How to Find Legitimate Survey Companies to Get Paid for Your Opinion

So you want to get paid for your opinion but you don't know where to start? It can be tricky when looking for paid survey sites to separate the legitimate paid survey opportunities from the paid survey scams. Here are a few suggestions to get you started in the right direction:

Gain Experience
Unfortunately there is no fool proof method to weeding out the good ones from the bad. What is promising, however, is that after some experience with various survey sites, either good or bad, you will probably notice some very identifiable trends. After getting paid for your opinion with legitimate survey sites you will likely discover the ability to spot a scam within three seconds of viewing the website or online survey advertisement.

The key to finding names of legitimate survey companies is really just that. Build up experience with the credible ones so you can easily recognize them in the future.

Here are a few links to some legitimate survey sites that will pay you for your opinion.
Opinion Outpost
Mindfield Online

Study these reliable sites. Notice the components that make them trustworthy. Then apply this knowledge to help you make a more educated guess in the future when trying to decide if a paid survey opportunity is a scam or a real chance to get paid for your opinion.

Online Searches
Another way to find names of survey companies is by performing very careful online searches. Word choice is key here. Instead of searching for "paid survey sites", "surveys online", or any variation of those phrases, consider using search terms that describe these paid survey sites in professional industry terms. You might also try to add a "join" or "register" to the phrase to obtain a direct link to the signup form. Some examples of search phrases are:
"survey panel join"
"market research panel register"
"consumer panel join"

Paid Survey Databases
You also have the option to find out about survey companies by paying for access to a database of company links. While I would advise to steer clear of this option if you can, it is a good way to find hundreds of survey links to test for their legitimacy in one big shot without trying to perform endless internet searches. Just keep in mind that there will almost always include some bogus offers along with the real ones, as advertising for these scam survey programs make the survey database site owners extra money.

There also are hundreds of websites with free lists of survey companies. While these sites may be even less reliable in terms of the real survey site to scam survey site ratio, most of them can at least if anything provide a few leads.