As somebody who has spent the last 2 years doing online surveys, I have come to notice a few things wrong with most of the current online survey models. The behavior of my affiliates and visitors to my online survey review website (http://www.extra-income-ideas.com/paid-to-survey.html) also gives me unique perspective in the industry.

I know for me some of the things wrong with the current online survey model have reduced the number of surveys I currently take. I have no doubt it's discouraging a lot of the people that came online to take surveys as a way of making extra money.

I believe the current model is causing a lot of attrition in the business. This needs to be reversed if online paid survey companies want to continue to thrive. Making these changes will help reduce the turnover of survey takers.

Below are the things I feel need to be changed:

1. The current model of taking surveys for a chance to win prices should be changed. This model makes online paid to surveys look like a lottery or gamble. It's frustrating for people looking to make extra income to have to rely on luck to make that income.

A person that signs up for online get paid to surveys to help pay a kid's karate or piano lesson can not depend on luck to pay the bill. He/She wants to be able to know that at the end of the month, the money will be there to pay the bill.

What happens is that after a few months of taking online paid to survey for a chance to win money or price and not winning anything, they think online paid to survey is a scam. They stop taking the surveys and start looking for other ways to make extra money.

What I recommend is a model that guarantees every survey taker some money or price. If an online survey company is going to give a luck winner out of all survey takers $10000.00, why not use a model that guarantees every survey taker some money or price.

For example, the survey company could use 400 people in the survey and pay every survey taker $25.00. A sample size of 400 people is enough to get the answer you're looking for in the survey.

Like one internet guru said, “if I find out what 100 people think, I can takeover the world.” So a sample size of 400 people is more than enough to get the information needed.

2. Online paid to survey companies should reduce the number of qualifying surveys. For those new to the business, a qualifying survey is the survey they give you to see if you qualify for a survey they're conducting.

Even though most online survey companies make you fill out a profile when you register with them, they still send you a qualifying survey. Granted there are surveys that require this, I don't thin it should be done in each and every survey.

I have a survey company that regularly sends me qualifying survey about buying computer system for the company I work for. They have my profile that shows my background yet they constantly send me this qualifying survey.

The qualifying survey will ask if I'm the CIO of the company I work for. My answer is always No. Then they further ask, are you in charge of buying the computer system where you work. My answer again is always No. Then I get “sorry you do not qualify for this survey.”

After a few times of getting this, it starts getting irritating. I have since started ignoring their surveys. I just feel they're wasting my time when I could be earning extra income in other ways. I don't think I'm the only one that feels this way.

It may take a little work initially, but all it takes is a database that has the profile of your registered survey takers. Then when a survey comes up, you run a program that calls the database for people that fit the profile you want. Armed with this information, you'll then only send the survey invitation to these people. I don't believe that's too much to ask.

In the end, all it will take is to send out a newsletter reminding your registered users to update their profile when it changes. They should be reminded that doing this will increase their earning power.

In conclusion, I firmly believe doing the above things will improve the online survey experience. Improvement of this experience, will help the industry to continue to grow.