A Comparison of Different Online Sampling Approaches for Generating National Samples

Online (internet) surveys provide a new and evolving method for measuring public opinion on a local, national, and international level. Compared to traditional survey approaches (e.g., face-to-face, mail, and telephone surveys), online surveys offer the advantages of speed, efficiency, and lower costs in data collection (see Dillman, Smyth, & Christian, 2008). To serve both consumer marketing and academic interests, various commercial venders now provide the technical means to collect online survey data from the general public and specific subgroups. However, an important question about these commercial sources for conducting survey research is the extent to which they provide representative samples of their targeted populations.