When you search the web for “easy ways to generate income online,” surveys will be among the top results. The main selling point of paid surveys is how easy it is to answer the questions. Survey panels also don’t require their participants to have high academic qualifications. You can register for an account, get verified, set up a profile, and start generating income in less than an hour.
What to Know Before Taking Paid Surveys
Answering surveys for money gets messy when you register an account with a panel with a soiled reputation. You’ll take hundreds of questions that pay you peanuts and never get paid in the end. The sensible thing to do before embarking on this journey is to know what ails and fuels the industry. Know the tell-tale signs of scam panels and the tips to boost your earning capacity.
Some Panels Pay Extremely Low Rates
Credible top-rated survey panels pay highs of $5 per completed task. The average survey panels pay from 20 cents to $2 per questionnaire. With an adequate supply of tasks, you can cash out within a few days. Better yet, if the panel offers a cool signup bonus, you kick-start your earning potential with a big step forward.
Sadly, some survey panels don’t pay much, crediting users as low as $0.005 for a survey with tens of questions. Don’t fall victim to these slave-mentality-driven companies. Go through the per-survey rates of every panel before you sign up.
Avoid Pay-to-Play Survey Panels
The financial sense behind paying to get surveys is zero. Why should you pay someone to give you work, says CNBC? If a survey platform asks you to pay a certain amount to supply you with paid surveys, avoid it.
Terms like “our survey suppliers don’t pay us a commission” are common with such panels. But in the real sense, such companies are duping you. Even online job marketplaces price their services. Therefore, it sounds absurd for a panel not to charge for its questionnaires. You should disqualify any survey website acting as an intermediary from your list of prospects.
Check the Payout Methods
It’s one thing to have money in your survey account and another to transfer it to your bank or mobile money account. When you read complaints from people who don’t get payments for their submitted surveys, you’ll notice they should have been more vigilant from the start. Scam survey apps have many glaring red flags.
First, these platforms don’t have the withdraw earnings feature or intentionally hide it. They also won’t mention the payment methods their system supports. Credible survey providers require you to verify your preferred payment method, whether it’s PayPal, Bitcoin, gift cards, or bank transfers.
Read Between the Lines
The line between genuine and fake survey panels is grey at best. You can’t quickly identify it by just being vigilant and strategic. Evaluate the user testimonials on top authority websites such as Better Business Bureau, Survey Police, and Ripoff Report. Look at the ratings and the responses from the support team. Some survey platforms force new members to review their sites to gain entry into high-paying surveys. Therefore, thorough research is more than necessary to block out the noise.
Check the Payout Threshold
Worthwhile survey earning rates and accessible payment methods aren’t a guarantee you’ll get paid ultimately. An impractical payout threshold is another trick fake survey apps utilize to exploit unsuspecting people.
For instance, a survey app that pays you $0.05 per survey and supplies limited surveys may set the payout threshold at $50. If you do the math, you need 1,000 surveys to cash out. If you get 5 surveys per week, you must work for 200 weeks (3.83 years) to earn $50. That’s genuinely unrealistic and a waste of time.
Wrapping Up
Although earning from surveys is fun and easy, you should refrain from exchanging your time and internet data for peanuts. It’s not even worth answering questions for money if it would take you more than a month to cash out. What is the essence of spending hours taking surveys and waiting for two months to earn $20? Make sure to weed out the bad players and only register for legit survey panels.