The Truth Behind Paid Online Surveys

Often times people are seeking extra ways to earn cash from their home. One idea suggested by some online community members is to participate in paid online surveys. Based on my experience, though, more often or not surveys are not paid. The facts are that paid online surveys are only that when the amount clears in your bank account. Beforehand, there are many stumbling blocks that must be crossed before you can actually get paid. Based on my experiences, only about 20% of the surveys that I take I actually get paid for. Here are some of the reasons why paid online surveys are, for the most part, actually misnomers.

Qualifying is difficult - Yes, there are certain demographics that survey companies are looking for. Most of the time, these questions are asked about in the beginning of a survey, and if you are not what the survey is looking for, then it will let you know. I have no problem giving up a minute or two with the potential that it may turn out to be financially rewarding.

"Just so happen not to be what we are looking for" - This is actually different from the demographic issue. For anyone who has attempted a paid online survey, sometimes you can be working on it for ten or twenty minutes and then all of the sudden, after answering about 20+ questions, your information isn't needed anymore. I have had this happen on numerous occasions, and what it is, is the entire survey minus the closing "classification" questions. Basically, a person gets stiffed out of survey payment when in actuality they did a paid survey and deserved compensation.

Bait and Switch - This happens when a person successful completes a paid online survey and the promised incentive was posted in the email. After completing the said survey, a person is shown back to the survey host's site where, on the screen, it states that the survey was successfully completed and your name has been entered into a drawing. This bait and switch occurs more times that I know of, and a few companies have done this to me. Had I known this, I would have never taken the survey in the first place, as my time is too valuable to hand over "free work" for a sweepstakes.

Checks taking forever and/or getting lost - Many times, I have done surveys only to have my check take anywhere from 3 to five months to get to me. One time, it took almost six months for me to get $2! Now there are some survey companies that do pay within 4 to 6 weeks; which is great. Unfortunately, there are others that take many, many months. When this happened once, I thought it was an isolated incident; however, the same companies did this for over twelve checks that I was expecting. I guess I was lucky though, as I have had a few checks lost in the mail and never received my compensation for some surveys. Often, survey checks are bulk mailed and assembled in such a hurry that the envelopes are not sealed correctly. The check gets lost in the mail, or in some cases, probably never even makes it to the Post Office due to the unsecured envelope.

Should you want to pursue attempting to register with some paid online survey companies, my advice is to only use this as a spare-time hobby, as it is not a reliable source of income, nor is it something that can be depended upon for regular monetary offers. Always expect the worst, and then you may be surprised to see a check that actually has your name on it come in the mail. However, if you time is limited, be sure to prioritize the surveys and only take the ones that you feel will actually offer you monetary compensation.

Disclaimer: Please do not contact me asking for a list of paid survey sites or which ones I do, as Google has many ways to read testimonies from people who have taken them. All you need to do is perform a search and put "paid online surveys" in the search box. For more accurate results, be sure to use quotations, and be sure to read many people's opinions, as you can get a valid idea of which company is reliable and which one is not.