People tend to have mixed opinions about paid surveys online. Some people think they're great - others who have had a bad experience call them a scam. But what's the real truth and can you really earn money taking surveys? Let me tell you about my own experience with paid surveys.

I started researching survey sites when I first decided I wanted to earn some money online. I'd looked into other work at home options as well, but without any experience I didn't feel qualified to do much else. I joined a number of sites and some were definitely better than others. My favorite is called Make Money Taking Surveys.

This is a simple membership site where you pay a small one time fee to join (you can earn that back after your first few surveys) and basically you get access to a database consisting of hundreds of different survey companies that you can join.

Once you register with the companies they will start sending you surveys and offers that you can choose to complete. The more you do, the more money you will make.

There are a lot of scams in the work at home industry, so it is always important to be careful of what site you join. Some will take your money and run, and there is very little chance of you obtaining a refund.

There are a number of free paid survey sites to be found as well if you browse through the search engines, however you need to be careful who you give your personal details to. Some sites have been known to sell your contact details on to other marketing companies and you end up getting bombarded with mail, spam emails and calls from telemarketers.

Make Money Taking Surveys is a genuine site with some great companies, and although you'll never get rich taking surveys you will make some nice extra cash to help with the bills or go towards a holiday.