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I’ve been putting off writing this article for a long time because, well, I’m not a big fan of survey sites.

Besides the boredom of putting myself in hypothetical situations, the pay sucks – like maybe $3.00 an hour sucks – and many of them don’t even pay cash!

But when I found myself with a few extra bills this month, I decided to take another look at making money with surveys. I need money fast with little effort. Surely there are some surveys that won’t be total time wasters???

So I sat down and put my sleuthing powers to work. I was on a mission to find the best online surveys for MONEY.

And what I discovered is you really can make money doing surveys.

Ready to find out which online surveys actually pay you?

A Few Things To Know Before You Start Making Money With Surveys

Want to know what the biggest pain-in-the-ass is about survey sites? All the information they want to gather about you ! I’m not one for sharing a whole lot about myself but I do know that these places want to know as much about you…within reason…so they have a variety of backgrounds for their results.

You get invited to do surveys based on the information you provide. The more information you give up, the better your chances of doing several surveys a week.

I guess that’s why I don’t get a whole lot of invitations.

So this brings me to my next point: set up an email account to use specifically for surveys. When you sign up with survey sites, enter your newly created email address. This makes it so much easier to spot those invitations and actually make money.

Look for their mobile apps. A lot of them have ’em. It’s nice to be able to do a survey on an app when you’re not at your laptop.

Because many surveys pay out via PayPal, go ahead and set up a free PayPal account. You’ll be glad you did.

How Much Money Can You Make ?

Not much, I’ll tell you that. Surveys should be considered a small side-gig and nothing more. I’ve heard of some people who make several hundred dollars a month and some who only make about $50.00. I’m one of those people. But that’s $50.00 I didn’t have before.

How The Wary Worker Determined The Best Surveys That Pay Cash

Even though there are a bunch of survey sites out there, many (and I mean many) don’t pay cash. Instead, they give you gift cards. Which, if you’re a shopaholic, that might be a good thing. I’m not. I like cash. And being paid in cash is the main piece of criteria for this list. Here are the other bits I took into consideration:

Payout: You don’t want to spend a ton of your time with little gain. The sites I listed are the best payers as of this writing.
Availability: I only wanted to list survey sites that have plenty of opportunities to make money. Because so many of them invite you to do a survey based on your demographics, you may not “qualify” to take a survey. I try to keep those out of this list if I know the pickings are slim.
Trust: I am only listing the survey sites that have a good trust factor and have been around for a long time. Survey sites come and go and I don’t want you to be scammed.

Pro Tip:

If you want to have more opportunities and earn more money, sigh up with several survey sites.

Best Survey Sites To Make Extra Money

Amazon Mturk

This is my favorite way to make money doing surveys because there are ALWAYS plenty of them to do AND they pay cash via PayPal. Ranging from a few pennies to a few dollars, most of them are fairly quick to do. There are no intrusive pre-qualification questions to answer nor are the surveys based on your demographics. To get started, sign up for Mturk, go to your dashboard, click the HITS tab and type the word SURVEY in the ‘containing’ box. Voila! Select the surveys you feel like doing.

While I’m at it, I want to mention that there are many more ways to earn with Mturk. Even data entry. Give ’em a try.

If you’re not familiar with Mturk, here’s a great tutorial on how to get going.

Swagbucks

Special Bonus: Get $10.00 just for signing up.

I’m giving this one the #2 spot because there are a few different ways you can make money: Surveys, searching the web, watching videos and even shopping. Your earnings, known as Swagbucks can be redeem for cash, gift cards, or Paypal credit (which is almost as good as cash but stays in your Paypal account that you use to make online purchases with).

Personally, I like to make money with Swagbucks by searching the web. All I did was install their toolbar, which the Swagbucks website walked me through, and used it whenever I browsed the web. Super simple and I didn’t feel like I was wasting my time.

Pinecone Research

Most of their surveys take less than 15 minutes to complete and you are compensated in points that you can redeem for cash. It’s kind of tricky, getting cash, because I think they would rather you get some other kind of “reward”, but here is how to get the cash (from their FAQ page):

Panelists who qualify and have met requirements will be sent an email inviting them to select PayPal as their point cash outs preference. To receive your PineCone Research point cash-outs to PayPal, you must have an existing PayPal account. If you are a first time PayPal user, it is imperative that you complete all registration requirements, including confirmation of your PayPal account email address. Once you’ve setup your PayPal account, please update your PineCone Research personal profile with your PayPal account email address.

Vindale Research

Special Bonus: Vindale is currently giving away $1.00 bonuses just for signing up.

When it comes to surveys that pay cash, this is a popular one because they only pay cash via check or Paypal. No gift cards. They claim to have the highest paying surveys out there, with electronic related ones paying up to $14.00. These may not be as abundant as the lower paying, $2.00 fashion related surveys, though.

Survey Junkie

As long as you’re over 18 you can sign up with Survey Junkie. They partner with other survey site biggies, like Pinecone Research and Vindale Research, so you have plenty of survey opportunities without having to sign up with a bunch of other sites. You earn points whenever you complete a survey and after you have 1,000 points you can turn them in for gift cards or cash in your Paypal account.

Inbox Dollars

Special Bonus: Earn $5.00 just for signing up.

In my opinion, I think Inbox Dollars asks a lot of questions during the initial sign-up. So, if you’re more of a private person this might not be for you. But if you don’t mind sharing your details about your eating or shopping habits, then go ahead and sign up. The reason I put Inbox Dollars on this list is because the surveys are easy and you do get a $5.00 bonus.

iPoll

iPoll is one of the few survey sites that operates in more countries than just the USA: Canada, Germany, France, Italy, India…and many more. Sign up, answer questions about places, products, and services and make money. Simple as that. Well, not really. You have to do several surveys to meet the 1250 point cashout limit. But they do pay cash…

Start Making Money Today

When I first started compiling this list, I had no idea how many survey sites there were. And trying to find the ones that paid cash was exhausting. It seems that fewer than ever pay out in cold hard moola.

Don’t overwhelm yourself. Start with my list and see how it goes. Then, if you feel brave or want to add a few gift cards into your payout mix, go ahead and expand your horizons.

And remember: you won’t get rich but you will earn enough to pay a few bills.

Have fun!

Best Online Surveys That Pay Cash