Are Online Paid Surveys Real? Here’s What You Need to Know

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Yes. Online paid surveys are real.

Even though making money while completing surveys online is real, we usually come across people asking if it is possible to have a full-time income by completing paid surveys. Although there is no straight answer to this question, however, I will like to shed more light on these issues.

Online paid surveys are opportunities for companies to receive feedback from the public about their products and services. They offer cash payments, credits, vouchers, and gifts to encourage people to share their opinions.

These opinions enable them to know what buyers feel about their products and services. They can get this feedback by partnering with websites that match survey takers with the companies.

Making Money From Home

Although it is possible to make extra bucks by completing surveys, it can be difficult to make lots of money or earn a particular amount consistently. This is usually because online paid survey opportunities are not predictable. The amount of survey offers that you receive daily is not stable.

Therefore, you cannot compare having a legitimate job completing online surveys with the amount of money you earn from a 9 to 5 job. So if you are planning to start taking surveys, you need to have this at the back of your mind so that you don’t have unrealistic expectations.

Different Forms of Legitimate Survey Jobs

If you are a retiree, a disabled, a student, or you’re between full-time jobs and are currently not employed, you may consider joining survey websites to take surveys because this may seem like the only source of income at your disposal.

The definition of a job is usually flexible and often depends on its nature; whether full-time, part-time, casual, or contract jobs. You can call online surveys anything you make them.

You may decide to complete surveys for hours in a day or do them once in a while. Also, you can call an online survey a gig, an online job, a casual job, or a hobby.

One thing that you need to know is that, unlike your regular jobs, online surveys do not require any skills or prior experience. This makes online surveys one of the most inclusive ways to make money online.

7 Things You Need To Know Before Joining A Paid Survey Site

Now that we have established the fact that online paid surveys are real and that a lot of people are becoming more interested in joining, it is important to know some tips before you sign up on any survey site. These tips will protect you from being scammed by dubious survey sites.

Here are 7 key facts that you need to know about online surveys:

1. Online surveys will not make you rich

Paid survey jobs are open to everyone; with or without experience or qualifications. However, you need to understand that paid surveys are just a means of earning additional income. You shouldn’t raise your hopes too high by expecting online surveys to replace your regular full-time job.

It is important to be realistic when it comes to earning from online surveys because it takes time to earn from these opportunities. The compensation is usually a voucher, store credit, or cash. If you complete your surveys diligently, then you may have a substantial income after some months.

2. You will not qualify for all surveys

You will need to go through an initial screening process before you are allowed to complete a survey. This process usually comprises different questions about your demographics and the products and services you use.

If your answers do not align with what the companies want, you will be disqualified from taking the survey; this implies that you are not eligible to complete the survey.

3. You are not expected to pay before joining a survey platform

There are many paid survey websites online and this makes it difficult to know the legitimate ones. You need to be mindful of survey sites that ask you to pay a membership fee before you can join their platforms.

It is free to join legit survey sites. They are the ones that will pay you for completing surveys, not you paying them.

Before you join any survey site, take a look at the company’s information and contact details. If you cannot find a clear profile of the company on the website, then such a site cannot be trusted. So before you register on any survey site, ensure the brand is reliable.

4. You will receive most survey invitations through your email

Email is the most effective way for survey companies to reach their members. After you join a survey company, the company will send you newsletters, updates, and survey invitations.

It is, therefore, good to add your survey company’s email into your safe sender list so that your survey invitations do not land in the spam folder.

It is possible not to receive survey invitations immediately after you sign up on a survey platform. So you should give it some days before survey companies start sending you surveys that align with your profile.

The number of survey invitations will increase as you become more active in responding to the invitations sent to your email.

This is one of the issues that most survey takers encounter; you may have many emails in your inbox if you do not manage them every day.

Although some people suggest having a separate email for completing surveys, however, this is tedious and stressful for people when they need to read each of the invitations to know the details of the survey and click the link in the survey.

Notwithstanding, look out for emails that survey companies send to you. Make sure that the emails have to do with survey opportunities and not other offers.

If you notice that a survey company keeps sending you emails that contain offers that you need to buy, such a company is most likely not a legit survey company. You should only spend your time on companies that focus on market research.

5. In most cases, you may not receive your rewards instantly

Legit survey companies will not lure you to their platforms by promising that you will earn hundreds of hours after working for some minutes. Paid surveys require some effort on your part and you will need to spend some time before you start earning tangible amounts.

With online surveys, you need to be patient to see and withdraw your earnings. Although survey companies value you as a survey taker, however, you need to abide by their rules and guidelines before you can receive your rewards.

Your earnings will not come immediately after completing a survey, so be careful when you see offers that guarantee you instant cash.

When you come across an offer that is too good to be true, then it is most likely a scam. Do not fall for these dubious offers and be careful so that you don’t end up releasing your personal information to scammers just because you want to ‘receive a reward.’

6. You can join different paid survey companies

There is no limit to the number of legit survey companies that you can join. As long as you trust the companies, and you believe they are worth your time and effort, you are free to take part in different market research resurveys for different survey companies.

Apart from earning more money, you are also helping more businesses improve the quality and value of their products and services.

Before you sign up for the survey companies, go through their privacy policies about how they disseminate information. If they state that they will share your details with any third-party for business opportunities, do not join such companies. They are most likely not genuine survey companies,

7. You can complete surveys anywhere and anytime

One great feature of online survey jobs is the fact that you can do it wherever you are and whenever you want to.

This flexibility is a great advantage and it helps you to have access to a reliable internet connection. Many online survey companies are releasing mobile-friendly offers as well.

Having these 7 points at the back of your mind before joining a survey platform will help you to have realistic expectations from survey companies.

Don’t forget that nothing good comes easy; you need to invest some form of work. Any platform that promises that you will make lots of money without doing anything is a scam.

So, invest your time and effort into paid survey tasks and they will pay off as time goes on.

How To Make Surveys Work

Although you can be a full-time online survey taker, however, you should see completing surveys as a way of earning additional income to your regular income, or as extra pocket money if you don’t have another job

Whether you need to raise cash for your birthday gifts, or you need to buy groceries at Walmart or visit a buy a fitness device on Amazon, partaking in paid surveys can help you raise money to meet these needs.

7 Tips That Will Make Online Surveys Work For You

Since the money you will make from these tasks will not be stable, here are some things that you need to do to increase your earnings on paid survey sites:

1. Use multiple Survey sites

Register with different paid survey websites. Ensure the websites you register with are established and also pay their members.

It is free to join these platforms and it will take just a few minutes.

2. Join multiple programs

Explore different opportunities to earn more money. You can register for taste testing companies, mystery shops, and online video surveys.

Although it may be difficult to qualify for these tasks, however, the rewards are better than what you get from regular surveys.

3. Join local survey programs

Apart from joining big survey sites, you should also join smaller survey companies that are within your country. These companies have fewer surveys with better rewards. The competition on such platforms is also low since they usually have a small number of participants.

4. Join mobile survey platforms

If the survey company you intend to register with has a mobile app, download it. It is easier to receive notifications about surveys on your mobile device than on your laptop and desktop. You will see the notifications faster and will not miss any survey opportunity.

A mobile app also makes it convenient to complete surveys.

5. Check frequently

Log in to your online survey account every day. Some legit survey sites publish survey opportunities on their website or the user’s account dashboards every day.

You can only take advantage of such opportunities if you log in to your account daily.

6. Join survey sites that offer debit e-cards

If you don’t like gift cards but you like completing surveys with a company that offers only gift cards, there is a way out.

Check the company’s website to find out if there are no other options. Walmart gift cards or Amazon e-codes are useful presently because they both offer all the things we need to buy.

Visa gift cards are also available as payment options on many survey platforms. Since Visa is accepted on almost all online and offline stores, you should not have any issues with finding where to spend it.

7. Avoid bad survey sites

Focus on what works. It is not every survey site that will work for you. Hence, stick to the platforms that work and ignore the ones that don’t.

There are lots of paid online survey websites that you can choose from, so don’t waste your time trying to force your way into a platform that is not working for you.

This platform provides honest reviews where you can find bad survey sites to stay away from and good survey sites to join.

Final Warnings

Most people that take online surveys try to outsmart the system by providing poor responses with low quality. They do these just to get through online surveys. They end up lying while providing answers to qualification questions so that they can qualify by all means.

As the online market research industry keeps getting mature and more sophisticated, there are measures on the ground to detect these kinds of survey takers.

If you are found to be deceptive with your answers in any way, you may be banned from the platform.

If you are honest with your answers and you are not rushing through the questions, then you have nothing to worry about.

Conclusion

Although online paid surveys are real, and it is possible to have a full-time online survey job. However, you are most likely to be bored and burn out. The fantasy of online survey jobs is usually more enticing than the reality. Some people prefer taking surveys for a few hours every day, while others prefer taking them occasionally. We are all different.

Find what works for you and stick to it to find success with the survey website(s) that you register with.