Paid Survey Sites: Scam or Grand Slam?

Get paid to take surveys online. Sound too good to be true? Most offers are, but some are actually legit. That said, keep reading and I'll tell you about my experience.

I have always been curios about the paid survey sites and today my curiosity got the best of me and I signed on to Paid Survey's Etc. Aside from making some money, I just thought they sounded fun. I also thought that studying the surveys would allow me to learn some things I could add to my own marketing research skills.

I didn't just sign up, because as much as I use the Internet, I'm terrified of Internet scams. Instead I did my homework. There are many sites that evaluate work-at-home jobs, including paid surveys. Now, the legitimacy of these evaluation sites is another discussion, but I read more good than bad things about Paid Survey's Etc. so I took the chance. It would only cost $34 (when you go to the site, there's a half off coupon you can apply for the $34 price--or at least there is today) and there is a supposedly money back guarantee.

But before I even did this, I tried some of the free paid survey search sites, and because I didn't realize what it was the pay site was going to give me, I thought I would be getting more than from the free sites. In a way this is true. When I typed in "free paid surveys," Google gave me a list of marketing companies that send out surveys when available to the correct demographic. I checked out a couple of these companies and read that they can send surveys out up to three or four times a month. In my survey inexperienced mind, I was hoping for three or four times a day. I was also hoping to just go into a database and click on the surveys I wanted to take. And that's what I thought I was going to find with the paid survey site.

So I did it. I joined. I plugged in my coupon key, filled out a little information, and was on my way to making back my membership fee and then some. Sort of. What I got first was a bunch of offers for work-at-home jobs on Ebay and through other sites. I skipped that page, I just wanted to take surveys, and went right to the Survey Database.

What I found was page after page of links to companies that send out market research surveys. Great. Each link was listed with which countries the company is interested in researching and whether they pay in cash, prizes, or cash and prizes. It's a great resource and the site's creator has done a very good job putting it together. It just wasn't what I expected.

I can work with what I'm given so I started clicking on the links. For each one, I had to fill out the exact same questionnaire. Name, address, gender, age, income, pets. I actually lied on the pet question. I have a cat. But I've lived with dogs and have also had lizards so I thought stating that I had both was probably not fraud as much as it was just having fond memories and a way to qualify for more surveys. Some sites have specialized questions, some just the basic. All came back that I either did not qualify for the current survey or they would e-mail me when one I did qualify for giving my opinion on their topic. Most of the companies I looked at said they sent out three or four a month.

So now I realized I was back to doing exactly what I had been doing without paying a cent by Googling "free paid surveys" and visiting each individually listed site. That said, the $34 did buy the convenience of the compiled database--tons of companies at my fingertips--and I have no problem paying for convenience when it comes to some things. But for me it would have been more worth it had the site I just paid for filled out all the forms for the actual companies I still was clicking on and applying to.

After clicking on a different link and filling out the same info about ten times, I realized I didn't have the patience for doing this. I didn't want to wait for surveys, I wanted to sign on and take them like I was promised.

I have requested my refund.

I need to be fair, though. I didn't try all the links and just picked random ones. It's very possible if I had kept trying, I would have qualified to take one or maybe ten surveys. And the other thing is my laziness. There was nothing stopping me from going to each site and registering--it certainly wasn't difficult. I just didn't feel like it. In fact, I had paid so that I didn't have to do so, I thought.

I'm not sorry I signed up for this site. I was always really curios. I'm not worried about the money. I'm sure I'll get it back. And if not, well, call me a sucker, but hey, it gave me a topic to write about.

(edit: I was able to get my refund within days. The survey site ignored my e-mails, however, once I contacted Clickbank, the institution that handles the paypal transactions, I was credited the full amount.)

Paying to take surveys online is just not the right thing for me. It may be my demographic, it may be that it's a slow time of year or it was mid Friday afternoon, I don't know. It may be that these sites don't cater to instant gratification. My point is that I was lead to believe it would indeed give that gratification. I didn't even need a lot of money. I just wanted to take a survey.

So are paid survey sites a scam? No, not all of them. Paid Survey's Etc. seems quite legit. It's just not as quick and easy money as the ads may suggest. And it's not something that I want to wait out. That's fine, my bad, and I'm just saying. But I'm saying it so you know, too.