Paid Surveys

One common way of earning money online is taking up paid surveys. What are they exactly? Paid surveys are surveys conducted by marketing research companies who will pay you for your time and opinion. But why would they do that, you might ask? Paid surveys are a broader field of business called "Marketing Research". In this increasingly globalised and connected world, large companies like Multi-National Companies (MNCs) need to know their target maket's opinion before launching a new product and service. Hence, they turn to marketing consultants for the infomation. And thats where you, as a participant, come in.

How do they pay?

These depend on various factors including:

#1: The Number of Surveys Signed up

Basically, the more survey sites you sign up, the more money you will get for doing their surveys. Of course, that is provided you have the time to complete them. Some surveys have a limited time period, so be sure to check your inbox or their website regularly to ensure you do not miss any surveys sent to you.

#2: Type of surveys given

The longer the time needed to complete a survey, the better the rewards for completion. A typical short survey may pay from $2 to $10 while longer questionnaires may pay out as high as $75 per survey.

#3: Your demographics

Some survey sites only allow people from certain countries to participate. These definitely limit international participants' choice in selecting a survey site. Even if they allow, your demographics may put you in a disadvantage over local participants as their focal group may not be at where you stay. However, if you were selected, your demographics may give you an edge in the form of the exchange rate. International participants may earn up to thrice to amount of what locals get, for example, in an US or UK Survey site.

Exploiting Paid Surveys to your Advantage


As there are numerous paid surveys out there, you might be scratching your head, wondering which site is the most credible (or profitable) one. After all, time is money, no one wants to waste time signing up for a website that might even be bogus. The best answer I can provide is, knowledge is power. Search for various reviews and decide from there. Examples include www.zses.com, http://www.paidsurveyguide.org/index.html, http://www.paidsurveysforall.com/.

Some better known Survey sites available to international participants are:

1. American Consumer Opinion

2. Ciao Surveys

3. Survey Savvy

4. GlobalTestMarket

5. Spidermetrix

6. Opinionworld

7. SurveyHead

While there are some survey sites that require a one-time membership payment fee, I strongly discourage people from doing so. Most of such websites are scams and do not offer you the supposed extra benefits from the membership fee. One such site is Survey Scout.

Mode of Payment

It would be wise for the discerning participant to know how he/she would be paid upon completing a survey. There are primarily 2 modes of payment:

1. Cash

The most common form of payment. After finishing a survey, the participant may be awarded points in exchange for cash such as GlobalTestMarket, or may be entered into a cash draw, such as America Consumer Opinion. Cash Payments may be issued in the form of cheques or electronically entered into a bank account (e.g. Paypal).

2. Gift Certificates or Sweepsakes

While some sites do not give out cash incentives, they may award you in the form of gift certificates, gifts or even allow you to test new products. Survey Savvy is one such site which does this.

I will stop here for now. Now, let us go through another form of making money, paid emails...

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