** Distill Monitor no longer works for Prolific since the new site design **

What’s this? You can get alerts when there are studies available to you on Prolific?

Well, yes and no.  Unless you want to pay, you’ll only get alerts when your computer is on, browser is open, & you’re connected to the internet.  If that all sounds good to you, read on…

Using Distill Web Monitor to get survey alerts

Contents:

• Introduction
• Installing Distill
• Distill basics
• Monitoring pages
• Importing settings
• Finishing
• Notes
• Data to import

What’s this all about?

I discovered this handy little tool when I was browsing the Reddit Swagbucks page a few weeks ago. Since then, I’ve been playing around with it and, now that I’ve got it set up to work for me, I thought I’d share.

Once you’ve installed Distill on your browser, you can set it up to check webpages at certain intervals and get alerts. This is really handy for those who use Prolific, as it will reduce your need to check the studies page, since it will check for you.

Please read the “How to Guide” (PDF version) carefully as it will guide you through setting the monitor up and getting it to work for you.

You can also check out the Distill guides, where you can watch a video or read further instructions on how to set it up.

Please note: Distill has both free and premium services. I only use the free elements which are limited. With the free version, you cannot use the cloud, apps or get more than a certain amount of emails in a month. Personally, I find there is NO need to pay for anything extra, the free version is good enough.

If you’re not very tech savvy, you may want to ask a friend or family member to sit down with you to help you set it up.

Step 1: Finding Distill web monitor.

As I’m using Chrome, I searched for, and then selected, the link for the browser extension. 

Alternatively, click here to go straight to the download page for the Distill extensions.  It’s available for Chrome, Firefox & Opera.

Step 2: Adding Distill to your browser.

1. Click on “ADD TO CHROME”
   
   

2. Click “Add extension”
   
   

3. Wait for the extension to install.
   
   

4. Success!

   If you don’t get automatically redirected, click on the icon and select “Go to Watchlist”.
   
   

Step 3: Distill basics

1. Sign up & create an account. 

   You’ll need to do this if you want to receive email alerts.
   
   

2. You should have been redirected to this page – https://distill.io/help/gettingstarted/chrome?utm_source=install

   It has useful advice and a video on how to monitor pages so might be worth a look.
   

3. Go to your Watchlist.

   This is the page where you can manage the settings, for alerts, for any pages that you’re monitoring

   You can access the Watchlist at any time through the Distill button in your browser’s toolbar.
   
   

Step 4:  Adding pages to monitor

N.B. If you would like to import settings for Prolific & Swagbucks, please skip to Step 5 & come back here when you’re done.

1. Go to a page you’d like to monitor, and click on the Distill button in your browser toolbar.

   Select ”Monitor full page”

   Note: As an example, I’ve used the Prolific Studies page.  I’m logged in to Prolific, so the monitor will only alert me if there’s a study that I’m eligible for.
   

2. The monitor page will open up, and you can edit it to suit you.

   Source: Click “Disable Javascript”.  This will stop a new page opening up every time Distill checks for changes.

   Device: Don’t change anything here.  It should already be set to your browser.

   Name:  Change this to something you’ll remember or leave it if what’s already there is good enough.

   Schedule checks: Set how often you’d like Distill to check the page.
   
   

3. Actions: How will Distill alert you?  Choose the options you want.

   Note: You only get a set amount free emails a month so it’s best not to use them unless necessary.

   I use: notification popup, audio clip, & open page.
   
   

4. Conditions: Further personalise the monitor.

   In this example, I’ve set Distill so that it only alerts me for new studies if I’m not already doing one, and it won’t alert me when there are no studies.
   

5. Scroll down to the bottom and press SAVE
   

Step 5: Importing settings

Note: If you’ve already set up some monitors, this may not work.

1. If you’d like to import the monitors I’ve already created, copy these steps.

   On your Watchlist, click on the 3 lines shown.

   Then select “Import”
   
   

2. Copy the gobbledegook* at the end of this document and paste it in the white box.

   *it’s javascript but looks weird if you don’t know code.
   

3. Add any actions for the imported monitors.

   Once you’ve set these up to your satisfaction, click “Import”.
   
   

4. Once everything is imported, confirmed by it telling you it’s complete, click on “Back”.
   

   Back to Step 4

Step 6: Finishing off

You should see all the monitors that you imported.

Check that everything is how you want it and then go back to doing your normal stuff.  You should get an alert when there is a change.

Notes:

• Chrome or Firefox only
• Distill only works while you’re logged in to your computer, connected to the internet and have your browser open.
• Go to the Swagbucks Hourly Blog winner monitor.  Click the downward arrow next to it and select “Edit options”.  Change the conditions so it alerts you for your swagname.  This is the only one I have an email alert set up for.

Data to import:

Open this document.  Select all the code, copy and paste into the Distill import box.

DIstill import code <—- find the code here

 

 

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See next:

• Prolific Assistant Chrome plugin for being alerted to new studies
• My complete guide to Prolific
• Join our Facebook group for Swagbucks UK users.

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