The key to finding surveys is to understand the types of sites that are out there and then doing the research to find the type of survey you want. There are generally 3 types of online paid surveys:

- Sites that reward with cash or other rewards -- these are survey panels that you can answer that give money, gift certificates or free "stuff" for answering online paid surveys.

- Sweepstake survey sites -- these sites only offer cash or prizes when you win a sweepstake on their site. Each time you take a survey, they enter so many entries for you into their sweepstake.

- Paid to try offers -- these offer you money to try special offers from different companies. These are the ones you see where they ask you to try a free trial, sign up for a credit report or joining clubs.

Most people who do only paid surveys do a combination of all of them so they make cash and prizes all the time. You will receive different kinds of surveys delivered to your email box and they will vary in complexity and the amount of time it takes. You will have a link to click on to enter the survey and you may need to include your username and password that you used to sign up.

You are paid based on these two factors. Some of the surveys will be quick and others will take up to 25 or 45 minutes. Also, for your time you can expect to be paid anywhere from $1 to $5 on the average

For most survey companies, you will need to be at least 18 in order to take online paid surveys and anywhere you look you will find the "top 10 survey" programs. You will also find that these "Top 10" are usually the same list.

When you first start out, it may be a good idea to check online paid survey paid survey guide companies to see what they say about certain ones. These can be found by doing as search for "survey guide companies" and they will give you reviews of a wide variety of survey companies.

These usually have you pay a fee of $35 or $40 but some people think this is worth it if they can earn a little more. Check these out though because you want to make sure they are a big enough company for you to get paid.

A good idea is to set up a special email account just for survey offers. The reason? Because you will get hundreds of them from some sites each day. This will keep all of your surveys in one place.