Information on Paid Online Surveys
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Why an information on paid online surveys post now? Well, I was sitting at my computer working today when someone rang the doorbell. It turned out to be a woman who wanted me to take a survey. In exchange she would give me a $10.00 gift card for gas.
My first question was “How long will it take?” After all, if you drive a car and have bought gas these days you know ten bucks isn’t going to put too many gallons in your tank. It turned out that she wanted an hour of my time for this task. “Heck” I thought, “I could make more by taking an online survey and I could get it done in less time.
Are online surveys legit?
Actually most are and if that comes as a surprise just consider the economics of a company sending people out door-to-door to collect information versus getting people to fill them out online. Frankly the online surveys make a whole lot more economic sense for companies.
Why do companies pay you for filling out surveys?
The reason that companies pay people for filling out surveys is simply that they want to know more about your thoughts, preferences and particularly your buying habits. For example, a company like Apple might like to know what color of an iPod women are most likely to buy before they go out and make a bunch of some color that they are planning to market to women. If they make them first and hardly anyone buys them they’ve just wasted a lot of money. That’s a pretty simple example, but it gets at the core of why they want to know.
Other companies are more generalist and they continually collect data on various demographics to then sell to manufacturers, retailers and the like.
Getting rich filling out online surveys
Forget it! It’s not going to happen. We aren’t talking here about a strategy for getting rich and if anyone tells you otherwise turn around and run in the opposite direction because they have something else up their sleeve.
How much can you expect to make?
It varies a lot but typically $5 to $75 with most on somewhere in the middle. Why the variance? First of all, if you are a middle class female you are going to make more than a 24 year old male who makes $20,000 dollars a year working at the local oil change place. It also depends on who you fill out surveys for. Personally, I won’t even waste my time with sites that hold out the promise of winning a prize for filling out their survey. Nope, either give me cash or a gift card, but I want to know that I am going to get something for my efforts.
How to evaluate earning potential?
Here’s a check list I use to evaluate whether or not I want to fill out a survey or sign up with a survey company.
- Do they charge you to fill out the survey? If so just say NO! Legit sites don’t need to charge at least not if your filling out their survey.
- Am I paid or do I have to fill out the survey and hope to win some contest
- Are the promising to make me rich from this - probably not legit
- What kind of statements are made in their terms and conditions, privacy statements and disclosures
- what do they say they are going to do with my personal information e.g. contact info
- How long will it take to fill out the survey?
- Could I be making more money doing something else with my time?
Depending on the answers to the above I might sign up.
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