Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Your Opinions Can Help You Make Money From Home - If You Follow These 4 Rules

Your Opinions Can Help You Make Money From Home - If You Follow These 4 Rules
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Market research is a major global industry and you can use it to your advantage to make money from home.

Paid surveys are great way to make extra income online from home and there are endless possibilities to choose from. Just type "paid survey" into Google and you will be confronted with more than two million web pages to look at.

So before you plunge in, you need to decide on the criteria you will use to determine which survey opportunities to participate in.

There are four key questions to ask yourself: will I have to pay to participate: is this a legitimate research company; will I be interested in the subject, and how much can I expect to be paid?

Will I have to pay to participate?

A bone fide survey or market research company will not require you to pay to participate in the research program. You are providing them with valuable feedback so it is reasonable that they compensate you for your time. So if you are asked to make a payment before you begin, you should look at another option instead.

Is this a legitimate research company?

It is sometimes difficult to tell straight off if a company is on the level, just from looking at the website. As mentioned above, one of the major warning signs that all is not well is that you are required to pay to sign up. A positive sign to look is the existence of a "refer a friend" scheme. Most of the trustworthy research companies will encourage you to invite your friends to join in and they will compensate you when you make a suitable referral.

Will I be interested in the subject?

Companies planning to develop new products need information on genuine consumer wants and needs. Therefore they are prepared to invest heavily in market research to ensure that their new product stands the best chance in the marketplace. To ensure they gather the correct and necessary information, the survey questionnaires are designed to explore a wide range of issues. As a result they can be time consuming to complete. Therefore, if you choose to make money from paid surveys, you must be prepared to invest a considerable amount of time and it therefore will help if you are interested in the subject.

Indeed many research projects will require that you complete questionnaires on a regular basis over a period of time and if you enjoy the subject this will be a major benefit. So don't rush in and choose the first survey you find, but take some time to find the right one for you.

How much can I expect to be paid?

Read the fine print before you start a survey to check how much you will be paid. Often survey companies will compensate you with "credits" or "points" which can be converted to cash or a Visa gift card, when you reach a certain number of points. This can be attractive, but ensure that you know the number of points you will be awarded in order to assess if it is a lucrative opportunity.

In some cases though, you may be awarded points which must be "spent" on a selection of gift items chosen by the company. This too can work for some people, but it can be quite restrictive.

The most attractive option is to work with research agencies that pay cash. You will need to check how much they will pay as this can vary enormously between companies. For a very short survey of under five minutes a fee of around $2 is fairly standard. However, look out for more detailed surveys and focus group projects where fees are much higher with $40 to $75 an hour being achievable. So choose your surveys carefully to make sure you get the best income.

To make the task of locating the best paid survey opportunities foolproof, there are a number of great membership sites on the Internet which screen out the legitimate opportunities, so that you can be assured of fair treatment when you participate in a survey . The modest membership fee charged by these sites is normally a one time payment and for less than the price of a pizza and beer for two, you have lifetime access to a great selection of lucrative online opportunities that will pay top dollar.

Taking part in paid surveys online can be a great way to make money from home, as long as you know how to avoid the scams. Team up with the right membership site and you will not look back.

Susan Aston's website tells her story of going from broke to making a great living online. The site provides information and advice on ways to make money from home with paid surveys and other online opportunities. She is also the author of the "Working From Home - Make Your Time Count" ebook, an invaluable reference guide for anyone who works from home. This 30 page ebook is available for Free from: http://www.MyMakeMoneyFromHomeStory.com

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