Articles

We are excited to share a few articles we have seen about Field Agent around the web! If you have an article or review you think should be here, let us know at pr@fieldagent.net.

iPhone App Pays Shoppers for Perspective

By: Kyle Leyenberger

June 26, 2013

A fast growing Fayetteville company is giving shoppers a chance to make cash while walking the aisles.

"We were literally the first app in iTunes that paid cash," says Field Agent CEO Rick West.

Field Agent started in 2010 with a couple employees, but over the last six months the Fayetteville tech company has more than doubled in size.

"This is a very special economy here," West says. "There are people from all over the world servicing Walmart, and they bring the best and the brightest in."

Field Agent turns your iPhone into a retail research tool.

"Many of the supplier teams are coming to us asking. 'Help us be the eyes and ears inside of those stores to tell us what's going on," he says.

And for your perspective, you'll be rewarded with cold hard cash.

"There's nothing more satisfying than to go to a store, a Best Buy or to Walmart to go make a purchase, and realize that you can make five or ten dollars while you're there," West says.

Once a shopper is signed up, it's as simple as checking for nearby jobs.

"It could be as simple as taking a photo of a display, or asking you to do a shopping activity," he says. "Tell us what it's like inside of a store and give us your perspectives about a display or a certain product."

But with hundreds of thousands of agents in the field, users have to act fast.

"When you think of someone working five or ten minutes to get paid five or ten dollars, those jobs go pretty quick," West says. "We have 250,000 agents and we probably have 15-20,000 jobs during a week, and so it's really first person that can get there."

As his company continues to grow, West hopes to add more opportunities.

"I would love to say that we have hundreds of thousands of jobs," he says. "That's really our goal, to make that happen."

To learn more about the company, visit this site.

Retailing Today

Walmart Supplier News 2013

“Walmart Supplier News worked with the Field Agent organization to formulate and execute the surveyed featured in this issue.

Field Agent is an innovative organization that leverages the power of crowdsourcing and mobile technology to gather unconventional business insights.  The Fayetteville, Ark. – based company’s proprietary mobile research tool is designed to provide data and insights quickly, efficiently and accurately across a spectrum of shopper segments during all phases of their path to purchase through to the in-home product usage phase.

The company relies on a network of more than [284,000] people equipped with smartphones who are known as field agents.  For purposes of the “Canadian Retail Study,” 300 field agents who were identified as mass market shoppers participated in the survey, which was completed via their smartphones on Feb. 27, just weeks before Target opened its first stores in Toronto as part of a 2013 expansion program that calls for 124 new stores.”

An App That Pays

By Eric A. Taub

Most smartphone apps come in two varieties: those you pay for and those that are free. Now here’s one that pays you to use it. Field Agent App for iPhone Field Agent allows users to sign up to do tasks, like checking the price of a product in a store, in exchange for small payments.

Field Agent, for the iPhone, presents users with a list of jobs in one’s area that companies need completed. If you’re interested in doing one, you sign up and are then given two hours to do it.

Before you get too excited, these “jobs” won’t make you rich (which is why I put the word in quotes). In most cases, they’re not even worth doing unless you find yourself in or near the location. Typically you’ll get around $2 for such tasks as checking the price of a product in a store, or taking a picture of a product on a shelf.

Who would pay money to do that? According to Kelly Miller, one of the app’s co-creators, various companies want to know that their products are being displayed properly or are being priced according to what the retailer promised.

The app just started last weekend, so the jobs offered at Field Agent are pretty slim pickings. Entering my ZIP code brought up five, from 21 to 56 miles away. All had the same task: go into the local Wal-Mart and find the price of a 1.5-liter bottle of Listerine Cool Mint and report back. At $2 a shot, I wouldn’t be doing any of them. Even if I could operate my car for 10 cents a mile, it would be a losing proposition.

Field Agent makes money by taking a piece of the action. For example, it charges businesses $3 for that $2 job, keeping the difference. If someone wants an iPhone picture of a product, that will cost them $6, with a higher fee paid to the job taker.

Mr. Miller says that 400 people have downloaded the app since its Saturday introduction, and 3,600 jobs are available around the country. The most popular job so far: spending 10 minutes on the couch, listening to and rating music. That survey got snapped up right away, he said. With enough couch potato jobs like that, users can make around $12 an hour, about 50 percent more than the minimum wage. 

Field Agent for iPhone pays you to do chores

By Josh Lowensohn

Getting paid to do small tasks has worked out well for Amazon and its Mechanical Turk service. And a new iPhone app called Field Agent is attempting to get similar results using Apple's iPhone.

The service, which is free to use, distributes small chores through a free iPhone app. As the task doer, you can see what jobs are the closest, or just the highest paying. In my test with it, all of these were pricing surveys that required venturing to a local Wal-Mart store to find out the price of bottle of mouthwash. It's not always like that though. Depending on who is doling out the tasks, you could be doing something a little more stimulating, like filling out a survey or double-checking information on a Web site.

For these menial tasks, agents (as they're called), can get paid anywhere from $2 to $8--an amount that is designated by where the job is and what it entails. For instance, taking a photo of something can jack the base price of a task up from $2 to $6.

Once the deed has been done, agents get the money piped into a PayPal account within 48 hours. The client can then leave feedback for the agent's performance. If they did the task, they get a point; and if they didn't they lose a point. Once a user moves up the ranks of other agents, they can then claim a job before people with a lower score.

As for who the clients are, you never actually find out--something that may be troubling for some people. On the flip side, you're only ever doing monetary transactions with Field Agent, which keeps things simple, and arguably more secure.

The one real turnoff to this service at the moment is the lack of jobs--at least in the three different geographical areas I tried. That, and if there were a lot of jobs, you can't sort them by what they entail--like jobs that require you to leave the house, or take photos. Given a larger selection though, and maybe some more inventive uses of the iPhone hardware for job completion, this could be a nice way to earn a buck or two while running errands.

(Josh Lowensohn writes about Web start-ups, video games, multimedia tools, and the occasional robot. He joined CNET in 2006, and posts to the Web Crawler and Webware blogs. E-mail Josh, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Josh) 

iPhone Users Can Make Money from Groundbreaking App

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark., PRNewswire

Field Agent launched Saturday on Apple's App Store. What is Field Agent? It's an app that begins with a Client (who needs information) creating a job requesting specific information via the www.fieldagent.net website. Field Agent then reviews and broadcasts a request to Agents, (iPhone users in the field) who have installed the Field Agent App. Agents use their iPhones to collect and return information and get paid for the service. Payments can range from $2 to $8, depending on the job's degree of difficulty.

"Now more than ever, companies are looking for ways to efficiently gain field intelligence on products and services," said Kelly Miller, co-founder of Field Agent. "In an economy where unemployment is near record levels, it's rewarding to be part of an idea that can create income for thousands of people.

"Most jobs are in everyday locations where Agents live. Information requested by Clients might include: retail pricing and display information, event images, photos of items for sale and consumer surveys that can be completed anywhere an iPhone can be used. Field Agent uses the built-in tools of the iPhone to provide accurate and relevant information that is transmitted back to Clients. Agent history, GPS location, time and date stamps and photo confirmations are all ways to ensure data is returned to Clients accurately with verification.

"What's more, Clients and Agents will help us refine the many uses we've not even thought of," said Miller. "We see a lot of potential with this app, where Clients will help us identify new solutions where Agents can play a key role in delivering data." According to Miller, Field Agent is designed to have thousands of Agents ready to gather information and offer feedback on products and services at a moment's notice. That is a powerful business tool!

Field Agent Field Agent is a joint venture between Mill Creek Software and NorthStar Partnering Group, based in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Agents should visit the Apple App Store to download the free Field Agent App. Clients and Agents can visit www.fieldagent.net for more details on how create and deliver jobs. 

What’s your mission? iPhone App Pays You to be a Field Agent

By Fabrizio Pilato

Field Agent App for the iPhone This could be opening up a whole new wave of jobs for iPhone owners across the country. Field Agent is a new app that allows a “client” (someone who needs some type of information), to connect with a “field agent” (someone with an iPhone who can provide you with information). It’s an interesting concept, Field Agent allows for the collection and return of information for a fee to the Client. They say Field Agents can earn anywhere from $2 to $8, depending on the job’s difficulty.

Companies may be looking for retail pricing or display information, perhaps some photos of an event, post the job and a Field Agent with an iPhone will be on their way. I’m not all convinced about the practicality of this app. Will someone actually pay you to find out if Foldgers Columbian Whole Bean Coffee has a sales sticker on the bag? I don’t really know. My other concern is the quality of the image or video would not be anything close to spectacular, but if all you want to know about is a sale sticker on a bag of coffee, it may do just fine. It’s an interesting concept and will be something to watch to see who ends up using it and exactly how. Clients will recieve an agents history, GPS location, time and date stampes and photo confirmations, this is to ensure accurace and satisfaction. I could see its use for Mobile Magazine, anyone find an iPhone 4G on the floor in a bar? Send us your pictures.

The question is, what type of field work would you be doing with your iPhone? Are you a Client or Field Agent? You could find your niche job and offer your servers to people around the country, allowing them to pay you for your Field Agent work, but that’s another scenario all together. Not to be confused with the Field Agent Fingerprint App that allows you to identify your “friends” in a made-up FBI database of information. 

Apple News | iPhone Users Can Make Money From an App

Field Agent was launched Saturday on Apple's App Store. What is Field Agent? It's an app that begins with a Client (who needs information) creating a job requesting specific information via its website. Field Agent then reviews and broadcasts a request to Agents, (iPhone users in the field) who have installed the free Field Agent App. Agents use their iPhones to collect and return information and get paid for the service. Payments can range from $2 to $8, depending on the job's degree of difficulty.

"Now more than ever, companies are looking for ways to efficiently gain field intelligence on products and services," said Kelly Miller, Co-Founder of Field Agent. "In an economy where unemployment is near record levels, it's rewarding to be part of an idea that can create income for thousands of people."

Most jobs are in everyday locations where Agents live. Information requested by Clients might include: retail pricing and display information, event images, photos of items for sale and consumer surveys that can be completed anywhere an iPhone can be used. Field Agent uses the built-in tools of the iPhone to provide accurate and relevant information that is transmitted back to Clients. Agent history, GPS location, time and date stamps and photo confirmations are all ways to ensure data is returned to Clients accurately with verification.

"What's more, Clients and Agents will help us refine the many uses we've not even thought of," said Miller. "We see a lot of potential with this app, where Clients will help us identify new solutions where Field Agents can play a key role in delivering data". According to Miller, Field Agent is designed to have thousands of Agents ready to gather information and offer feedback on products and services at a moment's notice. That is a powerful business tool!

Field Agent is a system that connects people who need information with people who can provide it. It begins by someone requesting specific information via their website. They broadcast the request to people in the field, who they call Agents. The Agents use a mobile device to return the needed info and end up getting paid for it. 

Field Agent: an iPhone App that Pays You

By BGR 

Field Agent is an Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL) iPhone app that pays you to do simple tasks, like take a survey or check a price. It’s not much, but just the same. Field Agent has clients across the US that need information from places people like you—no life, no job—go to every day, like your local supermarket or (gasp) Wal*Mart (queue Darth Vader March).

Basically, once you sign up, the Field Agent app pays you to report specific pieces of information and return it to them via its iPhone App. Pecuniary compensation (my favorite Veblenian term) increases with the complexity of an assignment. Tasks that require pictures be taken from a cell phone pay more, for example.

Many of the online reviews seem positive with beer money made in no time at places not out of one’s way.

E.g. ✭✭✭✭✭ – I’ve had my iPhone 3GS since Oct/09 and this is my first review. Downloaded this app out of curiosity/cynicism. Quick easy sign-up right on the iPhone (just answer four easy questions). They pay cash through PayPal within 48hrs. of verifying your submited info. I finished 4 jobs in less than 30 mins. Two were reviews of artist, one on iTunes the other was a MySpace artist page review, the third was a quick Q&A about surveys and the last was a quick price check at my local Wal-Mart. Total time invested less than 20 mins. Earnings $7.40 to be applied to my PayPal account within 48hrs. I hope they come out with jobs on a consistant bases. Could this be the next big thing. I’m on board, this is easy and fun.

Field Agent Allows Folks to Make Money with Their iPhone

By Dusan Belic 

A new cool application has hit Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s AppStore during the weekend. It’s called Field Agent and it’s a joint venture project between Mill Creek Software and NorthStar Partnering Group, based in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The app’s main pitch is that it helps iPhone users make money. Here’s how it works: First, there is a server component at www.fieldagent.net that is visited by clients and agents. There, they post local job requirements, which are then shown in the Field Agent iPhone app. It’s that easy and we like it! Bare in mind that we’re talking about simple information gathering tasks, that are usually paid between $2 and $8. Among the jobs listed in the press release are retail pricing and display information check, event images, photos of items for sale, and consumer surveys that can be completed anywhere an iPhone can be used.

In addition to the answer provided, Field Agent for iPhone also transmits some other information back to clients such as agent history, GPS location, time and date stamps and photo confirmations — all of this are used for verification purposes. As I said, I like the idea and I’m looking forward to see some early figures – whether people and companies actually use Field Agent and what are the benefits.