Online Paid Surveys

Online paid surveys are a way for companies to get feedback from customers, potential customers, or users to help them market products and services. The old fashion way was to send a paper survey form, which was expensive and labor intensive. Now, with online forms, surveys can be conducted relatively inexpensively, quickly, and processing can take place automatically.

With any survey, the consumer must have some incentive or reason to participate. Therefore, with the savings that result from using online forms, the companies can pay participants with cash or products.

What to Expect
Paid surveys are generally conducted by marketing companies who represent one or more businesses who have hired them to handle the details of the surveys. Their job is to find qualified participants, conduct the survey, compensate participants, validate and compile the results, and report the results back to their client companies.

Online paid survey companies will generally require that you complete a screening questionnaire that asks about the type of work you do, job responsibilities, where you live, if you own or rent, and so on. These questions help determine if you qualify for the type of surveys the company conducts.

Many companies do not require a screening process. You're automatically accepted if you apply.

If you are selected, you will be sent survey questionnaires that ask about products and services that you use (or might use), your opinions about them, and your experiences. In some cases, you'll be sent free sample products to use and evaluate. Some surveys are short and require very little time, and others are long. In any case, you should be completely honest with your answers.

How Much Can I Make?
The answer to this question can vary widely depending on the survey company, length of survey, type of product/service, your qualifications, and more. Most survey sites have a "Frequently Asked Questions" link that will get you an answer, as it relates to that company's particular program. As an example, CashCrate (see below), has individual payouts as high as $45 and over 50 different offers that have payouts between $10 and $20 each. It doesn't take long to build a nice paycheck at that rate.

Be Careful Before You Sign-Up

There are many web sites that can help connect you with the wide selection of online paid survey companies out there. However, as in any business, there are good companies and some that are not so good. So, take care in your selection process. If the company requires that you pay money to become a member of their services, make sure they have a 100% money-back guarantee. Don't pay extra for "premium" membership.

Tip: Any company who charges a sign-up fee and uses the well-respected Clickbank payment system has an automatic money-back guarantee through Clickbank, whether the company says so or not.

The following companies use Clickbank for payments: PaidSurveysOnline.com, and SurveyScout.com.

Another Option
We've found another company, CashCrate , that pays money for taking surveys and accepting free-trial offers from advertisers. The best part is that a lot of real people are making money from them and it's totally free.

At no time do you pay for joining or participating (you may be asked to pay a small shipping fee in some cases where trial products are sent to you). The money only flows in one direction - from them to you. They send checks out once a month.

This is totally legitimate and worth considering. With CashCrate, check out the user discussion forum on their site to find out what their members are saying about the program.

Return to Extra Money article