Making money from online surveys - some insider tips!

Many people are looking for ways to make some money online, and usually most will come across the concept of paid surveys. Paid surveys, at least those provided by the legitimate survey companies, are online research surveys that require respondents to provide inputs and opinions on a number of survey questions, and in exchange for the users' opinion, provide some form of financial benefit.

Financial benefits are usually in the form of rewards, and normally take the form of cash payments and other sweepstake type rewards. Dependent on the type of survey, most online paid surveys pay in the region of $1-$10 for US based surveys, and the equivalent for international type surveys.

The 'trick' - if you could call it that - to obtaining the larger payouts and invitations to the higher paying surveys can be summarized as follows:

1) Maintain your user profile
Survey companies are looking to provide invitations to a certain niche group of survey respondents, and will usually send the invitation to those panelists that have provided certain information about themselves. It is imperative that after signing on as a survey panelist, that you complete the demographic data and profile information that they are looking for. This might seem tedious at first, but believe me, once completed, expect to receive up to 10 times as many survey invitations as opposed to a 'generic' candidate that has not completed the profile information

2) Stick at it
The one thing I have noticed is that the more you stick at it, the more invitations seem to be sent, and the higher the payouts seem to become. Survey companies are looking for respondents that are honest, and committed. The more you respond and participate, the more likely they are to send invitations your way.

Certain firms pick up on trends of the respondents, and start sending invitations to online focus groups and the like, which ultimately are the higher paying tasks - usually paying upwards of $25 to $50 per online focus group (and for the same amount of time spent!)

3) Respond quickly
Most surveys are time sensitive or have a specific target quota to be filled. The quicker you respond and take the survey, the more likely you are to be within the target quota.

As with all things in life, their are no quick fixes to making money, but paid surveys are definitely a means to make extra income in your spare time.

Bob Burns has been reviewing paid online surveys for a few years and has now created the largest free paid survey directory on the web.