Surveys have been around for as long as I can remember. It is most common in political polls, government, health, social science and marketing research. Surveys are used mainly to collect information about items in a population. Depending on its purpose, surveys focus on opinions or factual information.

At present, there are several ways of administering surveys, most common of which is through the telephone due to its higher response rate. Other ways include the mail, personal in-home survey (respondents are interviewed right at their front door), personal mall intercept survey (respondents are intercepted at the malls and are interviewed on the spot), and recently, online surveys.

Before the year 2000, lots of people were responding to online surveys. As we all know, corporations and organizations benefit more from online surveys than any other survey method since it is inexpensive, gives fast results, data sets can be retrieved real time and data can be easily manipulated and reporting is also automated. Statistics show the response rate around 90% those times. At present, however, the response rate is rapidly dropping and is recorded at around 2% to 30%. To remedy this situation, several market research companies have already launched online paid surveys.

I know you probably have heard of these online paid survey sites from online advertisements. Before you tag it off as another internet scam, make sure you get all the information you need, for all you know; you're already disregarding an opportunity of a lifetime.

Perhaps the biggest question you have in mind right now is: Are they for real? The answer to that is yes. A lot of corporations actually pay people to answer their surveys. Why are companies paying people to take surveys? Well for one, legitimate companies need to know more about the product or the services that they offer. In order to make improvements, they need to know the opinions of their consumers and since most consumers are actually in the working class or are studying, these companies give incentives to those who are will respond to their survey. This way, the response rate goes up, the respondent gets compensated and the company now has the information to develop its product even more.

Now before you go off day dreaming to a Caribbean holiday, there are several things you will need to know. Just like anything on the internet, you need to make sure you are dealing with a legitimate business. How do you know it's not just a scam? Well, when you sign up for an online paid survey, the company should not be asking for upfront payment. The idea is that they pay you for the information and opinion you give, not the other way around. Are you planning to quit your office work and take online surveys fulltime? Well, this might not be a good idea. A legitimate market research firm usually sends out a very few invitations per month since each respondent is screened according to their qualifications and if they fit the needs of the company.