Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Paid Online Surveys: The Facts And Myths

By Jennifer Ho

Paid online surveys have been around the internet for quite some time, and a lot of people are getting into it in hopes of getting some extra cash, whether to pay for home expenses, everyday needs or buy life's simple luxuries. Companies that are doing marketing research with their products and services are willing to pay consumers who partake in their ongoing surveys and focus groups. There are a lot of paid for surveys in the web and one must be able to discern those legitimate survey sites from the scams.

The truth is, there are really some genuine websites that are offering paid online surveys; what they need is your opinion and what you get is some form of payment for completing it. It is no secret to many companies that consumer's opinion matters since they are the ones that are using or consuming their products and their feedback will greatly help them in the improvement of its quality. These companies will have no problem giving out money for their advertising and marketing programs which include surveys like these.

These paid for surveys are about almost anything under the sun. From luxurious restaurants you love to eat at, upcoming movies and music events, the products you buy at your favorite grocery store, and even the latest gaming consoles, the possibilities are seemingly endless. Surveys may target specific age groups, hobbies and areas of interests; all of which are aimed at improving the quality of the products and services that these companies are offering.

The moment you register in genuine paid online surveys, you will be required to relay some important data that will basically include your age, gender, profession and income or salary range. Once the survey site has gathered all the necessary information, you will then be waiting for their email whenever there is a survey that you qualify for based on the data you have given. An invitation will be sent to you containing the direct link to the survey form itself.

The incentives coming from paid online surveys can come in a wide variety of forms like cash, gift certificates or reward points that are redeemable to cash. Different survey sites will have different methods of rewarding consumers that participate in their surveys; it can be a direct payment of a small sum of money, or a point system which will need you to acquire a certain number of points in order to get cash or freebies.

While the number of paid online surveys increases in the web, so do the number of fake websites wanting to take advantage of people looking for extra source of income. These websites are endorsing themselves as one that is capable of providing a huge list of paid for surveys in exchange for a membership fee.

Membership of course, comes at a price, varying from $25-$100 or even more. Their websites are filled with a lot of data about their members and how much they have earned after signing-up, even putting up screenshots of the daily or monthly earnings of their so-called members, which we can't even determine if they really exist at all. You will also see many testimonials from their fictitious members saying how thankful they are that they found that particular website.

Most of these suspicious websites will try to entice people to sign-up with the promise of huge daily or monthly earnings, from $300 to even more than $1000 daily! They will also tempt you with their great stories of success of people that have joined their website and how their life has changed ever since. They will give you exaggerated claims that are too good to be true, and say anything just to get you to join.

It is important to keep in mind that you can never get filthy rich by just participating in paid online surveys. Yes there are some legitimate sites offering great deals for completing surveys, but it can never be enough to replace your day job salary or business income. Be warned that many websites offering paid for surveys is capable of luring you into their hoax programs and take advantage of you. Just remember to stay away from those sites that require payment on your part and those that have offers that are too good to be true.

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