Paid Survey Success

Interested in paid surveys on the internet? They are easy to find. Type “paid surveys” into Google and you’ll get back 7,810,000 results (as of Aug 2, 2007). With a list like that it shouldn’t be too hard to find paid surveys on the internet…but there’s a catch.

As you start to look through the results you’ll find a common theme. The sites are NOT the actual survey sites, but rather sites that promise “$150 an hour taking surveys” or “get rich taking surveys”. Some want your email address to register and get access to their list of paid surveys on the internet and others expect you to pay your hard earned money for “membership” to their site. Other sites may even claim that getting paid for internet surveys is a total scam. So what should you do and who can you believe?

Is it really worth it to try getting paid for internet surveys or should you stay away?

First, you need to understand that these websites with lists are not the ones that will be paying you to do internet surveys. The surveys and payments come from market research companies, many of which started offline, but have moved to online surveys to be able to reach a larger audience. These market research companies have been paying people for their opinions for years, sometimes decades. They have found that the internet is an efficient and cost effective way for them to reach the largest number of people to get data for companies who pay them for their research. These market research companies are, for the most part, completely legitimate. Their research is used by companies to improve existing products and services or to determine the best way to introduce new products and services.

The thing is that there have been many sites, some good and some really bad, that are trying to cash in as well on the popularity of paid surveys on the internet. The information itself is not bad, but some sites require you to pay them for membership to their sites and access to their “special” list of paying surveys. Honestly, there is no reason to ever pay someone for a list of paying internet survey companies. This information is freely available and anyone who wants you to pay them for the information is simply stealing your money. The ones who offer free access, but require your email address to register are not quite as bad, at least they are giving away the information, but it still comes at a price. If you give up your email address to register at one of these sites don’t be surprised if the amount of spam you receive increases dramatically. They only want your email address to resell or to use it to market to you themselves.

So, you’ve managed to avoid the scams and you’ve found the legitimate paid surveys on the internet and now you still want to know if it’s worth it trying to get paid for internet surveys. That totally depends on what you expect. If you’re looking to get rich and retire then keep looking. You won’t be able to retire with what you make taking internet paid surveys, however you can make several hundred dollars a month and improve your lifestyle.

The key to making paid surveys actually pay is twofold. First, sign up with as many paid survey companies as possible. Since the survey companies are looking for a certain demographic for each survey you won’t always qualify. By signing up with more survey companies you’ll get more survey opportunities. Second, make sure to respond to all of the surveys you get. The survey companies will track your response rate and guess what? Those who are more reliable responders will get the better surveys. Makes sense doesn’t it?

Each survey typically takes 15-20 minutes and pay ranges anywhere from $1.00 to $50.00 per survey. You can take 3-4 surveys a day in just 1 hour and at an average pay of $5.00 a survey you’ll make $150 in a months time. Of course your earnings will vary from month to month depending on what surveys you get, how fast you’re able to complete the surveys and how much time you devote to taking surveys. In any case you should be making around $15 an hour which isn’t bad for a part time job you can do at your leisure from home.

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Searching for ‘paid survey’ on Google will bring back millions of hits (including my site), but you don’t need millions of hits you only need one good paid survey site. With all of the information out there about paid surveys how can you tell the good sites from the bad sites? After reading this article you’ll know exactly what to look for and where to go to get good paid survey information without getting robbed in the process.

There are ways you can compare the paid survey sites and decide which ones are best for legit paid surveys. Here are 9 factors you should look at to evaluate paid survey websites.

1. Is the site charging for access to it’s list of paid survey sites? You shouldn’t EVER pay to get paid survey info that is freely available, it’s a waste of your hard earned money and unnecessary. This also applies to sites that want you to register with your name and email address to access their site. These sites just want to add your email to their list so they can spam you with more of their affiliate offers.

2. Is the site growing in popularity? You can find out by checking the site at http://www.alexa.com or http://www.quantcast.com/

3. Find out how long the website has been in existence. Paid survey sites will come and go. The best ones tend to have staying power. If a site has been around longer than one year it is most likely not a scam.

4. Is the website updated regularly? Check back in a week or two and see if anything has changed at the site or if it is just a static page of links. If changing are being made that’s good because it means the site owner is active in its maintenance and upkeep.

5. After narrowing down your list to two or three paid survey websites go and take a look at each one. See how many companies are listed and how easy it is to navigate the site. What you’re looking for is simply to determine which site will work best for you.

6. Get a new email account specifically for your paid surveys. All of your paid surveys should go to this address to keep them separate from your personal email. This will help you to focus and keep more organized.

7. Do your part. The paid survey site owner has given you the tool, the list of paid survey companies. Now you have to visit each paid survey site yourself and apply. Until the survey company has your complete registration and information they can’t send you surveys. Don’t hesitate, just do it.

8. Keep checking your email for new paid survey offers. Check multiple times a day if you can. It may be slow at first and you may get low paying offers, but stick with it. As the paid survey companies find out that you are reliable they will send you more surveys as well as higher paid surveys. This is when it really gets to be fun!

9. Be patient, because it will take some time to start receiving lots of offers and more importantly good offers. It also takes some time to start hitting the required minimum payments for the paid survey companies. Once you do though you’ll see that you can count on a steady income from paid surveys each month.

Following these 9 suggestions will put you ahead of 95% of the people that try to make money taking paid surveys. You will have found a legit and reliable paid survey site that works well for you and you’ll be organized as well. These are the rules I’ve followed for almost two years now and I know they work for me and for many others who have been successful making money taking paid surveys.

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There has never been a better time to start increasing your income than right now and there is no better way than through paid internet surveys. There are hundreds of companies willing to pay for your opinion and that number will only increase. Big companies know that they need to keep in touch with consumers and they know that the online market research paid internet survey is the most cost effective way for them to do that.

In 2005 only 30% of all consumer surveys were online and these online companies are paying out millions and millions of dollars already. Just one company, Greenfield Online, paid out over 4 million dollars in 2006. The paid internet survey is here to stay and it will grow as more companies see the diversity of opinions they can get at a fraction of the price for traditional ‘on-site’ surveys.

Fortune 500 companies from Microsoft to Ford to Citibank all use surveys to gauge customer satisfaction and to help them develop new products and improve existing products. In the past this meant bringing the people to them which was expensive. With the creation of the internet however they can now get the opinion of thousands of people quickly, easily and at a reasonable cost.

Thanks to the lower cost they can now run paid internet surveys on topics that in the past would have been much too expensive. And we all get to benefit because they pay for our opinion. That’s right, you will get paid to take surveys online. Best of all, you don’t have to leave your home to do it.

There may be alot of people taking these paid internet surveys already, but survey companies need many more. Thanks to the huge demand from corporations there is a need today for people willing to give their opinion on a huge variety of products and services. Survey companies have so many surveys and not enough people to take them. They need you to help them now. They will pay you cash for taking their surveys and they all offer free membership.

And since there is a large pool of potential surveys there are also a large number of marketing companies to handle this new survey delivery method. So, don’t limit yourself. The number one action you can take right now to increase your success in making money through paid internet surveys is to sign up with every company offering paid surveys.

Cast your net wide because you never know which companies will have the best paid internet surveys. It would be a shame to miss out on several $150 online focus group paid internet survey opportunities because you didn’t take a few minutes to register for free at company XYZ.

When you first start to look for a list of survey companies you’ll come across sites asking you to pay for membership to access their list. Don’t ever do this. It is unnecessary for you to pay for this information because it is freely available on the internet. They will tell you they have special surveys or great bonuses, but they don’t have anything you can’t find for free. Just find yourself a great free list of paid internet survey sites and you’ll be ready to start earning immediately with no cost to you.

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