How to Make Money Taking Surveys

One of the most asked questions on the internet is "Can I really make extra money answering surveys?" Scams, spam and overly enthused marketers have overdone the concept of making money filling out surveys, but there are still legitimate, paying surveys out there and you can make extra money doing them.

Can you make $25 to $80 for an hour's work, the way it's been claimed? Yes, you can. BUT you can't make it very often. Just how often depends on a lot of factors, like your age, whether you're married, how you shop, if you have certain health problems, where you live and so on.

Taking surveys will not provide an income you can live on, but done with diligence and treated like a job, it can earn you good pocket money.

First of all, never, never, never pay any amount of money for the privilege of taking a survey or joining a "survey company." They tell you they have this list of survey companies and hint that you can't get the list without paying them. That's not true.

Second, do your homework. Go to any good search engine and type in "paying surveys," and see how many are listed. That's their list. Granted, they might have checked to see if the offerings are legitimate - but then again, they might not have. You can do it on your own, for free.

Third, read the list of results and go to every page that looks promising. Read the FAQ, the terms and the hype. If the site makes wild claims about how much you can make, get out of there. Most survey companies pay only a little - usually less than five dollars a survey and some of them pay only pennies. Good companies pay, some in cash, some in points you can redeem for cash or "rewards" or "prizes." Find out which ones do and decide whether their payment level is acceptable to you.

Fourth, You'll take a lot of qualifiying surveys that don't pay anything but only take a few minutes to complete. Be as honest as you possibly can on these short surveys and take them all, because you'll be matched up with the real paying surveys according to how you respond to these.