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.

Source URL: Get Paid To Take Free Online Paid Surveys

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Ever since college, I’ve continuously exposed myself to a wide array of get rich quick schemes and online money making gimmicks. The majority of my hobby-esque efforts have primarily been for entertainment and informational purposes. While many of the online offers that I pursued and researched back then such ultimately turned out to be fraudulent scams or fruitless endeavors (acai berry scams for example), a handful of them have proved to be reliable and consistent money making methods over the years. One of the ways I used to make some extra money on the side and still work from home was by getting paid to fill out online surveys. Back when I was a college student, online surveys were an easy way to generate a few dollars here and there for extra cash and gift card rewards. Today, I still get paid to take online surveys but I’ve learned to manage them more efficiently and learned to fill them out substantially quicker than I used to. Nowadays, a 30 minute online paid survey usually only takes me a matter of 5 minutes to scan and rapidly click through.

While I work full time now, I still enjoy the little bits of part time income I generate with these free online paid surveys. These survey money making offers are best suited for certain work at home types such as: stay at home moms, college students looking for extra spending cash, or working professionals like myself looking to kill some time and make money doing it. I complete most of my occasional paid online surveys quickly at work between lunch breaks or I knock out a few qualifying offers on my laptop when I’m lounging around at home like a couch potato, watching a football game or during television commercials. Most of the time I redeem the survey completion reward points for either cash or I exchange them for gift cards to frequently visited places like Starbucks or Amazon.com. While taking surveys isn’t exactly the most productive way to spend my time, I liken the practice to the same way that some people might choose to spend their spare time playing video games or enjoying a TV show. None of these habits are particularly productive in the business or financial sense, and they are all performed for purely entertainment purposes. But rather than sitting there passively watching television shows or playing computer games, I prefer to spend my bored time by engaging in hobby type activities that generate a little side income.

What Are Paid Online Surveys, And Why Are The Marketing Research Companies Willing To Pay Consumers Money To Fill Out Survey Questionnaires?

The business aspect of surveys has always been around, but the Internet has revolutionized the way they are now being conducted. It used to be that surveys had to be performed in person through a live focus group exchange or had to be transmitted through the postal service using snail mail means. However, the Internet has changed all that and improved upon the speed and the way market research may now be performed and compiled. While many of the big companies and retailers in the world still perform their own in-house research into the consumption and usage habits of consumers to build and brand their products and services, oftentimes, these companies must solicit the aggregate views of larger sample sizes to better hone their research results and improve upon their brand’s appeal to whatever population demographic they are trying to target. This usually requires that they outsource some research work to third party market research companies that are better equipped to handle mass survey research projects. This is where you and I come in – as ordinary consumers and potential opt-in survey participants.

As ordinary members of the population, we all have different likes and dislikes when it comes to certain products, brands, companies, and services. The online survey companies are out to inquire and gather all this public opinion information to better assess the views and preferences of the American and world population when it comes to such consumerism matters. The product development and service promotion choices and strategies of these billionaire dollar mega corporations depend on the views and whims of their target customers – you and I. Because of this need for public opinion information, market research firms are willing to pay consumers like us a reasonable amount of money to answer some of their market research related questions on a regular basis. It’s not a job interview and it’s most certainly not something anyone has to worry about getting trapped into participating. Even after registering and agreeing to be a willing online survey panel participant, you are always free to back out. You can always subsequently ignore the paid survey offers you receive for whatever reason. If you refuse to later take part, the company will just turn to another voluntary opt-in participant in the target sample. Of course, you also won’t get paid for any online surveys you don’t adequately complete.

What Type Of Payment Incentives Do Free Paid Survey Sites Offer, and Is It Possible To Get Rich Filling Out These Internet Surveys?

Usually the paid survey research sites pay you after each completed survey offer. Some firms will issue you a check or PayPal cash deposit for the qualified amount immediately, while others will offer you survey reward points that can be accrued in your accessible online account and later redeemed for cash rewards, gift card prizes, or free merchandise. The gift card and product rewards can be anything from popular Amazon gift cards to various electronic gadgets. Obviously the bigger the merchandise, the more survey points you’ll need to redeem. When a survey offer is proposed to you, sometimes the offer will expressly indicate the proposed payment amount, say $5.00 upon completion, while other times it may indicate that completion will only result in an entry into some prize drawing in the future. Personally, my advice is to avoid all paid survey links that want to reward you with useless sweepstakes drawings. The chances of winning one of those prizes are slim and you are much better off focusing on surveys that reward you with cold hard cash or redeemable reward points upon completion.

One thing to make clear is that no one should expect to make a lot of money or get rich quickly by filling out online surveys. Remember, you’re just taking online surveys – not performing expensive open heart surgery for someone. No one is going to retire from the income they earn or be able to make a full time living from taking online surveys. The survey money you get paid for is meant to be a part time supplement to your existing day job salary. However, if you’re determined to make a lot of money from paid online surveys, it is theoretically possible to make $2,000 or even upwards of $3,000 a year if you register with multiple online survey sites and actively engage in all survey offers that are sent to you. If you are a member of a demographic that is actively targeted by survey companies, you may luck out with more paid survey chances – it all depends what demographic types businesses are interested in knowing more about during their Internet marketing research trials. However, you’ll also have to be a pretty prolific and fast survey census taker to hit the money jackpot. For most people (99.9% of everyone else there), it’s best not to see this as some career, but rather as a way to generate some stress free profits by working from home. Your online paid survey income may help pay for a few expensive family restaurant dinner outings or help subsidize the cost of gifts at Christmas time – but that’s pretty much all you should really expect from doing them. You are better off trying to make money blogging as a part time blogger instead if you want a side gig that has a greater potential of becoming a full time job someday.

The payout amount that is offered differs among online survey sites and also differs depending on the difficulty and length of time it takes to complete an individual survey. The most lucrative online surveys can pay as much as $20-50 each, but these usually require a substantial amount of time and effort to complete – be prepared to spend upwards of 1-3 hours for these high payout offers. Oftentimes the highest pay out surveys will require the participant to appear at least once for a live online discussion format where the survey taker will be required to log into an online site and actually engage in a moderated Internet chat discussion with other panel members. Through these online discussion and chat formats, the survey researchers will usually probe and ask direct questions about the opinions and viewpoints of participants in regards to whatever consumer product or service they are researching for.

But in the vast majority of paid online survey cases, payouts will likely be less than a $1 for each completed survey. The lower payout offers usually only take a few minutes to complete but if you are able to fill them out quickly and efficiently, the monetary amounts do add up quickly. Keep in mind that many paid survey companies issue payment in the form of reward points. Your final cash payment or merchandise redemption value will depend on how many high value surveys you ultimately complete.

How Do I Participate and Get Paid Cash For Online Paid Surveys, and What Type Of Questions Do The Paid Survey Sites Ask?

To start receiving free survey opportunities, you’ll need to register yourself with some of the more reputable paid online survey sites. While there are literally thousands of survey companies on the world wide web, I’ve listed the links of the ones I’ve had the best and most reliable experience with below. Remember to examine their individual terms and conditions before registering. Most of the survey site links will require that you submit your name, and basic contact info such as your address, phone number, and email information. Usually they will also request for additional demographic data such as your age, gender, and race. The site registration process will usually also go through a brief introductory questionnaire to figure out what you like, dislike, or have experience with in regards to all aspects of ordinary consumer life. This information is important because it helps the researchers build your survey profile, which is used to determine whether you qualify for particular survey offers or not. Your qualification for certain surveys will always depend on what the Internet marketing research company is looking for at that particular time.

The email address you provide during the application process is particularly important because your provided email address will be the survey sites’ primary method of contacting you about paid survey offers. Be sure to provide an email address that you intend to check regularly and don’t mind receiving extra mail messages on. While most of the legit online opt-in survey sites will never send you unsolicited spam or messages without your authorization, to make money with paid surveys, you’ll inevitably need to agree to receive an influx of regular email offers. Particularly if you register with multiple survey companies, expect to receive more email traffic than you’re used to receiving. Each survey notification email will usually provide a clickable link to the online survey questionnaire, embedded with tracking information to make sure you are ultimately paid for upon completion.

The type of paid survey questions asked will always depend on what the requesting company is looking for, but just about everything under the sun relating to commerce, business, and consumer spending habits will be fair game. You may be asked about your dining habits, culinary preferences, what type of soap you’re using, whether you’re looking to buy a new car, or whether you are currently suffering from any physical medical conditions that necessitate the use of certain prescription medications. I’ve noticed that one particularly high paying survey subject matter is the health related niche. If you have high blood pressure, diabetes, or any other health condition, you will likely be sought after by prescription drug companies looking to get your online survey opinion about various treatment solutions. The frequency and demand of your survey services will really depend on your age group, profession, hobbies, interests, and the particulars of your personal demographics. Usually the surveys are comprised of basic text based online questionnaires, but sometimes you may be asked to watch a new product commercial or a movie trailer, or you may be asked to look at a new restaurant menu plan or magazine print advertisement, and then later instructed to fill out a questionnaire about what you liked or didn’t like. Most of the time it’s just a matter of clicking a quick yes or no, or stating your opinion using a sliding scale.

While not as frequent as email surveys, sometimes you may also be sent free household products and electronic merchandise in the mail for your review and opinion. I’ve been sent everything from shampoo bottles, to snack crackers, to razors, shaving cream, to iPod ear buds, to even a pack of experimental condoms for my use and review. The products are almost always new beta trial products not currently yet in the market place that some company is still working on perfecting or figuring out how to properly advertise. Most of them don’t even have proper product labels on them yet, usually with only a serial number sticker affixed. Receiving product review surveys in the mail is probably my favorite paid survey opportunity. The best part is that you get to keep the products after you fill out and return the survey questionnaires that accompany them. Even if you get lazy and don’t respond by filling out the accompanying product surveys, you still get to keep the free products sent to you. For me, there’s always something terribly exciting about trying out a new retail product that no one has yet seen or used in the marketplace. It’s nice to know that my survey opinion may actually make a difference in shaping how these brands and companies ultimately market and perfect their products.

My advice on improving your paid survey taking strategy is to say yes to everything and express interest for all subject matters – every product, every service – everything. If you are looking to game the survey system and maximize the amount of money you make from online paid surveys, your best bet is to qualify yourself for as many survey criteria as possible. By not expressing any dislike or lack of experience with anything, you greatly increase your survey qualification chances during the profile building process. Keep in mind that certain demographics (such as home owners) tend to get lots of extra survey opportunities that others don’t qualify for. There are a lot of home owner type surveys regarding home improvement appliances that only those that represented themselves out to be owners of a house or condo will qualify for. (Hint-Hint. Wink-Wink)

How Do I Find The Legitimate Paid Online Survey Websites and Avoid Falling For An Online Survey Scam?

As I mentioned earlier, there are literally thousands of paid online survey sites and services out there. However, the vast majority tend to be scam and disreputable sites that either have questionable membership fee policies or simply don’t have sufficient survey business in their pipeline to make registering with them worth your time as the consumer. The ones that are legitimate and trustworthy tend to be established market research firms that have been around for a long time, and have built up solid track records of providing reliable payouts to survey participants along with providing steady and guaranteed streams of paid survey work for registrants.

There are plenty of free paid survey links and services on the web. There is never a need to resort to paying anyone or any online company for the right to use their database list of survey offers. While certain disreputable sites will attempt to sucker you in by advertising that they offer the highest payouts for surveys and that access to their exclusive list will be worth the membership fee you pay upfront, the fact of the matter is that most of these lists are absolutely useless. There is no reason for you to pay the survey research company the right to take their online surveys. Remember, they are supposed to pay you to take their Internet surveys, not the other way around. Don’t fall for any of these membership fee survey scams. If they ask for a membership charge or a registration fee upfront, run the other way.

As for those who are worried about getting their email accounts spammed to death, remember that reputable online paid survey companies do not spam or send unsolicited messages. Most will only send you survey notification email reminders upon your request. Should you ever find the influx of survey offers too overwhelming, as I have a few times before in the past, you can simply log onto your online survey account and unsubscribe temporarily, or even permanently.

To recap, remember, to fully maximize your paid survey opportunities and make money with paid surveys, you ought to register with as many reputable online survey companies as possible. You can always turn off email notifications or unsubscribe thereafter but by applying, you open yourself up to paid survey chances. To increase your survey qualification opportunities, you should express interest in everything and check your email routinely for daily and weekly survey offers. Upon receiving one, you should complete the paid online survey as soon as possible assuming you have the time to do so. Don’t put off any high value survey offers for later because the highest paying surveys tend to expire quickly after a certain number of participants have been selected. Also, you should avoid all survey offers that only provide you a sweepstakes entry or prize drawing ticket for survey completion. Stick with only cash and reward point survey offers.

Reviews Of The Best Sites To Make Money Online With Paid Surveys, Based On My Experience (All Are Free To Join):

1) NFO My Survey – Of all the top paid online survey companies out there, the National Family Opinion MySurvey site is probably my favorite one. Their website is easily accessible and their survey payouts are pretty good. They’ve provided me a steady stream of paid survey opportunities regularly on a wide array of interesting topics for some time now. My Survey is one of the best and biggest online research companies on the Internet. The company uses a point system for survey completion rewards and issues payout when you’ve reached the point equivalent of $10. Points can be redeemed for a variety of options from cash to gift cards, and you can even earn extra points for referring friends. I’ve also received household cleaning supplies and various food products (e.g. experimental potato chips), from them before for product panel related reviews. The proven company is great at keeping its survey takers busy and earning paid survey income.

2) Synovate – The Synovate Global Opinion Panel pays cash for completed surveys. The company sends out a reasonable number of regular paid surveys and survey payout is decent and comparable to that offered by other online research firms. Once in a while I get a few nice and long $10 surveys from Synovate. I’ve also received a few products from them for review before – mostly soap and shower products.

3) Survey Savvy – Survey Savvy is definitely one of my best paid survey sites and a pretty highly promoted program by most people due to its nice recurring direct and indirect referral program. Not only can you earn the usual payout for your own completed surveys, you can also earn $2.00 for every survey your direct referral takes and yet another $1.00 for every survey taken by their referrals. The trickle down referral system makes it one of the best paid survey choices to make money and get paid, particularly if you refer many of your friends and family members. Survey offer frequency is average but payout is quite good. Of course, coupled with the referral system, your Survey Savvy paid income will probably end up being quite lucrative.

4) Global Test Market – The Global Test Market company offers Market Points for competed surveys and sends out survey opportunities quite frequently for both American and international survey registrants. While the cash out level of the reward point equivalent of $50 is higher than that required by other paid survey providers, they make up for it by sending participants a lot of paid survey chances with respectable payouts. Even if you don’t qualify for an offer that is sent to you, you still get to earn some points for merely looking at it. Most of their surveys are not too long, and are varied enough to not bore you to tears as you click away at the check boxes.

5) Ipsos I Say – Despite its semi-weird name, Ipsos is one of the major marketing research firms in the world. In my opinion, the best benefit and lure of this online survey company is the chance to receive product reviews as many of its regular text based online surveys tend to only offer prize drawing related payouts. Ipsos is a nice paid survey company to register with if you’re interested in occasionally receiving freebies and test products to review.

6) Greenfield Online – Greenfield Online, which acquired Go-Zing, offers survey participants cash or an entry in their reward sweepstakes for completed survey offers. Survey registrants are advised to bypass all survey offers that provide only prize drawing entries and go only for those that provide actual cash money for survey qualification and completion. Greenfield Online keeps its participants very busy with plenty of paid survey opportunities, but keep in mind, participants may not always qualify for all survey offers depending on their demographic details.

7) American Consumer Opinion Panel – The American Consumer Opinion Panel, or ACOP as it’s commonly called, is a paid survey favorite of mine due to the rapid speed at which the company issues out compensation checks for completed surveys. ACOP issues checks for completed surveys that range anywhere from $4 to $20 depending on the length, qualification requirements, and nature of the survey. Online focus group surveys almost always pay much more – between $25 and $50, but those types of offers are infrequent and more difficult to qualify for.

8) My Points – This company is not really a dedicated paid survey company but it does offer paid surveys as part of its reward earning program. MyPoints offers a wealth of ways to earn reward points for future prize and merchandise redemption. You can earn them by completing surveys (SurveyMail), reading e-mail advertisements (BonusMail), or signing up for online trial offers. I highly recommend avoiding the trial offer route unless you really are interested in the offers. You are better off sticking with Survey Mail and Bonus Mail opportunities to earn reward points. Survey Mail is just your usual get paid to fill out surveys option, while Bonus Mail is basically a way for you to get paid to read spam emails.

9) Lightspeed Consumer Panel – The Lightspeed consumer survey company rewards you with points for completed surveys and product reviews that can be later exchanged for cash, gift certificates and other prizes. Lightspeed is pretty active in sending out surveys and it’s easy to rack up reward points quickly based on my recent experience with the company. The survey payouts are a bit lower than I would like but the lower pay rate is made up by the extra high frequency at which they send out potential offers. Most of their paid surveys are easy to fill out and for experienced survey takers, they’re a piece of cake to rapidly complete. Just click like crazy.

10) Pinecone Research – The Pinecone Research survey company is noted for its extremely elusive and almost secretive nature. They are very selective in who they accept into their survey program. It’s great if you’re in because they provide you quality survey opportunities, but it’s bad if you want in and can’t find their membership application page. Pinecone program recruitment opportunities usually appear as advertisement banner links placed unpredictably on various relevant sites and blogs. Currently they do not recruit new members directly through their website. You can try visiting their main homepage, but good luck trying to find their sign up page – it’s non existent. While an active Pinecone registration link may not always be available, I will update this particular sign up link with a working Pinecone referral link whenever possible. The Pinecone Research payout rate is a set $3 per completed survey. Paid survey chances are steady and the company is known for prompt payouts – via either PayPal or check, depending on your selected payment method.

Source URL: How To Make Money With Paid Online Surveys and Avoid Internet Scams

Copyright Protected © 2008 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

It’s actually quite interesting and I enjoy receiving free stuff. I don’t mind being a guinea pig for these companies. It’s not like the products are toxic or potentially hazardous. Some of them, like the shampoos, are pretty much what you use at home anyway except they might be packaged differently or the texture of the shampoo might be different. But it’s certainly interesting to be able to voice my opinion on products that haven’t been released to the general public. I haven’t received any electronic merchandise to review yet but I’m hoping to get the chance eventually.

Tips To Get the Most Survey Opportunities

Product reviews don’t come too frequently, but the best way to maximize your opportunities and rewards in general is to do the following:

1. Express Interest In Everything – Why yes, I am interested in septic tanks, for example. When you complete your initial profile, remember to indicate interest in every subject matter available. Obviously the company won’t send you a survey or product review if you admittedly aren’t in their target demographics or have any interest with the subject matter. Demographic characteristics not only include age, race, and sex, they also include hobbies and familiarity with a particular product. You can’t do anything about your age, race, or sex, so my advice is to broaden your listed interests.
2. Check Your E-mail Frequently – Once you have registered, survey opportunities are usually sent to your e-mail address. Many of the higher paying surveys are open only to a limited number of participants and are first come first serve. The early bird gets the worm. So if you’re a frequent e-mail checker like me, you’ll always be one of the first to snap up the survey opportunity before it’s gone.
3. Complete the Survey As Soon As You Receive It – After you have registered with a few companies, you will start to see regular survey requests. If you develop a good routine of filling them out quickly, you’ll rack up cash and reward points quicker. There is no point putting them off to complete at a more convenient time since most of the opportunities expire after a certain number of participants have been selected. You will be better off being quick about completing them.

Survey Companies I Use

There are many out there, but here are the ones I use. I have my favorites but I use them all to maximize my opportunities.

• NFO My Survey
• Survey Savvy
• Lightspeed Consumer Panel
• Greenfield Online
• Synovate

Source URL: How To Maximize Your Paid Survey Chances and Perks

Copyright Protected © 2007 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

After signing up with them, you can accumulate points by shopping through their portal, similar to Ebates, Jellyfish or Fatwallet, except you get reward points rather than cash. There are other ways to get points through them such as by completing surveys (SurveyMail), reading e-mail advertisements (BonusMail), or signing up for trial offers. I don’t recommend the last one unless you really are interested in the offers. But if the underlying product or service is something you would be interested in, then by all means go for it since you’ll get reward points for participating. But for most people, I suggest that you just stick with the e-mail reading and surveys. When you have earned and accumulated enough points, they can be redeemed for gift cards from a vast array of online stores.

You can always unsubscribe if you no longer want to receive SurveyMail or BonusMail offers from MyPoints. It’s just one of the many Fun Money programs I use to kill time during football commercials or when I’m experiencing some downtime at work.

Source URL: Get Paid To Read Spam Through MyPoints

Copyright Protected © 2007 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

After completion of each survey, you receive reward points that can be later redeemed for prizes, merchandise, and even cash. You are also automatically entered into a cash sweepstakes after completion of each survey. The payouts for each completed survey averages from 10 points to 200. However, I have completed at least one offer worth 1000 points. If you decide to redeem your accumulated points for cash, 1000 points = $10.00.

If interested, you should sign up for several online paid survey companies to maximize your survey opportunities. I suggest expressing interest in many things during the initial profile setup to increase your chances of qualifying for more survey opportunities. The companies are not all the same. I personally prefer MySurvey more than some of the other companies like Greenfield Online because MySurvey doesn’t trick you into completing a lengthy survey only to wait till the very end before informing you that you didn’t qualify for the survey.

I’ve Earned More Points Than I Expected

I signed up with MySurvey a month ago back in August. So far I’ve racked up 2610 points by completing surveys during my free time. I’ve gotten very efficient in completing them. For a long one that should normally take 60 minutes to complete, it now only takes me 10-15 minutes. Not bad. I now have enough to redeem for $26.00 cash. Keep in mind that this is only for one survey company. I’ve also earned points through other companies as well.

Source URL: MySurvey – Pays You To Answer Surveys

Copyright Protected © 2007 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Once you register with them and complete a profile, you are paid mileage points for every ad you view. You can earn 10-20 miles for each 30 second video, and even more points for longer ads. The ads are provided to you based on your previously completed profile in which you indicated your interests. I recommend having as many interests as possible. I actually enjoy the process because it’s relatively painless and fairly quick. Earned mileage points are automatically deposited every quarter into the participating frequent flyer program of your choice.

Earning and Using the Miles

In general, a free domestic flight through most frequent flyer programs will run about 25,000 miles. If you regularly view the ads, you could reasonably earn a free domestic flight within a year. However, I only plan on using the program to help me get over the free ticket hump for my various frequent flyer plans. I could try to accumulate from scratch but than it would take much longer than I’d personally like.

Now the bad news. Currently, points earned through E-Miles are only good for Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, and US Airways. If your preferred plan is through another carrier, you’re out of luck for now. Hopefully the company will add more airlines soon.

Fortunately for me though, Continental and Northwest are my biggies. I should be able to rack up free flights in no time. I hope you can get something out of it as well.

Don’t forget the Starwoods Preferred Guest American Express Card. It’s my recommended travel rewards card for earning frequent flyer miles and for topping off your assorted frequent flyer plans.

Source URL: Earn Frequent Flyer Miles With E-Miles

Copyright Protected © 2007 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Last week, AGLOCO announced on its blog that it had finally signed one of its major revenue partnerships and that a formal announcement would be forthcoming. On the face of it, it seems like good news for the people that have downloaded the application and are actively accruing usage hours. The informal announcement suggests that the company is trying to carefully move towards a viable and sustainable implementation of its payment plan. I noticed that the company wisely steered away from further discussing its previous assertions that payment might also be made in the form of shares – most likely to avoid complications from possible securities law issues.

I remain cautious but encouraged, however, I suggest that you should keep your expectations reasonable. The payment structure is still being developed and there is no clear indication of what the payout really will be. I suspect it may not be as lucrative as some may have hoped. But usage of the AGLOCO application is free and early adopters will likely benefit the most from referrals.

Source URL: AGLOCO To Announce Revenue Sharing Agreement

Copyright Protected © 2007 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Pinecone also occasionally offers the opportunity to review trial products. This is probably the most exciting part of these surveys because you get to test try products that aren’t even on the market yet. Interesting products include shampoos, candy bars, video games, and even frozen meals (sent in a foam cooler packed with dry ice). Not only do you get paid for completing the product survey, you also get to use and keep the product!

By the way, you might also be interested in other similar online paid survey opportunities. There are several really good ones out there as well.

Can’t Seem To Find the Sign Up Link? Yup, It’s Hard To Find!

The Pinecone Research survey program is getting more popular as people start to find out about it. However, the sign up process remains rather elusive and the company appears to want to limit new entrants to the program. The company does not automatically approve each application and I suspect they are trying to target certain demographics (such as age or race) or certain consumer characteristics (home owners etc). There is also no easy way to find the sign up application links as they appear on random advertisement banners from time to time. Open registration season is usually only available for short periods of time as well. The company is either trying to drive everybody crazy or it’s doing a great job of generating viral interest.

Please check back occasionally in the event that the existing link disappears back into the void. I will try to keep posting new active registration links as I discover them.

Currently, you can find an active registration link by visiting the link below. Act fast before it disappears – Hopefully it is still working:

Live Pinecone Research Application Link – (Click Here)

Source URL: Pinecone Research – Hard to Register, But Get $5 for Each Survey!

Copyright Protected © 2007 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Filling out a free paid online survey is an interesting way to pass the time and make some money on the side. Your opinion is valuable to many companies for market research purposes and they are willing to pay you for your opinion. Your participation is used to influence and guide companies on how they go about developing products and services to meet consumer needs.

How much money can I make?

You’ll most definitely make some money by completing online surveys but don’t expect to get rich, even if you completed every single one out there. The shorter surveys that take less than 5 minutes pay not as much, while longer surveys that take 15-30 minutes or more, pay much better (anywhere from $1 to $50+). If you made it onto a live person focus group, those could even pay up to $250. Keep in mind that survey payout varies greatly depending on what you qualify for based on your profile and background.

How many surveys will I get?

After you register with a survey agency and fill out a profile listing your demographics, interests, and statistics, the company will usually e-mail you regularly with surveys to complete. The frequency of receiving surveys from the companies varies depending on your demographics. For example, if the company is trying to poll individuals who are home owners, and in your profile you indicated you were a renter, then you won’t receive a survey for that issue. But you can generally expect a steady stream of e-mail surveys. Completing them isn’t too painful, especially since you are getting paid.

Will I get spammed or have to pay them money?

No, you don’t have to worry about either. Surprisingly, I have not received any junk e-mails as a result of signing up and only very occasionally do I receive update newsletters from the companies. You can usually easily opt out of those if you wish. There are some survey companies out there that do charge you a fee to use their listing, but I highly advise against ever using a paid service. Remember, the companies want to hear from their consumers and are willing to pay you to complete their surveys. It shouldn’t be the other way around.

How To Get Started With Paid Online Surveys

If you have some spare time and want to earn enough for a few gift cards or movie rentals, then online paid surveys might be right for you. I use the following sites to make a steady $50-$75 equivalent a month:

• NFO My Survey
• Survey Savvy
• Lightspeed Consumer Panel
• Greenfield Online
• Synovate

Source URL: Frequently Asked Questions About Paid Online Surveys

Copyright Protected © 2007 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

The program seems like a spin off from All Advantage, the old dot com era company that paid users to use their ad displaying toolbar. All Advantage ultimately went bankrupt because it paid its customers more than it could handle.

It is very difficult to predict how much you can earn with AGLOCO at this point because the program is still in its early stages. There is no guarantee that the company will ever make good on its payment promises. Of course, this all remains to be seen.

Since the application doesn’t cost a thing to use and doesn’t send me any spam, I went ahead and signed up. Might as well start accruing hours early and hope for a payout later. I’ll write more when I find out when this might happen.

Source URL: Get Paid to Surf the Web With AGLOCO

Copyright Protected © 2007 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

It’s Just For Fun

Yes I know, it’s not the best way to spend my time, but it’s not like I’m quitting my job and becoming a full time survey filler. I do these as a hobby and to pass the time when I’m bored. Most of these online offers are pretty mindless and I can whip through them at work during my lunch or at home during a commercial break. Surprisingly the cash and points add up fairly quickly.

I’ll be posting such offers in my Fun Money category (I don’t know what else to call them). Let me know if you’re a sucker for free stuff as well. I know spam is a concern for many, but I haven’t encountered any such programs that send out unsolicited spam. I’ll definitely write a warning if I encounter one that does.

Source URL: Finding Ways To Make Some Fun Money When I’m Bored

Copyright Protected © 2007 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.