Do you want to earn extra income from home? Do you want to learn how to make money taking paid surveys online? Then I advice you read on to learn how to access this free, easy money. Getting paid for taking surveys is one of the coolest ways you can make money online. Although it won’t make you rich, taking online surveys can fetch you some extra cash to take care of some monthly bills.
All you need to get started with taking paid surveys is your PC and a reliable internet connection. Survey sites don’t charge members for signup fees (except they are scams), and so you don’t need to pay any fees before you can start.
How do online paid survey programs work?
The process is fairly straightforward: You sign up with a paid survey site, and complete a member profile. Then you will be sent an email notification whenever a survey that matches your profile is available, and you will be required to complete the survey.
Usually, a survey invitation email will specify how much you will be compensated for the time you spent on taking the survey as well as a link to the survey. On the average, it takes 15-20 minutes to complete a survey.
If you are wondering how paid survey sites make money, this is an explanation: Companies are always in need of consumers’ opinions about their products and services. These opinions help them understand consumer needs and concerns, so that they can offer products and services that satisfy consumers.
Whenever a company needs to take a survey, the company pays a survey site to present the survey to its members whose profiles match those of their target customers. From the amount paid by the company for each survey, the survey site pays each member that completes the survey and retains the remaining funds as its profit.
Watching out for paid survey scams
While there are many reputable survey sites on the web, there are also several fraudulent survey sites that are out to only waste your time and, if possible, steal your money and your private information. Examples of reputable survey sites include Harris Poll Online, Zoom Panel, Opinion Place, CVS advisor, and Survey Savvy.
To find additional survey sites that are reputable, you can visit SurveyPolice.com, a website that ranks survey sites based on reliability, speed of payment, recruiting practices, quality of customer service, adherence to privacy standards and other criteria as revealed by survey takers. Volition.com is another widely respected website that provides a database of the best-paid survey sites based on payment and other criteria.
To avoid falling victim to fraudulent survey sites, always raise your red flag when you see the following indicators:
- Site requires you to pay a membership fee
- Site guarantees you a fixed income
- Site guarantees prices that are very high
- Site does not clearly specify how you will be compensated
- Site requires too much personal information, such as your social security number, your bank account information, your credit card number, and so on
- Site does not post a privacy policy
- Site sells member information to third parties
- Site design and content looks too unprofessional
So, when you search Google for “online paid surveys,” you must bear in mind that not all the links in the result pages will redirect to reputable sites.
The Compensation Plan
Though most people expect to be paid in cash for the surveys they take, you must bear in mind that compensation varies by the company handling the survey. Sometimes you will be paid in cash, while some survey sites pay by entering participants into a sweepstakes. Some survey sites also compensate participants with gift cards.
So, if you are out to take only surveys that pay cash, you must check with the survey site before registering in the first place.
How to Maximize your Survey Earnings
- Check your email regularly, so you won’t miss out on any survey invitations.
- Respond promptly to survey invitations; surveys close quickly because most are based on “first come, first served.”
- Keep your profile up to date, as it is used to determine which surveys you qualify for.
- If you receive many survey invitations at once, take the most lucrative ones first.
- Sign up for as many survey sites as possible. This is necessary because survey sites pay crumbs that will only add up to tangible sums if you take many surveys.
On a final note, you must bear in mind that taking paid surveys online is only a way to make side income. It cannot be turned into a full time business. If what you are looking for is an Online business that can help you quit your day job and fetch all of your monthly income, then you will have to look beyond paid surveys.
But if you have some free time on your hands that you would like to convert into some extra little cash, then consider taking paid surveys online.