Mostly I am a requestor, but I completed some HITs to learn what workers do. Usually I do a survey without submitting it.
I think more requesters should do their own hits, especially new ones. They need to gauge the time these surveys take so they can be more accurate in their estimates. They can also learn what "Time allotted" and "Duration" mean. I have gotten emails from requesters that were unaware that this was a deadline, not an estimate of completion until I pointed it out. 7 minutes is too short for a survey that takes 5-7 minutes. One or two slow page loads and you've missed it!
I did 7 hits for $7.55 on my first day as a turker back in April. If I hadn't made that a least that much, I think I would have given up. Yesterday's stats: Nov 13, 2013 12 8 0 4 $31.95