Miss T told me that she thinks everyone is looking for ways to maximize their earnings and stretch their dollar and an article on how to make extra money would be timely. I don’t disagree with her, and in this article I’d like to share one specific way one can make some of that extra dough online with their spare time.
Paid Surveys
One specific niche site I own discusses the topic of paid surveys online. I started this website after having experienced success with paid surveys myself (I talk about my specific exposure and experience with the world of paid surveys on my niche site).
Paid surveys are essentially get paid to type offers wherein you, the survey taker (also called panelist by many companies) takes a survey online and in returns is rewarded financially or through gifts and prizes.
In case you are wondering, these opportunities are 100% legitimate as most often these are top performing marketing and advertising companies who are hired by fortune 500 companies to conduct market research. Since fortune 500 companies cannot solicit you directly, they engage marketing companies to gather your feedback that will help share their new products and services in the future. This is how your opinions / responses to the surveys are used.
So is there truly money to be made?
Of course there is. I have posted several images of checks sent to me by paid survey companies on my niche site as well as on my blog. These are just a handful of examples to demonstrate that money can be made by completing paid online surveys.
The key is to sign up with as many legitimate companies as possible. The magic word here is legitimate. Because high flying dreams are easy to hype up and sell, there are many pseudo paid survey companies online that don’t do much good for you. Stick with the legitimate ones to avoid a bad taste in your mouth.
How much time does it take to do a survey and what are the returns?
This can range from a minute to 20 minutes and sometimes even more. Pay can range anywhere from 10 cents to $150 per survey. It all really depends. The longer you stick with it, the better the offers get as paid companies start to get to know you better and trust you. Therefore, better offers are also sent your way.
Although one can easily amass $500 extra each month for paid surveys and similar get paid to activities (such as product offers), earning this amount is not passive by any means and it involves consistent effort month after month. It is essentially a part time job, and many would argue that one can make more flipping burgers at Wendy’s.
Maybe or maybe not? Paid surveys provide the flexibility to work when you want, from wherever you want, with as little or as many hours you want. Some do paid surveys to make ends meet, while others complete paid surveys to make some extra cash on the side by trading in their spare time.
The “real” money in paid surveys comes if you are able to refer other survey panelists to the survey companies. If you have a popular blog readership or an email newsletter, promoting paid survey companies to your list can be very lucrative as paid survey companies compensate you each time you send them leads (no this is not multi level marketing and everyone keeps their own share of the payment pie that comes directly from the company, not from each others’ earnings).
It is with some solid content and through proper search engine optimization and internet marketing that I was able to rank my paid survey niche website, which currently ranks on page one of Google for several highly competitive keywords that relate to “make money online”.
If you are able to do this, then the sky is the limit in terms of how much you can earn from paid survey companies without incremental effort on your part and thus turning it into a passive income stream. This is exactly what I have done, with some companies sending me monthly checks that easily surpass $1,000.
With that said, I don’t want to leave you with false promises and high flying dreams that are unrealistic. Like anything else worthwhile and profitable, establishing successful niche sites take work. However, if profiting from paid surveys is something that you are interested in, understand that it is completely doable.
Guest Post Author Bio: Sunil owns over two dozen profitable niche websites, over 20 successfully selling eBooks, and is the author of “How to Go from $0 to $1,000 a month in Passive and Residual Income in Under 180 Days All in Your Spare Time”, a FREE report you can download instantly from his blog, where he discusses expedited wealth building through internet marketing, personal finance and entrepreneurship. In 2007, he sold his ecommerce website for $250,000 to a top Ebay Power Seller and since then has sold several niche sites for five figures each. You can read more about him and his work on his blog.
The Different Types Of Business Loans When searching for an appropriate business loan, it is essential that you find a loan appropriate for your individual requirements.…
Comments
Earning Extra Money Online With Paid Surveys — 19 Comments
I haven’t found too many survey companies that are worth it. What are some good companies?
by “worth it” I assume you mean from a return on investment perspective?
if so there are some very good ones that I have experienced and have written on quite a bit. for example, have you tried cash crate? what do you think of their offers?
While I do not doubt there are legit surveys out there, I haven’t found one yet. I have tried this off and on over the years. As the poster stated, the real money is in getting referrals to sign up. Some of the surveys work well if you can actually use the products you end up getting – but it can cost you more than it is worth.
Bill – off and on disrupts momentum if you are serious about getting to a point where you are offered the high dollar surveys + focus groups. I do agree that there is a lot of money to be made in referrals. however I personally was making several hundred dollars completing surveys myself before I decided to write reviews about them. speaking of keeping products, have you tried Vindale? i have written an extensive review on it on my site. this is a company that has sent me bicycles, vacuum cleaners and several others to keep while paying me decent money for completing the evaluation surveys.
Daisy, many surveys do take longer than they are worth. And you are right, maybe you haven’t found the right ones 🙂 There are a few sites that are the “cream of the crop” per se. I still get survey invites that pay in the $75 to $125 range.
I haven’t exactly been able to make money completing surveys but I am a member of the Air Miles research group (or whatever it’s called). They sent me an invitation by email awhile ago and I thought- hey why not? I get an email whenever they have a survey to complete and they ‘pay’ in Air Miles. Most of the time, after completing a few questions about myself, the survey says they have enough participants like me and don’t need me to complete the survey anymore. It only takes a minute or two to get to this point so I don’t mind. I did one the other day that paid 20 air Miles or so and it only took a few minutes of my time. I could probably do better if I invested time looking for paid surveys but these kinda just fall in my lap so I’m good with the lower ‘pay’.
I don’t know about paid surveys, time is money so one has to be sure he is maximizing the value of his time with filling surveys. Never tried to do it, but I like to know that it’s possible and out there…
agreed, time is money indeed and that’s why I decided to go from taking them to generating referrals / leads. but not everyone has the knowledge and ability to do that. for those, they just have to decide whether 1 hour doing surveys is more or less lucrative than the alternative. well said.
The effective hourly rate people get from paid surveys isn’t that high, but it can be a good way to low skilled workers to make some extra cash. The truth is that many people don’t have the skills to get better jobs.
that’s a very good way to put it. the main “group” that I find is attracted to paid surveys are folks who are simply looking for an extra $100-$200 to raise extra cash.
If I’m just messing around on the internet anyways I’ll take a survey. But probably not enough to make $500/month! Glad your website is a place that shares legitimate sites, though.
$500 is a possibility, but definitely not when you start. these companies have sophisticated algorithms built in that “get to know you” over time before the high dollar value offers start pouring in.
Hey folks! Just a quick note. Sunil (our revered guest poster) has responded to all of the comments. I was unable to find time to solve the issue but I hope to do so soon. You aren’t being ignored!
I’ve tried some paid survey’s, but found that they just weren’t worth my time. I’d spend 30min completing a survey… and earn $1 from it. I’d rather spend my time with my family… or doing something more worthwhile.
It would take consistent daily effort to rake in $500 per month from surveys sites, but it can be done. I agree that passive income from survey company referral programs can be lucrative, but that takes a lot of time and work as well if you want to make $1,000 per month. It’s definitely possible though.
Yeah, I’ve tried paid surveys, too but never really made enough to be worth my time. Sunil, aside from Vindale, what other paid survey sites do you recommend?
Awesome blog! Those are great survey sites. I have to say, most of the survey sites I do surveys with are really good and some of them are the one’s you mentioned, but I have noticed that a lot of them end up saying I don’t qualify for the survey after I’ve already spent some of my time starting to fill it out. I came across another survey site that is never mentioned and I don’t know why. You ALWAYS qualify for EVERY survey and they pay you for everything you fill out including your demographics and personal information. Give it a try for yourself and see! It’s free and you lose nothing. You can get there here http://paidviewpoint.com/?r=o80fqg
I haven’t found too many survey companies that are worth it. What are some good companies?
by “worth it” I assume you mean from a return on investment perspective?
if so there are some very good ones that I have experienced and have written on quite a bit. for example, have you tried cash crate? what do you think of their offers?
While I do not doubt there are legit surveys out there, I haven’t found one yet. I have tried this off and on over the years. As the poster stated, the real money is in getting referrals to sign up. Some of the surveys work well if you can actually use the products you end up getting – but it can cost you more than it is worth.
Bill – off and on disrupts momentum if you are serious about getting to a point where you are offered the high dollar surveys + focus groups. I do agree that there is a lot of money to be made in referrals. however I personally was making several hundred dollars completing surveys myself before I decided to write reviews about them. speaking of keeping products, have you tried Vindale? i have written an extensive review on it on my site. this is a company that has sent me bicycles, vacuum cleaners and several others to keep while paying me decent money for completing the evaluation surveys.
might be worth a look?
Daisy, many surveys do take longer than they are worth. And you are right, maybe you haven’t found the right ones 🙂 There are a few sites that are the “cream of the crop” per se. I still get survey invites that pay in the $75 to $125 range.
I haven’t exactly been able to make money completing surveys but I am a member of the Air Miles research group (or whatever it’s called). They sent me an invitation by email awhile ago and I thought- hey why not? I get an email whenever they have a survey to complete and they ‘pay’ in Air Miles. Most of the time, after completing a few questions about myself, the survey says they have enough participants like me and don’t need me to complete the survey anymore. It only takes a minute or two to get to this point so I don’t mind. I did one the other day that paid 20 air Miles or so and it only took a few minutes of my time. I could probably do better if I invested time looking for paid surveys but these kinda just fall in my lap so I’m good with the lower ‘pay’.
I don’t know about paid surveys, time is money so one has to be sure he is maximizing the value of his time with filling surveys. Never tried to do it, but I like to know that it’s possible and out there…
agreed, time is money indeed and that’s why I decided to go from taking them to generating referrals / leads. but not everyone has the knowledge and ability to do that. for those, they just have to decide whether 1 hour doing surveys is more or less lucrative than the alternative. well said.
The effective hourly rate people get from paid surveys isn’t that high, but it can be a good way to low skilled workers to make some extra cash. The truth is that many people don’t have the skills to get better jobs.
that’s a very good way to put it. the main “group” that I find is attracted to paid surveys are folks who are simply looking for an extra $100-$200 to raise extra cash.
If I’m just messing around on the internet anyways I’ll take a survey. But probably not enough to make $500/month! Glad your website is a place that shares legitimate sites, though.
$500 is a possibility, but definitely not when you start. these companies have sophisticated algorithms built in that “get to know you” over time before the high dollar value offers start pouring in.
Hey folks! Just a quick note. Sunil (our revered guest poster) has responded to all of the comments. I was unable to find time to solve the issue but I hope to do so soon. You aren’t being ignored!
Thanks Simon!
I’ve tried some paid survey’s, but found that they just weren’t worth my time. I’d spend 30min completing a survey… and earn $1 from it. I’d rather spend my time with my family… or doing something more worthwhile.
Julie, what paid survey companies have you tried? Agree with you – for that amount I’d rather be taking a nap 😉
It would take consistent daily effort to rake in $500 per month from surveys sites, but it can be done. I agree that passive income from survey company referral programs can be lucrative, but that takes a lot of time and work as well if you want to make $1,000 per month. It’s definitely possible though.
Yeah, I’ve tried paid surveys, too but never really made enough to be worth my time. Sunil, aside from Vindale, what other paid survey sites do you recommend?
Awesome blog! Those are great survey sites. I have to say, most of the survey sites I do surveys with are really good and some of them are the one’s you mentioned, but I have noticed that a lot of them end up saying I don’t qualify for the survey after I’ve already spent some of my time starting to fill it out. I came across another survey site that is never mentioned and I don’t know why. You ALWAYS qualify for EVERY survey and they pay you for everything you fill out including your demographics and personal information. Give it a try for yourself and see! It’s free and you lose nothing. You can get there here http://paidviewpoint.com/?r=o80fqg