How to Make Money From Home with Online Surveys
If you are looking for a get rich quick scheme, online surveys are not it! When it comes to making money, online surveys are easy, require no skill and can be done from anywhere. But the pay isn’t huge.
What to Consider Before Doing Online Surveys
Many online surveys can take considerable time and pay less than minimum wage, others can pay well. How much you make depends on how many you do and the more you do, the more you get offered so the more money you can make.
Where you live, your family, income and lifestyle all factor into how many surveys you will be offered. Those in major cities with average incomes tend to get offered more online surveys than those in more remote areas.
Online surveys are market research for the companies. You will give away a lot of personal information such as shopping habits, home and work habits, what you eat, what you do for work, things about your kids etc. There are privacy laws around the content you share but you do need to be aware of this and comfortable with sharing a lot of details of your life.
How to Get Started Doing Online Surveys
Firstly, get a separate email address specifically for the online surveys. Most companies send a lot of emails so you will want them separate from your regular email otherwise it can be overwhelming.
Sign up to the companies you want to do online surveys with (we list some below we have used for years safely) and read the fine print. Know what you are getting yourself into, how long they take to pay and how long their surveys take.
Set up your profile in full. You want to ensure it is complete so you get sent all relevant surveys. Add in the details for how you want to be paid and learn how to cash out or get paid. Some do it automatically but most require you to request payment either as cash to your account, cheque, PayPal or gift cards.
Which Online Survey Companies are Worth it?
This will partially depend on your specifics, such as where you live, age etc. It will be a matter of signing up to the companies, doing some surveys and seeing which works best for you.
Two we love are PrizeRebel and Swagbucks. Both have a low cash out thresholds and are easy to earn money with. Swagbucks has options such as a daily poll, searching, playing games and watching videos to earn even more instead of only offering surveys. They also offer cash back on various sites.
Track the amount of time it takes you to do surveys to see how much you actually make an hour and if it is worth it for you.
Where Can You Do Online Surveys
One of the great things about online surveys is you can make money while waiting in line to pick up the kids from school or while at the doctors’ office. Another option is to do them while watching TV or having some downtime at home.
Download the apps for any online survey sites and check them when you know you will have to wait a while for something.
When you are doing them, check if they have the option to save and come back to them. If you are doing them while waiting, you don’t want to start then lose them because you had to go and couldn’t save where you were up to.
How Long do Online Surveys Take to Pay?
Payment terms vary between the different online survey sites. Most pay relatively quickly, within a day or week. Some take 30 days or more. How you choose to be paid can also vary the time it takes to get paid.
Options such as PayPal or gift cards are usually quicker than bank transfers and all of those options are faster than having a cheque posted.
Are Online Surveys Worth It?
Only you can decide if they are worth the time. For some work at home moms, online surveys are an easy way to make some money and stash it for Christmas or a treat for themselves.
Disclosure: this article contains affiliate links to products and services we use.