There are thousands of surveys available to you on the internet.  Many are legitimate and will pay you in cash or goods for giving the company your honest opinion.  Others are just trying to get your opinion with no intention of giving you cash or make you pay in to take their survey.  How do you sort out which surveys are legitimate and which are scams?

The first thing to ask is whether or not the organization wants your money up front.  If they do, take on another survey.  The exceptions are the mega-sites that offer you an account for a small sum of money and sort out the surveys for you so you don’t have to decide which are legitimate and which are not.  This may be worth paying for if the site is reputable and really does its job for you.

Some good sites that do this include:
- Survey Scout
- Maximum Paid Surveys
- Surveys 4 Checks

Surveys are ranked according to how much they pay and what kinds of people the companies are interested in.  You can make up the money in just a few surveys and they often offer things like mystery shopping opportunities and data entry opportunities.

Pay attention to surveys that go on and on without any particular end and ask you to sign up for promotions they offer.   The promotions cost money and you could easily end up paying out more money than you ever receive for the survey.  These surveys often take hours to fill out and your payout per hour is extremely limited.

Legitimate surveys come from legitimate companies.  If you recognize the company as being a recognized and legitimate source, then the survey is likely to be legitimate, too. For example, a survey by the Coca-Cola Company  that offers you a free coupon for some product is likely to be legitimate.  A survey, on the other hand, by Unknown Company.com that purports to give you a laptop or a $100 to fill out their survey probably is completely too good to be true.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is a disreputable firm.  Most surveys pay $5-$10 per survey or give you points toward a goal that appears reasonable.  These are surveys worth taking and the small sums of money you get from a single survey will add up over time.

There is always a chance you will get burned by a survey and won’t get your money from them.  The internet is a big place and it’s impossible to sort out which surveys are legitimate and which are not. Using a mega-site helps and knowing what seems too good to be true helps as well.  Recognize that even the most legitimate surveys won’t be paying you a lot and doing surveys should be both fun and somewhat profitable for you to do.

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