No matter your financial situation, getting some additional income always helps, especially when it can be exchanged for the time we otherwise waste. We rarely think about it, but commutes, commercials, waiting in line, and other similar activities waste a lot of our lives.

Online paid surveys, accessible from various websites and apps, can help you monetize this unproductive time. However, you should not rush into the first possibility of earning extra income with them. There are quite a few things you should know before starting.

It Won’t Make You Rich, But it’s Legit Income

Online survey platforms get paid by companies and non-profit organizations to gather public opinion. Part of what they earn is shared with participants who answer their surveys online. Usually, one thirty-minute survey is priced at $1, but you can find surveys that will pay you closer to $5.

It should be clear by now that a $2 per hour rate won’t make you a millionaire. It won’t even be enough to sustain minimal living expenses, but that’s not what paid surveys are meant to do. Instead, it’s a way to earn some extra money conveniently and without any additional training.

Platforms that promise you extremely high payouts are most likely scams. No company is paying more than a dollar just to get your opinion. Sure, knowing what consumers want is valuable, but there is a point where other, less accurate data-gathering methods are more cost-efficient.

Questionnaires are Mostly About Brands

You can find various types of questions on paid survey sites. Most are multiple-choice quizzes where you simply need to choose an answer that is closest to your opinion. Other times, there are Likert scale questions, picture selection, or sometimes even open-ended ones.

The more complex the questionnaire, the more time it will take to complete it. Well-paid survey platforms do account for it and pay more for complex questionnaires, especially ones with open-ended questions. You also have the option to cancel the survey after looking into what types of questions there are.

What I do not recommend skipping on is questionnaire topics. They are all quite basic and usually involve known brands. The companies behind them are interested in what you think about them, their competitors, ad campaigns, etc.

There might be some more specific surveys, but you’ll have to qualify for certain demographics. Medical surveys, for example, might ask about your experiences with medicaments or hospitals, but they are quite rare for most participants.

Your Demographics Are Important

$2 per hour for surveys wouldn’t be so bad if you could do it for twelve hours, but in practice, you are more likely to get up to three or four surveys per day at maximum. That’s because companies who need data require answers from specific demographics.

Most paid survey platforms will start by asking you your age, gender, nationality, location, and other things. According to your answer, you will be allocated surveys to answer. That’s why it’s crucial to answer these questions fully and honestly.

Different platforms have varying numbers of surveys for different demographics. Some claim that most surveys are for males in Western countries, but with a bit of searching, you can find questionnaires for almost any demographic.

Demographics is also the reason why paid online surveys have a bad reputation online, especially on customer review sites like Trustpilot. Many users don’t fill out their demographic information well and don’t get surveys. Sometimes, platforms simply don’t have surveys for your demographic, so it’s best to move on.

Use Multiple Platforms

Not limiting yourself to one platform is key to maximizing profits. You can never know when one platform will stop giving good surveys, and another will start. That’s because they compete with one another to get the best orders from companies and pull opinions.

Having two or three trusted platforms on rotation and answering their surveys just when they drop is a sure way to ensure a steady side income. I recommended rotating YouGov, Pawns.app, and SurveyMonkey to see which one gives you the best earnings.

Gift Cards Are The Best Payout Method

Paid survey sites have many different payout methods – bank transfers, PayPal, and Cryptocurrencies, but gift cards are the best option. You simply save money by choosing this method, as every other involves some additional fees or even taxes. The only drawback is that gift cards have expiration dates, but it’s a minor problem when you have a wide selection of them.

An online survey gift card from a clothing shop, for example, always comes in handy as you can add something to your wardrobe without spending any of your money. The same goes for gift cards from subscription services, groceries, or e-commerce stores.

Most paid survey platforms also pay with virtual gift cards, which are simply a code sent to your email. Unlike money or cryptocurrency transfers, the delivery is instant, and you can spend your earnings on goods almost instantly.

Never Pay To Participate

The worst thing you can do when looking for online surveys that pay well is to pay for them yourself. No legitimate survey platform asks users to pay money in any way. There are some that might promise to boost your earnings on other activities, but it’s more of a lottery than a way to earn money.

The moment you start paying money for activities to earn money online, you should consider it as an investment. When you calculate the returns, usually there are much better and safer methods to invest than in getting more paid surveys. You should be the one that gets paid, not the other way around.

Wrapping up

Don’t jump into paid online surveys without doing at least some research into these six topics. You risk wasting your time or even getting scammed. In fact, this applies to all methods of making money online. You can’t jump head first without any prior knowledge and expect perfect results.