You’ve probably heard of people making money online but if you’ve never earned money by any online means before, then you’re probably sceptical about it. Making money online is nothing new. There are people that have been doing so for the past 20 years.
A lot of things have changed since then. It’s become more competitive but as competition gets stronger, more ways to make money online have emerged. There is definitely a piece of the online pie for everybody. It’s just a matter of what method you choose and an idea of how much you want to make. The possibilities are limitless. Earning money has always been associated with traditional 'offline' ways found in the real world.
With the Internet taking over a large part of our lives, more people are looking to ways to earn money online to increase their financial inflows. However, you have to be careful of the platform that you opt for. While there are numerous ways that can help you earn money online, some of these could end up being scams, hence you have to be careful. Also, do not expect to earn a huge amount quickly when using online avenues to earn money. The more work you put into it, the more you get out of it.
Paid Surveys are the latest trends in the online industry today. Despite its popularity, some people are still having doubts about its legality. Here are just some of the most frequently asked questions about Paid Surveys and its websites.
The amount that one can have with paid surveys usually varies. Some companies pay with cash and others pay with coupons or prizes that you get through a points system. For companies that pay with money, the amount usually ranges from $1 to $10 per survey. Your payment also depends on the company and the type of survey you did.
Just have to do some research to avoid getting scammed. It is best not to pay for information about surveys. This information is free elsewhere. In order to get the best possible information, you need to do extend your time and effort looking for the legal sites to join. The information that you are paying for can be found with other legitimate sites for free.
First, have a look at this 2-minute animation which will describe the whole process behind online paid surveys for you:
Paid surveys or survey panels are websites/platforms that allow you to make money by completing online surveys and giving your opinions. The rationale is this...
Companies around the world are actively doing market research. They want to know consumers' opinion on their products and services so that they can improve and meet the needs of their target audience. That's when these survey panels come into play. They are the "bridge" that connects these market research companies with consumers. Companies pay these platform to get consumer insights while these platforms pay their users to complete surveys. Other than products and services, there are also studies done on things like:
So, there are paid surveys online for almost anything you can imagine. The most important thing is for you to find the best survey panel, instead of suffering from survey scams. Individual market research companies and survey panels may have their own rules and system. But that's basically how generally paid surveys work.
This means there are paid surveys online for pretty much anything you can imagine. The most important thing for you is to ensure you find the best survey website or survey panel, instead of getting caught out by online survey scams.
Individual market research companies and survey panels may have their own rules and their own system. But that is basically how general paid surveys works.
Here are the ten things you must know before taking a paid survey online:
This is probably the biggest thing you need to know about online surveys. The earning potential for ALL survey sites and panels are really low.
Typically, you can earn anywhere from $0.01 to $1-$2 per survey (if you are lucky). This will depend on the panel, the length of the survey and the subject that the survey is related to.
Don’t get fooled by any survey site that claims that you can earn $30, $50 or even $100 per survey. This is simply not the case, and any that do claim that could very well be a scam or just a marketing ploy to get you to sign up.
It sounds funny to say, but you heard me right. There are a lot of paid survey scams out there.
Some survey sites are not actually surveyed panels and we will talk about that later. Then there are some survey sites that will never pay you any money.
The majority of them cannot be officially classed as a scam, but what they are doing is simply unethical.
It is important that you remember that there are a lot of low-quality survey sites which you shouldn’t waste your time on.
Continue reading to find out how you can avoid these low-quality websites…
It doesn’t matter whether the survey site is legitimate or a scam, you will receive endless emails from the moment you sign up.
For legit survey panels, they will be sending you emails showing you the latest survey opportunities. Whilst scam survey sites will be spamming you with a lot of junk mail.
But it can get a lot worse, as they may sell your personal information (Name, Email, etc) to other people. This means that your inbox will be full of spam mail.
This is why we would recommend that you do not use your main email address. Firstly, it means you can avoid them filling your main inbox up with spam. But also, if you were to sign up with a scam site, they haven’t got the email address you use with your bank or PayPal, etc.
If you receive an email saying there is a problem with your PayPal account to your survey only email address, it is safe to say it is a scam email. It is harder when you have it in your main inbox.
So, set yourself up an email account that you will only use for these survey plan site sign-ups.
Another reminder is to make sure you read their Privacy Policy carefully before joining any platform!
There are some survey sites, like Gold Opinions, that will ask you to pay them a fee in order for you to receive surveys.
They will tell you the reason is that they won’t take any commission from the money you make whilst taking surveys.
Or that their platform has some special service to help you make more money, that is why they require you to pay so that they can maintain their website.
If a survey site requires you to pay a fee or “Pay-to-Play” then our advice is to stay away from it.
When you start reviewing these survey sites, you start to understand that a lot of them are not actually surveyed panels. This means that they are not working directly with the market research companies to offer you the survey.
Instead, what they are doing is Affiliate Marketing. They are affiliates for many survey panels, and they set up their own websites to promote these panels to you.
These websites are what are called “Survey Intermediaries” or “Middleman”.
If you sign up with this kind of intermediary, they will keep recommending other survey panels for you to sign up with. The reason they will give is that the more survey sites you are registered with, the more survey opportunities you have and therefore more opportunities to earn money.
But the reality is that the more survey panels you sign up with, the more money these “survey intermediaries” will earn because what they are doing is referring you to survey panels and earning an affiliate commission every time. The more you sign up with, the more they earn. It has nothing to do with providing you with more opportunities.
You could sign up with them all individually without the need of these intermediaries.
Some Survey intermediaries I’ve reviewed before including Big Spot, Survey Say and Gold Opinions.
Even though most survey sites ask you to fill in a demographic questionnaire when you sign up. But that doesn’t mean that you did not have to do this every time you start a survey.
When you choose a survey, you will typically go through a pre-qualification process before taking each survey. This process is to ensure that you are the right target audience for the market research companies. This part is understandable.
But the part that is really irritating is when you are suddenly disqualified during or even after the actual survey. This happens a lot more than you might think.
Some survey panels will compensate you with a few cents for your effort, but there are also some that don’t.
One of the reasons for this is that there is normally a limit to the number of survey takers. For example, they may only need 100 survey takers. If you are slow, you may be disqualified halfway because the quota has been reached.
Or, I have seen it where you are rejected because they are targeting a certain demographic and you don’t qualify even though you did the original demographic questionnaire.
I have reviewed some panels where I just kept getting disqualified, meaning there were very few surveys that I could actually complete.
There are a number of survey panel sites that reward you in points rather than cash. They will reward you with a certain amount of points for each survey you complete.
Once you have earned enough points you can redeem them via cash or a gift card in most cases.
Having a points system isn’t the problem it is understanding the conversion rate that you need to know. It can easy to be misled when it is a points system.
A survey that offers 200 points looks good, but if all that is worth is $0.20 then you can see the issue. I have seen some that 1000 points equal a dollar, so 200 points for a survey that takes you 15 minutes to complete, all for $0.20 shows how not knowing the conversion rate is a problem.
Make sure you fully understand the points system and how it works and how to redeem your money!
If you want to earn cash from these surveys, you need to research and know what the pay-out options are for the survey panel you want to sign up for.
Some of the standard payout options are:
If you want to earn real money, you will need to make sure they have a check or PayPal option. There are a number of survey panels that only pays you via Gift Cards.
Some people are happy with an Amazon gift card option, but if you want cash you need to pick the right survey panel that will pay you via that.
You need to know the pay-out threshold. If you are only going to be earning a few cents for completing surveys and yet the pay-out threshold is really high, you will find it extremely hard to get anywhere near your cash.
Some of these survey panels will have a threshold of $10, which means you can cash out when you reach the $10 mark of earnings. That is a pretty reasonable target, albeit still sometimes hard to reach.
But there are also survey panel sites that have a threshold that is $100. This will take you a really long time to reach. This can sometimes mean that you won’t be paid anything.
Paid Surveys have changed a lot over the years. There are platforms that will pay you to test mobile applications and then there are platforms that pay you to listen to music.
Platforms are being launched regularly and their rules and systems are constantly evolving.
Probably the most important thing for you to do is to ensure you do your research before signing up for any of these survey panel sites. And remember to trust your gut feelings!
If you feel something isn’t right or sounds too good to be true, then it is telling you to stay away. There are many more ways to make money online, and your gut feeling is there to protect you… don’t ignore it. Do your research and then make an informed decision.
There is also some authority website that you can use to check if a survey panel is legit or not:
Online survey companies dominate the ‘work from home’ niche these days, but is there anything beyond the stock images and enticing slogans? But it wouldn’t be fair to write a scathing review of an entire industry without research to back it up. Everybody seems to have an opinion about online surveys for money, and it’s difficult to say who is correct. Some people insist they’re legitimate, while others claim there isn’t one company offering real money-making opportunities.
We looked into this carefully and discovered some surprising things about the so-called ‘paid-survey’ industry. So, can you actually make money taking online surveys? In short, yes—but it’s a little more complicated than that. But are surveyed for money worth it? It all depends on how much you value your time.
Now here’s the real question—are paid online surveys worth it? Can you really make thousands of dollars just for offering your opinion to a paid survey site as a side hustle in your spare time? Or are these surveys for money just scams? It all depends on a few factors, including how much you value your time. Online surveys range in length from a few multiple-choice questions to over a hundred. Thus, it can take a long time to finish them up (especially if you answer honestly).
The pay rate per survey varies widely between legitimate companies, but Survey Police reports an average rate of $0.50-$5.00 per survey. That’s not a lot of money–certainly not thousands of dollars. In some cases, survey companies don’t have a straightforward payment process. Many companies tally your earnings in the form of ‘points’. You often need to earn points beyond some arbitrary reward threshold before being cashed out—and that’s if you’re lucky. Survey scams are notorious for deceptive (but not always illegal) advertising, paying out only rewards with ‘$xx.xx value’ instead of actual cash.
If you do the research and find legitimate surveys for money, they are certainly an easy way to make a few dollars. You might even bring in hundreds if you play your cards right. For some people, this is a great way to spend downtime at the office or earn a little bar money. And if that’s what you’re looking for, fantastic.
For many people, however, the prospect of making a living taking surveys just never pans out. Some people have done it, but it’s a lot less lucrative than many companies would have you believe. The vast majority of people who take online surveys don’t make thousands of dollars per month doing it. Though, to be fair, it’s not entirely impossible. It’s just very unlikely.
How much money can I earn with online paid surveys?
The amount that one can have with paid surveys usually varies. Some companies pay with cash and others pay with coupons or prizes that you get through a points system. For companies that pay with money, the amount usually ranges from $1 to $10 per survey. Your payment also depends on the company and the type of survey you did.
Is it scam-free?
Just have to do some research to avoid getting scammed. It is best not to pay for information about surveys. This information is free elsewhere. In order to get the best possible information, you need to do extend your time and effort looking for the legal sites to join. The information that you are paying for can be found with other legitimate sites for free.
What should be done before joining a site?
Make sure that you have your PayPal account ready when you start taking surveys. This is to ensure that you will get your payment right away once a survey is completed. This is the method used by websites to pay their survey takers.
It is definitely that simple. It may be simpler than you thought it is. It just takes a little more effort to be able to locate the best site to join. But, once you have located it, your time and effort will all be rewarded with a good payment from the company. Sure, you can make money by filling out randomly searched sites, but it is always better to receive what you rightfully deserve.
These are just some of the questions that most people are asking. To earn money online by answering paid surveys can be a big assistance in the financial state of many. This job can be done in the comfort of your own homes which makes it more convenient and easy.
It is definitely that simple. It may be simpler than you thought it is. It just takes a little more effort to be able to locate the best site to join. But, once you have located it, your time and effort will all be rewarded with a good payment from the company. Sure, you can make money by filling out randomly searched sites, but it is always better to receive what you rightfully deserve.
These are just some of the questions that most people are asking. To earn money online by answering paid surveys can be a big assistance in the financial state of many. This job can be done in the comfort of your own homes which makes it more convenient and easy.
Before becoming a member of a paid survey site, there are some key details that you’ll want to know. For the most part, these sites pay about the same for a completed survey, give or take a few cents. But one factor you’ll want to consider is how you get paid. Most survey companies allow users to get paid via PayPal, check, or your earnings can be applied towards a store gift card of your choice.
How to Make Money with Online Paid Surveys?
First, have a look at this 2-minute animation which will describe the whole process behind online paid surveys for you:
- Travel
- People
- Education
- Work
- Entertainment
So, there are paid surveys online for almost anything you can imagine. The most important thing is for you to find the best survey panel, instead of suffering from survey scams. Individual market research companies and survey panels may have their own rules and system. But that's basically how generally paid surveys work.
This means there are paid surveys online for pretty much anything you can imagine. The most important thing for you is to ensure you find the best survey website or survey panel, instead of getting caught out by online survey scams.
Individual market research companies and survey panels may have their own rules and their own system. But that is basically how general paid surveys works.
10 Things Must-Know Things Before Taking Online Surveys
Here are the ten things you must know before taking a paid survey online:
1. Extremely Low Earning Potential
This is probably the biggest thing you need to know about online surveys. The earning potential for ALL survey sites and panels are really low.
Typically, you can earn anywhere from $0.01 to $1-$2 per survey (if you are lucky). This will depend on the panel, the length of the survey and the subject that the survey is related to.
Don’t get fooled by any survey site that claims that you can earn $30, $50 or even $100 per survey. This is simply not the case, and any that do claim that could very well be a scam or just a marketing ploy to get you to sign up.
There is one survey site we found that may indeed pay its panellist $100. It is called Inspired Opinions.
But the catch is that you will be expected to travel to their office to take part in an “in-person” survey. This survey will take approximately 1-2 hours. Plus, there is a really low chance of actually getting to do the survey.
But after reviewing a lot of survey sites, we can confirm that the earning potential of all survey sites is really low.
But the catch is that you will be expected to travel to their office to take part in an “in-person” survey. This survey will take approximately 1-2 hours. Plus, there is a really low chance of actually getting to do the survey.
But after reviewing a lot of survey sites, we can confirm that the earning potential of all survey sites is really low.
In fact, Upfuel completed a case study regarding the amount of money you can earn from paid surveys. The bottom line is it is really limited. Take a look if you want to learn more.
2. There are a Lot of Paid Survey Scams
It sounds funny to say, but you heard me right. There are a lot of paid survey scams out there.
Some survey sites are not actually surveyed panels and we will talk about that later. Then there are some survey sites that will never pay you any money.
The majority of them cannot be officially classed as a scam, but what they are doing is simply unethical.
Continue reading to find out how you can avoid these low-quality websites…
3. Use a Different Email Address for Paid Surveys
It doesn’t matter whether the survey site is legitimate or a scam, you will receive endless emails from the moment you sign up.
For legit survey panels, they will be sending you emails showing you the latest survey opportunities. Whilst scam survey sites will be spamming you with a lot of junk mail.
But it can get a lot worse, as they may sell your personal information (Name, Email, etc) to other people. This means that your inbox will be full of spam mail.
This is why we would recommend that you do not use your main email address. Firstly, it means you can avoid them filling your main inbox up with spam. But also, if you were to sign up with a scam site, they haven’t got the email address you use with your bank or PayPal, etc.
If you receive an email saying there is a problem with your PayPal account to your survey only email address, it is safe to say it is a scam email. It is harder when you have it in your main inbox.
So, set yourself up an email account that you will only use for these survey plan site sign-ups.
Another reminder is to make sure you read their Privacy Policy carefully before joining any platform!
4. Avoid “Pay-to-Play” Survey Sites
There are some survey sites, like Gold Opinions, that will ask you to pay them a fee in order for you to receive surveys.
They will tell you the reason is that they won’t take any commission from the money you make whilst taking surveys.
Or that their platform has some special service to help you make more money, that is why they require you to pay so that they can maintain their website.
That is total BS!
According to WikiHow, all legitimate survey panels will not ask you to pay a fee, meaning that you don’t need to “Pay to Play”.
According to WikiHow, all legitimate survey panels will not ask you to pay a fee, meaning that you don’t need to “Pay to Play”.
5. Be Careful of Survey Intermediaries
When you start reviewing these survey sites, you start to understand that a lot of them are not actually surveyed panels. This means that they are not working directly with the market research companies to offer you the survey.
Instead, what they are doing is Affiliate Marketing. They are affiliates for many survey panels, and they set up their own websites to promote these panels to you.
These websites are what are called “Survey Intermediaries” or “Middleman”.
If you sign up with this kind of intermediary, they will keep recommending other survey panels for you to sign up with. The reason they will give is that the more survey sites you are registered with, the more survey opportunities you have and therefore more opportunities to earn money.
But the reality is that the more survey panels you sign up with, the more money these “survey intermediaries” will earn because what they are doing is referring you to survey panels and earning an affiliate commission every time. The more you sign up with, the more they earn. It has nothing to do with providing you with more opportunities.
You could sign up with them all individually without the need of these intermediaries.
Some Survey intermediaries I’ve reviewed before including Big Spot, Survey Say and Gold Opinions.
6. Be Prepared to be Disqualified
Even though most survey sites ask you to fill in a demographic questionnaire when you sign up. But that doesn’t mean that you did not have to do this every time you start a survey.
When you choose a survey, you will typically go through a pre-qualification process before taking each survey. This process is to ensure that you are the right target audience for the market research companies. This part is understandable.
But the part that is really irritating is when you are suddenly disqualified during or even after the actual survey. This happens a lot more than you might think.
Some survey panels will compensate you with a few cents for your effort, but there are also some that don’t.
One of the reasons for this is that there is normally a limit to the number of survey takers. For example, they may only need 100 survey takers. If you are slow, you may be disqualified halfway because the quota has been reached.
Or, I have seen it where you are rejected because they are targeting a certain demographic and you don’t qualify even though you did the original demographic questionnaire.
I have reviewed some panels where I just kept getting disqualified, meaning there were very few surveys that I could actually complete.
7. Understand the Points System
There are a number of survey panel sites that reward you in points rather than cash. They will reward you with a certain amount of points for each survey you complete.
Once you have earned enough points you can redeem them via cash or a gift card in most cases.
Having a points system isn’t the problem it is understanding the conversion rate that you need to know. It can easy to be misled when it is a points system.
A survey that offers 200 points looks good, but if all that is worth is $0.20 then you can see the issue. I have seen some that 1000 points equal a dollar, so 200 points for a survey that takes you 15 minutes to complete, all for $0.20 shows how not knowing the conversion rate is a problem.
Make sure you fully understand the points system and how it works and how to redeem your money!
8. Know What the Pay-Out Options Are
If you want to earn cash from these surveys, you need to research and know what the pay-out options are for the survey panel you want to sign up for.
Some of the standard payout options are:
- Check
- PayPal
- Amazon Gift Card
- Other Gift Cards
Some people are happy with an Amazon gift card option, but if you want cash you need to pick the right survey panel that will pay you via that.
9. Take Note of the Pay-Out Threshold
You need to know the pay-out threshold. If you are only going to be earning a few cents for completing surveys and yet the pay-out threshold is really high, you will find it extremely hard to get anywhere near your cash.
Some of these survey panels will have a threshold of $10, which means you can cash out when you reach the $10 mark of earnings. That is a pretty reasonable target, albeit still sometimes hard to reach.
But there are also survey panel sites that have a threshold that is $100. This will take you a really long time to reach. This can sometimes mean that you won’t be paid anything.
10. Beware of Other Forms of Paid Survey
Paid Surveys have changed a lot over the years. There are platforms that will pay you to test mobile applications and then there are platforms that pay you to listen to music.
Platforms are being launched regularly and their rules and systems are constantly evolving.
Probably the most important thing for you to do is to ensure you do your research before signing up for any of these survey panel sites. And remember to trust your gut feelings!
If you feel something isn’t right or sounds too good to be true, then it is telling you to stay away. There are many more ways to make money online, and your gut feeling is there to protect you… don’t ignore it. Do your research and then make an informed decision.
There is also some authority website that you can use to check if a survey panel is legit or not:
Is Taking Surveys for Money Worth It?
Online survey companies dominate the ‘work from home’ niche these days, but is there anything beyond the stock images and enticing slogans? But it wouldn’t be fair to write a scathing review of an entire industry without research to back it up. Everybody seems to have an opinion about online surveys for money, and it’s difficult to say who is correct. Some people insist they’re legitimate, while others claim there isn’t one company offering real money-making opportunities.
We looked into this carefully and discovered some surprising things about the so-called ‘paid-survey’ industry. So, can you actually make money taking online surveys? In short, yes—but it’s a little more complicated than that. But are surveyed for money worth it? It all depends on how much you value your time.
The pay rate per survey varies widely between legitimate companies, but Survey Police reports an average rate of $0.50-$5.00 per survey. That’s not a lot of money–certainly not thousands of dollars. In some cases, survey companies don’t have a straightforward payment process. Many companies tally your earnings in the form of ‘points’. You often need to earn points beyond some arbitrary reward threshold before being cashed out—and that’s if you’re lucky. Survey scams are notorious for deceptive (but not always illegal) advertising, paying out only rewards with ‘$xx.xx value’ instead of actual cash.
If you do the research and find legitimate surveys for money, they are certainly an easy way to make a few dollars. You might even bring in hundreds if you play your cards right. For some people, this is a great way to spend downtime at the office or earn a little bar money. And if that’s what you’re looking for, fantastic.
For many people, however, the prospect of making a living taking surveys just never pans out. Some people have done it, but it’s a lot less lucrative than many companies would have you believe. The vast majority of people who take online surveys don’t make thousands of dollars per month doing it. Though, to be fair, it’s not entirely impossible. It’s just very unlikely.
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