Finding a company listing online paid surveys can be like finding a needle in a haystack. There are a lot of people making a decent additional income each and every month by merely taking online surveys. But, for someone just starting out, the real challenge is in finding a legitimate company listing online paid surveys.

A huge amount of these so-called survey sites sprang up over the last two years and a search on Google will give you more than 15 million search results! Sifting through all these sites are near impossible and finding the legitimate and well paying sites can be near impossible without some proper guidelines.

The Companies listing online paid surveys are nothing but ‘service providers' and what they do is to scrutinize the surveys before they list them on their site. This not only saves you the time of trying to find paying surveys, but also saves you the potential waste of time when the survey does not pay.

Some of these companies offer their service ‘for free' while others charge a small joining fee. Like most things in life, you get what you pay for and you will find that paying the small joining fee, most often pays for itself many times over. The majority of ‘free' survey sites are merely in it for collecting your personal profile – which they will then sell on to a third party.

Here are three tips for finding a company listing online paid surveys which I believe will help you to wade through all the garbage and get to the good stuff.

1. Do Your Due Diligence

Before you invest your time, effort and potentially your money you have to do some due diligence to try and find some more info on a specific company. The challenge with this is that there are just so many conflicting reports online that it's hard to decide whom to believe. This is where common sense comes in. Don't lend your ears out. Use good old common sense and decide for yourself – that way there is no one to blame when things go wrong and only one person to praise when things work out. Before paying any membership fees on any site, make sure that they at least have a contact or email address and that they have been in business for at least 18 months.

2. If they sound too good to be true then they probably are…

As you sift through the millions of survey sites, the one thing you will clearly note is the fact that the one promises more than the other. They tend to make some bold statements as to how much you can earn and how quickly and easily you can do it. To a certain extent this involves salesmanship, but there comes a point where the claims are just too bold. Watch out for extremely attractive offers and over inflated testimonials. You are not going to make $10 000 in your first two weeks! Once again, use your common sense and go with what sounds reasonable to you. Anything from $100 to $2 500 are a more accurate claim to make.

3. Go with the tried and tested companies

As you start sifting through all the various sites online, you will see a couple of names that keep popping up. These are usually the more established companies and they are that for a reason. It's a very competitive market out there and the ones that are able to stay on top are usually there for a reason. Well established companies are less likely to rip you off and they generally have a good reputation for listing the highest paying surveys (that actually pay).

You really can make some good extra money online by simply taking surveys. Although finding a company listing online paid surveys can be a bit of a challenge, there definitely is potential for earning easy extra money. You probably won't quit your day job by doing surveys, but you might just be able to afford the monthly payments on that car you always wanted!