Paid Surveys - Making Money Online Through Surveys

"Get rich quick!" You've seen it and heard it before - "spend as little as zero hours at the computer and make thousands in your first week!" Okay, maybe it's not quite like that, but you know the statements being made, give little, make lots. Scams are in abundance out on the web so how do you know what is real and what is not? For me, I've made the mistake of believing a few of the "hook, line, and sinker" promises made by these so-called companies only to find out that they were scam artists. Payments may come but to redeem anything worth of value one must spend their entire life staring at a computer screen or be satisfied with cheap rewards. No thanks.

So, what I want to do is to give you three of my favorite survey sites that are legitimate and trustworthy, and some-what fun! Here we go:

Company #1: Pinecone Research - This paying survey site is by far my favorite. Giving surveys on products that have not hit the consumer market yet, PR aims at gathering your opinion on possible new products. You get paid $3 per survey and your payment comes in the mail via check. The catch with this survey site is that it is not an open registration site. You MUST register only when they are accepting new members. PR will put their adds for registration on ad banners OR post something on their website for open registration. It took me about 3 weeks to find out if PR was accepting new members by Googling their website until I found a link for registration. They are a GREAT, personal (and real) company that works for you! Payment has always been on time and legitimate. You won't get rich quick, but if you're looking for a little pocket change with little time given, this is a great place to start.

Company #2: Instant Cash Sweepstakes - Paying you in coins, tickets, or cash, ICS will always reward your time with something. The surveys are short (3 questions) and based on your Tscore (the "trust" level of your account) will determine how many surveys you can take every 3hr period. So, for example, staring out at T1, you may be given only 6 surveys. T2 goes up to 8 surveys. T3 up to 10 surveys, and so on. You gain T levels by how often you are on their site and how accurately your survey answers fit your profile. For each survey you complete, you will win coins, tickets or cash. The coins and tickers are used as your tickets for your chance or winning the daily sweepstakes of $50 or every 3 hrs the $2 sweepstakes. The other reward is cash. The cash winnings are small BUT for every friend you invite and they win, you also receive the same reward! You will have to have a Paypal account since this is how they transfer your winnings over to you. After only 3 days of participating on their site, I was able to cash in enough money for a gourmet coffee. :) To me, that's worth it! There's much more to this site so be sure to look at ICS further!

Company #3: PaidViewPoint - Another paying survey (paying in CASH), this one I've just begun but so far have been very impressed with their payments and survey lengths (aka: SHORT and worth while). PVP will give you $1.00 just for registering and possibly a few more cents for however many questions you give them in your registration process. After you register, they will post surveys related to you in your account and for each survey, you will be paid for your time. You do have to have a Paypal account and you are not able to transfer your money to Paypal until you reach $15.00. However, the surveys require little time and with guaranteed payments (and added winnings for each friend you invite and they complete surveys) and fun surveys,  you can't go wrong!

Overall, these three companies are the three that I've found to be safe and legitimate. Be wary of anything that promises you a "get-rich-quick" scheme as most of them will want a large amount of your money and give you little to nothing in return. Sometimes, the temptation to go for the big winnings schemes can pull you in but remember that nothing in this life is free and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Take it from one that learned the hard way... :)

So, good luck and happy surveying!