And yet, as most people discover, paid surveys can actually be one of the hardest ways to make money online.

This isn't because of what you have to do. Surveys might be boring, but they're easy to take. And it's easy to find websites offering to give you the surveys to take: just use Google and you'll find thousands of options.

The problem? Nearly all of these sites are basically scams. There are several reasons why.

The first is that many are out of date. If you sign up to a site offering to send you paid surveys, make sure it updates regularly. Many sites will gather together a collection of links to surveys, all of which may have worked at the time they were found. Unfortunately, two months later they could all have finished. Companies collecting data via surveys will only want to do so for short periods of time, for example before launching a new product.

The second is that many sites won't send you surveys you are eligible for. Most companies only want certain groups answering their surveys, and if you don't fit those criteria, they won't pay you anything. They won't even let you take the survey. It can get very annoying, if you're paying thirty dollars a month to receive these surveys.

The third is that you may find yourself living in the wrong place. Many sites offer surveys that only those living in the U.S can take. Unfortunately, they normally forget to tell you so until you've already paid them the money! They may claim that they offer surveys for those living in other countries, but don't expect them to turn up more than about once a month.

The fourth is that many sites simply lie. They tell you they offer surveys where you can make hundreds, that you can earn a full-time income answering questions. Normally these are wild exaggerations. They may offer a few surveys, but you might find that you are entered for a prize-draw instead of paid, or given points instead of money. Needless to say, it's a rare person who can make a full-time income from such sites.

And the fifth reason is that many of these surveys are available for free anyway. If you knew where to look, you could find these surveys and get paid without subscribing to a paid surveys website.

So why do so many people pay these paid survey sites? And why should you?

It's a great way of earning some extra money. It might be boring, but it's also easy. You don't generally have to think very hard about the answers, and you don't need a website or to plan marketing campaigns. All the hard work is done for you. Yes, you could find surveys yourself, but many find the cost worth it. Instead of trawling the internet for paid surveys, they find them all in the one place.

You probably won't make the same amount of money as you could affiliate marketing, but the risk tends to be lower, the work less, and the initial investment much smaller. Also, you might not want to make a full-time income online. You might just be looking for an easy way to make some extra money, in which case surveys are a great way to do so.

As for finding a paid survey site that won't scam you? Find a site with recommendations and reviews, and make sure that there's a money-back guarantee. Remember that even if the survey site doesn't mention one, any site that uses Clickbank has an automatic eight week guarantee. Just e-mail Clickbank to get your money back.

Most paid survey sites are scams. But a few will really show you how to make money online.