It seems like everyone is looking to make a little extra money where they can and the appeal of earning something without leaving your house is dazzling. However, there are so many scams on the internet that it’s hard to know what is legitimate and what isn’t. As a general rule, if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is. A cursory search of the internet will reveal a ton of work from home opportunities. One of the most popular methods is to get paid to take surveys online.
In order to join survey sites, you need a few basic things. First of all, you obviously need an internet connection. You will also need an email address. If you plan to join a lot of sites, I recommend you get an address exclusively for your survey sites. You can use free email services like yahoo, gmail, or hotmail for this. Many sites also require you to have a paypal account, as that is how they pay you.
Paid surveys are fairly simple. You join the survey site and fill out a profile and the company will email you when they think they have a survey you might qualify for. Because the companies use your profiles to determine if you get invited to a survey, it is important to fill in all the profile information you can. Oftentimes there is a main profile and then several booster profiles that ask about, for example, home electronics. It’s always a good idea to read the privacy policy of a site before you share your information with them, but as a general rule the survey sites do not share your information with anyone.
Once you receive a survey invitation, you are usually free to complete the survey on your own time, although a few sites tell you a date when the survey will close by. As a general rule, the sooner you take the survey the better. Most surveys have quotas. For example, they may require 15 females who use Dove soap and live in North Carolina. If this quota has already been filled, or if you don’t meet this description, you won’t qualify for the survey and won’t get paid. A few sites offer incentives just for attempting a survey, but they are usually small.
Survey sites pay in a variety of ways. Some offer points that can be redeemed for cash or prizes. Some give you entries into a sweepstakes. Some pay you directly via check or an online service like paypal or egold. If you are serious about making money with online surveys, I suggest you focus on the sites that guarantee you will get something for completing the survey. Most survey sites require that you meet a minimum payout before they send you your money, but as long as you stay active with the site this shouldn’t be an issue.
Most surveys send out a couple surveys a month, and out of those few surveys you might qualify for only a handful. Because of this, it is important to join several sites if you want to make money. I personally am a member of over 30 survey sites currently and am always looking for more to join. Another way to increase your survey earnings is to try to get referrals to the site. You will usually earn a percentage of whatever anyone you referred to a site earns. They don’t earn less, but the company pays you a little more. Basically you’re advertising the site for them.
When you are looking for survey sites you will undoubtedly run across tons of sites telling you that you can make thousands of dollars a week and they can show you how for a fee. I recommend staying away from these sites as most of them are scams. There are plenty of free survey site lists out there like the ones featured at Online$ or Australian Free Paid Surveys, which has a great international survey list. Some survey sites also have a fee to join, but again, most of these sites are scams.
With all that said, I wish you the best of luck with paid surveys. May you find many successful sites and make all the money you desire!
