There are plenty of different ways to make money from the comfort of your own home. One good way is by taking online surveys. Many companies are willing to pay a wide cross-section of people to give their thoughts and opinions on particular products and services. Most people who do online surveys do it for extra money since it is very hard to earn enough to live on just by doing surveys. You often see advertisements on the internet saying something like ‘online surveys make money work at home’ and many people wonder if it really is so easy to make a few dollars. Personally I quite like filling in surveys and used to do them for free, so it makes sense to complete them for money!

There are plenty of scams online so you need to be careful. A company asking you to pay any kind of fee should make you wary, especially if there is no company address or phone number on their website. You can check with the Better Business Bureau if you are suspicious. Most of the largest survey companies let you join for free so there is little point paying to join something which might be a con. Some online survey companies charge $50 for membership and promise ‘up to $125 per survey’ – as if any company is going to be paying hundreds of people that much each to fill in surveys. They would go out of business!

I work for a couple of different companies who offer surveys. They tend to be about mainly about computing and electrical products for some reason and you have to fill in the first few questions to see if you are a suitable candidate for that particular survey. If they say no, maybe they already have enough people of your age or from your area. Sometimes it depends which area you live in, your marital status or your job. You can expect to make anything from 50 cents to $5 for taking a survey. It might not sound a lot but if you do one a day, that is an extra $150 to look forward to at the end of the month. Some survey companies pay by PayPal, others by check or directly into your bank account. Nearly all of them pay at the end of the week or month or when you have a minimum and you request it, rather than after every completed survey.

You have to register on the survey sites and answer questions about your job, marital status, children, pets, eating habits, leisure activities you enjoy and more. This is so they can match surveys to the right applicants. Sometimes you might get sent 3 surveys in a day, other times a week might go by without receiving anything. Sometimes you are emailed a link to a survey but by the time you get there they do not need you, so if you are taking surveys check your email frequently to make sure you don’t miss out!

It is worth joining a couple of survey companies online to make a bit of extra money and for something to do. So, the next time you see the ‘online surveys, make money, work at home’ advert, it might be worth clicking on it!

Yoshi Kundagawa is a freelance journalist. He writes about entrepreneurs and working from home. You can read his articles about online surveys make money work at home visit his blog.