille e Other to access all other sections of the site, such as Gallery, Video, Quiz, Polls etc.).
In the left sidebar there are links to the Profile and to all the main sections of Otium: showcase, notifications, Message, friends, private events, groups, blog etc., in the center the timeline with the box to create new posts and all the content posted by your friends (and from the official CrowdVille profile), while in the right sidebar there are boxes with people currently online (Who’s online), the People You May Know and popular blogs.
To add a person to your friends, all you have to do is visit their profile and click on the button Add friend located at the top right. To send a message, however, you have to press the button Send Message. To join the discussion groups dedicated to CrowdVille campaigns, select the tab Groups at the top, then the name of the group related to the campaign of your interest and publish a new post using the appropriate box (or comment on an existing post).
To stay up to date on the campaigns coming to CrowdVille, click on the tab Crowd news which is at the top and read all the news published in this section of the social network. To return to the CrowdVille home page, instead, click on the tab Progetto business che si trova in alto. Facile, see?
Otium is also available as an application for Android and iOS. Its operation is similar to what has just been seen for the Web version of the social network. You just have to download the app from the store of your device and log in with the username and password chosen during registration on the computer.
Earn money with affiliations
As already mentioned at the beginning of the post, CrowdVille also allows you to earn through affiliations, that is, by having your friends subscribe to the service. The affiliation mechanism is very simple: you invite a friend to join CrowdVille through Twitter, e-mail o friend code (to be included in the registration phase), you register him for the service and you get a fee equal to 5% of his earnings. At the same time, you can challenge your friends in CrowdVille campaigns and get a special ranking.
To invite a friend to join CrowdVille, connected to the main page of the service, log in to your account (if necessary) and click on the item Affiliations located at the top right. On the page that opens, click on the button Facebook to publish a post on Facebook in which to invite your friends to join CrowdVille, on the button Twitter to post a tweet through which to invite your followers to join the crowder community or on the button Send by email to send a specific invitation by email.
Alternatively, you can click on the button Click & copy link to copy to the clipboard the link to have a person subscribe to CrowdVille with your friend code or copy the friend code that you find at the bottom of the page to communicate it to a person to be enrolled in CrowdVille.
In case of dubbi or problem
If at this point of the tutorial you still have some doubts about how CrowdVille works, I strongly invite you to consult this page of Otium, inside there are exhaustive video tutorials on how to sign up for campaigns, get paid, use tools to record your screen, take screenshots, and more.
If, on the other hand, your doubts concern a specific campaign, connected to Otium, select the tab Groups located at the top and look for the group dedicated to the campaign you would like more information on. At this point, publish a new post indicating your doubts about the campaign and the crowder community will surely provide you with the answers you are looking for.
Article produced in collaboration with CrowdVille.
CrowdVille: what it is and how it works
