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by John Atchison

Created on: March 08, 2009   Last Updated: April 28, 2010

Look at life through the spectacles of three years of unemployment.  It is an experience that I, as well as countless others have experienced in this terrible economy our country is battling. Savings are drying up at such a rate that you begin to wonder how your going to feed the family the following week.  It makes you desperate to find some means of bringing in an income, no matter how much it is just so you can feel like your contributing.  You search newspapers and online job sites but nothing is there.  Then you think about what money making ventures might be available on the web.

The internet can present you with millions of different ideas, but what you need to do is sift your way through the muck and see which ones are actually legitimate opportunities.  One area that immediate jumps into view is the world of online surveys. Again there are as many as fifty of these sites out there, but not all of them present a realistic chance of making any money. What you will find is that you can definitely bring in a little extra income, however do not mistake it for a new career path. It certainly can help you to give the kids a better  Christmas or pay a smaller bill, but that's about the extent of what those survey sites will yield. You see your not going to qualify for every survey. 

If your lucky you will qualify for one out of five and those are usually worth but only a few dollars.  Certainly it can add up, but that takes month to accumulate.  So with those things said, let us take a look at some the sites and things available to you out on the Internet that can help you to feel like your a contributing member for your family in this thing we call life.

To start with, there are some easy sites out there, or the ones that people consider the "click and earn" sites. This consisted of ones like Inboxdollars (www.inboxdollars.com ) and mypoints (www.mypoints.com). There are several ways to make money on these two sites, but the one that do not cost you anything are the simple ones where you need only view and click their links in the emails they send. Mypoints rewards you with 5 points; Inbox can vary on point amount. In the two years plus I have been with them I have accumulated enough clicking points for about 4 or 5 gift certificates of 5 dollars each. What I didn't care for on these sites is to get any really big point totals you actually have to spend money to amass points. For someone with no money, this was not a great option. 

Next we will look at survey sites which come with the supposed promise of making some bigger money in the future. Take it from me, this is also not a full time career move and the good sites will tell you just that.  I personally checked out many different survey sites and what you find out is that some are ok for making a little dough, and others are very big con games in the end. For those of you interesting in making a little supplemental income, here are some to look at. The first site to check out is www.surveysavvy.com. It has made about 275 dollars from this site over the years I have been with them. Like most of these sites, you fill out your profile, and then start receiving surveys. Those profiles are important for getting surveys so fill them out completely.  This site pays you by check, and as I recall, there is no minimum to reach to get paid.

 Another site that pays in money is www.opinionoutpost.c om. This has become one of my favorites because they always send you surveys, and I do pretty well with them, getting paid on maybe 6 out of 10 surveys (the other 4 I did not qualify for). Another site where I have made around 300 over a couple of years.  They also have a great operation.  My account was hacked once and instead of throwing me off the site they worked with me and got the situation fixed.  The surveys are also not a burdensome length and you do qualify for more on this site than most.

There are even more sites out there that give you a variety of options to choose from for rewards. In the case of www.mysurvey.com, you can get paid in cash, gift certificate, or merchandise. My only problem with them is that through the years, the amount of points you get per survey has dropped to virtually nothing so it takes a good bit of time to get to the lowest gift certificate, which is 10 dollars. Another good site for gift certificates in www.lightspeedpanelu s.com. They have also branched out into Elite Panel survey as well. This one gives you surveys rather frequently, and you can collect on every 4 of 10 in my book. The points per survey are more robust, so I have probably made a few hundred in gift certificates from them since I have been a member.

The final good one I will speak about is www.surveyspot.com. You absolutely get all sorts of surveys from them, though some are moneymakers, and the others are for sweepstakes entries. A word of caution. Any site that gives you sweepstakes entries is just trying to collect information, without paying their members. If you try surveyspot, make sure to only go with the ones that offer a currency reward.

As was stated earlier, survey sites help pick up some good change here or there, but it does not bring in any kind of big money opportunities.  If you have a talent for writing though there are also a wealth of chances out there for you to help yourself.  It was not until I got into the review writing sites, and used my talents there, that I found a niche that brought in more money. Depending on how much you write, how good you are, and whether your willing to work at it, this can be a career changer for you.

Helium (www.helium.com) is definitely one of the best of these sites.  They give you a bevy of topics to choose from and provide contests and marketpalce articles to win bigger cash payoffs if your lucky enough to win.  If you ever felt like you had the talent to write, then dive into this site and give it a try.  Just to give another example, I use to work www.ciao.com. When I started on Ciao it was absolutely wonderful. I loved writing, and at the time, they were paying 1 dollar per review (as long as it met requirements), and you got a certain amount for every positive rate. It was not unheard of to average 50 to 60 dollars a month, which was good money for someone not making any. The site had great writing, and people that really cared for a long time.

However, come late September of that year, the site got infiltrated by spammers, cheaters, and all sorts of other fakes that caused them to change the payout format to pennies per article, and a penny or so for rates. A great site destroyed by greed.  Also sites like epinions (www.epinions.com) and Associated Content (www.associatedconten t.com) are available for you as well.

You do have to be careful though.  There are plenty of sites out there that are just plain no good. Unfortunately one of the worst survey sites out there is probably one of the biggest out there. Greenfield Online (now Toluna) is one of the biggest names out there, and many sites feed their surveys from Greenfield. If you see Greenfield or OTX running a survey, better to just exit. I think in the 3 years I have been with Greenfield, I may have had 5 total surveys out of hundreds where money was actually made. With these two sites, you usually do not meet the criteria, or are knocked out after given them the regular information. Save you time and forget these sites.

Look, when it is all said and done if you stick with the survey sites, you can make some nice side money, but remember that is all it will ever be. If you need a little supplemental income, or want to build up some points to get a gift certificate or two, give some of these sites a shot. I think you will enjoy it, and enjoy the small benefits.  If your looking for something more and have talent for the written word, try any number of the writing sites out there.  Take a shot at one of their contests and see if you rate high enough to win.  Some people bring in hundreds a month doing this.  You just have to be ready to put in the work.

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