Saturday, December 22, 2007

How to Become a Pro in Taking Paid Surveys

As any other type of job, completing paid surveys takes some craft. To maximize your earnings with paid surveys, you need to master some simple skills that can help you accomplish regular survey invitations and steadier cash flows. This article will show you how to make the most out of paid surveys.

Build a Reputation of a High Quality Survey Respondent

In simple words, get yourself known to the survey companies, so that they’ll send you more survey invitations to earn more cash and rewards. If you start skipping certain companies’ notifications of upcoming surveys, or if you do not reply to more than a few online survey alerts, you may get deleted from the databases of these survey companies. As paid surveys have become a trusted market research method, companies strive to maintain a reliable pool of survey respondents. You can build an image of a professional survey taker by responding timely and consistently to the invitations you get, and providing quality feedback to the companies that contact you.

Subscribe to as Many Survey Companies as You Can

The way to have a steadier cash flow into your checkbook is to complete as many surveys as you can. Success is in the quantities, as survey companies send a variable number of surveys per month, usually up to 5. To expand your earning potential, you need to subscribe to more than a few paid survey companies. Having more sources of paid surveys makes up for the relatively small number of surveys that regular companies send. Keep in mind that you may not qualify for each and every survey that a company launches. Therefore, it pays to be a member of many surveys sites and be able to choose among the survey invitations you get.

Be Careful to Choose the Legit Surveys Sites

Since paid surveys have gained worldwide acknowledgement for the impact of their results, market research has prospered through initiating and conducting paid surveys. Unfortunately, many scam artists have tried to imitate the structure and methods of the legitimate paid survey companies in order to profit from deceiving survey takers. These pyramid structures have beguiled many paid survey takers into paying membership fees or purchasing tutorials and software that are totally useless. Always be suspicious when you are asked to pay anything in advance. Never provide credit card information or bank account details, even if you are contacted by phone or in person – a legitimate survey company will never ask you for such specific info. Check the quality of the consumer service, and read the privacy policies and conditions of use prior to becoming a member, and especially before you pay a fee to a survey site.

Take Surveys from All Scopes

Another successful technique for earning with paid surveys is to take surveys from any scope – from the initial screener surveys to the highest-pay ones. If you rely on sifting through all the moderate-pay surveys and completing only those paying $100 or more, you’ll be unpleasantly surprised when you count your earnings at the end of the month. You’ll figure out that it makes more sense to complete a large number of smaller surveys, than to fish only for the big ones that are rarer and may be very narrowly targeted. Many newbie survey takers disregard the screened surveys that they receive at the start, because they are usually unpaid. However, these screener surveys are very important. Companies use screener surveys to tell the reliable survey takers from the ballast, and they oftentimes drop those subscribers who didn’t respond to the screened surveys. So, do not disconnect yourself from the chance of earning good cash and rewards, and start taking paid surveys now!
By Diana Cristo

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The Myths about Paid Surveys

hese are some of the questions that newbie survey takers ponder, weighing the true benefits of taking paid surveys against the possible drawbacks. However, how can a newly recruited survey respondent really evaluate the true advantages of paid surveys, and appreciate all the benefits that becoming a regular survey respondent bring? Here are some myths about paid surveys that draw the line between survey rumors and survey reality.

Myth 1: Paid Survey Sites are Scams.

There are hundreds of legitimate paid survey sites that recruit survey respondents, grant them free access to their paid survey resources, and help thousands of people earn extra income with paid surveys. These legitimate survey sites are well known among seasoned survey takers. New survey sites are launched every week, trying to capture the growing demand for survey takers, as well as the skyrocketing interest in completing surveys as a hobby or a part-time job. Online survey databases operate with hundreds of survey sites, matching companies in need of survey respondents with volunteers to make some extra cash without qualification requirements and within short time limits. Of course, scam artists do not leave the success of paid surveys sites unnoticed, and try to imitate them in order to beguile users to register and then take money away by either asking for some fees, or requiring upfront investments. Every successful project lures many scam artists to create schemes to earn profit by cheating people. However, without doubt, there are many legitimate survey sites that operate in good faith, and provide quality services to both market research companies, and the ordinary people – the survey respondents.

Myth 2: Paid Survey Companies need Experienced Survey Takers

There is no such thing as "experienced" when it comes to answering questions about tastes, product choice, preferred service features, or past purchases. Everyone is a consumer, and therefore, everyone qualifies to take paid surveys. Online marketers need reliable, spontaneous, truthful and unique feedback, as product companies base their improvements upon consumer survey responses. Therefore, there isn’t a way how to be prepared to answer a survey in a particular way – first, the questions always vary; second, the survey questions ask us about our tastes and choices – information we can provide spontaneously, without training.

However, it certainly pays to take paid surveys regularly and become experienced in the process of responding to survey invitations, filling in surveys, finding out new survey opportunities, etc. Survey companies have huge pools of potential survey respondents, but they tend to drop off those that do not respond to their survey invitations, are unavailable, or inconsistent in returning surveys. Therefore, every survey newbie who wants to make decent money with paid surveys, need to take it seriously, and build a good reputation with one’s preferred survey companies. Moreover, survey companies tend to send the highest-payout surveys to the survey takers on their list that have been most consistent and reliable with the other surveys they completed.

To learn more about the myths and reality of paid surveys, read Part II of The Myths about Paid Surveys – Rumors or Reality?
By Diana Cristo