Best Survey Sites

🧐 5 Things To Know About Survey Sites

• Best case scenario, you’ll earn $100 per month
• You will not be entertained
• The rich get richer
• Rejection is part of the game
• Other ways of making money on survey sites are usually a waste of time

Best case scenario, you’ll earn $100 per month

Paid online surveys are one of many ways to make money online, and perhaps the easiest way to earn a few bucks when you’re just starting out.

However, due to it being unskilled work – which means every Tom, Dick and Harry can take a crack at it – expect your earnings from survey sites to be low and/or inconsistent.

Because we’ve yet to find a site that offers lots of surveys AND a high hourly rate. It’s always a trade-off between the two.

All that to say, survey sites are never going to pay your rent. But they can put a few extra dollars in your pocket each month, if used intelligently.

• Follow the recommendations below and you can expect to earn an extra $30 to $100 per month from such websites, putting in 3-5 hours per week.

You will not be entertained

Let’s be real: this kind of online work is fairly boring and tedious, especially if you’re putting in several hours a week.

• The best way to handle this is to combine your survey sessions with binge-watching a show on Netflix, or listening to your favorite podcast.

Earning a few dollars per hour while re-watching Stranger Things ain’t a bad way to spend a lazy afternoon, right?

The rich get richer

Companies use survey sites to gather information about certain markets. These companies want to know if people will buy their product or service.

If you’re considered to be part of a “rich” demographic – for example, you earn more than $50k a year, own property, and drive a nice car – you’re also considered more likely to buy high-end products and services.

Therefore, more companies want to hear from you, and so you’re likely to be offered more (and higher paying) surveys.

Meanwhile, a 20-year-old unemployed college dropout has to make-do with infrequent, low-paying surveys. Few companies want to hear from him, because he’s nobody’s ideal customer.

This leaves us with a paradox:

• Generally speaking, the people most desperate to earn a few bucks from survey sites are given the least opportunities, while folks who are already fairly wealthy receive the most.

(You might think you could just lie on your profile and get at the best surveys that way, but survey sites are good at spotting this kind of thing – their business depends on it – and are quick to blacklist dishonest users.)

With this in mind, if you are desperate to earn a few bucks online right now, paid survey sites are probably not your best bet. Consider freelancing or finding a remote job instead.

• Full list of ways to make money online

Rejection is part of the game

One of the most frequent complaints you’ll hear about online survey sites – apart from the low pay – is that you can spend up to 20 minutes filling out a survey, only to then be disqualified and left with nothing to show for your efforts.

The more time you spend doing surveys, the more likely you are to experience this.

This is because, in the beginning, you’re usually offered the surveys that best match your profile. Once you’ve gone through those, many sites will offer you a steady stream of random surveys on the off-chance that you’ll qualify for them.

• So the smart play is to limit the amount of time you spend on each survey site. A maximum of one hour per day per site is a good rule of thumb.

Other ways of making money on survey sites are usually a waste of time

Apart from answering surveys, many of these sites also offer additional ways to earn money online.

For example, you might be invited to make money by…

• Performing searches
• Playing online games
• Watching videos
• Finding and entering special codes
• Shopping online

As a general rule, you should avoid all of these.

• At best you might earn a little money – though rarely as much as you’d earn if you spent the same time answering surveys.

• At worst you’ll end up spending $100 to “save” $30.

🤑 Survey Site Hacks

Use the tips below to boost your earnings…

Do NOT sign up to every survey site

We’ve seen many other review sites recommend that you sign up for as many survey sites as possible “to maximize your earnings,” ¹ but we strongly believe less is more in this line of work.

Only a select few sites are worth your time.

Assuming your goal is to earn as much money as possible in as little time as possible, we recommend signing up for ONLY these three sites…

To earn most efficiently, spend a maximum of 90 combined minutes per day on those sites, starting at the top of the list and working your way down as you notice the best opportunities drying up.

If you have more time available to earn money online…

Distract Yourself

Answering surveys is fairly boring and tedious work, especially if you’re putting in several hours a week.

The best way to handle this is to combine your survey sessions with binge-watching a show on Netflix, or listening to your favorite podcast.

Reserve your full attention for more demanding/rewarding kinds of online work.

Maximize sign-up bonuses and to-do lists

Many survey sites offer a sign-up bonus and easy cash for completing simple “get started” checklists.

For example, Branded Surveys will pay you $1 just for completing basic profile info.

Fill out your profile and keep it updated

Companies pay survey sites for access to specific types of people who will answer their market research questions.

For example, The Home Depot might want to hear from people who own their own homes or work in the construction industry. Anyone beyond that isn’t going to be in their target market, so they won’t want to hear from those people.

Therefore, it’s very important that survey sites know your demographics and interests. Only through that knowledge can they match you with the right companies.

If a survey site does a good job of this, it’s a win-win-win…

• The company wins because they get feedback on their product/service from someone in their target audience.
• You win because you get paid for your opinion.
• The survey site wins because the company pays them for the service and will probably keep doing so.

Do you see now why it’s important to fill out your profile on a survey site and keep it up to date?

It’s simple: with an accurate and up-to-date profile, you’re far more likely to receive relevant, high-paying surveys.

Keep your answers honest and consistent

You might think you could just lie on your profile in an attempt to get at some of the better, high-paying surveys.

• Don’t do it.

Survey sites are good at spotting this kind of thing – their business depends on it, after all – and they’re quick to disqualify and sometimes even blacklist offenders.

Qmee, for example, shares why their users can sometimes be disqualified from surveys:

Some survey sites also employ trick questions like, “Have you ever visited XYZ Waterpark?”

The waterpark won’t really exist, and anyone answering yes will be immediately disqualified from the survey and perhaps even banned from the site.

Hack your email notifications

It’s best to use a temporary email address when signing up for survey sites, so your regular inbox doesn’t get cluttered with notifications.

If you use Gmail, here’s an easy way to do it:

Once you have that set up, check your account settings on the survey site and make sure you’re opted in to receive email notifications of new surveys. (Many sites will alert you to particularly good opportunities via email.)

Then you can kick back and let the emails pile up away from your inbox. Batch process them once a day or whenever is convenient for you 👍

Answer surveys as soon as possible

The highest paying surveys are always the most popular, so they fill up fast.

If you do see a high-paying survey available – either via an email alert or when logged into the survey site – make sure to respond ASAP.

Be wary of the estimates

Most survey sites will provide an estimate for how long each survey will take you to complete.

As a general rule, you can expect each survey to take 3-5 minutes longer than what you see listed.

Speed up repetitive data entry

Many surveys start out asking you the same basic questions, such as age, sex, address, race, income, etc.

Instead of typing out the same answers to these questions each time, use software like aText (Mac only) or RoboForm to speed up the process.

• That said, be careful not to go too fast through each survey, as this appears spammy and may result in your account being blocked. Slow down and carefully consider your response to each novel question, and make sure to answer everything as honestly as possible.

Cash out as soon as you can

Some of the survey sites we’ve used and researched seem to offer users LESS surveys once they’re close to or over the minimum payment threshold 😕

Know what the minimum payment is for each survey site you use, and request payment as soon as you reach it.