by David Clemen

Created on: February 11, 2010

You see the advertisements all the time. "Make a six figure income just giving your opinions." Or "Work part time in your pajamas and make a full time income." Those are just a couple of examples of literally thousands of different variations of ads for people to make money taking surveys online.

You can make money taking surveys online. I have been using

online surveys as a revenue stream for over 8 years now. The challenge is that 99% of the online surveys that you see advertised are a complete waste of time or even can be considered scams. How do you avoid them?

The very first thing that I recommend all people to do when evaluating online surveys or any other type of money making opportunity is apply a little common sense. Would someone really pay you over $100,000 a year to give your opinion about products? When you really honestly think about it, you know the answer is "no". There are people that have very specific valuable skills, high levels of education and work very hard that don’t make that type of money.

So why are they bothering to lie to you? The reason is they want to sell you a list of survey companies that are going to make you rich working part time. The fee usually ranges from $9.95 to $49.95. Sounds like a great deal, right?

If this list was going to allow you to make a real income why would they only charge you $49.95? People put in years and years of hard work and spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on education to build a career. What suckers! When all you have to do is send $49.95 to some website. Once again let’s apply some common sense. Does this sound realistic? You know the answer.

Here is how you avoid online survey scams. Never pay a cent for a list. It is a complete waste of money. That list has been sold to so many people at this point even sites that you could make money with at one time are no longer worth while. You get what you pay for. The reason the list is only $9.95 is because that is what it is worth.

Do some research, the internet has all the information you will ever need to avoid these scams and find real legitimate opportunities. Go to forums and other resources and ask people what they are doing to make money online. Avoid people that are sending you referral links. They are just trying to make a buck off of you.

Finally set some realistic expectations. Make money online taking surveys can be tricky. Survey sites that I have been a member of for years and made good money from I have seen people say are worthless. Why is that? There are a ton of factors that come into play. You need to meet the demographic the survey company wants the opinion of. These surveys also fill up quick. If you don’t respond right away the survey fills up and you miss your opportunity. These are just a couple of reasons.

Ultimately taking online surveys can be a great way to make a little extra income every month if you do three things. Do your research. Never pay for a list. And have realistic earnings expectations. Online surveys can be a fun and easy way to make money.

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