Why Online Surveys Aren’t a Long Term Solution
Hey, not even a short term solution!
I've been doing online surveys for about two years, and the whole experience has been distinctly underwhelming. Like most people I signed up for paid surveys, but fortunately I didn't pay anybody for those I registered for. I also signed up with several companies to read emails. It's interesting to see how many of those sites listed on fee paying lists are available as free sites elsewhere. Fortunately I have not recommended this pursuit to any of my friends.
Survey companies run the full spectrum from well established to fly by night, so a newbie will spend time segregating the good from the bad. Unfortunately this time is considerable and the rewards are meager at best, resulting mostly in wasted time and energy.
My strongest impression is that the industry takes advantage of the average respondent, and actual paying surveys are rapidly disappearing. $3 for half an hour of work is hardly worth bothering about, and I have rarely seen a survey that pays more than that. A busy responder will make no more than $12 to $15 a day, so surveys are not the road to riches.
Most surveys now offer entries into lotteries as rewards for participation, but when you consider the number of entries and how small the prizes for many are, the responder is simply being ripped off. Essentially the respondent gets nothing in return for most completed surveys. $3 is minimal, lotteries have no value whatsoever.
Even the small rewards won are not necessarily assured. Many companies credit your account, but then set balance levels that must be attained before payments are made, anything from $10 to $50. You can easily count how many paid surveys will be needed, and how long it might take, to finally get the money.
What depresses me at times is to learn that a company holding payment on account has gone out of business and taken my money with them. This seems to happen more often with email reading sites.
It is possible to earn a few hundred dollars over a year, but that can only happen by managing your approach to surveys and emails very deliberately. It requires continuously scouring the Internet for better sites and by unsubscribing from those that aren't productive. Beginners tend to keep signing up for everything that pops unto the screen, but that approach just adds more impediments to spending energy efficiently. The time spent researching and adjusting can be more profitable that time lost responding to surveys just because they show up in your inbox.
