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Sadly, no. While there are some legitimate survey sites and other money making opportunities online, there are also numerous gimmicks and ripoffs that are better steered clear of. It can be difficult to tell the difference, but there are a few ways to tell the genuine from the fraud.

Like many reading this article, I have scoured the internet for paid survey, paid to surf, paid email and other such opportunities with little success. I have discovered that a majority of the paid survey gigs are not so cleverly disguised marketing tactics. The surveys aren't really surveys at all, but usually turn out to be sponsored offers. They attempt to get you to join book, music, movie and other clubs that usually offer some sort of free incentive. If you're not careful, however, you find that you've joined a club or service and are billed monthly. This leads me to my first tip. NEVER give credit card information to join a survey site and never give credit card information in exchange for a "free" gift.

If a gift is really free, then that means it is free period. The fine print and legal disclaimers on these types of sham offers are so hard to read and understand that you have no idea what you're getting yourself into and you may find yourself having entered into a legally binding contract that you can't get out from under. Therefore, remember the old adage that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I have noticed the tactic of giving away "free" gifts or other special offers for famous name brand designer items at ridiculously low prices is common on some of the less than honest survey sites.

Another option that often sounds great until you scratch the surface are paid to read email programs. These usually are just ways to get you to give out your email address and receive tons of marketing emails. You'll wind up on a bunch of spam lists and you won't be able to do much about it because part of your entry into the program was opting into these lists and agreeing to receive the emails. That would be fine if the programs actually were paying you to read the emails. Actually, most do pay, but what they pay is a fraction of a penny per email you read meaning you could spend years opening marketing emails before you make any real money at all.

Work at home programs and offers are almost always scams and ways to get you to either buy an e-book or buy into a program that, if you read the fine print carefully, isn't guaranteed to make you any money at all.

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