Getting paid to take a survey may be hard to comprehend for a lot of people and you may be wondering why marketing companies fork out thousands and thousands of dollars for people's opinions. It's simple. Data collected can save a company a fortune in marketing revenue and product production. Paying for consumer opinion literally guarantees honest answers as opposed to free surveys where people will often rush a survey with false answers just to get it out of the way.

Here is a checklist of questions you should consider before joining a survey provider. Remember, not all providers are created equal with some unscrupulous operators sole motive being to gain people's personal details.

Paid Online Survey Checklist

1. Be wary of application fees. In fact be wary of websites who ask for a fee to add your name to their data base.

2. Read carefully the terms and conditions and that your not signing over personal details.

3. Check the company's contact details and if there are none, give it a miss. You'll preferably want a phone contact number along with an email address.

4. Be clear about payment terms. Know exactly how much you are being paid and when. Avoid having to pay a percentage of your fees to the survey provider who in all probability is being well paid by the company which has requested the survey.

5. You need to be clear about disclosing personal information. If it looks or sounds suspicious then move on. Your details could be on sold to other companies with the result being an inbox full of spam.

6. You'll want to clarify how many surveys you'll receive each month and how payment will take place.

The above information is designed for inexperienced survey takers. A great place to get questions answered is via online forums. Those involved in forums are usually seasoned campaigners who have gone through a lot of trial and error. Just do a search online for survey forums. You will in all probability be required to join but there won't be a fee involved.

Another good starting point is to concentrate on established marketing research companies such as Greenfield Survey Online. Once you have gained some experience in the paid online survey business you'll be a lot more savvy about what to look for when you want to broaden your horizons.