Online Surveys

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Time commitment: Low
Money Potential: Low

You have probably heard of or been exposed to opportunities filling out market surveys.  Many times, when you are surfing the web, you will get pop-ups to take a survey with the promise of some lofty compensation.  If you are like me or, if you are like how I was before I started this blog: you ignored these prompts. 

However, since no money-making system is out of the question here, I decided to delve into the world of online surveys and, of course, document my findings here.  As it turns out, these surveys are in great abundance and I would even go as far to say there is a whole subculture of people who fill out a great many of them.  I bet there are even people out there whose sole source of income is filling out these things.  There are thousands of forums, twitter accounts, facebook pages, review sites, blogs, ebooks etc. devoted to just this topic.  Sorting through all these I found to be quite a daunting task.  Many false leads and many dead ends.  One useful review site I found was http://www.surveypolice.com/.  This site is particularly useful because it allows users to rate and rank their favorite surveys. This takes out a lot of the guess work as you decide which surveys to devote your time.


Naturally, I began my survey taking quest with those sites which are the most reputable and the highest ranked (leave a comment if you know of any good ones!).  So far, OpinionOutpost.com has served me well with its ease of use and many opportunities.

You can view my ongoing progress by clicking this online spreadsheet: Online Surveys

Each paid survey that you take is advertised at about thirty minutes long.  However, I found that you can actually go through them much quicker than this and you definitely get faster the more you do. 

Also, you will find that the opportunities are plenty, but the survey takers are looking for certain demographics and they will ask you "weeding out" questions like "what is your annual income."  From what I can tell there is no way for them to verify your answers but I would recommend being totally honest because the ramifications are of getting caught lying include being blacklisted from the site.   For every 5 or so rejections you receive based on your answers there is 1 survey that you will qualify for, so it is worth it to tell the truth if you are willing to put the time in.  Also, stay active!  You can get blacklisted from the good sites if you do not take enough surveys or if you create false accounts.

They definitely are looking for people who are active consumers which may be problematic if your lifestyle does not include purchasing certain products.  It sort of begs the question, why would you be taking a survey worth at most a few dollars if you are a regular shopper spending a bunch of money on consumer items? 

This seems to be the greatest downfall of survey taking for money: survey-administers are mostly interested in paying people who probably don't think survey taking is worth the time for the money it pays.  You have to find that balance.  I would suggest setting aside 15 minutes everyday to take as many surveys as you can in that time or eliminating other activities that you do like Facebooking or twittering and use that time for survey taking.

Rumor has it that the website PineConeResearch.com is the holy grail of survey taking but it is very hard to join.  I am trying to figure out how I can join. Does anyone know how to become a member?  Leave a comment or send me a message please!

Good luck and have fun.  Remember, limit your time to reputable survey sites found on review forums such as Surveypolice.com.

Action:  Start filling out profiles on survey websites and filling out surveys!

Note: I have not cashed out on the balance listed on my online surveys spreadsheet.  The survey givers have indicated that they will send me a check for this amount but I have not verified this.  I will update this post as soon as I do try to cash out.