Make Money at home with Paid Surveys

Hi, I'm a stay-home-mom from Malaysia who has been taking Paid Surveys for more than a year as a home-based business venture. This blog is intended to help those of you who are as eager as I am to explore this wonderful online opportunity. I want to save you the time I spent googling for information and legitimate survey sites.

Give your opinion for a chance to win $50,000.

Paid Surveys

A paid survey is a type of online statistical survey where the participant is rewarded through an incentive program. Incentives are in the form of cash (USD 2 – USD45), gifts, vouchers or entries into cash draws and sweepstakes. Paid surveys are used to collect quantitative information about the participant’s personal and economic habits set against his or her particular demographic. It requires no special skills, experience or membership fee. This is fun easy work and you can rake in several hundred U.S Dollars a month working from home and setting your own hours. Paid surveys are perfect for stay-home mums and students but anyone can be a paid survey taker.
To help you get started, below are some hot tips on boosting your online revenue

Tip 1
Sign up with as many companies as possible to maximize your chances of receiving e-mail invitations to surveys. To get started, click on the links on the right sidebar. Each link will open in a new window so that you can close it when you are done and return to the list. If you tire of repeated typing of the same information, there is a free program called Roboform. It is completely free and only takes about 3 minutes to download. Basically, it fills out forms for you at the click of a button! This is extremely useful for filling up your profile and account information.

Tip 2
After each sign-up, be sure to reply to the confirmation e-mail you will be sent after joining. This is extremely important as after joining a new survey company online, you will receive a confirmation e-mail to confirm that you are the owner of the e-mail address you have entered.

Tip3
Update your profile. The number of survey invitations you will receive depends on your profile and the studies being conducted. These are general surveys that the company uses to get an idea of your interests, hobbies, thoughts, daily activities, product usage, etc. They can seem time consuming, but the chances of paid survey opportunities you receive are higher if you fill all of them out.

Tip 4
Be Honest. Market research companies are interested in your honest opinions and employ various strategies to weed out any liars.
Tip 5
Most of all, be patient! It can take some time to start receiving regular survey invitations. Don’t give up. While some companies will start to send you e-mail invitations almost immediately, it may take others several weeks to a couple of months before you receive anything.

Please be reminded that this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Don't expect to earn money overnight. As with most business endeavours, the amount of money you can earn from online surveys will depend on the amount of time and effort you invest. If you approach paid surveys with the same dedication and persistance you'd give other work at home ventures, you'll start to see results in a couple of months.[

FAQ

Who can participate in Paid Surveys?
Anyone can participate. Men, women, students, senior citizens and especially homemakers across the world. The only requirements are an access to e-mail and the web and the ability to correspond in English.

Why would I participate in Paid Surveys?
There are 2 main reasons. First, the information you provide helps companies and organizations to improve their products and services to better serve your needs and preferences. The reason Market Research companies are conducting surveys is because they want input from you.
Second, most Market Research Companies offer a reward which are usually monetary for participating.

Does it cost anything to join?
A legitimate site never asks you to pay anything. Membership is 100% free. Some companies even pay you a sign-up bonus !

What is a screener?
A screener is a questionaire filled out by propective respondents to help select the appropriate matches for a particular survey.

Why am I told that I do not qualify for a survey that I am invited to after completing the screener?
It means that the project's requirements do not match your responses or that the Market Research Company's quota for participants have been met for that particular study. Often, a study will be targeted at specific demograhics, such as Males aged 18 to 20 or females who are homemakers. There is usually a limit on how many qualified participants they can accept. If you do not meet the requirements of the study, or if the maximum amount of respondents have already completed it, you will not qualify to complete it.

If I am unable to complete a survey after I have started, am I required to start from the beginning again?
Generally, if you are unable to complete a survey in one sitting, you can return to the incomplete survey by clicking on the link in your e-mail invite as long as your cookies are not cleared. You can then proceed to where you left off previously.

How long does it take to complete a survey?
Surveys vary in length but will typically take less than 15 or 20 minutes to complete. Each e-mail invitation to a survey will tell you how long approximately it should take and the deadline to respond.

How much does a survey pay?
It depends, due to the ever-changing needs of the market research community. Sometimes you might receive a short survey that takes just a few minutes to fill out and pays USD2 and a week later, you might get invited to a 2-hour focus group/survey that pays USD50.

Why do I need to fill up the profile surveys?
Market Research Companies are looking for very specific demograhics when they're doing their research. For example, they may want to know what 30 to 50 year-old men think when purchasing a car. In order to find suitable respondents, Market Research companies search their database for panelists who match that age range. If you are uncomfortable about divulging certain information, it's fine. However, by providing less information, you will not be selected for as many surveys. Supposing you are a 35 year-old Male with a household income of $35K per year and when you updated your profile, you left the income field blank. You would not be selected for the survey above because the computer would not be able to sort you out when searching the database for suitable candidates whose income falls within that bracket.

How do I unsubscribe or leave the panel of a Market Research Company?
Most survey invites have a link at the bottom of the e-mail for unsubscribing. Some companies require you to e-mail them to inform them that you wish to be removed from their mailing list.

Will I get rich as a survey taker?
Probably not. Even if you sign-up with every Market Research Company in existence, the amount of money you earn is just enough to supplement your household income. You would still need your day-time job! But it's fun and easy. Hey, who else will pay you USD15 for a job, sitting on your butt for just clicking on buttons!

How do I receive Payments?
You can receive payments via checks or online. Paypal is recommended, but unfortunately, not everyone is eligible for a Paypal account as it is not open to all countries. Alertpay is another alternative and welcomes membership from more countries than Paypal. Better still, it has lower transaction rates compared with Paypal. Both accounts are absolutely free.

How to avoid being scammed

Despite the hoopla, incentivized surveys are not new and have been around for a long time. Traditionally, Market Research Companies obtained consumers' opinions through postal surveys, over the telephone or face-to-face interaction with shoppers at the malls. With the advent of computers and the growth of the internet, surveys have gone online and are fast gaining popularity among web surfers. As with anything else that's good, ill-intentioned people are quick to take advantage of the opportunity and prey on unsuspecting surfers with sites that promise them quick riches.

Scam is a pretty strong word to use. Some sites are not scams but more of a 'waste-your-time' type of site. They don't scam you out of your bank account or anything like that but they do spam you and flood your inbox with free offers and other business opportunities that don't live up to the hype they tell you about.

Don't be afraid to venture into the world of Paid Surveys as they can prove to be a rewarding experience. However, do keep the following tips in mind to dodge scammers.

Tip 1
Do not pay for membership. If a survey site is legitimate, you will never be asked to pay or purchase anything. However, there is a difference between Market Research Companies and 'pay-to-join' companies. Market Research Companies are the ones who conduct the surveys while 'pay-to-join' companies are agents who scout for legitimate survey sites for you. They charge you a one-time fee for their service.

Tip 2
Do not give your credit information. This should immediately raise a red flag!

IDENTIFYING ONLINE SURVEY SCAMS

One-Page Registration Sites

A site that asks for nothing more than an e-mail address, first and last name cannot possibly be a Market Research Company. You should see a red flag coming up. A legitimate Market Research Company, on the contrary, usually asks for detailed information so they can better target panellists for available surveys.

No Company Information

Questionable survey sites do not provide any information regarding their business. On the other hand, legitimate Market Research Companies willingly disclose details like their company headquarters, history, reward system, contact and support information, FAQs, etc. Typically, this can be found on the 'About Us' page.

No Privacy Policy

A site that does not list its privacy policy is an unlikely legitimate survey site. Legitimate online survey panels always disclose the ways they use panellist information and will display this in the form of a privacy policy. Avoid sites lacking in this most important page of information.

Overblown Rewards

Market Research Companies usually pay you USD2-UDS45 for a survey. A survey that promises you a payment of anything more than this sounds too good to be true and is most likely a fraud. You should trust your gut feelings on this.

Sample Survey Questions

International Affairs
example: Have you taken measures to face the global financial meltdown?

Health Issues
example: Does anyone in your household suffer from depression?

Social Issues
example: Are you against same-sex marriages?

Consumer Habits
example: How many loads of laundry do you do in a week?

Business Issues
example: How may employees are there in your organization?

Political Issues
example: Did you vote in your country's last election?

Foreign Issues

example: Do you agree that China needs a better food safety system?

Sports and Entertainment Issues

example:Which baseball team do you think will win in the 2008 World Series?

Sample Survey Results

A survey by Asian Food Information Center(AFIC) of 1815 children from Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Manila found that those who eat breakfast regularly were less likely to be overweight than those who skipped it.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the average Amercian home now has more television sets than people. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people, the researchers said.

According to the Spectrem Wealth Study, an annual survey of America's wealthy, there are more people living the good life than ever before - the number of millionaires nearly doubled in the last decade.

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Sample Survey

What are people in Malaysia saying about the holidays?

Many people in Malaysia indicated in an online survey they would prefer to spend the holidays with Santa Claus rather than the U.S President, the Queen of England, the Pope or even Prince Charming.
The survey conducted by LG Electronics, ran from November 11th to the 23rd and asked what people want as the holiday season draws near. People across the globe participated in the survey and when posed with the question about their dream holiday, the majority of Malaysians preferred to spend it by going on a luxury cruise. Vacationing in the snowy Alps was a close second. And the number one holiday song in Malaysia? Not surprisingly, it is the best selling song of all time - "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby. That hit was followed by the ever-classic "Jingle Bells".

When asked about what is most stressful about the holiday season, Malaysians noted that limited spending money was the most pressing problem and in the following question, most indicated they would be spending $50 to $100 on holiday shopping.

For Malaysians, text messaging is the overwhelming choice for wishing people well during the holidays, along with phone calls being the second choice for reaching out to friends during the holidays.

For gifts, they would like to receive, Malaysians picked vacation packages as their favoured gifts. Getting the latest electronic gadget was the second most desired gifts.