7 Tips On Increasing Your Paid Survey Profits

Step 1 - Find a Free Paid Surveys Directory

 There are several websites out there that will try to get you to pay up to $60.00 for a paid survey directory. There is no need to pay for a list of paid surveys. There are several websites that offer this type of information for free and they can be found easily by searching

Step 2 - Set up an email account just for your paid surveys

Once you have established yourself as a paid survey panelist you will start to receive several invitations to participate in paid surveys everyday. You don't want these emails getting mixed up with other email accounts you may not often check. The best things to do is set up a free email account at Yahoo, Hotmail, or Google and use it only for your paid surveys.

Step 3 - Join the Top 20 Paid Survey Panels

Anyone just starting out should always start by joining the top 20 paid survey panels. These are the most popular survey panels and also the ones that are known to send the most paid surveys on a regular basis. You can easily find the top 20 survey panels by typing in top 20 paid survey panels on any of the major search engines, like MSN.com or Google.

 Step 4 - Confirm Your Registrations

Sometimes a paid survey panel will send you a confirmation email or follow up survey to check that you are really the person that registered. Make sure you confirm all registrations. You may not be considered an official panelist until you confirm your registration.

Step 5 - Check Your Paid Survey Email Account Often

Several people may be invited to participate in a paid survey. But sometimes there are only so many people needed. In order to maximize your profits you want to be able to respond to a paid survey invitation as soon as possible. Make sure you check your email at least once a day.

Step 6 - Take All Surveys

Alot of times you will be sent short surveys that don't pay very much or only enter you into a drawing. This is very often a survey to see if you fit the demographics for a more important and higher paying survey. If you do you may be invited to participate in a high paying survey or even a focus group or product test. This can be very profitable.

Step 7 - Invite Others to Join

Several of the most popular paid survey panels offer their panelists even more money for bringing in other panelists. These companies are in constant need of new paid survey panelists as a lot of people lose interest after a short period of time. You can make a lot of money recruiting others. Some of these paid survey panels will pay you up to $4.00 just for getting someone else to sign up. These are some of the companies that have referral programs:

Survey Club - $1.00 per referral

NFO My Survey - $1.50 per referral

Lightspeed Research - $.75 per referral

Survey Savvy - $.82 per survey taken from your referrals

These are just a few. Most all of the top 20 paid survey panels have some type of referral system. As you can see this money can add up quick. An informative article or ad on a high traffic forum or message board can easily bring lots of new sign ups.

Paid Surveys - Online Income or Just Hype?

Paid Surveys can be a legitimate source of online income, but the hype surrounding paid surveys has made many individuals skeptical of the online market research industry.

Online Paid surveys are hosted by market research firms, and are an effective way to obtain consumer opinions from a wide variety of people with different backgrounds. The concept of paying consumers to try new products, or answer questions on new product ideas is not new, it is just that the earnings promised to unsuspecting online individuals has been exaggerated by some looking to make a quick buck.

With annual market research spending on the rise, there has been an increased interest in using the Internet as a cost effective means to gain targeted consumer opinions. As a result several prominent online market research firms began to appear in the mid 1990's, and they formed online panels that offered consumers paid surveys. Since that time however, several questionable sites have appeared, hyping paid surveys as a means for financial freedom, and using the concept of paid surveys to make money off the increasing number of internet users. These sites usually charge a membership fee, which entitles you to a list of marketing research firms that conduct online paid surveys. Many claim to have the best list, and promote online surveys as a work at home job with earnings of a $150 an hour or more to persuade you to pay their membership fees.

The real truth though is that the paid survey directory that they are trying to sell is made up of survey panels that are free to join, and can be found by doing searches on the Internet. In addition to the pay sites, many free sites have cropped up offering directories of online paid survey panels. These sites often contain the same lists or sometimes even better list than the sites with membership fees. The "free sites" make their earnings from affiliate earnings offered by the market research firms, and these sites can be a good way to get introduced to some of the market research firms in the industry. While the sites offering free directories are more honest than the pay sites, beware of sites that require you to become a member, before they will give you access to the directory. These sites will sometimes send you spam, or sell your contact info to advertisers. If you are interested in taking paid surveys, my advice to you is to find the market research firms yourself, or find a free site that has detailed descriptions of the different survey panels and does not require you to become a member to gain access. Sounds easy enough, but how do you find the good sites?

Well the first thing you must understand that while you can make some cash from taking online surveys, you must set reasonable expectations. First of all, you must decide how much time you are willing to dedicate to taking online surveys. Many of the survey directory sites boast directories that contain 300 or more survey panels, and for the most part that's true. The thing that you must understand is that not all of these sites they advertise are true market research firms. Some of these sites are purely advertisements, others are the "get paid to try sites", others offer only sweepstakes entries for completed surveys, and the worst of all are simply other sites that are trying to advertise the same directory listings. Basically, there are about 20 to 50 sites that are worth joining, and doing so will produce enough surveys to keep you busy two to three hours a day, or however much time you want to spend.

So lets get to the main question everyone asks, "How much can I make taking paid surveys?" Well the answer is it depends, but most people can make anywhere from $50 to $300 a month taking online surveys. Not exactly a fortune as some may promise, but it can be a form of supplemental income and help pay a few bills. So if this sounds interesting to you keep reading.

Okay so the expectations have been set, and you know that you want to stick to the true market research firms, but how do you know which ones are the best? Several free sites offer reviews and top online paid surveys lists, and that can be a good place to start. Just be careful to avoid sites that seem suspicious. Avoid sites that claim to host paid survey panels, yet do not have company street address, contact information, etc. Here are a several quality paid survey sites.

Greenfield Online

Greenfield Online serves the online data collection needs of the largest research companies in the industry and helps companies get closer to their consumers by gathering consumer feedback. They represent over 300 marketing research firms and are considered one of the leading online panel companies in the industry. They currently have over 1.7 million panel members. They accept international members, and they have a teen surveys panel as well. They were established in 1994. They offer cash or cash sweepstakes entries for each completed survey. $2, $5, and $10 dollar surveys are very common, and they send frequent survey invitations to panel members.

GlobalTestMarket

GlobalTestMarket was founded in August 1999 as a division of Global Market Insite, Inc. The intention was to develop a global solution for companies who wish to conduct online consumer research across multiple countries. GMI serves more than 300 clients in more than 40 countries. They also accept panel members from all countries. GlobalTestMarket awards Market Points in exchange for completing their online surveys. Each Market Point has a value of $0.05 with a minimum cash-out of 1,000 points ( $50.00). Each paid survey has a qualifying section. The good thing about them it is that even if you don't qualify for the survey, you get a few points for your time. Once you reach the 1,000 point level, you can login and redeem your points for cash. They send frequent survey invitations, with the average survey ranging from 50 to 300 points.

NFO MySurvey

NFO is one of the leading paid online survey sites out there and accepts survey panelists from the continental United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. You must be at least 14 years of age to join. They use a points system where 100 points = $1.00 to reward for online survey participation. Points can also be redeemed for prizes. For every day that you login to NFO you will get a free entry into their quarterly $10,000 sweepstakes and a free entry into their 10,000 points a day giveaway. You can also earn additional 150 points for each friend that you refer.

The main thing to remember is that taking paid surveys can be a form of extra income, and as long as you keep your expectations in line they can be a rewarding online activity.

The Truth About Online Surveys

There is so much mis-information regarding the arena of 'getting paid for surveys' online. I cannot even begin to imagine all of the things people believe about online surveys, but I'm here to clarify some common misconceptions. Getting paid for online surveys has been around most abundantly for the last 7 years online, often over-hyped to make it seem like you can make an actual income doing them.

IMPOSSIBLE CLAIMS, TAINT THE INDUSTRY

You cannot make an income doing 'online surveys', in fact some statements about taking surveys are so outrageous that some people don't even bother signing up for an online survey company, ever. Then they miss making some 'on-the-side' cash, because it makes them seem illegitimate and only there to harvest your email or spam you. The companies that usually make these claims, are not the survey companies themselves, it's a website in the business of promoting them for their own benefit, which is why they often deceive you with claims.

In fact, it's places that get paid to promote survey sites that get paid, when you sign up. To the tune of up to $3.00 per person (called a lead), now just because they make money from it isn't wrong. But what is, are the claims they make about them, like -- "Make $130/hr doing online surveys, click here to start today". This is so insanely outrageous that even if you think it's a scam, you'll still check it out. Because they know, nothing is as alluring as money.

THE TRUTH IS SHOWN TO DECEIVE YOU

If there is any truth at all about the outrageous claims, it's that if you consider the average time it takes to complete a survey and the average amount made taking a paid survey it can SEEM correct, you can make $20 for doing an online survey that takes 15 - 25 min. But they make it seem that you can do them constantly, which is not the case. What surveys you get, and what you qualify for, all depend on whether you fit a specific demographic or profile.

UNDERSTANDING WHAT QUALIFIES YOU TO PARTICIPATE

Let me take a bit to explain what a demographic is in terms of surveys. When qualifying for a survey it can depend on many different factors; ethnicity, income bracket, gender, whether your pregnant, own a car, you age, where you live, whether you have kids and what age your kids are, or even a combination of the above. They even have surveys that differ depending on what type of job you have, or whether your self-employed.

UNDERSTANDING THE SURVEY PROCESS

When you sign up for companies to take surveys, you can be rewarded with cash or prizes, but more often sweepstakes and draws. But before you can get any of these things, the company will send you an email, telling you there is a survey ready to be completed. These are usually screened surveys, these questions allow whoever the survey companies client is, to determine if your someone who fits into their target group (i.e. a person who's demographic they are looking for), so they ask questions in these screened surveys to see if you fit that profile. If you do, you are usually forwarded off to a partner site to complete the actual survey. Sometimes the screened surveys can be 10 minutes on their own, which is often frustrating, especially if you aren't given something for your time. If you don't qualify, you are 'screened out', and they will tell you that you didn't fit the profile.

When you receive these survey invitations they will usually tell you what type of compensation will be provided upon completion of the survey, or they will tell you on the first page of entering the survey screener. Very few companies pre-qualify you for surveys, so when you receive them you are always stuck wasting your time to figure out if you do qualify. I believe the industry could be helped, if the only survey invitations we received, were for ones we are already qualified to take.

WHERE'S MY MONEY?

Once you have complete a survey, for whatever reward, it's usually up to you to claim it. In some cases you earn points to redeem for prizes or rewards, or earn cash directly, and again, most often it's only a cash draw or sweeps. To claim a reward, you must find out how many points (whatever each company calls it) you will need to get your money or reward. You can do this by logging into whatever company you belong to, and check around, usually found in the member's area. Most places have a certain level you must obtain before cashing out or requesting a reward. This covers the question of where's my money, most people think the companies will automatically send them money that they have earned upon completion, again, not true.

SO IS THERE A POINT TO DOING ONLINE SURVEYS?

There is some fun, and some cash to be had doing surveys, and even some to be won. Yes, I won money from a survey company to the tune of $100 but that isn't to be expected all the time, and draws are a gamble. However, your odds are better in a draw where you have to take a survey to enter, because it takes time, and your competing with less people overall. There are a few quality sites, that pay you for doing surveys. Most often the cash amount isn't very large, and sometimes it may be hard to determine how much cash you'll earn, if they only tell you how many points you'll make (when they actually equal cash), but some surveys also reward you with trying products to test and evaluate, where you get to keep the product.

THE REALITY

I suppose my answer to all this, is that you have to be someone who enjoys taking surveys, seeing what will come to the market before anyone else, and knowing your privy to information the general public won't know about for some time, or maybe never at all. I think over the years doing surveys, I have earned about $150 - $300 per year, if this amount seems worth it to you, then I suggest you try and have some fun while your at it.

Just keep in mind, that the amount I get could be less or more then you would get, my demographic is a very different demographic from anyone else’s. Your demographic can be in high demand, but then again, it might not.

The Advantages, Considerations and Risks of Employee Satisfaction Surveys

Although there are distinct advantages to conducting regular employee satisfaction surveys online - there can also be risks.

Listed here are some of the main advantages, considerations and the possible risks to conducting employee satisfaction surveys nline.

Advantages

Identify Problems - Surveys are can be very effective in identify problems areas before they become serious, especially those that are hidden from senior management.

Working Environment - From something small like a broken chair to the more serious problem of sick building syndrome that can result in personnel experiencing headaches; eye, nose, and throat irritation; a dry cough; dry or itchy skin; dizziness and nausea; and difficulty in concentrating. Surveys allow environmental problems to be identified in a measured and controlled manner.

Remuneration & Benefits - Measure and monitor how satisfied personnel are with their remuneration and benefits.

Mood and Moral - Provides a simple but effective method to measure and monitor the mood and moral of an organization.

Benchmark - In the same way that an organization will consider their financial position by comparison with previous years, so the regular use of online surveys will allow an organization to monitor and measure their progress and development in non-financial terms.

Processes & Procedures - As businesses evolve some of the traditional processes and procedures can become antiquated, personnel are often the first to know and the last to be asked. Businesses evolve and the business processes need to be regularly re-aligned.

Training - Lack of proper training is a common cause of dissatisfaction among employees and can lead to more serious problems such as stress.

Communication - For an organization to run efficiently good internal and external communications are essential, surveys can provide a method to help organizations to monitor and measure how well an organization communicates.

Goals and Objectives - Surveys can measure and monitor the extent that the personnel are aligned with the senior management's business goals and objectives.

Cost Effective - Using an online survey service such as surveygalaxy surveys are quick and easy to create, simple to deploy and will provide real-time results.

Compliance - To properly comply with an ever increasing array of regulations the modern organization needs to be able to disseminate information throughout the organization and ensure, through records, that the information has been received, and importantly, understood. Online surveys provide organization with a cost effective method to meet many of their obligations.

Keeping the Initiative - It is always better for management to ask than be told. By conducting regular employee surveys management are able to keep the initiative in trying to identify problems that may otherwise manifest into demands.

Considerations

Management Backing - A survey that is both sanctioned and has the support of senior management will go some way in ensuring that any action required, based on the survey findings, will be implemented.

Ask the right questions - Consider careful the questions being asked. If employees feel that the survey is just trying to tick the right boxes the survey could backfire.

A survey that is to be conducted annually should try and ask questions that will provide senior management with an overall health check of the organization.

Avoid questions that will only apply to specific departments or personnel. If some areas of the organization require detailed investigation consider running separate one-off surveys that can be targeted at specific personnel.

Incentive - Most employees will feel that by being able to give their opinions that they are already stakeholders in the exercise and will be happy to participate in the survey as they will expect to benefit from the process.

However, some incentive may help improve the overall response rate or could be used to encourage early participation.

Smaller incentives could be handed out to all employees or all participating employees could be entered into a lottery to receive a more substantial prize.

Anonymous - The decision to allow respondents to remain anonymous or not needs careful consideration. A survey that is conducted anonymously may allow employees to be more candid, however, anonymity may encourage some individuals to make wild accusations that can not be substantiated and cause considerable concern. When in doubt it is often better to keep everything 'on the record' rather than 'off'.

Where survey respondents are known there is the opportunity to chase for surveys that have not been completed and also to follow up on some issues directly with those employees who have raised them as problems.

Comments - Keep free text comments to a minimum because they are difficult and time consuming to measure and analyze.

Consider limiting free text comments to one at the end of the survey or, in the case of surveys that are not being conducted anonymously, allow for a post-survey follow-up to obtain more information where additional and more specific detail is required.

Risks

Management - Some managers can regard any form of employee consultation as a sign of weakness and may have a tendency to dismiss out of hand any negative comment.

Warts and All - A survey is likely to reveal warts and all. Senior management should be prepared for discovering that the top down view can differ from the bottom up view and that ignorance, of any identified problems, can no longer be used as an excuse.

Non-Action - Many employees will invest time and effort in participating in a survey and their hopes and expectations will be raised. Any post-survey non-action is likely to promote cynicism and jeopardize any future initiatives to obtain employee feedback.

Management should formally respond to the issues raised in surveys even if the demands of employees are not to be met. If senior management agree to address and resolve some issues then action needs to have started before any further survey is scheduled.

Can Cause Problems - Where surveys reveal, or bring problems, to the surface there could be a tendency for senior management to blame the messenger.