What Really Happens when You Sign Up to Take Online Surveys for Pay?

"Make money taking online surveys". You've seen the ads, they're all over the internet and they make it sound like you can make a fortune just by taking surveys online. But, what really happens when you sign up to do this and start taking surveys? Do you really make a lot of money?

The truth is, that while you can indeed make some money taking surveys and while there are some people who do make a lot of money this way, most people who get involved in this do not make much money at all.

Still, if you've got a lot of time on your hands and want to give it a try, it's quite simple to earn a little money. The key is to sign up with a lot of survey sites(there are hundreds of them) and to fill out your profile as completely as you can on each site. The information in your profile is used to determine if you are a likely candidate for any particular surveys. Many survey sites offer small incentives to you for completing various sections of your profile information. They will have several categories, such as household, shopping, finance, etc... for you to fill out with your personal answers. Completing these helps you qualify for more surveys.

Once you get signed up at the major and most popular survey sites, the e-mail from all of them is going to come rolling in like a tsunami. This is why it's best to create a separate e-mail account that you will use just for surveys. Doing this will keep your primary in box free of the spam that signing up for doing surveys is going to generate.

Many survey sites now offer points rather than cash as an incentive for taking their surveys. The points can then be accumulated and later redeemed for prizes such as gift cards to your favorite stores or for prizes. Some sites will redeem your points for cash. Different surveys "pay" varying amounts of points and points are only redeemable on the site they are given on.

Getting involved in survey taking will lead to other sites contacting you who are not really survey sites in and of themselves, although they will occasionally offer you a survey. Some of these sites, such as Reward Point, or My Points are well worth signing up with. They too offer points that you can later redeem for valuable gift cards and prizes. The points you earn with them come from viewing offers that the sites present you with and signing up for those offers. However, if you are involved with the freebie business, you might want to save signing up for the offers with your freebie network instead. Many of the offers found in Reward Point, Snap Dollars, In box Dollars, My Points and Send Earnings are also found on the freebies and incentive based networks and signing up for them there might be much more lucrative for you.

There is enough free information regarding surveys online that you should not have to pay for any service that promises to supply you with surveys. With minimal effort and the help of Google, you can find all of the sites yourself that these "services" offer to find for you for a price.

Taking surveys will indeed earn you a bit of money and quite possibly some nice prizes, but for most people it is not a means for replacing their regular source of income.