68 Tips, Tricks and Things You Should Know About Legitimate Paid Survey Sites

Hello my name is Tim and I am a professional Paid Survey Taker. Over the last 2 years I have participated in hundreds of market research studies and have made a few bucks doing it. I always get weird looks when I tell people I take surveys as my part time job.

Taking paid surveys was not easy to get into, the first year I was searching for legitimate paid survey sites and learning the ropes. I signed up with over 600 sites that said they were legitimate surveys only to find that they were scams, spam or trying to sell me a list of online survey sites. I only ended up joining 10 legitimate sites.

Eventually I did more and more research and found over 300 legitimate market research sites that were worth joining. I then created a site devoted to just legitimate paid survey sites theguruseye and started helping others out, so they didn’t have to go through the same thing.

There are a few things that you should know about paid surveys before you decide to start taking surveys online. Here I will give you some of the tips and tricks about paid surveys that I have picked up. This first part of this article will outline some outlining information you will need to know.

Part I – Intro to paid surveys

1. First I would like to say that there are Legitimate Paid Surveys are out there. I personally take surveys for 47 paid survey sites.

2. Never pay a survey directory for information that is completely free on the internet. There are a lot of scams like this so watch out.

3. Just because a site is heavily advertised doesn’t mean it’s a good site too join.

4. Never pay to join a survey site, legitimate paid survey sites are free to join.

5. Some paid survey sites allow members as young as 13 years old.

6. Legitimate paid survey sites don’t advertise other survey sites.

7. Legitimate survey companies will not ask for your social security number.

8. Legitimate survey companies will not try to sell you products.

9. Legitimate survey companies will not ask you for your bank account number or credit card number.

10. Legitimate paid survey sites don’t send spam, just surveys and newsletters.

11. To spot a legitimate site you should look for the following logos. AMA, BBB, Castro.

12. Real survey sites have things like faqs, privacy policies on one the first pages or easily accessible.

13. Paid Survey Sites are actually Market Research Companies. These companies or conglomerates are very efficient at what they do.

14. Stay up to date with the news around you. Market research firms get assigned to new trends and topics, so if you can, watch or read the news everyday.

15. Taking paid surveys will not get you rich, however they will bring in some extra cash into your pocket at a rate better than most Americans make right now in a part time job (hour for hour).

16. Surveys can be taken at anytime day or night, from the convenience of anywhere nowadays with mobile technology, if you have time to kill and you have access to the internet. Do as the survey takers do.

17. Participating in Market Research for Paid Survey Sites will require you to divulge personal information. You will be protected if you join legitimate paid survey sites.

18. You will have to devote time to participate in surveys; I suggest you set aside 1 hour a day.

19. less known survey sites make you more money per survey, however; less know paid survey sites also don’t sent out that many surveys 1 per month maybe.

20. Legitimate paid survey sites never exaggerate claims. Most legitimate sites won’t even tell you how much you will make.

21. Remember if it sounds too good to be true than beware!

22. Still interested? Then continue to our next segment of 68 Paid Survey Tips and Tricks.

Part II – Setting up your accounts.

Setting up your accounts is very important; this will ensure everything goes smoothly. From getting paid quickly, completing your surveys and qualifying for them.

1. Get organized, it’s a pretty simple process. I have created this tutorial to set you up correctly.

2. First you need to decide a specific user name and password; it’s easier when all your log ins are one user name and one password, so you cant forget.

3. Get a new e-mail address though Gmail or Ymail they are free.

4. Go to Firefox website and download Mozilla, its free.

5. Get Roboform auto form filler, its free unless you want to upgrade (recommended after you get into the swing of things)

6. Setup your Roboform auto form filler ( use your information)

7. Create a folder on your tool bar (left click on the toolbar and select new folder) Name it as you see fit.

8. Now you need to figure out how many sites you are going to join. I recommend when first starting out joining 10 survey sites. Joining 10 survey sites will get you about 30 survey invitations per week.

9. Remember the more sites you join and take surveys for, the more money you will make.

10. Join your specific industry or other paid survey site like business people, opinion world business, or join the African American voice or Greenfield for Hispanic’s these panels pay a whole lot more.

11. Which sites do you join? Here is a reviewed list of paid survey sites.

12. Remember its quality sites you want to join, not garbage.

13. Join Survey Sites.

14. Some survey sites pay via PayPal . PayPal usually pays faster, if you want that set up the account.

15. Which ever sites you choose to join, when you are on their site click once on the tab and drag it to your folder and drop it in. Now you have access to your survey sites at a click of the button.

16. When you receive surveys set the sender as a contact, so the e-mails don’t end up in spam folders.

17. When you join a survey site most of the time they send out a conformation e-mail, definitely click on the link or else you account will not be active.

18. After you join the sites you will want to go back to them and fill out there profile questions, this will ensure that you don’t receive surveys that don’t pertain to you.

19. When you have completed the profile questions double check to make sure your address and contact information is correct. This will make sure that your checks come to you.

20. When you complete a survey you can attach a note on the invitation in your e-mail account that you have completed it and when.

21. After you start receiving e-mails from survey sites create a folder for your e-mail invitations. This way when you need to find out info on a survey you have it at your finger tips.

22. Most market research companies don’t want professional survey takers, so never let the survey site know that you take surveys from multiple companies. Sometimes you will be asked to take the exact survey at multiple survey sites. I always find it funny especially when everyone pays differently. It might be boring taking the same survey but it goes a lot faster the 2nd and 3rd time.

Part III – Taking surveys, what to expect, how much money to expect, what and what you should do.

1. Paid surveys wont make you rich, however if you stick to them you can easily make $300 – $600 per month.

2. Most paid survey sites will send you an via e-mail invitation to surveys they have available that your fits your demographic information that you have provided.

3. Try to complete every survey they send you.

4. Most survey invitations will let you know how much you will make for the survey and about how long it is suppose to take to complete.

5. Some surveys will reward you with sweepstakes entries for completing the survey.

6. Sweepstakes surveys are usually shorter and easier to complete.

7. Some sites if you complete the sweepstakes survey they lead you to the higher paid surveys.

8. Using your bookmarked paid survey sites folder on your toolbar log onto the paid survey sites you joined everyday; they will notice that there is activity on your account.

9. There are 4 types of questions that surveys ask.

10. Qualifying questions usually ask things like occupation and if you use a certain product, always choose none of the above for occupation and always choose at least 3 products.

11. Classification questions ask things like where you live and how much you make. Tell the truth.

12. Opinion questions; answer how you see fit, there are no wrong answers.

13. When completing the opinion questions make an effort.

14. Watch out during the opinion questions some survey sites will put things like choose # 3 on a certain question for quality purposes.

15. Market research sites are in the business of information with that said they expect when you participate in a survey that you give them pertinent information i.e. I like the cover of that magazine because of the photography style.

16. Some surveys will ask you if you have participated in a survey about (example) before, always check that you have not participated in research about (example).

17. Most survey sites have a member’s area where you can check your stats, survey invitations and profile make sure you familiarize yourself with the layout.

Part IV – Paid Survey Payments and Taxes

1. After $600 from any 1 survey site you will receive a 1099 tax form for your income.

2. Paid survey sites usually pay via check some are converting to PayPal .

3. When going on vacation or if you can’t participate for 2-3 weeks, let the survey site know, this way your account stays active.

4. Paid survey sites sometimes ask you to participate in focus groups, these typically pay $50-$200 its not too often, but it happens.

5. Product testing is also something paid survey sites ask you to participate in; I personally have product tested different things such as socks, toothbrushes, candy and even air fresheners. These typically pay $10-75.

6. If you are lucky enough to be a product test participant make sure you follow everything to a T. this way the survey site will send you more.

7. Paid survey sites are always looking for more panelists and usually they pay you to refer your friends, just make sure you don’t spam your friends, that’s just not cool.

Take Online Surveys For Cash – Get Paid For Survey While Taking A Paid Survey At Home

You CAN take online surveys for cash. You CAN get paid for survey work. You CAN take a paid survey at home and get paid for it. That said, it should be pointed out that the paid survey marketplace has been substantially infiltrated by sales companies that find the “Paid Survey” flag to be a flag of convenience.

Real survey makers, the ones that offer legitimate paid online surveys, enjoy generally good reputations. They pay in cash or equivalent, and respect the privacy of their survey participants. There is trust between them and those who take their surveys. They usually do not actively recruit new survey participants.

But in recent months and years a new group of pseudo-survey makers or outright sales companies have used the name “Survey Maker” and claimed to offer paid surveys to would-be survey participants. The real intention of many was not to offer paid surveys at all, just to sell various products or services to those who signed up.

Apparently it can be a profitable venture. So much so that the pseudo-survey makers can actively recruit new hopeful survey takers. They do this through agents that get paid recruitment fees for finding and recruiting “new meat” to exploit. Some do a pretty good job of faking it.

So while you CAN still find the real survey makers and take online surveys for cash, you have to cull your list of survey makers with a heavy hand. It’s not hard to get paid for survey work or take a paid survey at home. It IS hard to sort through the pretenders and wannabes and find the real survey makers.

As a rule of thumb, any supposed survey maker that sends you more sales offers than invitations to take surveys is highly suspect. To get paid for survey work you will need to stay focussed on surveys and rate all survey makers with which you have signed up by the number of actual, paying surveys they send you.

You should not have to buy anything in order to take a paid survey at home. Ethical survey makers ask your opinion. Sales companies try to influence you to buy their wares. The two activities are hardly compatible. But some survey makers do try to supplement their income by selling things.

The best advice is to avoid these. If they don’t offer you online surveys for cash within 6-12 months, you should resign and take them off your list. If they bombard you with offers, let them know that you only want to get paid for survey work and not to buy things. If they persist, cull them out.

Some will keep on sending you sales offers, cluttering up your inbox. Ask them to quit, and to take your name off of their lists. If that doesn’t work, note their e-mail addresses and “blacklist” or block them at your e-mail service provider. They won’t help you with your paid survey at home business.

Start with the best list you can get. (Usually from a paid survey membership site with a good moneyback guarantee and a low refund rate.) A good list will have over 50% good survey makers. Even with a good list you will need to sort and cull out the sales outfits that sneak in!

You can still take online surveys for cash, get paid for survey work, take a paid survey at home and get paid for it. But you will need to wade through and cull out the maybe 40% of so-called survey makers who will not help, but will just distract you and waste your time. Cull them out without mercy.

For more information about how you can take online surveys for cash, get paid for survey work, take a paid survey at home and make money with it, follow the links below…

Legitimate Paid Surveys – How to Identify and Find Legit Survey Sites

It’s very likely that you have learned about the opportunity to get paid for taking online surveys. However, you may not be fully convinced that this opportunity is legit. It’s good to be skeptical because if you aren’t, you’ll likely fall prey to scams who like to target gullible and naive people.

Yes, paid survey scams do exist. But not all “make money taking surveys” opportunities are scams. You can actually get paid for sharing your opinions but you could also be scammed if you are not careful.

If you are new, you may not know how to distinguish paid surveys scams from legitimate paid surveys. But luckily, you have come across this article which will give you the information you need to help you find and identify legitimate paid surveys and avoid scams.

But first, you need to understand why this opportunity is legitimate in the first place. If you don’t believe that you can actually make money taking surveys, you probably won’t even attempt to give legitimate paid surveys a try. So, let me explain why people are able to earn money taking surveys.

Why you can get paid to take surveys

Companies need consumer feedback and are more than willing to offer a monetary reward for the feedback they receive. Why would they pay for consumer feedback? Because this feedback could help them improve their product and make more money.

Once a company has collected feedback from a group of individuals through a survey, they can analyze that feedback to make changes that will make their product more beneficial and appealing – which ultimately increases the likelihood of generating better revenue for the company when their product finally hits the market.

A lot of research and development goes into many of the products you see on the market. Products aren’t just put out on the market without careful planning and market research. Millions of dollars are spent on market research every year, so it isn’t so hard to believe that someone is able to get paid for participating in market research studies.

The market research company, or survey site, is already getting paid for executing the survey and collecting feedback from those who match the survey qualifications. You can understand how they are able to pay their panelists. They are simply giving them a cut of the money they make from the companies that pay for their services.

The market research company wouldn’t do that well if they didn’t have members who would be willing to participate in surveys. A company goes to these survey sites to get quality feedback. If the survey site doesn’t have people who can participate in surveys, the company probably isn’t going to use their services.

How do market research companies get people to participate in surveys? They offer incentives which ranges from sweepstake entries to cold hard cash.`

This is how you are able to earn cash taking surveys. You take advantage of the surveys that offer cash incentives. And in order to do this, you need to sign up to legitimate survey sites that connect their members with paid survey opportunities.

How to identify legitimate paid surveys

Before you start searching for legitimate paid surveys, you need to be able to tell the difference between a legitimate survey site and one that could potentially be a scam.

Legitimate survey sites usually meet all of the following criteria:

They offer free registration

It should cost you nothing at all to join and participate on a survey site. Any site that requires you to pay a fee, either upfront or after you join, is likely to be a scam.

Never pay money to take surveys.

Legal forms are present on website

Legal forms such as “Terms & Conditions”, “Disclaimers”, and “Privacy Policy” are prominently displayed on the website. These pages can tell you a lot about a website such as how they use and protect your personal information, how they work, who’s allowed to use their site, and so on.

Disreputable sites don’t like to include these pages on their site since they are often unprofessional to begin with and they follow an unethical policy that they don’t want to disclose openly in fine print. If they did reveal their policies upfront, they would have a hard time scamming people.

They don’t make unrealistic income claims

Earn $1000 a month taking surveys! Earn $50 an hour taking surveys! Get rich taking surveys! You won’t find these kinds of claims on a legitimate paid survey site. Actually, most reputable survey sites don’t even make income claims. They just simply state that you can be rewarded for taking surveys.

They don’t send spam

Legitimate survey sites will not send you spam. The will send you survey invitations, payments, and occasional news or site updates but they won’t send you spam. If you look over a survey site’s privacy policy or FAQs page, you should be able to learn about their spam policy.

They don’t sell your information

A legitimate survey site will keep your information safe and will not sell it to third parties. If you want to learn exactly how a survey site uses your information, then review their privacy policy.

They don’t ask for sensitive information

Legitimate survey sites do not need any sensitive information from you and will not ask you for it. If a site asks for your social security number or credit card information, avoid that site at all costs. You should never supply such information to a survey site.

They provide contact information

You should be able to easily contact someone at the website if you need support or have some sort of inquiry. Legitimate survey sites always provide contact information.

They only deal with paid surveys

Sometimes, you may come across a site that says you can get paid to take surveys but once you become a member, you find out that you can also complete offers, sign up for trials, watch videos, and so on.

These types of sites are often referred to as “get paid to websites”, GPT sites for short, since they are paying members to do various things, primarily filling out offers and answering surveys.

GPT sites are often confused with paid survey sites since you can get paid to take surveys on both types of sites. It should be easy to tell how the two are different. Legitimate paid survey sites only deal with paid surveys. They don’t ask you to complete offers, sign up for trials, or do anything else besides take surveys.

In review, legitimate survey companies are free to join, include proper documentation and contact information on their website, do not make unrealistic income claims, do not abuse your personal information or ask for sensitive information, only deal with paid surveys, and they make good on their promises – if they say they will pay you to take surveys, you will get paid when you have met their payout requirements.

If you run across a site that fails to meet any of the criteria above, there is a possibility that it could be a scam and you should either avoid the site altogether or proceed with extra caution and do extra research until you have enough information to confidently judge whether or not the site is indeed a scam.

How to find legitimate paid surveys

Finding legitimate paid surveys is simple but it does take time to gather enough information to make sure that the site you are interested in joining is reputable. One reason that people buy into those fee-based membership sites that give you a list of survey companies is because the research is done for them and it saves them from having to look for sites on their own.

Do I recommend taking the easy way out and spending upwards of $50 to access one of these membership sites? No. Although it may take a bit of time to research legitimate paid surveys, it’s free and it gets easier once you are familiar with the process.

Besides, there are sites that list these types of sites free of charge. So, you won’t have to do much research in the end. But just in case you want to know how to find them on your own, here are a few tips that will help you locate legitimate survey companies.

Locating and Researching Survey Sites

Go to Google and search for a list of surveys. You can use queries such as these: “legitimate paid surveys” “list of paying survey companies” “legitimate survey sites that pay cash”.

You will come across websites that supply the information you are looking for. But since some websites can be deceitful, misleading, or unreliable, you need to make sure that you do your own research. If a websites provides you with a list of paying survey companies, research each company on that list before signing up.

To research, you can do the following:

Read reviews about the survey company. Google something like this: survey company + review.
Visit Ripoffreport.com and Scam.com and search for the survey company’s name.
Check BBB (Better Business Bureau) for complaints and ratings for the company
Search for recent payment proofs or signs that people are being paid by the company
Go to the survey website and read over their terms, privacy policy, and FAQs.
Visit online discussion forums that talk about paid surveys and see what, if anything, you can learn about the company based on forum member’s experiences. A simpler way to do this is to Google something like this, survey company + forum

Taking Free Paid Surveys Online

Free Paid Surveys, Get Paid To Take Surveys, Take Online Surveys for CASH!

More than likely you have seen ads like these all over the internet. And like most people
you are probably wondering if they are true. Can you really get paid to take surveys
online? Or is paid surveys just another scam? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. You can actually
get paid to take surveys online.

There are many companies that will pay you to participate in online surveys, focus groups,
and even product tests. These are market research companies that are paid by large
companies to find out what the public feels about their products. They want to know if their
advertising camppagns are working and how everyday people feel about their products. Large
corporations spend billions of dollars a year on advertising. So to pay you a few dollars to find out
if their advertising is working is not that big of a deal. So they hire these market research companies. And the market research companies send out surveys to everyday people to find out what the public is thinking.

There are also several misconceptions about taking paid surveys online. Many advertisements will tell you that you can make up to $250 an hour taking paid surveys. Although it is possible to be compensated $250 for participating in an important study or focus group, the average paid survey will pay you between $2 and $20.

There are also a few different kinds of paid survey sites. There are paid survey directories, or databases, and there are the actual paid survey companies. A paid survey, or market research company, is the actual company that will send you the paid surveys. And also the one that will compensate you for your participation. An example of a paid survey company is NFO My Survey. NFO has been around for over 20 years and is one of the major paid survey companies on the internet. When joining a paid survey site like NFO you are notified by email when your participation in a paid survey is needed. You can then choose to take the paid survey or simply ignore it. You are told how much you will be paid for taking each survey and how long the paid survey should take to complete. Companies like NFO My Survey are always free to join. A legitimate paid survey company will never ask you to pay a fee to join.

Another type of site is a paid survey directory, or database.
Paid survey databases provide directories of paid survey companies. These are the sites
you go to to find companies that will pay you to participate in online surveys. There are several
databases you can join. But most online paid survey databases are not free. A site like SurveyScout charges about $35 for their directory of 490 paid survey companies. Others charge anywhere from $20 to $60 to access their paid surveys directory. Many people are fooled into thinking that when they join these membership sites they will automatically start receiving paid surveys. A membership site like SurveyScout does not actually send paid surveys. they are only a directory of companies that you join that send paid surveys online.

Before you spend $35 dollars for a paid survey database do some looking around. A good paid survey directory will have everything you would find in a paid membership site and is absolutely free. There is no need to pay to find paid surveys. In fact, why would you want to pay for free information? Paid membership sites are simply taking advantage of the fact that most people don’t know where to look for this type of information. And once they pay and then find out that they paid for a directory, most people feel like they have been scammed. My advice would be to bypass a paid directory. And use a free paid survey directory.

If you are looking for a full-time income online, paid surveys may not be the thing for you. Although you can make some good money taking paid surveys online, more than likely it will not be enough to make you rich. On the other hand, if you want to make some extra money without much effort then paid surveys is the way to go.

The key to getting paid to take surveys online is joining as many of these paid survey companies as possible. Most paid survey sites will only send a few paid surveys a month.

So the logic is, the more paid survey companies you belong to the more paid survey invitations you will receive. And the more money you will make. I’ts a good idea to start off with around 10 to 20 good paid survey companies. Each one will only take a few minutes to sign up for and is well worth it. There are around 500 paid survey companies you can join. And once you have joined the main ones you can go back and join others to receive even more paid surveys. Of 500 paid survey companies I would have to say that there are about 50 that will send you paid surveys on a regular basis. The rest may only send one a month or even less. So starting with the top paid surveys is obviously the best way to go.

You must answer a few screener questions before taking a survey to see if you fit the profile for the type of person the company is interested in. After taking a few screeners you can start to see how you should answer to make yourself qualify. for instance, most paid survey screeners will ask you if you work in a certain industry, or any type of market research or advertising business. The answer to a question like this should almost always be no. They do not want people who know the market research business taking their surveys. And you will almost always not qualify for the paid survey.

Well now that you have all the information you need it’s up to you to decide if paid surveys is for you or not. If you are interested in paid surveys I highly recommend NFO My Survey, Global Test Market, Survey Savvy, Survey Spot, E-Poll, ECN Research, Lightspeed Research,
American Consumer opinion, Test Spin,GoZing surveys, Greenfield Online, and Opinion Outpost. There several more great paid survey sites. These are just my personal favorites.