Can You Really Earn Money At Home By Filling In Surveys?

If you have an email address, you may already have been deluged by offers of completing surveys for cash. Some are suspect, some are even illegal, but there are some survey companies that will offer you a genuine chance to fill in surveys and make some cash. You will never make a full-time salary out of filling in surveys at home, but you can make a little cash to spend.

Online surveys can be a lot of fun and often let you learn about new products before they come on to the market. Some surveys let you evaluate television shows or advertising campaigns, some surveys even send you products to sample and evaluate. If you are thinking about replying to a company looking for survey respondents, there are a few things you should keep in mind…

First of all, do not use your work email address or any other email address that you wouldn’t mind dumping at a later date. Many survey companies will sell your name and you will be inundated by email from companies you have never even heard of. Your email address may be sold many times over, and to some unscrupulous companies. Create a new email address on one of the free services – Hotmail, Yahoo, or Google – and do your survey work from that address.

Most survey companies only deal with people who live in the United States, and some only deal with those who live in the 48 contiguous states (sorry Alaska and Hawaii!), so make sure you place yourself in those states when filling in surveys – even if that isn’t your real address. Which brings us to another point – unless the company is sending you money, don’t give out your real address.

If you are expecting payment via means other than a check in the mail, you can set up a Paypal account for free. Many survey companies will pay directly to your Paypal account, which is safer and faster than a “check in the mail”.

Before you sign up with any company to complete surveys, do your research first. Go to Google or Yahoo and try to find information on the survey company in question. If you find information that leads you to think that they are scamming people, don’t do business with them. There are, however, many companies that are legitimate. American Consumer Opinion (www.acop.com) is a great place to start for finding surveys to fill in online. They are a legitimate company and they often provide surveys you can complete in exchange for cash.