If you are new to survey taking, you might not know what you can expect from surveys. This is understandable, after all, most of the people pushing survey work are giving out inflated results. The truth is very different than the propaganda that you have probably seen.
But what should you expect? Let’s take a look.
The Money From Survey Work
This is what most people really want to know, so I will get straight to it. You can make decent money for the time involved but it will be nothing like what you have heard. Before I start getting negative, understand that I believe the work is completely worth your time. It just might not be as good as you think.
If you believe the most affiliate marketers out there, you would never have to work a real day of work again. Just voice your opinion and companies will back the truck up and dump money all over your lawn. The truth is very different.
Most people who take surveys will find that they make between 20 to 100 dollars a month. You are not going to find individual surveys that pay 50 dollars a piece. Most surveys pay about 1 dollar or 100 points.
For 100 points, or $1 you would be doing a survey that would take between 10 to 15 minutes to complete, depending on your speed. That translates to $4 to $6 an hour. Not bad, but far from the money that most websites are promising.
Of course, there is also one thing to consider, the above hourly rate implies that you can go from one survey to the next. Unfortunately, that is just not the nature of the work.
The Nature Of Survey Work
Until you get the hang of things, you are probably going to find survey work a bit frustrating. This is because with most surveys, you need to pre-qualify.
Pre-qualifying is an advertisers way to make sure that you are right for the survey. They will ask you some questions, sometimes a lot of questions and then decide if you get to continue with the survey.
If you do not qualify, you get absolutely nothing for your time. See where it can get frustrating?
At first, for every 10 minute survey you do, you will spend 30 minutes looking for it. That is going to drive your hourly rate down to about $2 an hour
Once you get the hang of things, you will be able to figure out what answers disqualify you and what advertisers are looking for. You will be able to find paying surveys quicker but you will still not be able to just go from survey to survey.
How You Get Paid From Survey Work
The term points might have caught your attention. What are points and why are you getting paid for them.
Points have become the standard in the survey industry, I suppose for two reasons.
First, it sounds way better to say that you can earn 50 points for a survey versus 50 cents. What can you do with 50 cents? Not much but points can add up. It is just a psychological thing that survey websites use to keep you interested.
Second, you get these points and then trade them in for gift cards. 2000 points will get you a $20 gift card some where, but the survey website are probably not paying full price for those cards. They are most likely getting a deal from the merchants and not paying full dollar value. That saves them money and when you are talking about millions of dollars in cards paid out by some of these sites, it is a lot of money.
Honestly though, it doesn’t really matter to you . You take a $20 gift card to a place that you already shop and you use it. Then you take the cash that you would have spent there and keep it in your pocket. Some website also pay you with Paypal cards, so that is nearly the same as cash.
So, Is It Worth It?
After reading all of that, you might have gotten a little negative. Maybe you thought that you were going to make $1000 a month and really stat banking some extra money.
No, that is not going to happen but you can still have a good experience with survey taking and here is how.
Take it for what it is and only do it when you have nothing else to do. Do not set aside large chunks of your time for survey taking. Instead, just do it when you are watching television or riding the bus, etc. Turn time where you are not earning and turn it into productive time.
Do that and you will have a good experience with paid surveys.