There is nothing to buy or sell, there are no customers and no products. What's more there is absolutely no special skill required and you can do it at home and in your own time. So why would anyone pay you for your views?

The answer is simple. There are more and more companies selling more and more products, so the competition is fierce. If any of these companies are going to succeed then they need to know who their product or service is aimed at. How do they do this? They employ agencies to go out into the world and ask people like you, normally using a survey.

It is a fact that not only is the marketing industry worth billions, but it is also true that the world doesn't stand still. Today's market leader is always being challenged by its competitors. This means that there is an endless demand by these organizations for information. This means an endless supply of surveys to complete.

That makes being paid for surveys an excellent source of regular additional income.

Being paid to complete surveys will require that you join one or more agencies who will act as your contact on behalf of the organizations that are requesting the surveys. The agency gets paid by the companies and then they pay you for completing the survey. Beware there are good and bad agencies

Rule 1 ? Do a bit of research and look at several survey websites and read their FAQ sections. I just typed the phrase ?paid surveys? into Google and got just fewer than 5 million replies!

Rule 2 ? Do not pay to join an agency. The agency is paid by the organization and should make any charges to you for their services. If they do, then find another agency.

Rule 3 ? Get yourself a decent piece of form filler software. Once this is installed on your computer, start to teach it all of your basic details by filling out the first agency application. You will be repeating this information in many different ways on limitless future forms and surveys.

Rule 4 ? Get a new email address just for your surveys. You will be sending and receiving countless emails to the agencies containing copies of the survey forms. Keeping it all separate from your personal email is just good house keeping.

Rule 5 ? Prepare a profile for yourself. This is just a short introduction about you, your interests and hobbies. Taking care over this will allow the agency to tag you with a larger number of keywords. The more tags that your profile receives, the more demographic matches you will and the more surveys you will receive.

Rule 6 ? Enjoy it. Don't take on too much work or you will start to resent it. Get into a routine and reserve an hour or so everyday in which you can complete your surveys. Be sensible and you will earn yourself a very welcome extra income.