Money Blue Book

What are paid online surveys?

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

AGLOCO is offering an application that displays ads on the bottom of your computer screen (screenshot). The company makes money off the ads and gives you a portion of the money they make. Not only do you make money when you use the application, but you also make money when you refer others, and when they use the program.

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.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only one that gets a kick out of doing these but I enjoy spending spare time finding ways to make some extra money on the side. For a while now I’ve been participating in a variety of money making programs like paid online surveys. Most of these programs pay you either points or cash to run their application or fill out their surveys. If you earn points, you can redeem them for gift cards or merchandise after accumulating a certain amount. I’ve already earned and received several $25 gift cards in the last few months for completing surveys and it gets easier every time. After a while you become very quick and efficient in filling them out, and now they rarely take me longer than a few minutes for even the supposedly long surveys. They key is to register for several and to indicate many interests to qualify for as many as possible.

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.