Looking to Make Money Online? Surveys Won't Pay Much

Make $50 - $100 per hour taking surveys! Sound too good to be true? That's because it is.

Most survey sites on the web are pure scams. Many attempt to steal personal information and make big promises that they never deliver on. Despite these harrowing circumstances I decided to do some research to find out if there were any survey sites that weren't scams. In the process I did find several legitimate companies, but only a couple that I thought were worth my time.

Opinion Outpost

Opinion Outpost usually sends me about two surveys a week. Opinion Outpost pays with Opinion Points. Ten Opinion Points are equal to $1. The surveys typically pay between 20-50 Opinion Points. As soon as you accrue 50 Opinion Points you can cash out and they send you a check in the mail. It took about two weeks to receive my first check.

What I liked about Opinion Outpost was that the surveys weren't usually that long for what I was paid. A 20 minute survey would usually pay about 25 Opinion Points. You won't get rich with Opinion Outpost, but it is a good site for some one who has lots of free time and is looking for a little extra cash.

American Consumer Opinion (ACOP)

ACOP usually sends me about three survey opportunities a month. They pay using Paypal. The most recent survey I did with ACOP took 15 minutes and paid $4. That's about $16 an hour, so I thought it was worth my time.

I would recommend ACOP to anyone who is looking to earn some spending money. Just don't expect to receive a lot of surveys.

Pinecone Research

Pinecone is unique because they pay a flat $2 fee to your Paypal account for every survey that you take. Compared to most survey sites $2 a survey isn't bad. During my time with Pinecone they rarely sent me surveys, and I only qualified for one. The good news is that once you complete the survey the payment is automatically sent to your Paypal account, so there is not a long wait involved.

Lightspeed Panel and E-Poll

Both these companies use a point system where you need to accumulate a certain number of points to trade in for rewards. I earned a $5 Amazon.com E-certificate from both of these sites. Unfortunately, I probably put in six hours of work to get a total of $10 in Amazon.com E-certificates.

I stopped taking surveys after cashing out because it just wasn't worth the effort. The only upside of these sites is that they send out a lot of surveys. Both of these companies are legit, but you might only want to sign up for them if you really enjoy taking surveys.

All the rest

A few other survey companies I signed up with were Hotspex, MySurvey, Datatelligence, and Greenfield. All of these companies either didn't send enough surveys, or only offered sweepstakes entries for completing them. I don't feel that any of them are even worth elaborating on.

I wouldn't suggest taking surveys online if you are looking to make a living, but if you have enough free time you might be able to make a little date money.