Imagine if you could just share your opinion and make money.
How great would it be to sit on your couch, in your free time, and make extra money just by saying what you feel about products, services, and newsworthy topics?
You’re already doing it with your friends and on Facebook, so why not get paid for it?
Well…now’s your chance.
With online survey sites you have the opportunity to earn a side income by saying what you feel and shaping the future marketplace for products.
And you can start making real money from it right now.
In this article, I want to give you a complete breakdown of everything you need to know to make money taking surveys.
So, if you have an opinion and want to get cash for it, it’s time to read on…
What You Will Learn
- Why should you be taking online surveys?
- How much money can you make?
- The 6 best survey sites to make money from
- How to make money taking surveys TODAY!
- FAQ: Your Most Asked Questions, Answered
- Bonus Tip: How to make your first $20 in 15 minutes
You’ll also see quick tip boxes throughout the article
Why Should You Be Taking Online Surveys?
Online Survey sites allow you to start making money from performing simple online tasks.
If you have a computer, and internet connection and some free time that you want to get paid for – you’ve got everything you need. There’s no need for special qualifications or requirements.
While they are still called Survey Sites, many of them have branched out to give you lots of different opportunities to earn money.
You can find yourself getting paid to play games, watch YouTube Videos, talk about the products you love and even test them at home. Some of them will even pay you to shop through them.
They’re the tasks you were going to do online anyway, and now you can get paid for them.
But how much can you get paid?
How Much Money Can You Make?
You can easily make an extra $75-$100 per month if you use the sites and strategies in this article.
For example, Gretchen from the Retired by 40 blog uses just one site to generate $1,205 extra cash per year.
All by playing games, shopping and performing simple Google Searches. (You’ll see her exact strategy later in this article).
By adding a handful of these sites together, you can start to create a second income for just a small investment of time each day.
And, imagine what you could do with an extra $1,200+ a year? You could:
- Pay for your next holiday
- Cover the down payment on a new car
- Invest in a new online business
- Buy a brand new laptop
Heck, that’s just what I’d do with the extra cash.
Survey Sites aren’t going to make you rich, but what they can do is provide you with a constant amount of extra cash to add to your disposable income (or put towards your debts).
Okay, so if you like the idea of earning extra money, where do you need to go to do it?
Well, that’s where this next list comes in…
Quick Tip
Many sites use ‘points’ as the currency on their site. These points all have a cash value when you cash out.
The amount of points, and their dollar value, changes from site to site, so it’s worth checking the site to find out how many points equals what amount of dollars.
What Are The Best Survey Sites To Start Making Money From?
In this section, you’ll find the six best survey sites for you to start making money from. But, what makes them the best?
I’ve handpicked only the most tried, tested and proven sites with the best track record. And, all of these sites will pay you in cold hard cash and not try to make you redeem gift cards instead.
Read about each site, find the ones that you like, and sign up for them. Then you can head to the next section where I outline how you can make money taking surveys right away.
#1: PrizeRebel
- Average Payment: 60 to 85 points
- Time Invested: 5-10 minutes
PrizeRebel points are worth $0.01 each. But, they have a minimum payout of a $5 Amazon Gift Card, and they will payout within 24 hours.
In fact your are not just limited to Amazon gift cards. You can also be paid via PayPal, with BitCoin or direct to your bank account.
I like PrizeRebel because they offer a lot of quick hit surveys so you can earn a fair chunk of change very quickly.
And so far I have made $92.24 with them-
This is where you’ll get the biggest return for your time and that is why I recommend them first.
#2: MintVine
- Average Payment: $0.50 – $5.00 (£0.35 – £4.50)
- Time Invested: 10-20 minutes per survey
MintVine has a perfect blend of payment amount and quantity of surveys. It’s not uncommon to earn in the region of $5.00 (£4.50) for a 15-minute survey.
So far I have made a total of $139.82 with MintVine-
You can also make money through them by:
- Redeeming offers
- Shopping for local deals
- Research studies
- Referrals
It’s simple, user-friendly, and gets good feedback from being part of the Better Business Bureau. So, you know you can trust spending your time here, too.
#3: Swagbucks
- Payment Range: Starting at $0.52 (£0.40) per Survey
- Time Invested: 10-20 minutes per survey
Swagbucks gives you the most opportunities to earn money. Surveys and Polls are the backbones of this site. However you can make money in 13 different ways:
- Complete daily Poll’s
- Answer opinion surveys
- Use the Swagbucks search function
- Watch YouTube videos or clips (Desktop and Mobile)
- Shop online through Swagbucks
- Play games
- Find trial offers
- Install the Swagbucks toolbar on your browser
- Complete specific tasks
- Print and use coupons from their site
- Read online articles
- Hit your daily target of Swagbucks (or get on a winning streak and get more points)
- Redeem Swag Codes
There’s money to be made here.
In fact, users over on the Money Saving Expert forum have reported making at least £25 per month from the site:
They even run a yearly challenge to see how much money can be made with hundreds of active participants, so there’s no shortage of money for you to get your hands on.
I have had great success with SwagBucks and you will as well!
#4: CashCrate
- Average Payment: $0.50 – $3.00 per survey
- Time Invested: 5-10 minutes
CashCrate is another good payer for surveys. They also work all of your earnings in dollars, and not points, which is a breath of fresh air here.
I was able to rack up $18.51 quite quickly-
They have a payout minimum of $20, and it’s sent by paper cheque. You’ll receive your payment around two weeks later, according to reports from long-term users.
You can make money taking surveys, offers, and playing games. It’s one of the more fun sites to use, that will also pay you quite handsomely.
How Can You Start To Make Money Taking Surveys?
These strategies will help you make as much money as possible by choosing the most effective parts of each site is.
Don’t forget I have only included the best survey sites in this list so focusing on them will help you to make the most money.
Step #1: Sign Up To All Of The Best Paid Survey Sites
Have you ever heard of the compound effect?
It’s where you take small, incremental, changes and add them together to create one big overall result.
For example, earning $1.00 a day extra doesn’t sound like much, but over a year that’s $365 – a much more handsome sum of money.
That’s the approach you need to take to earning money from these sites. The more sites you have access to, the more:
- Surveys
- Games
- Offers
- Deals
- Polls
- Referrals
You’re going to be able to make money from. Not all sites offer surveys every day, and not all of them have great deals, so it’s best to keep your options open.
If one site doesn’t look worth your time today, you can swap to another and cash in there. And on the days that all the sites are offering great deals, you’ve got access to an absolute goldmine.
So, go ahead and sign up to as many sites as you can and then meet me in the next step.
Quick Tip
All of these sites have a cash out threshold. That means you need to reach a certain amount of points, or cash, before you can redeem them.
It’s in your best interest to at least reach this threshold on the site you’re working on, so you can definitely get paid for the work you’ve done.
Step #2: Cash In All Of Your Sign Up Options
When you sign up to a site, they’ll give you lots of options to start earning extra points or cash.
For example, Swagbucks gives you a lot of options.
In 61 seconds you can make around $1.00, and all you’ve done is click a few buttons.
Explore all of these options when you sign up, on all of the sites you choose, and you can find yourself with a fistful of cash that you didn’t have when you woke up this morning.
You can also do this with MintVine–
Not only that but they’ll also guide you through the entire process to make repeat instant cash.
CashCrate are also a good way to generate some instant profits-
Just sign up and follow the steps – it’s easy!
In fact if you stopped reading this article and signed up for SwagBucks, MintVine and CashCrate right now you would make instant money.
Step #3: Take (And Apply For) As Many Surveys As You Can
Some sites will require you to apply for surveys. Don’t worry; it’s nothing strenuous.
You’ll be asked to fill out some criteria that will test whether you fit the product or service. And, then they’ll decide if you’re a good candidate.
This may sound like you could waste time here, but you’ll get points just for applying, which all add up for when you do land a survey:
You won’t always need to apply for a survey – some will be offered to you, or be readily available, like the ones below. But the more opportunities you give yourself, the better.
But remember, this is the ultimate way to start making money from Survey Sites – taking the surveys that they offer.
They’re the most consistent, and most plentiful source of money on these sites.
I’d love to tell you that there is an amazing, foolproof, system that gives you $5 surveys every time.
But, sadly, there isn’t. Instead you need to check the sites every day for surveys and complete them.
Some days they’ll be worth pennies. Others, like on Pinecone Research, will be worth much more. Keep in mind this is a long-term strategy for making money, and it will pay off over time.
Just be consistent and focus on the highest paying surveys when they come available.
However, if they’re not available, there are many ways to keep on making money…
Quick Tip
Short on time?
Focus your time and effort on the Prize Rebel site. In 15-20 minutes you can take lots more surveys than you can on any other site. And, while the pay is less per survey, you’ll be able to get a much higher amount done.
So where you may only earn $1.00 for a 15-20 minute survey, you may make $1.50 – $1.75 for 20 minutes on there instead.
Step #4: Take Small, Daily, Actions On Swagbucks
Remember at the start of the article I told you about Gretchen? She makes $1,205 a year from Swagbucks.
She performs small, daily tasks that mount up to create a big chunk of money.
Here’s what she does every day, week or month, to get her results…
- Searching each day = 50 SB a week = 2,600 SB per year
- Redeem 10 coupons each week = 100 SB a week = 5,200 SB per year
- Take The Daily Poll = 365 SB per year
- Do One Survey Each Day = 60 SB = 21,900 SB per year
- Earn 100 Bonus Swagbucks per Month = 51,200 SB per year
- Play 2 Games per day = 2 SB = 730 SB Per Year
- Complete Daily Offers = 2 SB = 730 SB Per Year
- Watch Videos Each Day = 20 SB = 7,300 SB per year
- Play Videos on the Mobile App = 50 SB = 18,250 SB per year
- Shop through Shop & Earn once a month = 100 SB = 1,200 SB per year
- Earn Daily Goal Bonuses = 3 SB per day = 1,095 SB per year
That’s 110,570 Swagbucks which is at least $1,105 in gift cards or around $100 extra every month.
Many of these tasks don’t take effort from you, either.
Watching a video doesn’t require any real watching as long as it’s running in the background.
You can even plug your headphones in and leave them out of your ears so you don’t have to hear it.
And, if you perform your Google searches through Swagbucks you can find yourself earning money for stuff you were going to look for anyway.
You’ve just been extra smart and monetised it.
These tasks can be performed through multiple sites as well.
You aren’t tied to Swagbucks here.
You can apply the same to PrizeRebel & Mintvine and any other sites that follow the same system and triple that income.
Step #5: Make Money Buying Products You Like
Buying products through your Survey sites can mean not only do you get some products for free, you can also make more money back on them.
Here is where you get the most money for the least time invested.
Take a look at this example from Survey Chris…
He bought an Audible Membership through a survey site at a discounted price of $1 (usually $7-$10). He likes audiobooks and was going to pick up the product anyway.
As part of that offer, he was able to redeem a certain amount of points for buying the product and for keeping it:
In total, Chris was able to earn $8 from a $2 purchase ($1 to buy and $1 to hold it for the second month), which is a $6 gain overall.
Not bad for doing what you were going to do anyway, is it?
You can earn money like this through:
And, they also give you the option to earn cashback on the other purchases you make online.
If you were to shop at your favourite high-street retailers through the options on the site, you can earn points or cash back on every $1.00 you spend.
Before you spend online, take an extra couple of minutes to look and see if there is an offer through any of the sites you’re signed up too.
Who knows, it could just make you a profit.
This Section In Short
Okay, I just want to quickly talk you through each of the last points, so you know what you need to do to start making money from Survey Sites.
Here are the steps you need to take:
Step #1: Sign Up To All The Best Survey Sites
The more sites you’re a member of, the more opportunities there are to make money.
Not every site is full of offers and surveys each day, so having more options help maximise how much you will learn.
However I would highly recommend you only stick to all of the best survey sites that I have listed for you above-
Step #2: Redeem The Sign Up Offers
There are lots of sign up offers on each site, so be sure to cash them in.
You can earn $20+ in your first few hours just be changing a few of your internet settings and signing up for a few free extras.
Step #3: Take (And Apply For) As Many Surveys As You Can
When surveys are readily available take them and focus your time on the highest payers.
If you have to apply – even if you think you might not be eligible – do it anyway.
You’ll receive a small amount of points that will give all add up for when you do get onto one of the surveys.
Step #4: Take Small, Daily, Actions
Much like Gretchen, find small things to do every day on each site.
Search, spend, redeem offers and activate toolbars to accrue points that will add to your total. It may sound small now, but it’ll make a huge difference over 6-12 months.
Step #5: Redeem Offers And Shop Online
Before you make any purchases online, be sure to check out what offers are being made on your different sites.
You could earn cashback, or even make more money than you spend on some of your purchases.
Frequently Asked Questions: What Do You Need To Know?
In this section, I want to explore some of your biggest concerns and put your mind at ease.
Are There Scam Survey Sites?
None of the sites on this list are scam sites. All of them have a good track record of paying on time.
There will always be people who have a negative experience with a site. So, you will be able to find bad reviews if you go looking for them.
But the sites here are all part of the Better Business Bureau, or larger organizations, to ensure they have excellent customer service & are all legitimate paid survey sites.
How Will You Be Paid?
This depends on the website.
While some sites are forward thinking and pay through PayPal, many of them opt to pay by cheque.
Will You Be Wasting Your Time?
Only if you don’t cash out.
While the sites are there for you to make money, they aren’t against you doing the work for free.
That’s why it’s important that you always try to hit the payment threshold, no matter how long it takes.
When you get paid, it’s not time wasted.
Can I Automate The Work?
Lots of people ask about if they can get the work done…without doing the work.
While it is possible on individual sites, it’s really not worth it. You’ll waste more time and effort setting it up than it’s worth.
And, if you get found out, you’ll have lost a lot of time for nothing.
Wrapping It Up
Okay, there you have it, that’s everything you need to know about the best free survey sites & how to make the most money with them.
If you have spare time, an internet connection and the desire to earn more money, you’ve got no excuse not to start using them.
It really is money for old rope!
Remember…
- Volume is key: The more sites you sign up to, the better.
- Don’t only rely on Surveys: They are the most consistent way to make money, but explore the bigger money options around them too.
- It’s about the long game: This isn’t a get rich quick scheme, but after time you’ll find you have a solid amount of money to work with
And if you want to make instant money right sign up to SwagBucks, MintVine and CashCrate right now & follow the steps.
Now, it’s over to you – where are you going to start with surveys?
Let me know in the comments…