Editorial Policy

Why we publish Survey Guide

A customer may receive a receipt with a survey address, code, expiry period, or reward printed on it. The receipt does not always explain every rule.

A promotion may also have a separate official rules page with age limits, entry dates, prize information, or restrictions that do not fit on the receipt itself.

Survey Guide brings those pieces together so a reader can understand what the survey requires and where current information should be confirmed.

We do not publish a page only because a keyword receives search traffic.

Where our information comes from

For facts that can change, we prefer information published by the company responsible for the survey or promotion.

An official survey page is normally the first place we check for a current survey address. For sweepstakes information, current official rules are normally the better source for opening dates, closing dates, entry limits, eligibility, and prize conditions.

Depending on the subject, we may check:

• the official customer survey website;
• the company's official website
• current promotion or sweepstakes rules;
• official terms and conditions
• privacy notices;
• official customer support pages and
• current information published by the company responsible for the program.

A third-party blog can point us toward something that needs checking. It is not proof by itself.

Facts that need extra checking

Some survey details decide whether a person can take part at all.

We pay closer attention to official survey URLs, receipt requirements, code requirements, entry periods, minimum ages, geographic restrictions, purchase requirements, entry limits, reward terms, and prize information.

Specific information gives readers something they can check.

How we deal with old information

Survey programs change. A URL that works in January may redirect later in the year. A retailer can close one sweepstakes period and start another.

An article can therefore become outdated even when the information was correct on the day it was published.

We review a page when we find evidence that something may have changed. That evidence may come from a new official rules page, an old survey URL that starts redirecting, or a reader who reports a problem.

A page date should change only when the page has actually been reviewed or materially edited.

We do not change dates simply to make old content appear new.

What happens when sources disagree

Current first-party information normally takes priority.

An old article may still show a reward that no longer appears on the live survey page. A cached result may contain an expired promotion period.

When these sources conflict with current official information, we normally use the current official source.

Sometimes the answer is not clear.

If we cannot confirm which information is current, we say that we could not confirm it. We do not invent the missing answer.

How we handle corrections

Mistakes can happen. Survey URLs change, dates can be copied incorrectly, and a new promotion can make an older explanation wrong.

Readers can report a possible error through our Contact page.

A useful correction request includes the SurveyGuide.us page URL, the statement that appears wrong, and a current official source when one is available.

We review the information before making a factual change.

Small spelling or formatting fixes may be made without a public correction note. A change to a deadline, official URL, prize amount, eligibility rule, or entry method may justify a visible update when the old information could mislead a reader.

Reader reports are leads, not proof

Readers sometimes notice a survey change before we do.

A message saying that a survey closed yesterday tells us what to investigate. It does not automatically become a verified fact in an article.

For an important correction, we try to find a current source that supports the reported change.

When information cannot be confirmed

Some current survey details cannot be confirmed from a reliable public source.

When that happens, we may leave the detail out or state that we could not verify it.

If an older article says a restaurant survey gives a free item but the current official survey page no longer mentions that reward, we should not continue presenting the free item as a current reward without evidence.

We do not replace a missing fact with a guess.

Who writes the content

Content on SurveyGuide.us should use truthful bylines.

If an article is published by the Survey Guide editorial team, the byline should identify the Survey Guide editorial team.

If a named writer appears on a page, that name should belong to the actual writer.

We do not create fictional employees or invent qualifications to make an article appear more authoritative.

We do not claim that a page was reviewed by a lawyer, company employee, sweepstakes administrator, or another specialist unless that review actually happened.

What firsthand checking means

There is a difference between visiting a survey page and completing the entire survey.

If we open an official survey page and confirm that it loads, we can say that the page was checked.

That does not mean we entered a valid receipt, answered every question, received a validation code, or received the advertised reward.

We do not claim those experiences unless they actually happened.

How we use writing and research tools

Survey Guide may use software during research, drafting, editing, grammar checks, formatting, or page production.

Software is not treated as evidence for a prize amount, official survey address, deadline, or eligibility rule.

Current survey URLs, eligibility rules, entry periods, reward conditions, and prizes should be checked against suitable sources when those sources are available.

If a tool produces a factual claim that we cannot verify, we should not publish the claim as confirmed information.

Survey Guide remains responsible for the final page.

What makes a Survey Guide article original

Repeating an official rules page is not enough.

Copying another survey website and changing the wording is not enough either.

A Survey Guide article should help a reader use the information.

That may mean explaining where a receipt code appears, separating receipt entry from a no-purchase entry method, showing exact dates in a table, or explaining why a survey code may fail.

A guide may also explain the difference between a guaranteed survey reward and entry into a random prize drawing.

If a page adds nothing useful for the reader, it should not be published in its current form.

We do not copy other publishers

We may read other pages during research.

We do not intend to copy paragraphs, tables, or article structure from another publisher and present that material as our own work.

When an official source contains the facts we need, we use those facts to write our own explanation.

Official survey links

A Survey Guide article may link directly to an official survey website.

We may also link to official company pages, promotion rules, terms, privacy notices, or customer support pages.

A link does not mean that the company sponsors or approves Survey Guide.

The company controls its own website. A survey URL can move or stop working after we publish a guide.

Readers can report broken official links through our Contact page.

Our relationship with the brands we cover

SurveyGuide.us is independent.

A company appears on this website because we have written about one of its customer survey programs.

That does not create an affiliation.

We do not claim to be the official customer support team for a retailer, restaurant, supermarket, or survey company.

Brand names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.

What Survey Guide cannot do for readers

We can explain public survey information.

We cannot see a customer's private survey response.

We cannot recover an account, replace a receipt, approve an invalid survey code, issue a prize, choose a winner, or change information held inside a retailer's system.

Readers with a personal account, purchase, reward, or survey submission problem should contact the company responsible for that program.

Survey rewards and sweepstakes

A survey reward and a sweepstakes prize are not always the same.

Some programs may give a validation code after the survey is completed. Another program may enter the participant into a random drawing.

Our article should explain which system applies when a current source confirms it.

We do not claim that completing a survey guarantees a sweepstakes win.

Official promotion rules control the sweepstakes.

Advertising

SurveyGuide.us may earn money from advertising.

Advertising helps pay for website hosting, research, technical maintenance, and publishing costs.

An advertiser does not decide what deadline we publish, whether a survey URL is official, or whether we correct an error.

Ads should remain visually separate from editorial content and site navigation.

We do not intentionally make an advertisement look like an official survey button, form control, or navigation item.

Sponsored content

If Survey Guide publishes paid material in the future, the commercial relationship should be disclosed on the relevant page.

Sponsored material should not appear to be independent editorial work when payment affected its publication.

If affiliate links are introduced, the relevant pages should disclose that relationship.

Advertisements do not replace the article

A page should still have a reason to exist if every advertisement is removed.

The reader should find publisher-created information that answers a real question.

A short page created mainly to display advertisements does not meet our publication standard.

Privacy and personal information

Survey Guide does not need a reader's password, full payment card number, bank account number, or Social Security number to correct an article.

Readers should not send sensitive personal information through our Contact page.

Privacy and data handling are covered separately in our Privacy Policy.

What we do not knowingly publish

We do not knowingly publish fake official survey addresses, invented prizes, fabricated winners, made-up eligibility requirements, or false promotion dates.

We do not create fake professional profiles to support an article.

We do not promise a guaranteed sweepstakes win when the promotion uses a drawing.

We do not intentionally send readers to an unrelated destination through a button labelled as an official survey.

How we review older articles

Not every page needs the same review schedule.

A page about an active sweepstakes ending next month can become outdated much faster than a general explanation of where a receipt survey code appears.

We pay closer attention to articles containing active dates, changing rewards, official survey URLs, eligibility conditions, or current entry methods.

We do not claim that every page is manually checked every day.

When we change an article

A page may be changed when an official source changes, a link stops working, a reader reports a verified error, or we find that an explanation is unclear.

A material update may include replacing an expired contest period, changing an official survey URL, correcting a reward, or removing a claim that can no longer be confirmed.

Editing one fact can require checking the rest of the article.

Our publication test

Before publishing a factual survey guide, we ask whether its main claims can be traced to real information.

If a material fact cannot be checked, the page should say so.

Why Survey Guide exists

Customer survey information can be scattered between a receipt, survey website, promotion rules page, and company support page.

Survey Guide puts the parts that matter to the reader into one understandable guide.

A customer who reaches the end of one of our pages should know what the official source says and what they need to do next.

Report an editorial problem

If you find an incorrect fact, expired promotion, broken survey URL, or outdated rule on SurveyGuide.us, contact us through:

Contact US