Does anybody really make money from “paid” surveys?

Thumbs-down by desi.Italy

Since my last post, I’ve moved halfway around the globe to Canada. I hadn’t anticipated the impact this would have on me physically and emotionally. I’ve only been able to do the most basic things to keep myself and my family functioning and blogging was all but forgotten. I realized that with the major changes in my life, I needed a home business that was really easy and took almost no time at all. And so I tried … paid surveys!

I signed up with Survey Club and almost immediately received an opportunity to make $4 by joining an online music club and then giving my feedback about it. The whole process took probably 20 minutes and the next day, I had $4 in my Paypal account.

Pumped up by this instant gratification, I did as advised and signed up for half a dozen paid survey membership sites — all for free. Actually, the advice was to sign up for at least 10, but I hadn’t had the time for it. Some sites require you to fill up voluminous pre-screening surveys — to place you in the proper demographic for the surveys. These take up a lot of time.

Six weeks later, I have made … still only $4 from the surveys! I have filled up dozens of them but all I got in return was the chance to win this or that raffle and to accumulate points. I have not won a single raffle. Neither do I remember what the points are for.

Meantime, I have found a website that will pay me $5 for a 250-word article. Takes a bit longer than answering a survey but I will definitely make more money than I have so far from answering surveys.

Perhaps I have simply signed up for the wrong survey membership sites. If you’ve had better luck from paid surveys, do let me know how you did it.