Online paid surveys

I was wondering if the paid surveys you do online really pay anything? I have thought about doing it but I don't understand why I have to pay them to sign up? Anyone out there ever tried it?

 There are several survey sites that are legit, your not going to get rich doing them though. Do not give anyone your SSN there are lots of sites out there that are legit and they do not need this info from you. Nor do you have to pay to join. I am a member of several. The one I have had the most luck with is Lightspeed. They do not pay you cash you get points which can be converted into cash via pay pal. However, they send me the most surveys. And already twice now I have been asked to participate in a more extensive survey in which I was sent a palm pilot in the mail and asked to record certain daily activities. The ones I have completed offered a $50 incentive and that was in the form of a check in addition to the points I received for completing the initial survey. I have also done survey savy which has a great referral program if you know people who will join you get money for surveys they complete. I have also tried American Consumer Opinion. They pay by check in mail for all surveys, but I have not been able to complete many of their surveys. Pinecone is also great. You have to have an invitation to join though. They send one or two surveys a month. They are great though cause you will have a few days or a week to answer the survey if you don't check your email religiously. Then they send a check in the mail pronto.

Most pay a few dollars per survey completed so it is best to use several. You also need to be a regular email checker because if you don't respond to the survey fast enough they have met their quota.


The quality sites will not charge you for a membership, unless it comes with other bonuses, outside of what you get with a free account. They are going to reward you for completing surveys, and they will likely have many other promotions, like prize draws, that you can play around with. If you can find non-scammy survey sites, you stand to make a good bit of spending money. You won't be able to make it a full-time job any time soon, but some do reach that level once they get focus group opportunities. It all comes down to how valuable you are for information. If you're a young adult, there are many likes you, but a retired army vet, his data is harder to mine, thus he's more valuable to the company. So, you can also expect to have a varying pay spectrum, depending on the types of surveys you can take. Each company also varies in pay rates, and some compensate higher to loyal members. Do your research to figure out which providers will give you the highest hourly pay rate once averaged out over a few months. It's worth the time and effort if you can pick up some extra spending money, or even cover a couple bills for a few fun hours on the weekends...but you don't want to throw away so much time and effort if you won't see any reward from it at all.

The rule, as always, is to stay away from those that ask you to pay before you can get these surveys.

Legitimate market survey companies such as Pinecone Research recruit members based on demographic characteristics -- e.g. mothers of babies 0-12 years old -- and will send surveys of products and services targeting this demographic group. Pinecone Research, however, pays only $5 per survey -- you're definitely not going to be rich with that. They can give you anywhere from 1-5 at most surveys in a month.

Other companies simply ask you to answer as many research as possible, and you don't earn anything just the chance to win at a raffle (which I find lame). 

Web is so vital nowadays that it becomes a part of your daily regular. You can read the newspaper, see your e-mail, update your Facebook status, shop online for Christmas presents, Skype with buddies, search on Google and so on however the most important is that you can also get a daily paid job, a task where you get paid quickly without any headache.

Online Surveys

My friend is signing up to take online surveys for money and I just wanted to know if there is anyone out here who does it and if they think it is safe or if it is just a big scam. 

If you do take them and you think it is a good idea, what site are you using?

 Survey's are not what you think. They require a lot of time, and you won't make what they claim you will. A couple of my friends did a six month test on several different survey sites like Survey Savvy, Harris Poll, Greenfield, Opinion Outpost, Survey Sport, Buzzback, NPD online, Lightspeed Panel, African American, Your2Cents, Project Payday, Inboxdollar, SnapDollars,Send Earnings, Creation, mycoke rewards, E-poll etc. Each did some the same sites and some different sites. Totaling at least 15 - 20 a piece. They're not what people say they are. Yes they are easy to do and you can receive money and prizes, compensating you for your time and effort. So they're not a scam. They're very time consuming though. When you add the time together, It's more time then you think! If you do decide to get into surveying, you better plan on spending 8 to 10 hours a day and make minimum wage. Sometimes you will hit good surveys that will pay you a lot, but what's required to get that is amount, the calculations of the time involved, and what you got paid in these "higher" paying surveys, still only averages out to minimum wage. It's a psychological thing because the time is spread out on these, so it doesn't seem to be as long as it really is. But we did the documentation's and figured the time vs money factor. We found that there was more time with little money to be made.
Here's how the survey's work. You spend approximately 10 to 15 minutes per each site to register and set up a profile to qualify for surveys. (this is non paid). To make anything really work, you need to register for at least 14 different ones, and make sure non are related to each other. Then you'll start receiving emails for surveys. Each survey you have to complete a 15 to 20 minute "pre-qualifying" survey, after you were already told you qualified based on your profile (you don't get paid for this) Then if you do qualify for a survey (which majority of the ones you don't qualify for. so you've wasted this 15 to 20 minutes and sometimes longer of non paid time.) Then if you don't qualify for one, they offer another and you have to do the same thing, and the same thing happens.) You waste approximately 45 minutes to an hour until you finally qualify for a survey. You take a 30 to 45 minute survey and make normally $1 to $3 a survey that they claim takes 15 minutes. Or instead of money, you earn "points" which later on can be exchanged for money or prizes. You have to earn enough points to make $10. That's not including the 15 minute pre qualifying survey, that you had to repeatedly do prior to land this survey. So you've now spent thirty minutes to an hour and made $3 or a few points. And the process between each of the survey sites is the same. So you can pretty much do the math. It averages out to be between $2 to $6 an hour. Sometimes you do come across a survey that will pay you $25 to $75 a survey, BUT there's A LOT more to it then what meets the eye on that as well.
Here's how the larger pay out survey's work. It could be a telephone survey or a Internet survey. You get the pre qualifying part of 10 to 20 minutes then if you qualify for it another 15 to 30 minute survey or a telephone survey about the product your about to try to see if you qualify to try it. Even though you took a 10 to 20 minute "pre qualifying survey" that said you qualify for. When you qualify for it, they send you a product out to try for 7 to 10 days and you do some daily documentation's on it. Depending on what the product is and the documentation's it's usually 5 - 15 minutes each daily documentation. (you got a free product to use around the house, this is a good part of it) after trying the product out you have to complete another survey that takes between 15 to 30 minutes to do. Now you do the calculations on that. You don't get as many of these types of survey's. They use the hype on getting paid $25 to $75 dollars for 15 minute surveys. NOTICE THE PLURAL IN "SURVEYS" What they don't tell you is that there is more then one survey involved in these. Now calculate from your pre-qualifying survey to the next pre-qualifying survey from the company carrying the product, to the trial and documentation's, to the last survey on these products. Then you receive a check four weeks to six weeks later. Do the math, that's less then minimum wage!
Another way to earn money on survey sites, is to refer people over to the sites. Some survey sites will give you a percentage on what the people do after they've reached a curtain amount of points or obtained their first check (refer back to the top of what's involved) You either get a lot of points for this, and only one time and when you reach a curtain amount of points you can exchange it for cash or prizes. (Cash amount is usually $30 before you can cash out- do the math on how many pre-qualifying surveys and the surveys you get, the time involved etc this is what it takes to earn the $30) Other survey sites you complete shorter surveys (5 to 15 minutes) and your entered into sweepstakes or lottery things for prizes or money. "Lottery"-one winner out of all the people doing survey's. If you don't win, you lose your points.
Okay, I'm starting to write a book. I can go on about all the other types of survey's available and what was
involved in that if you'd like me to elaborate on it.
I do survey's because it does help the marketing on different products and they do use the opinions of what things look like and what not. So I do it for the principle of the matter. Don't do it for money, because you won't make a sufficient amount of money with this.
If you'd like some links to various survey's, feel free to email me and I'll send them over to you. You really have to register for a lot of different sites. The paid survey sites offer the same survey's as the non paying ones. You get the same type of prizes and some pay a little more money. Again calculation time. Calculate how much you "paid" into these sites and the time you put into it, (refer back to how the survey's work) and it calculates back to minimum wage. If your doing this to make a living off of, you will be disappointed. But just for some extra cash, it's a good source and like I said, the companies do document the feedback and use it to better advertise their products and in some cases come out with new products based on the input of the surveyors.
If you want to work from home, (assuming this is why you want to do survey's) I suggest you start your own home based business. Not a home "job", they only pay minimum wage as well. I better not write a book on that right now on that as I' did on surveys LOL! There are so many different home based business to start up. Most home based business cost under $500 to start. They have the same income opportunity as traditional businesses without a lot of over head expenses and they are easier to run and manage. 

There are many good online paid survey sites which conduct market research surveys. Many of them give handsome rewards for your participation in online surveys. You have to join each of them individually and you get survey invitations by email. Rewards for surveys vary from $1 to $20 or more. Many pay for each survey you take or give you points which you can redeem for cash at a particular level. Some of them enter you into sweepstakes.

All are free to join. The so called paid surveys which charge money like $35 for you to join are only databases of such free to join companies, which you have to join individually. But only 30 to 40 out of those 500 or so survey sites are really worth joining. 

Unfortunately most of the opportunities you will find from some people, does only good to those people and nothing to you, maybe does bad to you if you paid something, which i do recommend not to do if you are not sure !
I am Kevin an 8 years experienced in home based business; Here is my e-mail where you can reach me to make sure a business is true or SCAM!!, or simply if you need me to suggest you some true business to start getting a salary with.