Tips for Paid Surveys

I began doing paid surveys 5 years ago when I became a stay-at-home mom.

I tried almost everything from paid-to-clicks, to making crafts, paid surveys and writing to make money from home.

I have found that you can make some money from surveys depending on the survey site.

Here are a few tips I have learned in the past few years.

1. Find reputable survey companies. Never give your social security number to a survey site. The reputable ones that pay well do not need it. Usually they will only need a payment method like paypal or a mailing address. You can find

2. Set up a paypal account. This is a safe and easy way to receive the money from the paid surveys you have completed. Paypal is free to use. You can also add your earnings to the paypal savings account to earn interest.

3. Do not speed through the surveys. The survey companies monitor how long it takes you to get through a survey. If they have allotted 30 minutes for a survey and you take 5, they will think you are speeding through it and not actually looking at the questions. They could either not give you credit for that survey or they can ban your account and keep all the money you have made that you have not received yet.

4. Answer the questions honestly. Read each question thoroughly. Remember, they are paying for your opinion.

5. Avoid survey sites that require you to perform a task. Normally, the task asks you to sign up for something that you don't want in exchange for a few cents. This will cost you more in time and frustration than you will receive in pay.

6. Find out what the rewards are before you start working on surveys for a site. You may work hard to find out that you don't want any of their rewards. I usually look for survey sites that offer paypal cash or Amazon gift cards.

7. Make sure you know how they send the rewards and any stipulations. Some sites will offer to send a check once you reach a certain amount and then they will charge you around $5 to send the check to you. When you are not making much, the service fee can take a large chunk from your check.

8. Look at how much time they have allotted for a survey and how much they are offering for that survey. Calculate how much you would make per hour if it were an hour long survey. Determine how much you are willing to work for. For example: I have decided that I will not take a survey unless I get paid $6 per hour. If a survey says that it will take 20 minutes to take and it will pay $1, that is the equivalent of $3 per hour. I would not waste my time with it (unless I were really bored or it seemed interesting).

8. Some paid surveys could lead to product reviews which earn a little more money. Sometimes I will take a survey about a product and at the end it will ask if I will review the product if they send it to me. I get to keep the product and I get paid extra for the second survey which reviews my thoughts on the product.

9. Keep working with the reputable survey companies. Do surveys regularly and honestly. Don't rush through and make sure you click finish when you are done. If you keep doing surveys to the survey companies standards, the surveys companies will send you more quality surveys. You will begin to receive surveys worth more money. The companies want to see that you are doing a good job before they begin sending you the higher earning surveys.

Although you can make money from home by doing surveys, there are some disadvantages.

You don not make stable pay. You will not get a steady income from this. Some weeks, you may get a ton of surveys, others you will get barely anything.

Also, each survey may be worth a different amount, some will be worth a few dollars and some will be worth a couple cents. Each survey company has a different minimum cash out amount. If you work hard at it, you may reach a minimum cash out in a few weeks. If you don't, you may only reach the minimum once or twice a year.

Surveys can be very time-consuming. When I first began, I tried to do every survey I could find. I would stay up late to do them. Some say they take a few minutes and some may say that they take an hour to complete. Now that I have been working on surveys for a few years, I have learned to only do surveys that I can complete between other tasks and not to lose sleep over them.

Surveys can be addicting. They are asking for your opinion. Who else would want to know this much about what you think about anything? It's nice to be able to give your opinion, but you have to know when to stop.

You may get close to the end of a survey just to find out that you have not qualified for the survey. Some survey companies get away with this! They take all the information that you have given and say you are not qualified near the end. When you have almost completed an hour long survey and you get the message that you have not qualified, it can be very frustrating. Another thing that happens along these lines is having the survey lock up near the end of a survey. Sometimes refreshing the page helps, but sometimes you lose all your information and have to start at the beginning again.

Most surveys do not pay very well. Most of the time, you will only make a few cents per survey. If it is a long survey and it doesn't earn much money, I will not even bother with it.

There are no benefits. Unlike working outside the house, there are no benefits. It is freelance work. What you see is what you get.

If you make over $600 per year, you will need to put it on your tax return and Uncle Sam will take his share. If you make over $600 and you are in the 25% tax bracket, the government will take your first $150 as taxes and then anything past the $600 will get another 25% knocked off.

Some surveys have a point system. Once you earn enough points for the item you want, you can redeem your points for that item. Sometimes it is cash, sometimes it is a gift card and sometimes it can be anything under the sun.

Some of the rewards that survey companies offer are not very appealing. I would definitely look into the rewards that they offer to see if anything interests me before I sign up with a survey company. In most cases though, they will not show you what the rewards are until after you have signed up. I have signed up for free before just so I can check out the rewards, found nothing interesting and then deleted my account with them before even finishing a survey. It's best not to waste your time. If you are doing surveys for money, then you will want to make sure they give money as a reward. I have seen some survey companies that offer rewards of stickers and old DVD's. I didn't learn that information until after I had been doing surveys with them for over a month. What a waste of time!

If you have time on your hands and you would like to find a way to make a little extra spending money, then I think taking paid surveys is a great way to do it.

You can do surveys in the comfort of your home in your free time.

You can choose which surveys you want to do and which you want to decline.

Most survey companies will alert you through email when a new survey becomes available.

They also list the amount of time alloted to take the survey and the reward amount.

If you like it and have the time, take the survey.

If not, just push delete.

Another perk is when a survey leads to a product review.

I have been able to review everything from diapers, wipes, cleaners, shampoo and conditioner, moisturizers and electronics for free.

I was even paid a little to let them know what I thought about the product and I got to keep the product after the survey was over!

If you don't have much time for surveys and you have a smart phone, you can download survey apps to your phone.

They will alert you when a new survey comes in.

The surveys are very short.

They usually only take a minute to complete and I make anywhere from 10 cents to 25 cents.

I might get one survey a day, but a minute a day isn't too bad considering your getting paid for it.

You could always finish a survey this way while you are waiting.

If your goal is to make a little money and have a little fun while giving your opinion from home, then I would recommend taking paid surveys!