Paid Survey articles

Ways To Make Money - Online Surveys & Focus Groups

by Rob Johnson

When searching the Internet for ways to make money you will come across many claims that people are making money from completing surveys and participating in focus groups. If you are like most people, you simply keep looking for another type of opportunity, never believing that money can be made in this fashion.

The truth is, however, that there is a lot of money that can be made by participating in online surveys and focus groups. Companies large and small, government bodies local and national, and even sports teams are interested in your opinion and are willing to pay for them. They use the data they collect from these surveys to create new products, enhance existing products, create national policies and even determine what type of advertising they will use to reach you. Because this data is so important, they compensate you for your time.

What Is My Investment Costs To Become Involved?

Your time. That is all you need to invest into this type of opportunity. In fact, you do not even need to invest a lot of time, or any specific time during the day. You can answer surveys from your mobile while you are waiting in cue at the market. You can participate on a focus group during a lunch break or after the children have gone to bed. You can make money when you have time.

Survey companies do not collect fees from participants because they need to ensure that they have a large enough database to provide their customers with the information that they need. The client who requests the survey pays the survey company and they are the ones that provide the compensation for the recipients. Participants never have to pay to be a member of a survey site – ever. If you encounter a site that requests any form of payment to join, simply move on. There is a good chance they are not legitimate.

Your earnings will be based on how much you participate and how often. This is the beauty of online surveys and focus groups. You can determine your level of participation, you can determine how much you want to earn and there is no investment involved and no one to be held accountable to except yourself.

What Do Online Surveys And Focus Groups Pay?

Each survey will pay a different amount as will the focus groups. The rate of pay will be determined by the length and difficulty of the survey or if multiple encounters are needed to complete the task. For instance, a quick survey that takes five minutes to complete will not pay as well as a survey that takes half an hour. A focus group that requires you to participate once a week for 6 months will pay considerably more than one that requires you to return once. Survey companies will tell you the amount of compensation you will receive and the length of the survey before you accept the invitation. This is standard practice for the industry and law in many areas. You have the choice to participate or not once you know the length and payment of the survey.

The Best Ways To Make Money With Surveys And Focus Groups

If you are very interested in making money through online surveys and focus group participation there are 5 things that you must remember:

1. Join several companies. The more companies that you are a member of, the more surveys and focus group invitations you will receive. There are no exclusivity clauses in a survey site membership. You can belong to as many companies as you desire.
   
   
2. Respond often and with speed. When you receive an invitation to participate in a survey in your inbox you should respond as quickly as possible. In many cases surveys are only available for a limited time or until a demographic area is filled. The sooner that you respond to an invitation, the better the chances are that you qualify for the survey.
   
   
3. Update your profile. When you join a survey or focus group site take the time to complete your profile on their main site. This will help you receive more surveys from the company because they scan profiles first to meet their demographics before they send out a general invitation to the public.
   
   
4. Check into the main site often. One reason that many people do not make enough money completing surveys is because they forget to go to the main site and request a payment. Checking into the main site often will help you maintain your accounts and request payments when necessary. Just because you hit a payment threshold does not mean that you will receive a cheque automatically. You must request your payments.
   
   
5. Refer your friends and family. Each site will provide you with a referral link that you can distribute to your friends and family. This link will generate additional income for you. Once your friends and families join the site you will receive a portion of anything that they earn. This is a simple way to boost your income without investing any more of your time or effort.