There are companies in the market which let you access their complete database of market research companies. They usually have about 400-500 companies listed and charge you a fee ranging from $30 to $60 for this. Is it wise to pay these companies for the data? The answer is no.

We have found that these lists only contain a small percent of really useful companies. In addition, you can find many of these companies on your own with just a little searching. So for beginners and those who do not want to spend money, we recommend not buying the list. There are less expensive ways.

Survey companies online reward you for your work. It can be either in the form of cash, or points system or lucky draws. There are some companies who pay their customer cash for their time. You can get paid $1 to $20 or even more for every online survey you complete. There are some great survey sites like Ciao Surveys, American Consumer Opinion Panel which you can access. You can get 1 to 4 surveys every month and this number varies with each survey site.

If you don't mind a points system, check out companies like Global Test Market, Mysurvey, and Opinion Outpost. Be sure that you can actually redeem the points for something you really want.

Other companies will enter you into a sweepstake or lucky draw for completing a survey. This is probably the least preferred way to "get paid", as you may get nothing for your time. But if you participate in a combination of cash, points and sweepstake survey companies, you will be making some cash and entering a sweepstake can add some fun too. Companies that offer sweepstakes include Synovate, NOP World and Nielsen Netratings.

Where you live has an impact on how much you can make with paid online surveys. As you might expect, people in the US and Canada have more market research companies to work with, so there are more surveys available for them.

People do earn some real money by taking online paid surveys and you can too. Just don't expect to replace your full time job doing it. But you can earn yourself some extra cash each month from online surveys.