Paid Surveys – Online Income or Just Hype?

Paid Surveys can be a legitimate source of online income, but the hype surrounding online surveys has made many individuals skeptical of the online market research industry. Online Paid surveys are hosted by market research firms, and are an effective way to obtain consumer opinions from a wide variety of people with different backgrounds. The concept of paying consumers to try new products, or answer questions on new product ideas is not new, it is just that the earnings promised to unsuspecting online individuals has been exaggerated by some looking to make a quick buck.

With annual market research spending on the rise, there has been an increased interest in using the Internet as a cost effective means to gain targeted consumer opinions. As a result several prominent online market research firms began to appear in the mid 1990’s, and they formed online panels that offered consumers paid surveys. Since that time however, several questionable sites have appeared, hyping paid surveys as a means for financial freedom, and using the concept of taking surveys to make money off the increasing number of internet users. These sites usually charge a membership fee, which entitles you to a list of marketing research firms that host online paid surveys. Many claim to have the best list, and promote online surveys as a work at home job with earnings of a $150 an hour or more to persuade you to pay their membership fees.

The real truth though is that the paid survey directory that they are trying to sell is made up of survey panels that are free to join, and can be found by doing searches on the Internet. In addition to the pay sites, many free sites have cropped up offering directories of online paid survey panels. These sites often contain the same lists or sometimes even better list than the sites with membership fees. The “free sites" make their earnings from affiliate earnings offered by the market research firms, and these sites can be a good way to get introduced to some of the market research firms in the industry. While the sites offering free directories are more honest than the pay sites, beware of sites that require you to become a member, before they will give you access to their directory. These sites will sometimes send you spam, or sell your contact info to advertisers. If you are interested in taking paid surveys, my advice to you is to find the market research firms yourself, or find a free site that has detailed descriptions of the different survey panels and does not require you to become a member to gain access. Sounds easy enough, but how do you find the good sites?

Well the first thing you must understand that while you can make some cash from taking online surveys, you must set reasonable expectations. First of all, you must decide how much time you are willing to dedicate to taking online surveys. Many of the survey directory sites boast directories that contain 300 or more survey panels, and for the most part that’s true. The thing that you must understand is that not all of these sites they advertise are true market research firms. Some of these sites are purely advertisements, others are the “get paid to try sites", others offer only sweepstakes entries for completed surveys, and the worst of all are simply other sites that are trying to advertise the same directory listings. Basically, there are about 20 to 50 sites that are worth joining, and doing so will produce enough surveys to keep you busy two to three hours a day, or however much time you want to spend.

So lets get to the main question everyone asks, “How much can I make taking paid surveys?" Well the answer is it depends, but most people can make anywhere from $50 to $300 a month taking online surveys. Not exactly a fortune as some may promise, but it can be a form of supplemental income and help pay a few bills. So if this sounds interesting to you keep reading.

Okay so the expectations have been set, and you know that you want to stick to the true market research firms, but how do you know which ones are the best? Several free sites offer reviews and top online paid surveys list, and that can be a good place to start. Just be careful to avoid sites that seem suspicious. Avoid sites that claim to host paid survey panels, yet do not have company street address, contact information, etc. Here are a several quality paid survey sites to get you started.

Greenfield Online

Greenfield Online serves the online data collection needs of the largest research companies in the industry and helps companies get closer to their consumers by gathering consumer feedback. They represent over 300 marketing research firms and are considered one of the leading online panel companies in the industry. They currently have over 1.7 million panel members. They accept international members, and they have a teen surveys panel as well. They were established in 1994. They offer cash or cash sweepstakes entries for each completed survey. $2, $5, and $10 dollar surveys are very common, and they send frequent survey invitations to panel members.

GlobalTestMarket was founded in August 1999 as a division of Global Market Insite, Inc. The intention was to develop a global solution for companies who wish to conduct online consumer research across multiple countries. GMI serves more than 300 clients in more than 40 countries. They also accept panel members from all countries. GlobalTestMarket awards Market Points in exchange for completing their online surveys. Each Market Point has a value of $0.05 with a minimum cash-out of 1,000 points ( $50.00). Each paid survey has a qualifying section. The good thing about them it is that even if you don't qualify for the survey, you get a few points for your time. Once you reach the 1,000 point level, you can login and redeem your points for cash. They also send out frequent survey invitations, average survey ranging from 50 to 300 points.

NFO MySurvey

NFO is one of the leading paid online survey sites out there and accepts survey
panelists from the continental United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
You must be at least 14 years of age to join. They use a points system where
100 points = $1.00 to reward for online survey participation. Points can also be
redeemed for prizes. For every day that you login to NFO you will get a free entry
into their quarterly $10,000 sweepstakes and a free entry into their 10,000 points
a day giveaway. You can also earn 150 additional points for each friend you refer.