Taking Free Paid Surveys Online

Free Paid Surveys, Get Paid To Take Surveys, Take Online Surveys for CASH!

More than likely you have seen ads like these all over the internet. And like most people
you are probably wondering if they are true. Can you really get paid to take surveys
online? Or is paid surveys just another scam? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. You can actually
get paid to take surveys online.

There are many companies that will pay you to participate in online surveys, focus groups,
and even product tests. These are market research companies that are paid by large
companies to find out what the public feels about their products. They want to know if their
advertising campaigns are working and how everyday people feel about their products. Large
corporations spend billions of dollars a year on advertising. So to pay you a few dollars to find out
if their advertising is working is not that big of a deal. So they hire these market research companies. And the market research companies send out surveys to everyday people to find out what the public is thinking.

There are also several misconceptions about taking paid surveys online. Many advertisements will tell you that you can make up to $250 an hour taking paid surveys. Although it is possible to be compensated $250 for participating in an important study or focus group, the average paid survey will pay you between $2 and $20.

There are also a few different kinds of paid survey sites. There are paid survey directories, or databases, and there are the actual paid survey companies. A paid survey, or market research company, is the actual company that will send you the paid surveys. And also the one that will compensate you for your participation. An example of a paid survey company is NFO My Survey. NFO has been around for over 20 years and is one of the major paid survey companies on the internet. When joining a paid survey site like NFO you are notified by email when your participation in a paid survey is needed. You can then choose to take the paid survey or simply ignore it. You are told how much you will be paid for taking each survey and how long the paid survey should take to complete. Companies like NFO My Survey are always free to join. A legitimate paid survey company will never ask you to pay a fee to join.

Another type of site is a paid survey directory, or database.
Paid survey databases provide directories of paid survey companies. These are the sites
you go to find companies that will pay you to participate in online surveys. There are several
databases you can join. But most online paid survey databases are not free. A site like Survey Scout charges about $35 for their directory of 490 paid survey companies. Others charge anywhere from $20 to $60 to access their paid surveys directory. Many people are fooled into thinking that when they join these membership sites they will automatically start receiving paid surveys. A membership site like Survey Scout does not actually send paid surveys. they are only a directory of companies that you join that send paid surveys online.

Before you spend $35 dollars for a paid survey database do some looking around. A good paid survey directory will have everything you would find in a paid membership site and is absolutely free. There is no need to pay to find paid surveys. In fact, why would you want to pay for free information? Paid membership sites are simply taking advantage of the fact that most people don't know where to look for this type of information. And once they pay and then find out that they paid for a directory, most people feel like they have been scammed. My advice would be to bypass a paid directory. And use a free paid survey directory.

If you are looking for a full-time income online, paid surveys may not be the thing for you. Although you can make some good money taking paid surveys online, more than likely it will not be enough to make you rich. On the other hand, if you want to make some extra money without much effort then paid surveys is the way to go.

The key to getting paid to take surveys online is joining as many of these paid survey companies as possible. Most paid survey sites will only send a few paid surveys a month.

So the logic is, the more paid survey companies you belong to the more paid survey invitations you will receive. And the more money you will make. It’s a good idea to start off with around 10 to 20 good paid survey companies. Each one will only take a few minutes to sign up for and is well worth it. There are around 500 paid survey companies you can join. And once you have joined the main ones you can go back and join others to receive even more paid surveys. Of 500 paid survey companies I would have to say that there are about 50 that will send you paid surveys on a regular basis. The rest may only send one a month or even less. So starting with the top paid surveys is obviously the best way to go.

You must answer a few screener questions before taking a survey to see if you fit the profile for the type of person the company is interested in. After taking a few screeners you can start to see how you should answer to make yourself qualify. for instance, most paid survey screeners will ask you if you work in a certain industry, or any type of market research or advertising business. The answer to a question like this should almost always be no. They do not want people who know the market research business taking their surveys. And you will almost always not qualify for the paid survey.

Step by Step Guide to Employee Satisfaction Surveys

The benefit of running an annual employee survey has for a long time been widely accepted but many organizations have been put off by the amount of effort that is required.

Many organizations who have bit the bullet and conducted their own internal employee satisfaction surveys have often relied on word-processors to allow them to design and compile a survey, then gone through the effort of printing and distributing the survey and spent time chasing and collecting the completed surveys and then even more time transferring the survey response information into a meaningful management report.

Fortunately with the introduction of the Internet and hosted survey websites like www.surveygalaxy.com what was once a time consuming, resource hungry, long winded and cumbersome process is now slick, quick and easy.

This document provides a step by step guide to help implement a survey that will bring considerable benefits to any organization.

Step 1 - Identifying The Need

The reasons an organization would need a survey are as wide and they are long. Listed here are a few of the common reason why employee satisfaction surveys are conducted.

Event Driven

If your organization is about to embark, or is going through, a change management program employee surveys can assist in managing the change, measuring the effectiveness of the change, help to deliver a 'message' and gather valuable feedback throughout the change cycle.

For organizations that are experiencing rapid growth employee surveys can monitor internal communications and management structures to ensure that employees are aware of their reporting and management responsibilities.

Where an organization is suffering from poor moral brought on by either internal or external influences an employee survey can be used to identify the specific concerns of employees so those concerns can be properly addressed.

Where there is an increase in turnover of staff employee surveys can help an organization identify the underlying cause of employee unrest and through their findings help find solutions.

Periodically

As part of a periodic assessment, surveys will help an organization review their personnel and monitor on an individual level job satisfaction, training and career development.

Employee surveys also offer senior management the opportunity to look at the soft underbelly of their organization to confirm that their 'top down' view of the organization matches the reality and 'bottom up' perspective.

With the help of employee surveys an organization can establish good employer/employee communication that will in turn bring both direct and indirect benefits.

Step 2 - Management Buy-In

Management buy-in is always desirable for any initiative and many will argue that it is essential to ensure a successful employee survey, however, in some instances the findings of an employee survey can lead to kick-starting a management that has grown complacent and detached from their employees.

Some organization may be fortunate in that the senior management recognize and drive the need for employee surveys, while in others the management may need to first be convinced of the direct and indirect benefits an employee survey will bring.

The level of management commitment to an employee survey will have some bearing on the nature of the survey and to some extent will help determine what questions are to be asked and the manner they are asked.

A management that is supportive of the initiative may require feedback on specific areas of the business or they may give the go ahead because they feel confident that the results will only confirm that the level of employee satisfaction throughout the organization is high.

In nearly all cases it is good practice to at least try and get management to buy-in to the employee survey from the very start as they have a lot to gain and are in a position to effect any change that is later identified as being required.

Step 3 - Designing The Survey

Designing a good survey will take some time and effort but by following the basics of survey design and concentrating on the 'need to know' questions and removing the 'nice to know' a survey will rapidly take shape.

Determining the exact questions that should be asked will be entirely dependent on the individual organization, its structure and the previously identified primary need and objectives of the employee survey.

When considering what questions to ask consideration should be given to how the results are to be analyzed. For example there may be a desire to ask for individual comments but these types of answer formats can be very time consuming and cumbersome to analyze and should therefore be avoided or used sparingly.

With online surveys it is generally better to do a few smaller surveys than one very long survey as the longer the survey the higher the drop out rate will be.

Step 4 - Proof Reading And Testing

Grammar, Spelling And Clarity

Before publishing the survey make a careful check for spelling and typing mistakes and incorrect grammar. If available it is always better to have someone who has not been involved in designing the survey to proof read the survey with clean eyes, if no one is available try to take a break before checking through the survey again.

Say What You Mean And Mean What You Say

When checking the survey you need to consider the survey from the viewpoint of the respondent, you may know what you mean by each question but will the questions be clear to the employee?

Allow The Employee To Answer Truthfully

For closed questions where the employee will be required to choose from a number of available responses have you allowed the employee to answer accurately? Make use of responses like 'Don't know', 'No comment' or 'Not Applicable' where you have made the question mandatory but the employee may not be able to answer.

Consider allowing the employee to include an 'Other' answer but also appreciate that 'Other' answers will add to the complexity when analyzing the survey results.

Don't Require A Response To Questions That May Not Have One

Check that for any questions that you have made mandatory you do require an answer, for example open questions such as asking for additional comments should not be mandatory unless you definitely require the respondent to write a comment.

Check You Will Be Able To Analyze The Data

Check through the survey again but this time looking at how the results of the survey will be analyzed. Consider how you are likely to want to analyze the survey data, have you asked the right questions to be able to perform detailed analysis? For example if you wanted to view the detailed response data from the perspective of the different genders, or maybe departments, check you have asked the employee to indicate their own gender and/or department.

Don't Ask Anymore Questions Than You Need To

Consider all the questions in the survey and look for questions that are not 'need to know'.

Test The Link And Try Completing The Survey

Publish the survey and then send the survey's link to a number of people who will be willing to test the survey. By completing the survey yourself you will get a feel for how the respondent will view the survey. From your own and others feedback stop and make adjustments to the survey as required.

Repeat this process until you are happy with the survey.

Check The Data

Take time to view the online summary results of the test data and confirm that the data is being collected in a manner that can be properly analyzed and that will give meaningful results.

Step 5 - Promoting And Deploying The Survey

Where all or the majority of employees have access to the internet or company intranet deploying the online survey is as easy that ABC, either via email or by establishing a link to the survey from your own website or Intranet.

Where there are some or many employees that do not have direct access to the internet there are a number of alternatives that can be used from issuing the survey in printed form, providing a shared terminal or giving them an incentive to complete the survey at home.

Anonymous Responses?

There is a choice to allow all surveys to be completed anonymously. Allowing a survey to be anonymous may encourage employees to speak their minds enabling the survey to provide 'a warts and all' report, in turn giving management an opportunity to address underlying problems before they become serious.

However, allowing anonymous comments also allows employees to be more cavalier and flippant with their responses. Some organizations would therefore only want to consider comments where employees are prepared to stand by their convictions and that will also provide an opportunity to follow up the specific concerns of individual employees.

The decision to allow anonymous responses or not will, among other factors, be down to the individual organization, the specific nature of the survey, the surrounding circumstances, the management style and the existing employer/employee relationship.

Step 6 - Monitoring The Survey

While the survey is in progress you will be able to view the summary results online and also monitor in real-time the number of surveys that have been both started and completed.

If after a few days the number of completed surveys falls short of the expected target it is advisable to send periodic reminders to employees asking them to complete the survey.

Step 7 - Analyzing The Results

There are no hard and fast rules for analyzing the data. Much depends on the individual survey, the questions asked and the number of responses.

Most surveys will benefit from many of the results being displayed in graphical as well as tabular form.

When first analyzing survey data often a number of 'headline' results will immediately stand out that will provide you with a general overview and, providing the right questions have been asked, give you an instant assessment of the mood throughout the organization as a whole.

Where the results give areas of concern a more detailed analysis may be advisable. For example if employees were asked if they felt the organization provided equal opportunities to both genders and 25% gave a negative response it would be useful to know the gender split of the organization and also to look at what the gender split was of the 25% that answered negatively. Was the negative view shared by employees of both genders, evenly spread throughout the organization, or of a particular gender from a particular department?

There is a method of reporting that presents the result data in tabular and/or graphical form allowing those who are interested in the results to view the raw data.

Often used as a compliment to the first, another method is to interpret the results and provide an analysis of the data and offer a view as to what the meaning is behind the results, what circumstances may have contributed to the results being as they are and, where the results indicate a negative, what initiatives could be taken. Such analysis if done by a single individual is likely to be very personal, if done by a committee it is still likely to be objective and therefore open to interpretation.

Step 8 - Further Action

Probably the most important step is the last. An employee survey will either confirm that the perfect organization exists or it will highlight areas that are less than perfect by identifying individual and common concerns.

It may be that further more detailed surveys are required that target specific areas. For example the survey may reveal that employees working in a particular department are collectively unhappy, but the reasons for their dissatisfaction may not be clear. A smaller, specifically targeted follow-up survey may help reveal the root causes.

When employee surveys are periodically run an organization that has taken steps to address issues will see their efforts reflected in subsequent survey responses. Almost all organizations have some problems and it helps an organization's moral to see that a channel is available that will allow problems to be highlighted, addressed and resolved.