Online survey sites are a dime a dozen on the Internet. If you haven't tried one already, a survey site is basically a data base of companies that will pay you, or give you other rewards, if you fill out a survey about their products. This also can be done by attending focus groups, watching commercials, trying out products and so on. The logic behind this is that these companies need feedback from consumers as to how their products and services are received in the public. These complains are willing to pay for that feedback and that's where you come in.

You may ask - why do I need the survey sites? Can't I find these companies by myself and attend their surveys?

The answer is yes. You can find them yourself. But this is very time consuming and difficult, as these companies are not easy to find and the deals are not always good. Survey sites offer you a database of companies that were already checked and were found to have provide good deals, payment on time and are actively accepting surveys. The online survey sites usually charge a small one time fee for joining, and you get life time access to their database. The database is updated a few times a month to include more good offers and take down the offers that are not so good.

So, how should you approach these kind of sites? Are they worth your money?

Here are a few tips on how to test these sites before paying the entrance fee:

Try it out for free - do a search on your favorite search engine for "free survey site". This will give you a list of sites that list surveys you can access for free. Take one of the surveys and ask yourself - "can I do this over time?". Some people find filling surveys to be an annoying task. So make sure you can actually do this for the long term.

Look for reviews - for a good data base, you'll probably want to join a paid site. They have a better and a constantly updated database. So look for reviews about the various paid survey sits. Choose the one that looks the best. You will have a money back guarantee, in most cases, so don’t worry too much.

Set a schedule - You must fill out a certain amount of surveys every month so your monthly income will be significant. That's why it's important to set a schedule for filling out the surveys and sticking to it. After the month is over, you will start getting some checks that will justify the work you put in.

Working the surveys is not difficult, but it is time consuming, so make sure you make the time to do it. In terms of return per hour, the effort is worth-while.