Get Paid To Take Free Online Paid Surveys

Published 10/27/09 (Modified 3/9/11)
By MoneyBlueBook

Reviews of the Best Paid Online Surveys: Avoid Internet Survey Scams

If you are searching for a genuinely legitimate paid online survey, you're at the right place. The following is a recommended list of popular online marketing firms that are offering free paid surveys and is a nice resource for people looking to make some money online from home or earn a little bit of extra cash on the side by filling out short survey questionnaires. After much research with a lot of trial and error, I've compiled a list of what I've found to be the top paid online survey programs that compensate participants with either cash or gift card rewards for completed surveys.

If you've already conducted an online search via Google.com or Bing.com for the best paid surveys, then you've probably already noticed that the vast majority (95%) of those search results invariably lead to some rather scammy looking links or to websites that try to convince you to fork over a membership fee for exclusive access to some secret list of paid surveys. It's a sad and rather sobering sight to see, but the Internet is littered to the brim with such misleading resources and self interested clutter. Don't buy the marketing hype or misleading online promotions that suggest that you must actually pay money to gain access to some super secret list. If a survey company starts asking you to pay an upfront charge, run away as fast as you can - lest you unwittingly succumb to the online scam. There is absolutely no reason that you ought to ever pay for such services as they can be legitimately and freely obtained online without cost.

Is It Really Possible To Make Money Online By Taking Paid Internet Surveys?

For starters and particularly for those of you easily misled or swayed by delusions of dancing dollar signs in your head, let me be very clear - the paid online survey websites listed below are not scams, gimmicks, or get rich quick schemes. No one is going to become a millionaire or earn enough money with these surveys to retire. Paid surveys can help you supplement your full time day job with some extra spending cash to pay the bills (up to anywhere from as little as $25 to as much as $200 or more per month), but that's the extent of their financial usefulness. If you're a stay at home mom, a full time student, a retiree, or even a working professional who wants to kill some time on a regular basis by knocking out a few quick surveys for some free money, these compensated surveys will definitely appeal to you. But those of you looking to turn online survey taking into some type of part time job are much better off working as a blogger and directing your efforts towards blogging to make money. At the very least, part time blogging has a greater potential to turn a simple hobby into a full time and sustainable online job than survey taking ever could.

However, in terms of earning a little bit of honest cash on the side, free paid survey offers are verifiably legitimate sources of income. Paid survey websites work by referring to their members survey inquiries provided by real companies. Most of the referring retailers are owners of consumer brands that you and I are probably already familiar with - brands that range from popular grocery food products and recognizable household goods, to manufacturers of popular electronic devices and automobiles. The retail companies rely on these regular survey samples to design and market their products, and are very willing to pay a small amount of money to compensate individuals for their survey taking time. Along with the usual assortment of survey inquiries based on your previous history of consumer usage and experiences, occasionally you also get lucky with a specific request to try out new and untested products. I enjoy it immensely when survey companies send out actual consumer products for me to review in person - items that include everything from experimental trial shampoos to shaving razors, to snack crackers and ear phones. After examining and trying out the products, you are expected to rate your experience on a sliding scale based on a variety of determinative factors.

The pay out rate for each online survey varies depending on the subject matter and the length of time that each is expected to take. The easy $1.00 surveys can take as little as 1-10 minutes to complete, while the more difficult but more lucrative $20 - $25 health care and fitness related paid surveys may take as long as an hour or longer. Depending on your personal demographics, you may or may not qualify for a large number of the potential paid online surveys out there - as it all depends on what the marketing companies are looking for at any given time. But if you want to fully maximize your online survey income potential, I highly recommend that you sign up and register for as many legitimate survey sites as you can. The more survey programs you have a relationship with, the more likely you will be able to maintain a steady flow of survey taking opportunities to make money from. As always, be sure to use a spare email account, lest you get overrun by survey emails (although you can always shut the survey messages down at any time by request).

Reviews Of Recommended Paid Online Survey Sites (All Are Free To Join):

1) NFO My Survey – The MySurvey Consumer Panel website is one of the very best free online survey providers out there and one that I highly recommend for aspiring paid online survey takers. Not only is their website very accessible and easy to navigate, their online surveys pay quite well. Since I joined as a panel survey taker years ago, they've provided me a consistent stream of paid survey opportunities on a wide array of interesting topics, including numerous fun product review solicitations that were mailed to my home for me to try out and opine on. Though the company utilizes a point system for dishing out reward incentives, the points are fully redeemable for cash checks and gift cards. The company also allows participants to earn additional money through referrals of their own.

2) Synovate – The Synovate Global Opinion Panel pays cash for completed online surveys and offers actively engaged participants the opportunity to receive a fairly steady burst of paid online survey chances on a regular basis. The Synovate survey company's payout rate is quite competitive but dependent on the survey's subject matter. Keep an eye out for those lucrative health care related surveys as they pay $10 and up. Synovate does provide product review opportunities as well and I've received my fair share of fun experimental bathroom products to review.

3) Ipsos I Say – Ipsos is a pretty big name in the marketing research world. While they focus primarily on in home product reviews and consumer product surveys, they still generally provide a reasonably balanced mix of of survey opportunities for their participating members. If you are interested in receiving freebies and getting free survey test products in the mail to review, you might want to give Ipsos a try. In regards to these in-home freebie products, you are generally free to keep the products regardless of whether you actually fill out the accompanied survey or not.

4) Survey Savvy – I really like Survey Savvy as the company is one of the best paid Internet survey sites in the market today and offers its participants a pretty lucrative referral program for their friends and family members. The company pays its members money for both personally completed surveys as well as completed surveys made by referrals. Payouts are dependent on the length of time and subject matter involved, but for friend and family referrals, you can earn $2.00 for every survey your direct referral takes and yet another $1.00 for every survey taken by their referrals. Based on the way Survey Savvy has things set up, online participants have multiple tiered opportunities to rack up income pretty quickly.

5) Global Test Market – I've been using Global Test Market to supplement my part time survey income for some time now. The company offers a fairly consistent number of survey taking opportunities for both American and international survey registrants looking to maintain a consistent stream of paid survey jobs. Even if you don't qualify for a survey offer that is sent to you, you still get to accrue reward points simply by looking over it. Participants earn Global Test Market Points for completing surveys, redeemable for a variety of reward incentives. Like all of the survey companies reviewed on this list, Global Test Market is completely free and not contractually compulsory (you're not forced to answer all surveys if you don't want to).

6) Greenfield Online – If you are trying to find a legitimate paid online survey company that will provide you a significant number of survey gigs at a consistent pace, Greenfield Online is definitely for you. Greenfield has access to a lot of offers and provides payment in a variety of forms, including cash checks and free entries into their regularly renewed prize drawing. Here's my little advice for registrants of Greenfield Online - stick to the cash payment only surveys and consider skipping the ones that only offer prize drawing entries. Cold hard cash beats raffle drawings any day. Sure you, might get lucky, beat the odds, and win the lottery, but your chances are slim to none that you will.

7) My Points – Want to get paid for reading spam emails? Then give MyPoints a try. The company is legitimate and at any time you want the emails to permanently stop, simply unsubscribe. MyPoints is not really a paid online survey provider per se, but they do offer survey opportunities as part of their reward earning system. The company offers a very large variety of ways to earn bonus points for future prize and merchandise redemption. If you are determined to make money online, I recommend trying out MyPoints as a resource. You can earn points by completing surveys (SurveyMail), reading e-mail advertisements (BonusMail), or even by signing up for online trial offers. If you don't want to sign up for any unnecessary services, I recommend that you simply stick with the Survey Mail and Bonus Mail opportunities to earn reward points.

8) American Consumer Opinion Panel – The American Consumer Opinion Panel, or ACOP as it's commonly called, is a personal favorite of mine due to the speed at which the company issues out compensation checks for completed paid surveys. Depending on the type of survey completed, ACOP participants can expect to be paid anywhere from $4 to $20 depending on the length, qualification requirements, and subject matter of the survey. If you desire to be paid more and reap anywhere between $25-$50 for each opportunity, you might want to consider signing up for ACOP sponsored online focus group reviews whenever those rare offers present themselves.

9) Lightspeed Consumer Panel – If volume of surveys is the most important factor to you, then definitely consider signing up with Lightspeed. The consumer survey company offers a tremendous number of paid online survey opportunities, paying out reward points for each completed survey. Reward points are fully redeemable for cash payments, gift cards, and other merchandise based prizes. For the professional survey takers out there who can speed read and crank through a large number of surveys in one sitting, Lightspeed has the potential to be quite a lucrative part time income cash cow for super active participants.