You've probably seen ads claiming you can make 1000s of dollars taking surveys or ads that claim you can make a living taking online surveys. Unfortunately, it's not possible. You can only earn a little extra money from taking surveys. Sites that make unrealistic claims about potential paid survey earnings are scams. They typically don't send paid surveys themselves but have a database of free-to-join paid surveys sites, which you can find in many places for free. The ones that do send surveys send out fake ones designed to collect your information for the purpose of spam. I recommend you use a separate email account when signing up for a paid survey site.

There are plenty of places on the internet that list online companies that pay you to take free surveys, so never pay for access to paid surveys. Real paid survey sites require you to sign up and give some information about yourself. The information is then used to decide what surveys you will take. When a survey is available, the survey company will send you an email with a link to the survey. When you get to the survey page, you'll be asked a few questions intended to check if you qualify for the survey. If you do not qualify, some survey companies enter you into their monthly sweepstakes. If you qualify for the survey, your account will be credited with real money or points, which can later be redeemed for cash or various prizes. If a survey site pays cash, they will send payment as soon as you have earned a certain minimum amount (usually $10 or more). Some survey sites place everyone into a sweepstakes and only a few members get compensated for their surveys.

There are a number of fake survey sites out there so if a paid survey requires you to complete a free trial offer during the survey, it's phony. These people make money when you complete their free trial and you get nothing in return. You can make money completing surveys like these and by completing free trials if you join a paid-to-complete-offers online company such as Treasure Trooper and Instant Profitz.

To maximize your earnings, I recommend joining as many paid survey sites as you can. Most survey companies send less than five surveys a month and you may not qualify for most of them, so the more survey sites you join the higher your potential earnings. Before joining a paid survey site it's always a good idea to do a little research. I recommend typing the name of the company and 'scam' into your favorite search engine to see if there have been any complaints.

Some paid survey sites I recommend include LightspeedPanel.com, which sends up to 10 surveys a month on various topics & EPoll.com, which generally sends two to three surveys a month about TV and famous people. You may not be able to make a fortune taking paid surveys but you can make a good amount of extra cash.