Paid Surveys

I don't know about you but with the cost of living these days I'm finding it hard to meet everyday needs much less spend money on the fun stuff. I was on the Internet one day looking for ways to make money but still be able to stay at home with my kids. My search took me to Dr. Laura's website where she has articles and ideas for ways to make money at home. One click led to another and I found a website that you can pay a fee to and have access to all of the companies out there who either pay you cash or reward you points redeemable for merchandise. This website and others like it are the middlemen. They have done all of the work listing the survey companies so you don't have to do the search yourself. You can find all of the paid survey sites on your own but it takes time to find the legitimate ones. Beware of sites that promise you will make thousands of dollars because frankly, you can't. Getting paid to take surveys is not a way to make a good income but it can provide you with extra income. After reading all of the information at the middleman website I decided to give it a try, they had a 60 day money back guarantee if I didn't like it. I figured it was worth my time to pay the money instead of search for the sites. I did make back my initial investment within the first month so I'm going to let them keep my initial investment. This site also provided me with a list of all of the Mystery Shopping companies out there too.
If you want to give paid surveys a try, here are some tips to help you out.

• Decide if you want to use a middleman to help you find the site. I used Survey Scout
  Check out the survey police to see a list of the best and worst survey sites and read what others have to say about them. I found another site later that actually has everything listed for free. Check out Volition.
  
• Set up a separate email account to direct all survey related traffic to. Beware, signing up at the wrong sites will create a lot, I mean a lot of spam. These sites have listings for special offers and a lot of questions like, would you be interested in....... If you come across these survey sites and want to participate in their surveys but don't want the spam then click "no" to every offer.
  
• Some survey sites pay you to participate in free trial offers for products and services and then take a survey about the product/service. These can pay well but beware that many of the services are free only for a limited time. Keep track of the name of the product/service, when you sign up, when you need to cancel by before getting charged, and how to cancel.
  Of the sites that pay cash, make sure to get payment in the form of a check or PayPal payment. Never give out your bank number for direct deposit.
  
• Some sights have a minimum amount you need to achieve before you can cash out. Know what these minimums are.
  
• Be aware that it can take up to 8 weeks to receive your payment once you "cash out."
  

If you have some time while the kiddos are napping or while you watch TV you might want to consider this as a way to make some "fun money".