“Make $25-$75/Hour By Completing Surveys In Your Spare Time” or What’s The Story With Paid Surveys?
I found a thread on the forum from whydowork.com called “Don’t fall for survey scams”.
There’s 3 main ideas that come out of the discussion (a very short one as a matter of fact):
- Most of the paid surveys web sites you see are nothing but a huge list of sites that will actually send you surveys.
- You need to fit within certain demographic categories to make any money at all.
- You might end up receiving a lot of spam.
Let’s talk about each of them. One by one.
1. Most of the paid surveys web sites you see are nothing but a huge list of sites that will actually send you surveys. If you do some research on the major search engines for “paid surveys” you could see that for yourself. I have to admit that I limited myself to just the first 2 or 3 results that came up (and I’m not talking about the sponsored results). However, and I’m saying this from the perspective of someone who has tried this, they are (most of them) just a list of other sites. What’s more discouraging is that if you decide to sign up with one of them, in many cases, you might have the unpleasant suprise of being sent to yet even more lists (again it happened to me).
So the natural question coming to mind is: why don’t any of the real survey sites come up in the search engines? There’s a few possibilities. What I’m thinking (just to touch the waters) is that:
- they’re not really trying to gain any search engine popularity
- probably because they are happy with the members they get from these lists
- or even if they do, they probably don’t have the knowledge of how to do that and/or are not willing to invest any money into getting such knowledge
What’s even worse is that most of these advertised lists will charge you a fee to give you access to their database of survey sites. If you decide to try your luck, at least get such a list for free. How can you do that? Very easy. On any of those sites look for an “Affiliates” link . You’ll have to look carefully, as they might be hidden to the unexperienced eye. What am I talking about? An ever easier way: just close your browser when you’re asked for any money.
2. You need to fit within certain demographic categories to make any money. There’s probably no greater truth than this! Once you become a member of a site that actually sends out surveys, you’ll see that they’ll ask you for a lot of information (age, sex, location, income level, certain preferences etc.) all meant to decide whether you will be sent a certain survey or not. And chances are you might only fit within the desired demographic maybe once a month.
As far as this goes, if you decide to try it, make sure you fill in as much information as you can. Otherwise, you might end up being sent a survey every other day, only to fill in the extra information they need to decide whether you are what they’re looking for or not. Sometimes it gets so specific that you might end up filling a survey for about 10 minutes or so just to find out that you do not fit the criteria. Such situations can appear even if you answer all the questions when you sign up. However, the less information you give them from the very beginning, more “demographic surveys” (as I like to call them) you will receive.
3. You might end up receiving a lot of spam. Again very so. The problem is that in many cases you can only complete a survey if you sign up for something (marketing, marketing, marketing…). And before you know it, your email gets into the hands of the wrong people. I know everyone likes to say they won’t sell any of your information to anyone. But who really knows what’s going on? Who really knows who steals such information without the knowledge of the site you gave it to? Who knows which sites actually make their databases vulnerable on purpose (for a certain price) so such information can be easily stolen? Who knows how many “thirds” are in the “third parties” they promise no to sell your profile to? I don’t, but I’m not willing to take any chances (anymore). But I’m digressing.
Just like points 1 and 2, a bit of advice in case you try your luck: get a new email adress and dedicate it to this. If things don’t work out, at least you won’t have to fight the (extra) spam on your main email adress.
Now it’s time for a few bonus points you need to consider before trying to pursue this opportunity.
4. You’ll be making very little money off of each survey. Sometimes it goes down to pennies (for a 20-30 minutes of work, sometimes even more). I have yet to see any survey to pay the often claimed $25-$75. Even if it can happen, it will be once a year (at the best). “What’s wrong with making a couple of pennies for sitting in front of your computer?” you might ask yourself. Let me answer with a question: Why not using that time to slowly build a nice, useful blog, site or affiliate business which will (in the long run) bring in much more money?
5. Quite a large number of surveys don’t even pay cash. Many will pay in products. Out of these, many will send you a product to try and ask you for your opinion. And that’s your pay. The product you are reviewing. What if it’s way below your expectations or it’s something you absolutely don’t want/need. Besides that, I don’t know about you, but I like the cash. 
I’ll decide what to buy with that money.
6. In many cases you won’t even earn anything. You’ll be entered into all sorts of drawings. I, for one, am not very lucky when it comes to lottery. Ummm, thanks, but no thanks.
7. Due to the low pay out, in order to make any real money, you would have to sign up with a lot (and I mean A LOT) of programs. And that can only add to the clutter in your inbox (where you receive the suvey invitations). Add to that the spam you’re exposing yourself to, and you got yourself a mad house. Due to the high similarities between the titles of survey invitation emails and some spam emails, you can have the best spam protection software there is, and you still won’t find your way through. On the other hand, many honest survey invitations might end up in your bulk mail. That’s one aspect.
There’s also the fact that having to sign up with such a large number of web sites, you could end up doing demographic surveys (to decide whether you are what they’re looking for or not) for hours without actually earning anything. You do that for a couple of hours a day, for a couple of weeks and come back and let us know how it’s going.
8. The last thing I want to pin point is that, although not that often, there are certain survey sites that will only pay you after they decide that you’re not scamming them (having multiple accounts with different profiles would be one possibility). And that can take up to a month, a month and a half.
That’s about all the things I could think of that make, in my opinion, a strong case against paid surveys. Once again, thanks, but no thanks.
