How to Make Money with Free Online Surveys

How to Make Money with Free Online
Surveys
1. 1
Be prepared . Surveyors are looking for specific types of
people, and while you won't qualify for every survey (if you're
a 25-year-old healthy hipster and they're looking for a 60-year-
old couch potato, you're just not going to make the cut).
2. 2
Fill out the surveys. Many survey companies offer screener
surveys when you register, which usually don't pay.
However, it's an important first step, and worth
the little extra time it takes to fill these
screening surveys out because the more
demographic information the market research
companies have on you, the more surveys they
can send you .
Remember, you will only be matched with
surveys that you can actually contribute to, so
if you leave all your screener information blank
to get through it more quickly, you will receive
fewer survey opportunities.
3. 3
Check often ! Keep an eye out on both the site and your email
regularly for survey opportunities. Some companies offer
surveys more often than others—and you certainly don’t want
to miss any of them!
Any individual survey site may only offer a
couple of surveys to you in a given month. The
more companies you sign up with, the more
surveys you'll be able to complete.
Set up a rule for your email so that any survey
emails that come in are flagged, make noise
when they arrive, and appear at the top of your
list. Everything you do to make them stand out
will help.
4. 4
Choose and complete the best surveys. Once you have lots of
surveys available, you can be more selective and pick the ones
that seem like the best use of your time. If time isn’t an issue,
on the other hand, you can do them all. You're under no
obligation to complete any surveys if you don't want to.
1. 1
Get searching, but be wary . There are many legitimate survey
companies out there, and money to be made. Which, of course,
means that there will be unscrupulous people out there as well,
looking to nab some dollars without working for it. Here's how
to steer clear of scammers:
2. 2
Never pay up front . Some companies will ask you to pay a
small fee up-front for access to survey lists, which is
absolutely unnecessary. Check Terms and Conditions , FAQs , or
any other area on a survey company’s page containing
information on how the company operates. (If such information
is hard or impossible to locate, consider it a red flag and cross
that site off your list.)
3. 3
Make sure you will be paid in cash . There are tons of surveys
on the internet that can be completed for cash (or points that
you exchange for cash), but some only pay in gift cards or
enter you into a sweepstakes.
Some sites offer a combination of these, which
may or may not be to your benefit. Be sure you
know exactly how you will be rewarded by
checking a sites FAQs , Terms and Conditions ,
etc.
Some companies offer prizes or products, or
let you accrue points that you can trade in for
such. Many of these won’t be as useful or
valuable to you as cash, but occasionally you
will get lucky. Just be sure to price-hunt any
items before accepting them (or investing
valuable energy into trying to earn them).
Get fine-print savvy. Some websites will say
you won an Xbox360 or a new laptop, for
example, but if you look carefully, you’ll
usually find an asterisk near the "you won"
part. Be especially wary of weasel words, like
"you may have already won," or "new laptop is
based on a purchase of gummy bears worth
$5,000 or more." Don't fall into these sorts of
traps; they're ridiculously difficult and not
worth it.
4. 4
Read the Privacy Policy . It is usually found at the bottom of a
site’s homepage. This is important: who will your information
be shared with? Always look for a statement along the lines of:
“Email addresses given to our company will never be sold,
given away, or shared with any third parties without your
consent.” When you read those, think to yourself if there's
anything in the language that would let them sell their mailing
list.
5. 5
Check for age restrictions . Online surveys can be a great way
for teens to make pocket money, but not all sites allow it.
(Many allow it if parental permission is given.)
6. 6
Look for a minimum payment amount . Most sites won’t allow
you to cash in until you have accrued a certain amount of
money, which reduces the number of transactions they have to
process (and, of course, gets people to invest more in the site).
Make sure the amount required is fair before
diving in—twenty dollars is common—and,
more importantly, if you don’t like a site and
plan to cash out soon, make sure to time it so
that you don’t have to do a lot more surveys to
unlock your cash.
7. 7
Look for sites that have good ratings . Finding a reputable
survey-site aggregator (such as GetPaidSurveys or or BigSpot)
that allows members to rank the companies they’ve worked
with is a good way to do this. Don’t take any stock in reviews
or testimonials that are self-posted by survey sites.
1. 1
Make a dedicated email account just for surveys. This will
keep junk mail out of your normal inbox. They may say they
won't sell your information, but less-reputable companies
might give it away for a favor. Once your information is out,
it's out.
2. 2
Register with legitimate companies . You will usually be
required to provide basic information such as your name, email
address, birth date, gender, and address. Later in the process,
you will also need to provide PayPal information—usually
associated with an email address—so that you can receive the
money you’ve earned.
This is a good time to review the Terms and
Conditions and Privacy Policy if necessary, as
you will be asked to legally agree to them.
3. 3
Check your email to verify . After registration, companies will
email the email address you’ve provided to verify. Open this
email and activate your account to confirm.
4. 4
Add the site’s email address to your address book . If an
incoming address doesn’t match one in your address book,
your e-mail account might mark it as spam automatically.