Yes, you read that right. Paid surveys online is a great risk free way to make money online. You may not get rich, but you can create a perfect part time job for yourself. It isn't unusual for people to make anywhere from $500 to $1000 a month from the comfort of their own computers taking paid surveys online.

I know that there is a lot of skepticism surrounding paid surveys online. Basically this perception stems from two problems. First there are all the ads out there promising outrageous amounts of money like "Make $150 and hour". Secondly and related to the first there is a lack of information and misinformation about how to make money online through paid surveys.

Hopefully I can share my experience and clear up some of this misinformation for you. That way you will see that paid surveys are a legitimate way to make money online.

Major companies around the world from Citibank to Microsoft to Warner Brothers to Disney all know that they have to satisfy their customers. That's how they get repeat business and continue making money. In order to find out WHAT satisfies their customers they do the obvious thing, they ask them.

The medium that many companies are using to get feedback from their customers is the internet. As of 2005 only 30% of surveys were internet based and that number has been growing steadily. Companies realize that they can get large amounts of opinions cheaply through the use of paid internet surveys.

Companies used to have to spend much more time and money to survey their customers either by mail, by telephone or by bringing the customers to a physical location. This cost them a lot of money and could be a slow process to get feedback.

Now many companies contract with internet survey companies to get the data they need. These large companies pay well for surveys and the survey companies pass that along to you when you take a survey from them. When you take paid surveys online you are like a contractor for the market research company.

If you spend a lot of time online, then why not get paid for some of it by taking some paid surveys. If you're going to be online anyway why not get paid for it. You get to influence new and existing products and get some extra cash for yourself.

It is really better than most part time jobs available that pay just $8 to $10 an hour. When I've kept track of my time and income I find that the rate seems to work out to about $15 an hour.00 an hour which I think is pretty darn good for a part time job where I am working from home and making my own hours. In addition to the cash I also receive the occasional prize like Amazon.com gift certificates or restaurant gift certificates. Nothing big yet, but even the little things add up.

So, give it a try. Like I said earlier it is fun and easy and best of all it is one of the only risk free ways to make money online consistently. Sign up for as many paid surveys sites as possible and you'll soon be able to pick and choose which surveys you want to take. What could be better than working from home and making your own hours taking paid surveys online.