I can count on one hand the times that someone has actually wanted to pay me for my opinion. Okay, less than one hand. So I am going to give it to you for free. How is that for a bargain?
If you have been doing even a tiny bit of online research into available ways to work from home you will have come across the paid survey market. Read this from just one site that would have you pay them for access to companies wanting to pay you for your opinion:
"Just imagine sitting at home in front of your computer...in a pair of your favorite pajamas, sipping a cup of coffee...and simply answering a few short survey questions on your computer...and making $25 in just 5 minutes. Well, for a fast growing number of people all across America, this is not just a dream...It's a reality"
Well, just imagine...because that is the only way you are really going to make that kind of money. That isn't to say that you won't be getting legitimate surveys from legitimate marketing research companies. You will. You just won't be making that kind of money, if any at all. I signed up for (and paid for) a 'middle man' survey site (in my case SurveyScout) and gained access to many legitimate survey companies.
After downloading a few tools to help me fill out applications faster, applying to at least 20 to 25 sites, and having my email flooded with other non-legitimate offers I found that it is very hard to make any money let alone the money the above site says you can make.
The most common form of payment was an entry into a monthly drawing for $100 (or some other monetary figure). I wonder if my odds for winning the lottery are higher than winning the $100 drawing? I never was really good at math.
There were some surveys that paid cash....25 to 50 cents per survey. Now I can do the math there. 25 cents a survey, $25 for five minutes worth of work....okay, never mind, you do the math!
Read these advertising headlines: "Warning! Don't pay that survey site"...(until you read what we have to say about it and then you can pay US!) or "Paid Survey's Scam Warning!" which then leads you into a site advising you not to sign up with anyone but them since the rest are scamming ya!
I will say that the middle man site I paid for had legitimate survey sites I could apply for. I tried the ones that said they were completely free and all they needed was my email address etc. These type of sites will just flood your email with every bit of scam that has been invented to date!
The funny part about your opinion is someone really will pay you for it. Marketing research companies hold focus groups where they can receive feedback and input from consumers. The trick is they don't usually accept unsolicited call-ins from people who want to be a part of their database and you would need to contact each and every company as there is no master database that they all access. Try this website to learn a bit more about focus groups.
Bottom line: You can pay your $30 bucks to find this out for yourself and if you have and are actually making good money can you let me know? I have 5 minutes a day to devote to earning $25. Heck, if I could make that kind of money I could devote 10 or 15 minutes. :)
Marta, this'll give you a chuckle: right before I was hired by Tornado Solutions, one of the money-making schemes I tried was taking surveys on the Web. Pretty quickly I realized - I'm talking after maybe three or four surveys - that:
- I was giving away personal information
- Hardly any of the surveys generated more than a few cents apiece
- Surveys almost always took a lot longer than promised, due to Web connection delays, difficulty in finding the surveys, being notified of surveys haphazardly, etc.
- It caused more stress than it solved
Bottom line: I found it a boring, colossal waste of time. Can anyone make a living off of it? I say, even if someone can, is it worth the frustration and time to do it?
Posted by: Easton Ellsworth | January 19, 2006 9:53 PM | Permalink to Comment