This article takes you on a personal journey through this industry.
In the past I have indicated you should never pay anyone to help you locate paid surveys because they are available at no cost if you just look for them.
However, for the sake of this investigation and the belief that many have about a paid service being able to offer an advantage I happened upon a ?consumer research? firm that provided information about paid surveys. They provided the top three prospective clearinghouses for information on quality survey companies.
They ranked the top three on multiple criterion and they listed them with varying degrees of acceptance. Not wanting to leave anything to chance in my new career I signed up for their number one pick. This removed $35 from my expendable cash ledger, but it opened a whole new world of opportunity. Right?
Not exactly.
The site provided some useful, if not common sense tips, and then listed, on a rather crudely produced page, their top paying ?paid survey? recommendations.
Of course I was drawn to this as one of their reviewers indicated a net return of $500 in her first two hours and the second reviewer quit after $400 because it was just too easy to make money this way and, frankly, he was getting board (making money?).
Of course I recognized this as an illegitimate consumer report, but I wanted to get the full user experience so when others asked in the future if I have ever participated I could say, ?Absolutely!?
I registered for the first set of recommendations simply because the site I was paying indicated these were its top recommended sites for surveys that paid actual money for my survey responses. They even went so far as to say that this site was so good it made their jaws drop.
As an aside I was also offered opportunities to drive free cars, read emails and get paid for doing so. I could also be a part of advisory panels that would help television producers decide which shows we would see in the fall. I decided to stick with the subject of this article.
In the interests of being able to say that I gave it a shot I have spent several hours filling out forms and surveys. My inbox rapidly filled with emails from the sites I submitted to, but I did not have the honor of making any money.
That's not to say that there wasn't some entertainment along the way. One service that indicated cash payment did so based on a lottery experience. In this case I got points for taking surveys. The total number of points were determined through an online gaming system like a scratch card or slot machine that told me how many points I would receive for taking the survey. At that point I was invited over to the company store and applied those points to act as a raffle ticket for prizes like money, laptop computers or digital cameras. Other sites offered cyber cash that I could spend at their company store (where everything is at least 100 times the cost of any other store).
Maybe my profile just wasn't what they are looking for because according to the ?consumer review? site I should be rolling in bucks in under two hours.
To sum things up, in my real experience coupled with what I already knew to be true about paid surveys the only people making money are the people at the other end of the survey.
Oh, and if you like a tidy inbox resist the urge to apply for a paid survey. My jaw just dropped, too. Wait. I think that was a yawn.
1. Remember do NOT pay anyone to do paid online surveys whatsoever. It is always FREE to do paid surveys and get paid. Legitimate paid survey and market research companies do NOT charge you - they pay YOU for YOUR opinion.
2. Set up a dedicated email account. You will get lot of emails and you need a separated email address for survey invitation emails. Note: you'll need to turn OFF your spam filter or set the spam filter option to "do not delete emails in spam folder immediately" -- otherwise you might miss survey emails.
3. You might want to open a free Paypal account. Many of survey sites offer their payment via Paypal. It's free to send money, and free to accept payment if you have a basic account (a low transaction fee apply for Premier and Business Accounts to receive money), and it is usually faster than check payment.
4. Sign up with as many legitimate paid survey companies as possible. Remember legitimate paid survey companies are FREE to join and have strict privacy policies (You will not get spammed).
Please note: It's important you take time to sign up with ALL the legitimate survey sites you can find. The reason is very simple - the more survey sites you sign up with, the more surveys you get.
5. Tips on avoiding scams:
* If you come cross a survey site, be sure to check their privacy policy. If you are not happy with the privacy policy or they don't have a privacy policy, stay away from them;
* Be aware the difference between paid surveys sites and get paid sign up offer sites. The later sometimes say they are survey sites, in fact their "main business" is paid offers. They are the sites you get paid for signing up offers, and sometimes you need to pay or provide credit card information while sign up non free offers.
* Stay away from the websites (paid or free) promoting known scam or spam - usually those sites claim they have a list of 300+, 400+ or even 500+ paid survey sites, (the reality is there are NOT 300 survey sites that pay!) They are just promoting anything they can find for commissions, no matter its scam or spam and can't be trusted.
6. Tips on doing surveys:
* Be honest with your personal profile information when sign up with survey companies;
* Response survey invitations quickly. Most surveys have quota and some fill fast, especially high paying/easy to qualify surveys.
7. Tips on getting paid:
* Make sure keep the invitation emails for the surveys that you qualify and completed, especially those online interactive surveys/focus group. You want to have prove for your participation when there is a problem.
8. Finally you have to be patient. This is very important for survey beginners. It takes a while to get paid since most survey sites have minimum payout requirement and it takes time for them to process payment. Also it takes a while to receive more surveys. For me, I didn't received any cash or other reward during the first month, I had some points or others but not enough to cash out, and the money didn't start coming in until the end of second month. It is also after two months, I started to receive and qualify for more surveys, including those "high-end" surveys such as interactive online surveys and focus groups.
Doing paid surveys is not going to make you rich, but certainly it's an easy and fun way to make extra cash. For more information about paid surveys, please feel free to visit my site, you will find the best FREE lists of legitimate paid survey companies, more paid survey tips, as well as honest paid survey reviews.
Both Scott Lindsay & Mei Lynn are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Scott Lindsay has sinced written about articles on various topics from Payday Loans, Computers and The Internet and Mens Health. Learn about with HighPowerSites.com or wit. Scott Lindsay's top article generates over 1830000 views. to your Favourites.
Mei Lynn has sinced written about articles on various topics from Online Surveys. is the creator and owner of - The most comprehensive and informa. Mei Lynn's top article generates over 880 views. to your Favourites.