Understanding Online Paid Surveys

There are a lot of misconceptions about the paid survey program and the most common one is that they are all scams. This is not true there are a lot of legit sites that pay you cash or rewards for your participation (some more then others) of cause there are lots of scams but you can protect yourself if you follow a few basic rules.

Rule#1:
Never use your primary email account to join these sites there are plenty of free web based email accounts and I recommend and use Yahoo mail with address guard. This will help protect you from spam mails.

Rule#2:
Always research the company before you sign up check with the Better Business Bureau and check out what other people have to say about them at forums. This will help you protect your identity and avoid being a victim phishing or identity theft.

Rule#3:
Read their FAQ, privacy policies, terms and conditions to understand exactly what you are signing up for. This will help you avoid singing up for something you were not aware of like subscribing to 3rd party mailing list or agreeing to have your personal information sold.

If you follow these 3 rules you have gone a long way in protecting your self and avoiding the scams.

Paid surveys is market research conducted by almost all businesses this is how they determine what the consumer would want. It is a legit tool that nearly all businesses use and it helps to shape the market place with products that are wanted.
Companies are willing to pay for this information and this is where you can profit as well as have a say in the products they will release.

Survey sites are engaged by businesses wishing to find out facts and statistics about a targeted audience and the survey site will pass it on to their members that meet the requirements of the study.
A good survey site will protect your personal information you can determine this from there privacy policies so make sure you read them very carefully.

You need to understand that not all payed survey sites are the same some pay money others give you entry into competitions and at least one I know of rewards you with lollies.
Every site has there own method of rewarding your participation so it is very important to follow Rule#3 so you know exactly what to expect from them and what they expect of you.