Making Money Taking Surveys: Worth It or Not?

Here's a piece from Smart Spending about earning extra income taking surveys. Their summary of the potential money-making opportunity it provides:

You can't retire on this kind of income. Some sites offer low payback relative to the time involved. And yes, some are outright scams.

Pick your spots, though, and you can earn anywhere from $50 to $250 a month for "work" that can be done while you watch your kids play in the yard. Because some surveys are about new products, you might also score free shampoo or toilet paper.

No, it's not a fortune. But it's one more way to build an emergency fund out of thin air, save for the holidays, pay down debt or cover extras like Little League fees or an occasional date night.

I guess this may be worth it if you're just starting to build your financial empire, but the time/reward ratio doesn't work for me. It seems like it's a lot of time and effort for not much reward.

Anyone out there with experience getting paid to take surveys? How do you like it? How much do you earn? Is it worth the time you put into it? Why or why not?

Comments

[Matt]

No experience in doing this, don't even know where to start, don't know if I want ot get inolved with because a spam and hackers. Sounds like something for someone else. Not me.

[MaryW]

How would you know how to research the legitimate ones? In the past I did a few product studies for about $50-$100 an hour, the type where they have a group of people do creative stuff with the product and the psychs observe and record behind a glass mirror. It was worth it if on my lunch break near work, but usually not worth it if I had to travel both directions to attend, becoming more like 3 hours for my time.

[SAHM]

I've done online surveys for a couple of years now. It's not been bad at all. Yeah, I'm not going to get rich doing it, but I like to trade the points in on things I wouldn't normally get. We purchase extra airline miles and hotel points that get us free stays and trips. Most take just a little bit of time. I don't do the ones that require lots of time or going somewhere.

[Meghan]

I signed up with Pine Cone Research when they were taking applicants awhile back and I take around 1 survey a week. I get paid $3 a survey and it takes me about around 8 minutes. =)

I do it just "because" mainly. It's nothing big but for some reason I kind of look forward to getting that check in the mail. ;-)

[Michelle]

I've done surveys online for years and the amounts listed in Smart Spending is VERY optimistic, unless you are invited AND get accepted to do online focus groups.

Doing surveys here and there for companies like MySurvey and GlobalTestMarket and OpinionSquare may net you points/totals approaching $50 on a good month, if you've done a LOT - ie. invested several hours of your time. In my experience.

I do the ones that give you points whether or NOT you're accepted. As an online survey taker, there's nothing worse than spending 5-10 minutes on a screener that then tells you that you don't qualify.

I see the extra money/gift cards I get as a bonus, fun money. In a household with one person laid off, its a joy to get little bonuses like that every 2-3 months.

[Cindy]

Ditto to the comments above, it's not much, but on the other hand, I'm not paying tax or "working expenses" (gas) on it either so it *is* the equivelant of a part, part-time job for me. I travel alot with my husband with his consulting work and I can do them anywhere and anytime.

[MSC]

Go to mysurvey123.com, and you will get survey site ratings.

I did this for a while and made about $100 a month. If you are temporarily unemployed, or have a lot of free time on your hand, then go for it. It can be frustrating when you don't qualify for the surveys after having spent more than ten minutes answering questions. It's like they get your input on most of the questions without paying you when you can't complete the rest of them.

You're better off taking online college courses and improving your education and future earning power.

People with moderate income get rich "saving" money at the rate of a few hundred dollars a month. So it's indicative of what people value for a hundred dollars a month, not the amount added to your income. If you enjoy taking surveys, we already know the benefit of compounding small amounts over time.

[Laura in Atlanta]

I do the pinecone research surveys as well . . . last year I made about $200 total. Not a big amount at all no, but . . . ya get free stuff in the mail, which is kind of cool and you just answer questions about it after you use the products. I've gotten free shampoo, chocolates, mouthwash, cat litter, pasta sauce and pasta, toothpaste and lotion and all of these came from brand names I knew and was familiar with. Neat to be part of the process, takes about 6 to 8 minutes each . . . I do it not to make money really, but just to be part of the process of creating a new product. Tis interesting to me.

[Bethany]

I also do surveys online, since I don't work, but I'm also a strange person who likes to take surveys in the first place. I don't get much from them, but I do enjoy the chance to weigh in on deals restaurants I like are considering, to see what new products may be coming out. I also recommend the focus groups, because it's centered around something you've qualified for and so *should* have at least a passing interest in.

[kjaxx]

I don't currently do surveys, but growing up my mother did product surveys for the Consumer Opinion Panel. They'd send out a product and we'd try it out and answer the questions at the end. My favorites as a child were the ones that involved fun "kids" cereals because Mom never bought the sugary cereals and this gave us an excuse to eat them. It was just an occasional thing and it was fun.

[M&M]

I don't usually do the survey's but I do use the click-thru emails from mypoints, and the search engine from swagbucks to get points which I usually use for amazon gift cards. So technically it's not income, but it's nice to be able to splurge on a movie/game/ect. guilt free about once a month.

[Patrick]

I take many surveys each day during my downtime. Two issues: I don't make anywhere near $50/month. I think I made $50 last year on one site and have made $40 or so this year after signing up for a few more sites. The biggest issue is spending a couple of minutes on each survey only to find you don't qualify and don't earn any points/money. But it's still a no-brainer for making enough for a couple of free meals or personal items per year. It's not a sustainable or predictable income, but I'm never one to turn down a dollar.

[Pat M]

I'm still active in taking surveys for a little side income, but the number of sites that have remained legitimate and worth the effort has seriously dwindled over the past couple of years.

Surveypolice.com is a decent place to get information on who is legit. The problem is that you can only rate a panel one time and can't edit your rating for that panel when things change. An example would be GlobalTestMarket's slide down the toilet over the past year.

My advice is: Sign up for Pinecone when you find a referral banner; Join at opinionoutpost.com for its regular survey invites; and register at opinionplace.com to qualify for surveys that can pay you via Paypal for each survey taken within a few weeks.

[Tim]

I'm a member of a couple (Specpan, Pinecone). They let me kill some time between other projects. I have the money deposited in my Paypal account and then use it for buying digital goods, i.e. eBooks.

I also use eRewards which is linked to my Upromise account and then to my student loans.

[MikeS]

I'm averaging about $30/month. It's nothing I'm going to retire on, but I use it to supplement my fun money. As my income grows, I'll eventually stop. But for right now, it's worth the trade off. I spend maybe 15-20 minutes, sometimes less, on average per survey.

[Budgeting in the Fun Stuff]

I did this for a total of two weeks and decided I rather petsit for the $40 a month. It's all about what you want to do in your down time.

[Brent]

I looked into this, but then felt my time would be better spent elsewhere. Maybe I was using the wrong site (www.cashcrate.com), but it seemed like most of my time was spent looking for surveys only to find that I was not the type of person the survey needed. I could have lied on some of "pre surveys" saying that I do consume at least three glasses of bourbon a day so that I could take the survey and get paid. But that doesn't seem right ethically. After spending hours over a few days I think I raked up about $4. But like I said, maybe I was using the wrong site.

In the end, I found my time being much better spent learning more about finance, markets, and improving my job skills. Sure those may not make any money up front like a survey, but I feel like it's a much better use of my time in the long term.

[Brian]

I tried CashCrate.com and it was okay for a bit. I took a survey that said "5 min. to complete" and I was still there 30 min. later. Oh, and I got a whopping $0.75 for it! Just be cautious in which ones you do and always use a second email account, not your personal email, for these surveys.

[jim]

I tried Mysurvey a while back and the pay out wasn't great. It seemed for me the surveys I was getting took a few minutes and paid pennies. Not horrible if you've got to kill but below minimum wage on hourly basis.

Long while ago I got paid $50 to do a phone survey that took 30-60 minutes. That was a good deal.

[Anon]

I signed up with a few of those survey websites a while ago and discovered that after going through the screening, it is a rare event that I actually qualify for a survey. (But I understand my demographics and consumption patterns are undesirable for selling anything except mindless broadcast TV, which I don't even watch.)

Would have gone back to school (suggested above) but I can't even afford that.

But I do like the suggestion to go to the mysurvey123.com website for ratings.

[Bad_Brad]

I did some surveys thinking the same thing - easy way to score a little bit more money to cover things like date night or cost of the kids' swimming lessons and such.

Ultimately, the dollars you get for the time you put in make it not a very worthwhile investment of time.

Also, signing up for this stuff no doubt gets you on a bazillion telemarketing and junk-mail lists.

Do not want ...

[Jake]

It is hit or miss for me and I have not done it in a while. Not worth the time.

[sunil]

people resort to making money in their spare time for many reasons.

1) some only need and desire to make ends meet.
2) others want a bit more (extra spending money.
3) and others determine where the money is (highest ROI) and make it work for them.

i came across this opportunity few years back. i delved into it, proved it for myself (made money) and others (social proof) and launched a website to capitalize on referrals.

today the website has over 12,000 newsletter subscribers and growing rapidly. the demand has been so high that i am launching a dedicated blog around it.

my advice - consider what you are doing it for, and then spend your time and energy on activities that will help you meet that objective.

is the time you put in worth the money you make (exchanging hours for dollars)? NO. but is the time you spend in building a residual stream of income (requires a great deal of "know how") worth it? you bet.

i'd recommend a higher paying hourly part time job. however, surveys give you the flexibility to work anytime, from anywhere, without having to spend hours on the road, gas money, etc, etc.

my website generates in the thousands per month, all residual. was it simple? for me yes. easy? no. but it's possible if you acquire the "know how", and then put in the time and energy to materialize your plan of action? most definitely. i am connected to a group of bloggers/website owners in the same boat as me, enjoying a very healthy passive income stream from paid surveys.

NOTE: paid surveys are a good entry point to high paying focused groups. there are groups that pay up to $200 an hour if you fit the profile they are looking for.

[Squirrelers]

Time is money. Or - time is more valuable than money, as its not something we can grow.

Think about the hourly rate being earned: if that matches what you think the value of your time is, then go for it. If not, then don't unless it provides some entertainment value as a hobby for you.

[Anon]

I went to a "paid surveys" site (recommended by a commenter in this thread) and saw this message:
"Make $25 in the next 45 minutes GUARANTEED
or I will hand you a $100 crisp bill! " Signed up where and got an email with "the three top paid survey sites"...

Well I signed up with one of the "top three" sites, haven't heard back from them with any surveys.

Went to another one, and found a bunch of "offers" I have to sign up for...so I signed up and got a bunch of spam which my email provider flagged as "possible phishing attempts."

Haven't gotten to the third one yet but I've wasted two hours and have "earned" a few bucks which I will probably never see because there my "earnings" are not anywhere near the minimums required to actually release funds.

But I'm pretty sure I will soon be getting a ton of junk mail and spam. At least I created a throwaway email account for the spam.