Believe it or not, there are people making money taking surveys on the internet. The honest truth of the matter is that 99% of the material advertising paid surveys aren't paid surveys. Paid surveys consist of a study done by a marketing and research company to get feedback and gather information about various products and advertising campaigns that the big corporations use. It's basically a way of seeing if they are getting the most bang for their buck. These major corporations easily spend billions a year on marketing and advertising. The corporations hire these market research companies to get this information. There are many ways to conduct a survey. The most popular ones involve telemarketing (phone surveys), mystery shoppers, or testing a company's products or services.

This is the perfect example:

A large cable company has a new channel they want to market to men between the ages of 26-34 who are married and live in a big city. They want to know the likes and dislikes of these men. How much they pay for this service, and what advertisements catch their eye.

The cable company would hire a market research company to gather the information they needed. Each company refers to its online panel. They may ask for 10,000 men who fit the demographics the cable company is trying to reach. The company then sends an email inviting participants to join the study. The participant fills out a questionnaire to see if they are a match. If they match, they are given an invite and the offer of $10-25 to take the online survey. It doesn't get any easier than that.

But before you pack your suitcase and head to Bermuda, let me warn you. The problem lies in that there are literally thousands of ads popping up on the internet that go something like this “Taco Bell vs McDonalds take this survey and receive a free Xbox.” Once you give them your e-mail address they make you try to sign with other companies like Blockbuster and Home Depot, etc…. This is not a paid survey, let me repeat THIS IS NOT A PAID SURVEY. These are the ones commonly referred to as scams that everyone mistakes with “paid surveys”.

They also trick non-suspecting customers to shell out $50 to get a list of paid survey directories. Some think by paying this, they will soon be taking tons of surveys and laughing all the way to the bank. This is not entirely so. After shelling out your hard earned dough to these sites, they make you sign for each panel one by one.

I don't see why anyone would pay for “paid survey directories”. There are several websites that give this information free. These paid sites are getting over on the fact that the average person doesn't know this. Go to msn.com and search free “free paid survey directories”. Just like that!

To make real bread from the survey business you'd have to be registered to as many panels as you could handle at one time. To run with the big dogs, I suggest joining the TOP 20 paid survey panels. These are the most popular and more importantly, the most “busy”. You are guaranteed at least a survey a day in the Big Leagues. Taking the time to sign up with the big guys could only make you or make you bigger.

Bottom line, you won't get rich taking surveys but you can make a few thousand dollars extra income to supplement whatever you want. To go PRO, you would need to register with every paid survey panel known to man. Not a bad living for something you can do in your underwear, with no investment and no strings attached-all in your time.