If you want to track respondents without using SurveyMonkey's email, use the Web Link option. This is an anonymous collection method through your own email client, so you must customize the end of the URL with an ID for each respondent.

  Part 1: 

The anonymous Web Link collector looks something like:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=v8MbvURxoHkWfvud7Or3Cg_3d_3d

  Part 2: 

To customize them, create a unique ID ending for each respondent by adding "&c=" at the end of the link followed by the ID number.

EX: &c=00001

NOTE:  There are limits based on the length of a URL and the characters you can use. It can only be around 250 characters. Please take this into consideration when customizing links with IDs.

What characters can I use in the custom ending?

Please note the following:

Accepted Characters:

• Alpha-numeric characters (letters A/a through Z/z)
• Numbers (0-9)
• Dashes (-)
• Underscores (_)

Characters Not Accepted:

• Extra spaces
• Extra forward slashes
• Other characters like the following will break the link:
• Pound signs (#)
• Percents (%),
• Apostrophe (" or ')
• Ampersand (&)
• Etc.

How to Create Unique IDs:

Step 1. Create a database: 

Create your own database of names and assign the IDs to each potential respondent. Next, take those IDs and append them to the end of the link.

Let's say you do something like:

• Bob = 00001
• Janis = 00002
• Joe = 00003
• Mary = 00004

Step 2. Create each unique link with the appropriate ID ending:

Create a unique link for each person. These must be emailed separately to each respondent through your own email provider (Hotmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.).

• In Bob's email you will send a link like: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=v8MbvURxoHkWfvud7Or3Cg_3d_3d&c=00001

• In Janis's email you will send her own link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=v8MbvURxoHkWfvud7Or3Cg_3d_3d&c=00002

• In Joe's email you will send his own link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=v8MbvURxoHkWfvud7Or3Cg_3d_3d&c=00003

And so on....

Step 3. Where to View Custom IDs:

When these results come back on the survey, that custom ID of "00001" appears in the Custom Value field in the Analyze > Browse Responses section.

The ID number will be located on the top of each individual response as you scroll through them. 

Here you can track who it is according to your separate database. Basically, match up the number to the name. You are responsible for creating and customizing these links on your end. We do not offer additional support to customize these for you.