Filling out online paid surveys is a popular, easy way to generate additional income. So popular in fact, that some people ask if they can make a living, support themselves, by filling out paid surveys. This article explores the possibilities, the pros and cons and some of the determining factors of making a living through paid online surveys.

Sure, it''s easy to make money with paid online surveys, but can you make enough to support yourself? Well... the answers are no, probably not and maybe. Let''s look at each of these answers in turn. No. Why no? Because: 1. Income from paid online surveys is variable, sometimes even sporadic. You have probably gotten used to eating on a regular basis. The timing of your cash flows from paid online surveys might not mesh well with the needs of your stomach! 2. While it is easy to make $500 - $600 a month, you have to work at it pretty hard to make $1,000 a month. Sure, some people supplement surveys with paid to shop, paid to drive your car with ads on it, etc. and make up to $3,000 a month. But higher incomes, while possible, are chancy. It''s the kind of money that is nice to spend when you get it, but not the dependable kind you need for buying groceries and paying the rent.

Probably not. Why do you say probably not? Because:

1. Realistically your potential income from paid online surveys will vary with your demographics. If, for instance, you are an upper middle class, middle aged woman living in a large metropolitan area such as Boston or Washington D.C. (and most points in-between) you will be offered a large number of paid online surveys. However, if your income is low and you live in a relatively sparsely settled rural area, you will receive much fewer offers.

You see, paid surveys are about marketing and marketing is about money. Where there is more money and more people there is a bigger market. And so, these areas and the people there will offer better prospects of future sales. This means they will therefore be of more interest to market researchers, hence more surveys. The reverse is also true, going the other direction.

2. While there are exceptions, it is generally the case that the amount of money required to support yourself is higher in the more densely populated, higher income areas, and less in the lower income less populated areas. So it logically follows that if you position yourself to be in low cost areas these will also be low survey areas, and vice versa. Your choices are higher survey income areas with higher cost of living or lower cost areas with lower survey income.

Maybe. O.K. Tell us how it might be done! Well... here goes:

1. If you had sufficient capital reserves, such that you could own your own home, to keep your costs down, and still have cash reserve funds to eat with over several months to get through income ups and downs. And if you could locate yourself in a relatively low-cost fringe area of a larger metropolitan center, in such a manner that you would still be included in most demographics that showed high discretionary income and large overall market for the area you lived in.

2. And if you could get really serious about making yourself available for surveys, and enlist your spouse in the effort so that you both together would have a wider scope of surveys for which you would individually qualify. And if you worked the pay-to-shop, and pay to eat at restaurants, etc. area well, then....

3. It just might be possible to support yourself entirely from paid surveys and related activities.

But... for most people it would be better to look at your income from paid online surveys as supplemental income, another income stream out of several, than to try to support yourself completely from paid surveys alone.

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