The Real Story Behind Online Paid Surveys

Online marketing research firms have been paying consumers to participate in surveys. The Web has granted them a more-efficient way to collect data. Many online paid surveys are now conducting legit research.

When there is easy-making money competition working from home, you can bet that there's also exaggeration, if not outright scams. Many Middleman sites will charge "membership" fees for access to lists of marketing research firms that conduct online paid surveys.

Some paid survey will try to dupe you into believing their lists are special. Don’t be fool; search the Web to find that many sites are for free. According to messages on scam forums, their lists are essentially the same as others. Many listed membership sites will try to dupe you into buying the same list over and over again.

When you click the links or buy memberships, they earn referral fees or commissions, and some by hosting links and ads. Other middleman paid survey sites provide free lists. Some mentioned in scam forums the same list are at other membership sites, under different domain names. Natch, will make sure that these sites have incentive to exaggerate how much you'll earn from online paid surveys.

The 60+ paid survey sites review; most "pay" with token rewards in the form of goods, services, coupons or samples, but cash are only through sweepstakes. If you're lucky, the prizes from these sites are $5-200 in cash or goods and some pay with points which are redeemable for cash or goods.

Typically, you must rack up a bunch to redeem them for anything of significance. While others pay nothing or only sweepstakes entries for completing screening surveys, that determine your eligibility to receive certain paid surveys, and some don't pay much of anything, unless you recruit others as in pyramid schemes.

A few paid survey sites reviewed do pay relatively well in cash. You might, however, earn or win some extra spending money, or free or discounted goods or services.

Some paid survey sites effectively promise not to share personally information’s without your consent, but unauthorized go-betweens membership sites can.

By joining, you might have also rolled out the red carpet for the membership site or its unnamed "marketing partners" to solicit you. Personally information is worth a small fortune to direct marketers. U.S. Federal Trade Commission pushed for legislation in 2002 to stop unsolicited telemarketing calls. Is it worth a few extra bucks, sweepstakes and token rewards for dealing with dozens of pestering privacy invasions?

All things considered, it's no surprise that some of the marketing research sites reviewed disclaim any connection with membership sites. Real paid survey sites pay you, not the other way around.