On average, paid surveys earn about $2.50 for a 20-minute survey. That’s not bad pay, but what is the job like? What are the advantages and disadvantages of taking online surveys? Like any job, paid surveys have good points and bad.
Pros of Internet Survey Sites
There are a lot of good things about online surveys. Aside from the obvious (getting paid,) here are some of the pros of online surveys:
Flexibility
Taking online surveys allows you to work from home, at any time of the night or day. Stay-at-home parents, elderly or homebound people, students, and others with erratic schedules or who can’t leave home to work may appreciate the flexibility of online surveys. It’s also great for people looking to supplement their income from a regular job.
Free Test Products
In addition to paying you, some surveys send out free products to test. Test products can be anything from tissues to garbage bags to salad dressing. After the specified usage period (and sometimes several times during the usage period), you’re asked to fill out a paid questionnaire on your experience with the product.
Interesting Work
With online surveys you get to evaluate new products and concepts. You might be the first to see funny new commercials or unreleased movie trailers. Just remember that most surveys ask you to honor a privacy agreement that forbids you from talking about the content of surveys with friends or family.
Easy to Do
Most surveys consist of simple multiple choice questions about your own experiences, impressions, and preferences. A word of caution: breezing through surveys without reading is a bad idea. Many surveys include verification questions designed to screen out those that aren’t really reading before answering.
Only Take the Surveys You Want
Unlike a traditional job, paid Internet surveys let you have complete control over how you spend your time. You have the opportunity to accept or ignore every single survey invitation that comes to your email address. So if you decide that the reward isn’t worth your time, or even if you’re halfway through a survey and decide that it’s too long or boring, you’re under no obligation to complete it.
Cons of Internet Survey Sites
Taking online surveys has negative points, too. Here are some of the cons when it comes to online surveys:
Initial Earnings are Slow to Arrive
Be prepared to work for a month or two before you start seeing the fruits of your labors. Payment usually takes between 4 and 8 weeks to be processed and delivered to you, and some sites require you to accumulate a certain number of points before you can even order a payment check. This kind of waiting really bothers some people, and it can be hard to stay motivated when you aren’t seeing immediate results for your work.
You Don’t Qualify for Every Survey
Unfortunately, you will be screened out of some surveys and there’s not much you can do about it. Surveys may be looking for people in a certain age or income bracket, or people who live in a specific area or buy a certain products. That means that you will spend some time answering questions for surveys that you will ultimately screen out of. Falsifying information to qualify for a survey may be tempting, but it’s grounds for removal from a survey panel.
Rewards Vary
Every survey comes with a different form of payment, which is specified in the invitation email. Some pay in cash or at least points that can be redeemed for cash, but others “pay” in the form of gift cards or sweepstakes entries. These kinds of rewards may not be helpful to you, so it can be frustrating to receive invitations for surveys that don’t pay actual money.
Surveys Require Constant Monitoring
With surveys, you need to take responsibility for making sure that you’re paid for your time. That means keeping track of what surveys you’ve taken and for whom, and following up with any companies that haven’t paid you. You also need to check your emails at least once a day (preferably more often) so that you catch survey opportunities. Receiving an invitation does not hold the survey for you; the survey usually closes within a few days or when a certain number of participants has been reached.
Diversified Earnings
With a traditional job, you receive a weekly or biweekly paycheck for all your work at once. But with surveys, you don’t receive your earnings in one lump sum. To make any real money with paid surveys, you need to belong to dozens of survey sites. It can be hard to feel a sense of gratification when your earnings are spread across several accounts all over the Internet.
If you’re thinking about signing up to take paid online surveys, consider the pros and cons of Internet surveys before making your final decision.
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