Thursday, November 6, 2008

Paid For Surveys: Too Good To Be True?

By Pete Sjogren

Paid online surveys have been around the internet for quite some time, and a lot of people are getting into it in hopes of getting some extra cash, whether to pay for home expenses, everyday needs or buy life's simple luxuries. Companies that are doing marketing research with their products and services are willing to pay consumers who partake in their ongoing surveys and focus groups. There are a lot of paid for surveys in the web and one must be able to discern those legitimate survey sites from the scams.

The truth is, there are really some genuine websites that are offering paid online surveys; what they need is your opinion and what you get is some form of payment for completing it. It is no secret to many companies that consumer's opinion matters since they are the ones that are using or consuming their products and their feedback will greatly help them in the improvement of its quality. These companies will have no problem giving out money for their advertising and marketing programs which include surveys like these.

These paid for surveys are about almost anything under the sun. From luxurious restaurants you love to eat at, upcoming movies and music events, the products you buy at your favorite grocery store, and even the latest gaming consoles, the possibilities are seemingly endless. Surveys may target specific age groups, hobbies and areas of interests; all of which are aimed at improving the quality of the products and services that these companies are offering.

Upon registering with sites offering paid for surveys, you will then be entering some pertinent information including your gender, age, income range and type of work. You will then be notified thru email if you are eligible to participate in a certain survey, and will be receiving an invitation that contains a link to the survey form.

The incentives coming from paid online surveys can come in a wide variety of forms like cash, gift certificates or reward points that are redeemable to cash. Different survey sites will have different methods of rewarding consumers that participate in their surveys; it can be a direct payment of a small sum of money, or a point system which will need you to acquire a certain number of points in order to get cash or freebies.

With the birth of paid online surveys also comes deceitful websites determined to lure people into scams. These websites boasts the cash incentives that can be earned from them upon signing-up. They tell you that they have a collection of paid for surveys which you can access only upon being a member.

Membership of course, comes at a price, varying from $25-$100 or even more. Their websites are filled with a lot of data about their members and how much they have earned after signing-up, even putting up screenshots of the daily or monthly earnings of their so-called members, which we can't even determine if they really exist at all. You will also see many testimonials from their fictitious members saying how thankful they are that they found that particular website.

These fake websites will do everything just to get you to become a member by presenting you with pictures of their fictitious members and the huge income they claim to have earned in just a few days. Sounds good to be true isn't it? And after joining you will discover that what they have are just fake collection of survey sites and links sending you to more fake surveys. You will never hear from them ever again after joining.

One must remember paid online surveys cannot give you amount of money big enough to make you quit your job and live on it. Although a few may give some considerable sum of money, they will always be just supplemental to your main source of income. Remember that a lot of websites in the internet are offering you thousands of dollars using their list of paid for surveys and tell you that you'll get rich in a few days; well if something is too good to be true, it usually really is, so try to stay away from these sites specially if they are asking you to pay for membership fees. - 15431

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