by Lucy May

Created on: May 26, 2009   Last Updated: June 01, 2009

It is all so easy you just sit around the house, in your pyjamas drinking coffee, type away at your computer for a couple of hours a day and hey presto you can earn thousands a week! Well, it could be if you believed everything you read on the internet!

The outrageous claims made by survey companies are so well written by top copywriters, that unfortunately a lot of people who are desperately searching for ways to earn a living from home, believe the words they see displayed before them. These companies operate websites offering online surveys, focus groups and the chance to test products. Payments shown usually include the wording up to before the amount and boxes with a sliding scale can supposedly have you to believe that if you do 6 surveys a day for 7 days; you will earn five figures a week.

There is of course always a catch to an offer like this one, all they require is that you pay them to join their membership and they will forward to you a list of all the survey companies that you can then join. By conducting a search yourself, you will find all these companies and more for free on the internet.

All over the world there are millions of people completing online surveys, but do they make a living from it? No. If it was even possible to earn enough money per week, every week, the survey taker would have to work at their computer almost 24/7, unless their name regularly comes up on the prize draw surveys!

But you can make some regular money by completing surveys; however the time involved is quite exhausting. Too many surveys now contain screener questionnaires and all too often after completing over 50% you can discover you have been timed out. So despite thinking that you had actually earned $50 in a good week, by the time you work out an hourly rate, the pay can be as low as 50c an hour.

And if you are thinking about earning this money for living expenses, let's hope you have some patience. A lot of companies now have a very high payout level; shockingly some can take as long as two years to reach the payout threshold. Also many companies now have begun to offer shopping gift certificates.

Always remember, websites with the dreams and promises of easy money are not worried if you take any surveys or not, they just want your membership payment. They are the only one's making a living using the term paid surveys

In the long run if anyone wishes to try online surveys, yes you can earn a little extra money each month, but enough to live on? Only for a mouse!

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