With over 500 "paid survey" companies on the Internet, it's clear that this is a business that's here to stay. Some of the sites offer you an opportunity to "get rich quick" while others offer you a chance to earn a few extra dollars in your spare time participating in panels. Can you make a living off of these sites? You sure can - but not by taking surveys. There simply isn't enough time in each day to earn a viable living off of the online survey gig.

Some survey sites offer "affiliate" programs. This is where you can actually post an advertising banner on your website. It won't cost you any money, and every time someone actually clicks on the banner and signs up for the survey company, you'll get paid.

When you build a site to market your survey site, you can add some "testimonials" to your portal site. You have to be careful not to deliberately mislead people; but an ambiguous statement such as "I was working 56 hours a week at a dead end job and now earn over $10,000 a month - Brenda K." are not illegal. Because you're not directly saying that doing surveys is the reason Brenda K. is now earning $10,000 a month. Brenda K. could have won the lottery and is taking her winnings in a monthly payout.

Online Surveys: The Good, the Bad and the Really Ugly

There are approximately 500 different Online Survey Companies advertised on the Internet. I've participated in several online surveys for cash and researched hundreds of them. I've found that, just like everything else in life, there are the good, the bad, and the really, really ugly.

The good news about the "good" sites is that they're easy. And that you can make money by referring others to the site. And if you learn the ropes (never, under any circumstances, say that you're interested in learning more about health insurance), you can earn a few bucks. Cashcrate is one of these sites. It's bad because you're constantly being barraged with ads during the course of the survey, but it's good because you can pick the surveys you want to take and they pay cash once you've accumulated $20. You just have to make sure you empty your spam folder every day, delete your cookies each day and sift through a lot of junk e-mail.

The good news about the "good" sites is that they're easy. And that you can make money by referring others to the site. And if you learn the ropes (never, under any circumstances, say that you're interested in learning more about health insurance), you can earn a few bucks. Cashcrate is one of these sites. It's bad because you're constantly being barraged with ads during the course of the survey, but it's good because you can pick the surveys you want to take and they pay cash once you've accumulated $20. You just have to make sure you empty your spam folder every day, delete your cookies each day and sift through a lot of junk e-mail.

There's nothing good about these really, really ugly sites except that they're easy to spot for anyone with an IQ over 60. Unfortunately, the elderly, the young and the very greedy are their favorite prey. Beware of any online survey site that charges a "fee" to join, or has a bunch of "testimonials" from people claiming to have made $10,000 a month on their site. If it was that easy, no one would work; we'd all stay home and do surveys.