As I was reading through some online articles on paid surveys, I almost gasped with astonishment how some alleged critics of online surveys were spitting fire on the free survey providers. Counterlogical – that's all I can reply to those who try to convince me that the free survey sites are worse than the paid ones. Let me tell you why.



First, we all recognize the threat of the scam survey sites. In my career as an advisor on paid online programs, I have to admit that the odds are that scam artists particularly rely on charging a membership fee. Once they've ripped you off with some initial $40-$50, they hardly care whether you'll be able to return your investment or not. To base my argument on economic theory, paid survey scammers prefer to reap a huge one-time profit by cajoling faithful users to pay fees before they've started earning, rather than invest in quality service. Not only are you required to make a blind payment only on the bare promise of huge profits, but you're very likely to end up tremendously disappointed when you don't get any paid surveys in return. Once the scam survey sites have collected enough “membership fees”, they just go out of business without trace.

Another issue that the critics of free paid surveys bring forth is the amount of spam you may get. Well, before you actually subscribe to a paid survey site, you are never certain how much spam you might get. Anyway, you may end up with spam also by clicking on random ads, surfing the net and almost any other online activity! Paid survey companies usually follow a policy of sending members advertisements and survey invitations that might be of interest to you by assumption of your user profile details. It's up to you whether you'll respond with involvement in the ads or complete the particular paid surveys you are offered. Paid surveys companies have both commercial clients and service subscribers to whom they have to be loyal. Having a membership fee does not rule out the possibility that you will get unwanted emails, just because both free and paid online survey databases have contacts to advertise third-party businesses.

Price is a signal of quality. Paid survey databases are better that the free survey sites. Yes, but no! Economics has theorized that the price of goods must reflect their quality. However, with the speed of development of anonymous interactions on the Internet, many service providers have overcharged their consumers, escaping responsibility as they are hard to track online. Therefore, setting a particular price to access paid survey offers does not necessarily mean that it costs that much to obtain these survey listings. Neither does it mean that the particular paid surveys will pay you more, or anything at all; get you more rewards or any satisfaction.

Last, but not least, the logical question: Why pay for something that you can also get for free? Free survey resources largely match the paid survey databases in terms of quality and content. To be a legitimate survey provider is not equivalent to charging survey takers a price. In most instances, you can learn about a company's reputation either through the word of mouth, or by some business watch organization, or ultimately by trial and error. You can weigh the risks of getting some spam against the advantages of loosing no money, and decide for yourself. My advice to all of my friends is to opt for the free paid survey sites and enjoy earning money without the risk of loosing some $40 or $50 in a scam. Whatever you decide, always value your time and effort to take paid surveys!