One of the more widely discussed ways to make money online is by doing paid surveys. In other words, you fill out surveys (or other questionnaire forms) for various companies that are doing marketing research, and for each survey that you fill out, you receive a payment in cash or prizes.There are a few different issues with such programs.

For starters, the payments that you receive for filling out the surveys are usually quite small. And some companies do not pay in cash at all. They pay with products and prizes, as stated above. However, most people seeking to make money online are seeking just that: opportunities to make money, not to get paid in prizes of varying quality. In other words, most people are disappointed when they complete paid surveys for anything other than cold, hard cash.

Another problem lies in the fact that not all of the companies that ask people to complete paid surveys are legitimate. You will need to do quite a bit of research to find the most trustworthy online paid survey companies. (And remember that just because a company advertises itself as legitimate does not automatically make it so.) You will need to read as much as you can find on the work at home message boards to determine a site's true legitimacy (or illegitimacy). And that research process can take quite a bit of time.

All in all, when it comes to filling out paid surveys as an online job, the above issues can be considered pretty serious drawbacks. Do you really want to work for companies that may or may not be legitimate, that typically do not pay particularly well (or perhaps do not pay the people who complete their surveys in cash at all)?

The fact of the matter is that there are a number of other more lucrative ways to make money online. Think about how precious your time is. Do you really want to spend time completing paid surveys in a thoughtful manner only to be paid a little bit for your efforts (or to be paid in prizes rather than being paid in cash)? This is not to say that some people don’t fill out paid surveys and love what they do. There are plenty of people who complete paid surveys on a part time or even full time basis and really find the process enjoyable and worthwhile.

I would only urge you to research all of your different work at home job options before committing a great deal of time and effort to completing paid surveys. The world of work at home jobs is only growing. There are more opportunities each day to make money from home. You can work in the fields of customer service, medical transcription, graphic design, court research, and/or online article writing, just to name a few. This does not mean that it is not worth your time to read more and gather as much information as possible about filling out paid surveys. You might find that this is a good option for you. Just be sure to proceed with caution and be especially careful about which paid survey companies you ultimately choose.