Yes, a paid survey can become a generous income stream for you if you follow some initial guidelines during the early phase.

Gathering information on various products, services and the likes and dislikes of people in certain age, sex and lifestyle categories is a cost efficient way for companies and manufacturers to ascertain what is likely to sell or not sell in the marketplace.

Enlisting the services of survey sites or third party statistical gatherers to find out what people want or would like to see implemented can save companies a lot in unnecessary expenditure. It's the tried and proven method of finding out what people want and then providing it for them at a price.

Paid Survey Due Diligence

The obvious question from a prospective survey taker is... "Can I make money taking a paid survey?" Of course you can but for most, getting started and finding reliable and legitimate survey companies can prove to be a nightmare. Here are some simple steps in getting started in the paid survey business:

- Do a search online for paid survey and you'll be literally inundated with any number of opportunities.

- Do not jump in and accept the first opportunity presented to you. You need to do some due diligence.

- You need to sort the "wheat from the chaff." Not all companies offering paid surveys will be genuine.

- Check to see if the company has contact details. My preference is for a phone contact and if there is one, I will phone right away to see if I get a real person on the other end. If no phone contact is available, then check for an email contact and again, test it to see whether you get a response. My response limit is usually within 24 hours.

- Check for testimonials. Even though some testimonials today can be manufactured at least you have a contact with the option of asking the company to verify them.

- Be particularly wary of giving your personal information. While the genuine operators will do their best not to disclose your details, unscrupulous operators could use it for unsolicited mail or spam.

- Be careful about paying a fee upon registration. This is usually for inclusion into a site's database however, registering with a fee payment is usually frowned upon. Look elsewhere if you need to part with money up front.

It sounds like there is a lot of "legwork" to be performed before taking a survey. Believe me, walking before you can run in this area is good practice.

A paid survey can provide you with some nice secondary income and the more experience you gain in the initial stages by doing your own research will stand you in good stead in the long run.