How to make money with online surveys

Online market research is a huge industry. Recently I had read that market researchers typically devote over 38% of all of their energies into online market research which trumps all other data collection methods. It makes sense - it's a medium through which you have access to a large market audience and it's relatively easy to segment people by lifestyle, demographics, etc. Since there's such a market involved here it also means a lot of opportunity for aspiring work at homers to get involved ... web sites abound. Over 6 millions pages come up when you Google "online market survey opportunities". Now here's how to get a piece of this action for yourself!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• A computer with internet access
• A personal email account. It isn't a bad idea to open an email account just for surveys as often you will also receive additional emails from survey companies' partners.
• A Pay-Pal Account as some survey sites pay through this method versus issuing checks.

1. The first step is to find survey companies that are accepting new panelists. You can search for "online paid surveys" for a great list of options. My favorite sites to date are: SurveySpot, Synovate, American Consumer Opinion, and Sendearnings. All of these sites have consistent opportunities to make money and the surveys themselves are interesting. SurveySpot has been the most consistent in terms of surveys that pay money and on average you can make $3 - $5 per survey. Not all surveys pay money however but the more surveys you get through, the more likely you are to get money.
2. About once every two weeks you should be sent an email inviting you to participate in a survey. Sendearnings also sends you invitations to be paid to read emails. With each site, you log-in and are taken to the survey. The preliminary questions are usually demographic selectors including age, gender, average household income, number of people in household, etc. You are taken through these questions as a means of qualifying you to complete the survey as these surveys are usually for specific products or to gauge specific buying habits. For example if you live in an apartment, you are not likely to buy roofing tools so why would they waste their time or mine. Once you qualify, you continue with the survey. Most surveys take about 10 minutes and ask about buying habits and spending habits and things like that.
3. The surveys themselves are usually easy to complete and most take no longer than 15 minutes. The pay rate and the frequency depend on the site.

Tips & Warnings

• The more survey panels you belong to, the more money you have the chance to make. There are a lot of opportunities!
• Be truthful and consistent. You may not qualify for all surveys but most sites can read inconsistencies and you may not be selected for future surveys if you provide false answers.
• While there are a number of reputable sites and opportunities there are a just as many if not more scams and misleading survey links. It's hard to figure out without trying them which really are worth your time. I did find a great site this evening though called SurveyPolice.com which exists to help provide consumers and online users with rankings and reputation information about the various online survey companies. It's a great idea and looks to have a lot of great information about online surveys. They had one great page with a lot of helpful and useful information on being a panelist, tax information, market research and more.