A Field Guide to Online Paid Surveys
Try googling the phrase "make money online" and you will quickly see that one of the top-cited ways, if not the first search you will find, to making money online is by doing paid surveys. If you think about it, this sounds really nice. You are asked a couple of questions on various topics, sometimes because you are an expert, or you have purchased or used a product or service. Of course, the truth is that most of the time you are chosen for surveys because you are the one whom the companies want to purchase their products or services. That way, with their surveys they can find out what you really want for their next series of products and, of course, they sort of get a small advertisement. Well now, since these companies find out what you like and you are really a significant part of their research and development team, why not be compensated for this task?
Yes, all these sound quite nice. The main problem with this picture is that you only receive a small fraction of the money that companies spend for these surveys. There are many reasons for this. First, the middle man takes a big share of the money paid by the companies for these surveys. The second reason is, of course, the fact that many people are surveyed, and thus share the grand reward. So at the end of the day, you really don't make that much money per survey.
However, surveys can be fun and exciting, and they can also be a hobby for some people. Sometimes you might receive products before anybody else sees them on the shelf of the store. Other times, you can see shows and advertisements before they reach your television set. Do you remember how many times you said, "Wow, is this a stupid ad?" or "This thing is on TV?"
Well, by voicing your opinions through surveys, you can modify what is going to be on TV, on the radio, etc. or even stop it from going live. And, of course, one must not forget the sweepstakes that surveys commonly use to lure people into taking them. While I haven't won any of them, it would be nice to win $100, a Nintendo Wii, or even a new car.
So, yes, surveys do not pay as much for a monthly salary, and even the hourly wage is not as good, but if you are a person who has time to kill when watching a boring show on TV anyway, well, it might be worth trying it.
Before you go out there googling the survey sites and register for every one of them, let me give you a couple of tips. First of all, create a separate email address. Some sites might sell your email address, and you will fill up your inbox with spam email. I am not saying that all survey sites do so, but it is better to be safe than sorry.
Second, it is my own opinion that you should not pay to do surveys. You should only be paid. So I would definitely take out of the list all the sites that request you to pay them so that they can send you more surveys.
My next tip would be to find reviews for each survey site you want to register for. If reviews don't exist, there might be many reasons for it, so I would not be panicked. Of course, on the same note, try to find if there are claims for these websites that they have scammed people. This usually is the best way to look for a review.
A really great website that provides reviews and rating for the survey sites issurvey police. I would not recommend every single websites in their top 100 list, but I would say that definitely the ones in the top 10 are a good start. Finally, and I believe this is the most important tip, be careful of what information you share and what files you download. I would say try to limit the information as much as possible, and if during one survey you don't feel comfortable, just stop the survey.
As I already mentioned, doing surveys is really not a way to make a lot of money online. It is probably fun to do sometimes, and if some weekday evenings you are not doing anything else, it might be worth it. But apart from that, I don't think you can rely on them to help significantly increase your income. Just use them as a hobby and enjoy the rewards you do get.
