Paid Surveys
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Paid surveys have risen in popularity over the last few years. When I was researching the idea of working at home, the paid survey idea was constantly mentioned, so I thought i would give it a try to see how it all works.
There are several different types of survey companies. Some offer cash as a incentive to do their surveys, some offer gifts as rewards. Generally the rate of pay is around $1 for a 15 minute survey. This doesn’t sound too bad right?
The problem is that you won’t receive a steady stream of surveys throughout the day. Generally I receive roughly two surveys per day from each company. This varies from time to to time. Some days I get none, and some days I can receive several.
As you can imagine, there is no major income potential here. If you do them regularly, then they will build up to quite a nice sum after a bit of time.
So how do the surveys work? Generally you get an email stating that a survey meeting your profile is available to you. You click on the link in the email, and follow the questions. The majority of the surveys are multi choice, and you use your mouse to select what you think. Survey topics are quite varied, the vast majority being about alcohol, food and technology. They can get a bit boring after a while, but for the most part they aren’t too bad.
A big upside to this is that some of the companies want you to test out their new products, so these get mailed to your door, and you get to test them out, and keep them when the survey is complete! This is quite rare though, but always a treat when you get something new and exciting to test 
Below are links to some of new favourite survey sites:
Ciao-Surveys
Globaltestmarket
Lightspeed Panel
Toluna
Valued Opinions
Yougov
If you have any queries, please see the Survey FAQ located here.