Paid surveys are a great way to make a little extra money, but don’t expect to get rich quick doing them. Marketing firms have been paying people to take surveys for years with great results. They would rent a conference room at a pricey hotel and set up survey tables, and only those lucky enough to be invited, and who qualify for the target market demographics requirements, will spend an hour or two sampling products and giving their honest opinions on them.

This is a great way for manufacturers to determine how their product will sell once it hits the retail shelves. They can also decide if any changes need to be made with their product before they finalize it for sale. Other manufacturers use consumer panels to do blind and double blind studies for research results that can be published. For example, they may advertise that 8 out of 10 people surveyed in a blind taste test thought our mac and cheese was better than the name brand competitor’s.

These kinds of paid surveys and consumer panels are still going on, but with so many people spending time on the internet these days, the marketers have realized that this is a great place to find consumers to add to their research and survey panels. If you qualify for a survey or research panel, the marketer will pay you to take it.

Some of the marketing firms have websites where you register your information and they pull surveyors from the information that they give. If you fit in the demographic outline based on your information then they will send you an invitation to take a survey. For instance, if a company wants opinions on a new kind of disposable diaper, they might look for consumers in the age group of 25 to 35 with children in the home under the age of 2 with a household income level of $35,000 to $50,000. If you fall within these guidelines then you will have the opportunity to get paid to take the diaper survey.

There are also some online survey companies who will occasionally ask if they can send you a product to test and then give your opinion on it. These surveys are sometimes paid and sometimes not paid, but you get to keep the product when you’re done with the survey. If you get a bottle of free laundry detergent or two, then you don’t have to spend your own money for detergent on your next trip to the store, so essentially you did get paid for the survey.

Some paid surveys pay just a couple of dollars for each survey and other can pay a bit more. If you want to make a living taking market surveys, you might have a surprise coming at the end of the week. The legitimate marketing company offering surveys for pay don’t typically have more than a couple of surveys a week for your demographic. You will have to sign up for many different marketers in order to make a substantial amount of money. If you want to make some extra spending money, though, paid surveys might be right up your alley.