Paid Surveys are scams!

As I surfed the internet the other day, looking for ways to supplement my current income, and pay for my future schooling, I was amazed at the websites that offered $500 a day just to complete surveys...so, I signed up (I didn't sign up for any of the ones that required me to pay for membership or buy something, don't worry)

But then, as an afterthought (I didn't want to have to answer a thousand junk e-mails), I did some more research before actually clicking on the links sent to my e-mail address to verify me. I found more than a fair share of websites that absolutely knocked down this form of web income. So, with my research complete, I deleted the registration links and washed my hands of the affair.

From what I gathered...only about 6% of all of the websites that offer "paid surveys" actually pay you anything, and they are pretty exclusive, you have to meet the qualifications to be a member, and to do each survey, you have to complete a survey to find out if you qualify for that particular survey. The majority of these "Actual Paying" websites actually only pay you in points, which have to be accumulated and used within a certain time frame, and are very hard to accumulate, because 99% of the surveys you won't qualify for.

Most of them require you to pay a membership that provides you with a list of websites that offer it...which, you could find just by searching in Google...other sites require you to solicit your friends to buy stuff and/or sign up and get a membership with the same website.

Now, at first, the deals sound great, get a $300 Best Buy gift card just for completing an offer like "Enter a poetry contest for free!" which, as it states, does not cost you anything, but, in order to recieve this gift card, you have to have a minimum of six friends ALSO sign up for an offer, which may or may not cost them money. So, if you decide to take them up on say...the "Learn to Speak German" CDs that are free, but in actuallity cost you $6.95 US in shipping, you still can't claim your card unless you have six friends that are interested in buying or signing up for something too, and what's the chances of that? My friends are not idiots, so I didn't bother.

And, even if you do find a website that actually pays you for doing surveys, don't expect to earn $500 in one day. Most of the surveys only pay $2-$5 per survey (and some only give you points to cash in later), and the average survey takes about 45 minutes to complete. So, even if you were at your computer for the entire 24 hours...the most you could realistically earn would be about $265.

And while I am sure that there are people that can sit at their computer and do nothing but surveys, this is completely unrealistic and a scam.

I fully recommend never clicking on a link for these types of websites, or signing up for something, or even clicking on those pop up boxes that say "Free Gift! No Obligation!" because in reality, nothing is free, and your time is more valuable than $2 an hour.

But, if you decide to give it a try, don't say I didn't warn you!!!