Many websites have sprung up over the years telling people how to make money filling out surveys online. Most of the ads that you see on the internet promising big bucks for filling out a five minute survey are scams, plain and simple. The honest truth is that you can make money, but getting rich is another thing altogether.

The problem with signing up for these paid surveys is that most of the websites offering this service are built on bad information. The info is expired, the company has gone out of business, there is no customer support, or the links included either ask for more money upfront or done work at all.

Now, there are many, many legitimate sites among the bad, it is a matter of separating the phony  from the real McCoy.  Honest websites don’t charge you to participate. There are no upfront fees involved. They are honest about the fact the most surveys pay between $1-$20 to take their survey and that is if you qualify. Most of your time is finding the surveys, filling out the profiles and then qualifying to take the paid part of the survey. It can all be very time consuming and unprofitable.

These legitimate companies will contact you by email when a survey is available. They will tell you how much you will be paid and also how long it will take to complete the survey. You have the option of participating or not. It’s all on the up and up.

These companies have been in business for a long time and pay people to tell them how their products are doing in the market place. In addition to online surveys, these companies sometimes tap people for higher paying and longer phone interviews or focus groups. Phone interviews can pay upwards of $50. Focus groups will run as high was $200 depending on the size of the company footing the bill. So it is possible to make money taking surveys. It is just not going to make you rich.

The more thorough your investigation of the claims and companies, the better your chances of making extra money getting paid for surveys online.