If you search the net for honest information about free paid online surveys you will be swarmed with info and forum threads posing many of the same questions. Most people looking for info regarding how to make money taking surveys simply want to know how to find legit survey sites and avoid scams.
In reality this process is much simpler than it sounds and if you use a combination of shrewdness and common sense you will be well on your way to make money taking surveys. Now the easiest sign to look for is any kind of fee. A survey company that is asking you for a membership fee is one of two things.
They are either selling you a compiled list of survey companies which you can join or they are having you buy into a get paid to complete offers type of program. In either case you are better off avoiding them and stick to finding legit survey sites on your own.
The reason is because there is no sense in paying for something that you can do on your own. The websites that want to charge you money for their survey lists use flashy gimmicks to convince you that you will be making tons of money if you join their survey membership. When in reality they have no control over how much you make as it is all up to the survey companies that they send you to.
Moreover in the other scenario what the websites posing as legit free paid online surveys sites do is send you a fake survey and a product trial. Basically they get paid a commission from every trial sign up that they generate. However what they don't tell you is that after the trial period has expired you will be stuck with a monthly bill to pay off.
So again if you are looking for a basic survey site remember that there should be no fees associated with any tasks that they have you do. What you want to look for is a survey website that is a division of a market research firm.
This way you know that you are going straight to the source of the surveys and won't have to jump through any hoops or pay money for anything extra. The way to determine this information is not too hard. Simply read the about section of the survey site and it should be clear if the parent company is in market research.
The other piece of advice that is very important to consider when you are trying to make money taking free paid online surveys is to have realistic expectations. The amount of money that you can make is directly proportional to how many surveys you receive. And no matter how hard you try this is a factor that you cannot control.
The only thing that you can do is fill out your profile accurately and hope that there are research projects that require subjects to have your demographics. The only way to improve your odds is by signing up with multiple legit survey companies.