Making Money Doing Online Surveys – Four Laws to Survive the Jungle (Along with Some Legitimate Websites to Get Started)

Can you make money doing online surveys?  This is undeniably one of the most asked questions when it comes to earning income on the internet, and without a doubt, the online surveying industry is absolutely saturated with frauds, crooks, thieves, and scoundrels.

It isn’t simply that many surveying sites are scams, but many of the “ranking sites” that list surveying companies are also scams, with the owners of these sites taking bribes and kickbacks from scammers in order to give fraudulent sites top rankings.

So before we even begin talking about legitimate surveying sites, please incorporate The Four Laws of the Jungle into your quest for finding legitimate sites.

A) Always set-up a separate email account when signing up for surveying sites…always.  Even when you do find legitimate sites (and they do exist), the amount of spam and email that these sites will flood your inbox with can actually make you regret even getting into the business in the first place.  We’re talking about thousands upon thousands of spam emails, many of which are constantly being updated and finely-tuned in order to slip past spam filters. 

Regardless of the amount of money you make, the pain and headache of having your primary email account swamped with garbage simply isn’t worth it. 

B) Never pay money in order to “sign up” to a surveying company.  As stated, horror stories abound on the internet of people being scammed, not being paid for their survey work, or suffering full-blown identity theft because they gave their credit card information to the wrong people.

You should not have to pay money in order to do surveys for a legitimate company, and any company that insists otherwise is a scam.

C) Get ready for rejection and heartbreak when it comes to qualifying for a lot surveys.  This is something a lot of people really don’t think about when they say they want to do online surveys full-time.  Well, the fact is many surveys have a lot of qualification you have to meet in order to participate in them, and if your background doesn’t match up with what they’re looking for, tough break.

D) When it comes to earning potential, embrace realism.  There are three types of online income.  Full-time income, supplementary income, and then goal-oriented income.  Many people call the third type of income “walking around money,” and for the large bulk of people who do online surveying, the income they receive often falls into this last category (with many making between $20 to $100 a month). 

So let’s say you make $50 a month, meaning you’re able to pull in $600 a year.  Yes, you could treat that as walking around money, or you could really commit yourself to making money online. Filling out surveys is at the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to online earning potential (and even people who love taking surveys will probably be the first to admit that to you).

But $600 can buy you a lot of books, DVDs and memberships that can drastically increase your knowledge and skill sets on how to make money online.  You should view online surveying as a springboard into much more profitable ventures and industries.

The Good News!!!  It is possible to make more than $100 a month with online surveying, and a great place to start would be to read Christ Guthrie’s article “How to Make Money with Paid Surveys – Income Results” which can be found at http://upfuel.com/case-study-intro/   

Guthrie is a highly accomplished internet entrepreneur, and his blog is also a great resource for those looking to learn more about online business.  In the span of three weeks, he made nearly $250.00.  That ain’t too shabby.

Some of the sites he recommends include CashCrate.com (where he made the bulk of his money), iPoll.com, OpinionOutpost.com, FusionCash.net, ValuedOpinions.com, PandaResearch.com, i-Say.com, and Vindale.com.

Another great resource is surveypolice.com, which offers a comprehensive, customer-rated database (including a community chat forum) that includes other survey sites such as Pinecone Research, MintVine, and PaidViewpoint.  As a side note, one of the reasons why I’d strongly advise you to use sites such as surveypolice.com is that surveying companies seem to go to down hill pretty quickly.  For instance, reviews for sites such as MySurvey.com and globaltestmarket.com have both taken huge hits to their reputations and customer service, so you should be aware of industry trends, especially if a company gets bought out and a knew corporate culture gets introduced.

I know there are folks probably asking themselves whether they can make as much money as Chris Guthrie can.  Well, the guy works on the internet full-time, and he’s very good at making money online.  But at the bare minimum, he gives you a goal that you can strive for, and if you were able to make $250 a month, that’s $3,000 a year, which is nothing to sneeze at.   

Conclusion – If you’re looking to break into this industry, the first thing you should take into consideration is that it’s absolutely saturated with scams and con artists.  As such, you should never use your primary email address, and you should never have to pay money to participate in surveys.

Even when it comes to legitimate sites, you should also go into it knowing that you’ll often be disqualified from surveys because of factors beyond your control, and when it comes to earning potential, you should be a realist and come to terms with the fact that the amount of money that can be made falls in between goal-oriented income and low-level supplementary income.

Yes, Chris Guthrie was able to make $250 in three weeks, and perhaps that’s a goal you can strive for.  But also recognize that Guthrie’s earnings represent a statistical outlier, and you shouldn’t be shocked if you don’t reach that.  It’s your money, and you should do with it as you please, but if you embrace the goal-oriented perception of online business, you can use the earnings from surveys in order to enhance your knowledge and skills when it comes to making money online. 

Finally, sites like surveypolice.com should really be one of your primary portals of entry into the industry.  Not only can they help you identify scam sites, but also sites that started out great, but quickly degenerated in regards to payouts and customer service.

Glossary

• Online Surveys — an Internet questionnaire that helps businesses investigate the buying behavior of consumers.
• Surveying Company — a market research firm that offers people paid employment for giving their opinions in online surveys.

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