Making Money Online Answering Surveys:

With the economy on the low side, and bills pilling up, many of us have tried to look for some side money. Many choose the traditional way of earning money, helping a friend with gardening, building a den, or provide cleaning help, among many other ways. But now, with the boost of the internet, many are looking for online income, and this has become extremely popular in these days. Among the many opportunities (and scams) the internet has provided us with, there are a few popular options: data entry, surveys, etc.

If you research on Google, the many ways to earn money online you will see that surveys show up quite often. The message is that you can earn money by providing your honest opinion on services and products that you already know and use. So far so good, it seems quite an honest way of earning money, especially if you do not mind providing personal information and helping companies perfect their marketing skills to better target you through ads.

If you opt for this method of earning an income, there are a few things that you should know ahead of time. There are many scams out there, when it comes to these things. It might be that scams around surveys are not seen as often as in other online money making methods, but there are quite a few nonetheless. Many people out there promise to give the best list of high paid surveys, for a small (or not so small) fee. Beware of this! Most of the time you pay that fee and what they send you is a list of survey directories to which you have to sign up for first, before getting any survey or money. So basically they are not giving you a list of surveys or direct companies that send you surveys and pay you. All they did was simply research survey directories (for free), gather them all into one page, and sell that list to you. Many of them do not even know if these survey directories are legitimate or not. Other times they are selling you a package of survey directories where they have an account, and so receive a commission each time you sign up for one of those directories.

Why is it a problem? You could say that these people at least went through the trouble of researching and compiling a useful list of survey directories, plus they setup a webpage where you can access this list, and they spent time and maybe even money to advertise it and get you to see it, right? Well, that is all very well said, but there is a little twist to it:

1. Most of these survey directories do not charge you anything to sign up for an account and start earning with them. (So why would you pay to know about them?)

2. Often you can find the majority of these directories online, just by taking a little time researching; it does not take that long to find them. (So why don’t you do it yourself and save the money?)

3. Often the people that sell you these lists do not go through the trouble of figuring out if these survey directories are actually legitimate. (So… if you are going to take the risk why not do it but save the money?)

4. More than often these people ask you for a fee to access their list, but they are receiving a commission when you sign up to any one directory. Basically they are earning double from you. The fee is to make sure they will get money no matter what you do after (whether you sign up or not, like it or not). Then on top of that if they get lucky you end up signing up under their name -- Double money for them!

After all of this, you find out that the list they gave you is full of scam artists, or it simply is not useful, or even that this method of earning money online is not the right one for you. Bang $20 straight to the garbage.

If you have experienced this already, maybe it feels better to know that I am speaking from my own experience too. At least you are not alone. Still, just make sure you don’t fall for that again, and this goes for any other online business idea/opportunity. Do your research first, look for things yourself. Most of the time you can start earning money with just a little time and research put into it, no money in.

For those that were about to pay for one of these ‘miracle lists’, please read this carefully, research some more and be wise.