Most sites require you to register with them - the more details about your lifestyle, education, work, children, cars, pets, hobbies, travel etc you fill in, the more surveys they will be able to send to you based on your answers (market research firms generally pre-scan their membership base to see who would potentially wualify for each specific study).
If you seem to meet the rough criteria for a study they have, it will be emailed to you or you'll get an email prompt to visit their website, and you can take part in the survey.
Depending on the site, some might offer rewards such as points, vouchers or money for your help - there are hundreds of variances in the exact terms & conditions, so read them carefully before expecting any big rewards.
Generally, once a survey invite has ben sent to you, you have a few days before enough other people have filled in the survey and they close the study (they only need acertain amount of people for each profile that they want to look at), but you can do it in your own time whenever you want - and some of them do actually have great reward schemes (American Consumer Opinon, Ciao, testandvote are just some to start with), as long as you regularly take part and don't expect millions after a few weeks.

Good luck!

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