There is a misconception out there that all paid for survey sites are scams. This is not true, in fact the scammers are often those telling you they are as they typically try to sell you something after you read their article! However, there are a number of ways in which some unscrupulous marketers are trying to sell you information products, access to database lists and generally over-hyping the earning opportunities which has lead to the scam moniker being bandied about quite so often.

There is a lot of hype surrounding paid market research opportunities and work at home jobs in general and learning how to see through all this to get at the truth behind paid market research is the quickest way to avoid the scams. Be assured, you can and will make money joining legitimate online survey panels and many do pay out millions of dollars a year to their survey panel members but it will not pay your rent or be a full time job. Neither will it cost you anything to join a survey panel, anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to pull a fast one.

The following is a list of things to look for before you join a paid online survey site and avoid the scam artists.

1) Does the site charge a membership fee to join?

Fee based survey sites are generally best avoided. An honest, legitimate paid survey company needs the opinions of a wide variety of people and generally, the bigger the number of opt-in survey panel members they have access to, the better it is for them. By charging a fee to join that limits their database size they cripple the potential size of their panel. NO real paid survey company wants this. Fee based online survey panels, who usually hype the rewards you can receive as well, are generally middle-men piggy backing on the idea of paid market research. By paying a membership fee they give you access to a list of companies who will pay you to take surveys online. Or in other words, charge you for the kind of information you can find FREE just by searching the internet using terms like “paid surveys”, “paid market research” etc.

2) Does It Over-Hype The Rewards?

Rewarded online market research has been around for a long time but in recent years a number of middle-men have jumped on the bandwagon claiming you can earn $70 an hour, $150 an hour or THOUSANDS every month if you pay them $30 or more for access to their database of paid survey sites. The fact is, an average survey rewards anywhere from $10-20 on the highest paying paid survey sites to a few dollars for your time on the others. Whilst you may very occassionally receive a multi-part survey or be invited to join a focus group discussion which pays much higher this is not the normal way of things.

3) Work At Home Taking Paid Surveys Full Time - Really?

No not really. Whilst it is true, there are hundreds of market research companies offering rewards for taking online surveys and answering opinion questionnaires, most of them are typically not very active and may send you a survey every couple of months or maybe less than one a year. In addition, many do not offer cash rewards for every survey you take, but instead offer prize draw entries, sweepstakes, coupons and other rewards. If you happen to win a $50,000 sweepstake then great, you made a full time wage that year but the chances are that isn’t going to happen. Paid survey panels are a great way to earn a little extra cash here and there but are definitely NOT to be seen as an alternative to full time work regardless of what you may read elsewhere.

4) Privacy, Terms and Conditions Etc.

Take a look at the privacy statement on the site you are thinking of joining. Legitimate market research companies comply with an industry standard not to share personally identifiable information with anyone including their survey partners. If the privacy statement is missing or looks incomplete or generally unprofessional, then you might like to think twice about joining that particular site.

5) Further Signals Of Quality

American survey companies often list their membership of the Better Business Bureau which is a nice and easy signal of quality, for example American Consumer Opinion Panel, Global Test Market and Survey Savvy all display the BBB Online Reliability Program logo on their homepages.

Bottom line: paid survey opportunities do exist, but genuine paid survey sites pay YOU and not the other way around, they do not over-hype what you can earn as a panel member and they subscribe to industry standards in terms of keeping your personal details safe.