Need advice from DBAs regarding survey incentive.

Hi rrjegan

Thanks for your opinion.  Out of curiosity - are you a DBA?  If so, for what system?

You mentioned you would like to be included.  Do you know of any way that I can survey Experts-Exchange members?  I very much value this service and do not want to get in trouble by doing something that violates the terms.

Also, do you think $25 is enough for 15 minutes?  I don't want to offer too much because of the costs and the fear that people will try to take the survey just for the money.

WOW, I am blown away by the response!  I am torn between keeping the question open vs. awarding points to all who have contributed.  I will try to address everyone's comments below:

rrjegan17: Thank you for suggesting the General Community Zone.  I have never looked into that before and will do so now.  You hit the nail on the head - I need to find a way to only send survey links to valid recipients.

slightwv: Thank you for posting my question in the private thread.  It did not take very long for Netminder to respond :)  I realize that some people will "cheat" just to get the reward.  That is one of the reasons I was thinking Option C may be better than Option A.  The incentive will be tied to an email address and each address may only be used once.  I know this is not full-proof, but I do not want to publicize too much information on how we check for "cheaters".  Some will get through.  Personally, I also prefer Option 3.  The tricky part is that every country has different tax rules regarding prizes.  If someone from China wins, for instance, it could be very expensive to deal with shipping and import duties, etc.  Some countries do not allow sweepstakes.

Kdo: You raise very good points that we are working on.  Regarding point #1, we do plan to spend several thousand dollars on incentives.  The survey will be designed to close after a set number of completes so there is a cap to the incentives.

Netminder: You raised some very interesting ideas.  Is there any way for me to communicate with you directly and privately?  I have a couple of ideas regarding your points #1 and #2 that I would not want to disclose publicly.  Can you look up my email address and send me an email?  I promise not to take too much of your valuable time.

Thanks again everyone!!!  

Netminder, out of curiosity what timezone are you located in?  It would be great to get your feedback today or tomorrow.  

Also, is it OK to leave the post open after so many great comments?  Will experts be upset if they each get only 100 points or less?

I did say 'some might'!  I didn't say who those 'some' were....  ;)

Thank you everyone for all of your great advice!  I am intentionally leaving the thread open because you are giving me such great ideas.  I check the question twice a day.  Thanks again!!!

Thank you everyone for such great feedback.  I thought it was time to close this thread.  I may post a follow-up questions today based on some new information.