How to Make Money Online by Taking Surveys
Taking surveys online is a great way to make some extra money, especially for young people who may not have a lot of other options. It's a relatively easy way to make some extra cash, and it can be done from anywhere with an internet connection.
How it works?
Survey companies pay people to take surveys about their opinions and experiences. These surveys can be about anything from new products to political issues. Companies use this information to improve their products and services, and to better understand their customers.
How to get started?
To get started with taking surveys, you'll need to sign up for a few survey companies. There are many different companies out there, so it's important to do some research and find the ones that are right for you.
Here are a few of the most popular survey companies:
- Swagbucks is a popular rewards website that offers a variety of ways to earn points, including taking surveys. You can redeem your points for gift cards, cash, or other rewards.
- Survey Junkie is another popular survey company that offers a variety of surveys, including surveys about your shopping habits, your opinion on current events, and your experiences with different products and services.
- InboxDollars is a rewards website that offers a variety of ways to earn money, including taking surveys, watching videos, and shopping online.
- MyPoints is a rewards website that offers a variety of ways to earn points, including taking surveys, shopping online, and reading emails.
Once you've signed up for a few survey companies, you'll start receiving invitations to take surveys. You'll usually be asked to provide some basic information about yourself, such as your age, gender, and location.
How much you can make
The amount of money you can make by taking surveys varies depending on the company and the length of the survey. In general, you can expect to earn between $0.50 and $5 per survey.
To make a significant amount of money by taking surveys, you'll need to be patient and persistent. You'll also need to be willing to take a variety of surveys, as not all surveys will be available to you.
In your free time, while binge-watching TV from your couch or hanging out with your friends, you can make a little bit of extra money by sharing what you think about products, services, sports, and other current events. Different market research companies will have varying reward payouts. Still, generally, you can earn cash or Paypal rewards, gift cards to Amazon, Target, iTunes, Walmart, and other retailers, prepaid Visa cards, and other prizes and sweepstakes rewards.
Paypal rewards are a popular option for survey takers because they allow you to withdraw your earnings directly to your Paypal account. This is a convenient option because you can then use your Paypal balance to make purchases online or transfer it to your bank account.
Gift cards are another popular reward option. Many survey sites offer gift cards to a variety of retailers, including Amazon, Target, iTunes, Walmart, and other popular stores. This is a great option if you want to use your earnings to purchase items that you would normally buy anyway.
Sweepstakes rewards are a type of reward that is given away randomly to survey takers. These rewards can be anything from cash to vacations to electronics. While sweepstakes rewards are less common than other types of rewards, they can be a great way to win some extra money.
Here are some examples of specific rewards that survey sites offer:
- Swagbucks: Swagbucks offers a variety of rewards, including Paypal cash, gift cards to Amazon, Target, and Walmart, and sweepstakes rewards.
- Survey Junkie: Survey Junkie offers Paypal cash and gift cards to Amazon, Target, iTunes, and Walmart.
- InboxDollars: InboxDollars offers Paypal cash, gift cards to Amazon, Target, iTunes, and Walmart, and prepaid Visa cards.
- MyPoints: MyPoints offers Paypal cash, gift cards to Amazon, Target, iTunes, Walmart, and other retailers, and prepaid Visa cards.
Here are some statistics about paid online surveys:
- According to a 2023 survey by Survey Junkie, the average survey taker earns $1.57 per hour.
- According to a 2022 survey by Swagbucks, the average Swagbucks member earns $296 per year.
Let's take a look at some of the best survey sites where you can get paid for having opinions. If you've ever shared your mind with friends and family or on social sharing apps, you're already great at it. The best survey sites allow you to make money online through questionnaires and focus groups.
With online survey sites, you're also helping companies create better products and services. By product testing, answering short surveys, and taking polls, you can shape the brands you care about.
Not every survey club is legit. If a survey site promises you thousands of dollars or that you can quit your day job, run away. Legit paid surveys are a great side hustle to make extra cash, not a regular income source. But they are still a great side hustle for survey takers to get free Amazon gift cards, cash, and other rewards.
There truly is a market where your voice can be heard. This article is a definitive survey taking guide. It lays out everything that you need to know about taking surveys and when and how you can get expect to get paid.
Here's a look at the best legit survey sites of 2021 so you.
Information This Article Covers:
- Which Are The Best Survey Sites?
- In-Depth Overview of Top 12 Legit Survey Sites
- Why Should I Take Online Surveys?
- Are Paid Surveys Worth My Time?
- What Sort of Topics Do Paid Surveys Cover?
- How Much Money Can I Make By Doing Online Surveys?
- How Can I Make $50 in An Hour Online?
- How Can I Make Cash Right Now?
- What Are Some Advanced Survey Taking Strategies to Earn More Money?
- How Can I Avoid Survey Scams?
- Other Ways to Make Money Online
Which Are The Best Survey Sites?
There are genuinely many legitimate survey sites out there. Swagbucks, MyPoints, InboxDollars, OneOpinion, Prize Rebel, LifePoints, Ipsos, i-Say, Toluna, MySurvey, Vindale Research, Survey Junkie, and more.
For this article, I'm focusing on the survey sites that I have most tried, tested, and proven out. The best paid surveys are the ones that pay. I'll share with you paid online survey sites where I have earned actual rewards. I've cashed out Google gift cards, Apple gift cards, Safeway gift cards, and checks (in the mail). I'll share how you earn on these survey websites and how you cash out. We'll look at some legitimate survey sites and evaluate how much you can make and how long it takes to earn, and whether or not they offer a signup bonus.
We'll take an in-depth look at these 12 survey sites:
- Swagbucks
- InboxDollars
- MyPoints
- Pinecone Research
- SurveySavvy
- Survey Junkie
- YouGov
- Branded Surveys (MintVine)
- OneOpinion
- Vindale Research
- Opinion Outpost
- PrizeRebel
- Toluna
All of these survey sites and market research companies are legitimate money-earning opportunities. You can voice your opinions in online surveys, make money, and get your reward cashout.
With surveys for money, Amazon gift cards and PayPal cash are the most popular reward options. But you can also opt to complete paid surveys for a check in the mail, prepaid Visa or Mastercard, or other free gift cards to popular stores.
And if you want to max your earnings, you can sign up for all of them. After reading the overview of these survey companies, read the next section to read up on making money right away by taking surveys.
You cannot get rich taking surveys, but you can absolutely make an extra $500 to $2,500 with fairly minimal effort.
Disclosure: I have spent a lot of time playing with various online survey panels, phone surveys, rewards sites, and shopping apps over the last 10 years. That's what eventually led to my current job at Prodege, where I work in digital media. If there's a hack for making money online, I want to try it. From flipping thrift store finds to extreme couponing to online surveys, I love a great side hustle. I've banked a few thousand dollars doing surveys. I've shared these sites and apps with my friends and family who either a) say it doesn't work or b) don't understand how they work.
And that's why I've written this piece. To break down the in's and out's of how to earn. We want to help consumers and members earn money taking surveys. Market research firms make money when authentic surveys are taken and completed. We want survey-takers to have a good experience and to understand the process. When consumers don't complete a survey or bail on a survey site, everyone loses out. And as a professional part-time hustler (I hope), it kills me when survey takers leave money on the table by missing out on little things like clicking a button or checking off a box on a list.
My rundowns on Swagbucks and InboxDollars are more through because I'm the most familiar with those survey companies. But from a survey insider to you, here's the scoop on how to earn money on the best survey sites.
Swagbucks
Swagbucks is the best survey site, in my opinion. I have had positive experiences as a survey taker over the past couple of years and made around $800. Swagbucks typically pays within 24-48 hours. The first payment can take longer because Swagbucks will need to verify your account details. Cash funds get directly deposited into your Paypal account. Gift cards are delivered to you as electronic vouchers over email. You can enter the voucher codes online to redeem or store the voucher in your preferred digital wallet.
- Average Payment (Payout) per Survey: 50 to 500 SB (or $0.50 to $5.00)
- Time Investment: 5-25 minutes per survey (most surveys)
- Minimum Earnings to Cashout: $3
- Signup Requirements: Age 13+ in the US, available in many other countries including Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany
- Devices Supported: Desktop/laptop, Tablet/iPad, Mobile (Mobile Web, iPhone App, Android App)
- Signup Bonus: $10.00 (Must complete $20+ shop activity)
- Trustpilot Review Score: 4.3 of 5 Stars (18,500+ Reviews)
100 SB equals one dollar. On Swagbucks, as with any legitimate survey site, you need to qualify for and complete the survey to get the associated payout reward.
What Sets Swagbucks Apart from Other Survey Sites
- Earn SB Even When You Don't Qualify. You earn SB even if you disqualify from a survey as a thank you for at least trying the survey and a nod of encouragement to keep going.
- Low Cashout Needed. Some survey companies require that you've earned $20, $30, or $50 to redeem your rewards. At Swagbucks, you can cash out if you've banked at least $3 or 300 SB. At $3, you can cash out with an Amazon gift card. Swagbucks sets the lowest cashout amount required among all survey companies.
- Variety of Payment Options. You can cash out with PayPal, a prepaid Visa card, or choose from gift cards to over 500 popular merchants.
- Earn free cryptocurrency for taking surveys. As of early 2022, Swagbucks has offered survey takers the ability to earn free Bitcoin for taking online surveys. Redeem your earnings for a gift card to buy Bitcoin on a cryptocurrency exchange. Or, you can cash out your earnings for completing surveys as PayPal or a prepaid Visa and use those funds to buy crypto on your performed platform.
- Discounted Gift Cards! When you cash out your rewards, you can get a $25 gift card to Cible or to Amazon for 12% off. That's like spending $22 cash to get $25 in cash. (Since you can buy just about anything at Target or Amazon, a gift card to either merchant is basically cash in hand.) Other gift cards will have discounts throughout the year. For example, right now, you can get an Apple Gift Card for 10% off, or a Visa $25 card for 13% off (for $21.75, get a $25 Visa card).
- Loads of Other Fun Ways to Earn. Swagbucks offers lots of other ways to earn, like playing online games, web search, trivia, uploading receipts, and watching videos. Recently, Swagbucks has added new features for shopping and savings. You can earn cash back from shopping at over 2,000 different retailers (including Kohl's, Macy's, Hobby Lobby, and buybuyBABY) when visiting their website from the Swagbucks shop page. You'll also find loads of online coupon codes and promo codes, printable grocery coupons, and dining deals that you can redeem in-store to save money and earn cash back.
How to Get Started Earning On Swagbucks:
- Sign up. You can download the Swagbucks app, or register on their website with a phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. Just provide your email and create a password.
- Confirm your email address. It can take anywhere from 10 seconds to 2 minutes for the confirmation email to arrive in your inbox. Make sure to check your spam folders just in case.
- Complete the new member checklist. It'll walk you through how to earn and how to find surveys.
- Every time you visit Swagbucks, complete the daily to-do list.
Swagbucks is very user friendly because there are lots of little ways to earn. 1 SB here, a few SB there. It all adds up. I recommend Swagbucks as a first stop.
And I know a few people who use Swagbucks to top up their bank account for the holidays or tackle a bit of debt. Not bad for answering a few questions from the sidelines at your kid's soccer game, right?
InboxDollars
- Average Payout per Survey: $0.50 - $5.00
- Time Investment: 5-25 minutes per survey (most surveys)
- Minimum Earnings to Cashout: $10
- Signup Requirements: Age 18+ in U.S., 18+ in Canada, 18+ in UK
- Devices Supported: Desktop/Laptop, Tablet/iPad, Mobile (Mobile Web, iPhone App, Android App)
- Signup Bonus: $5.00
- Trustpilot Review Score: 4.3 of 5 Stars (12,000+ Reviews)
InboxDollars is one of the largest online survey sites out there. For over 20 years, it's connected consumer with relevant paid surveys.
InboxDollars has a good blend of surveys available, lots of other ways to earn (like watching videos or reading emails) and full earning transparency. You earn dollars and cents for each completed survey, not points or virtual currency.
As with Swagbucks (and all other survey websites), you do need to qualify for the surveys, and there is a survey pre-screener you need to complete to make you are part of the target audience. I've made over $2,500 taking surveys on InboxDollars.
What Sets InboxDollars Apart from Other Online Survey Sites:
- Generous Signup Bonus. New members get $5 free just for signing up to try InboxDollars. (You have to reach a certain threshold in earnings before you can cash out the $5 bonus.)
- Generous Referral Program. You earn $1 for each qualified referral (when a friend joins), and then 30% of their qualified earnings for life. Many other survey referral programs only give you 10% to 20% of your referrals' earnings. Sometimes nothing at all.
- Follow Social Media for Fun Extra Ways to Earn. You can earn a couple of cents to $50 or more for different social contests. The smaller prize contests (where you have a greater chance of winning a cash prize) run a few times a week or more.
- Transparency. You earn money in dollars and cents, not in points or other virtual currency.
How to Get Started Earning On InboxDollars:
- Sign up. You can download the InboxDollars app or sign up on their website with a mobile, tablet, laptop, or desktop. Just provide your email and create a password.
- Confirm your email address. It can take anywhere from 10 seconds to 2 minutes for the confirmation email to be delivered to your inbox. Make sure to check your spam folders just in case. The email confirmation is how you activate your account and get the $5 cash bonus.
- Complete the new member checklist. It'll walk you through how to find surveys and other ways to earn on the site.
MyPoints
Best known for its shopping offers (earn points when you shop your favorite stores), MyPoints offers a ton of survey earning opportunities. Most surveys pay 30 to 500 points, but you will find surveys that pay even more. Redeem your points for free gift cards to Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and other popular merchants. They also offer prepaid Visa gift cards as a payment option. The point to dollar ratio can fluctuate, but generally, it's 175 points = $1.
- Average Payout per Survey: 50 points to 500 points (roughly $0.25 to $3)
- Time Investment: 5-30 minutes per survey
- Signup Requirements: Age 13+, except where local laws state you must be older. Additional rules apply for international issuers in terms of site usage, but non-U.S. members may join MyPoints.
- Devices Supported: Laptop/Desktop, Tablet/iPad, Mobile (Mobile Web, iTunes App, Android App)
- Signup Bonus: $10 (Must complete $20+ shop activity)
- Trustpilot Review Score: 4.4 of 5 Stars (5,500+ Reviews)
MyPoints has its roots as a shopping deals website. So it has a fantastic selection of ways to earn points through shopping deals: cashback (or point back) shopping to thousands of merchants, promo codes, discount codes, printable coupons, visiting featured sites, booking discounted travel, and more.
If you've ever purchased anything online or will ever purchase anything online in the future, it's worth joining MyPoints. You'll get a free $10 signup bonus for joining. To get the bonus, you just need to spend $20 or more at any featured retailer on MyPoints (there are over 2,000), and your account will get credited 1,750 points that you can redeem for a free $10 gift card to the retailer of your choice.
- Every time you visit InboxDollars, try to complete the Daily List of ways to earn. In addition to surveys, it will feature other tasks and activities like visiting current coupon promotions or visiting a retailer's website.
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