Why someone will pay you for your opinion?
"Online Paid Surveys" is one of the latest buzzwords on the
Internet. Hundreds of websites have mushroomed on the Internet
in the last few months. Each website seems to or at least makes
claim that is pays better then the others. And joining this
euphoria are the millions of web surfers who think this as a big
opportunity to make some fast and easy money. Daily, hundreds
and thousands of web surfers across the globe from vastly
different backgrounds are registering at these sites and fast
filling up the online survey forms.
But have you ever wondered why suddenly from nowhere, this scene
got created? Well the scene did not get created suddenly.
Consumer companies, from old times, rely on the experience of
the consumer to manufacture and sell products. They are always
in need to understand the likes and dislikes of their customers.
Hence their sales teams used to conduct surveys whereby a
customer or a potential customer would fill out a paper form.
However this was slow and expensive process. With the advent of
Internet, getting customer feedback is easier and cheaper. These
companies often outsource their survey needs to the Paid Survey
sites and pay them. The site then asks its subscribers to fill
up the survey forms. In turn, they give a small reward to the
one who takes the survey. The site then collates the data and
simply passes it on the consumer company or prepares reports for
these companies. The consumer company then makes the payment.
Some sites collect personal contact information like phone and
email addresses. They then sell this information (fully or
partially) to companies who would be looking to promote their
products. These companies then send promotional emails or their
telemarketers call people selling their wares. Hence one should
carefully read the privacy policy before parting away with
contact information.
Most paid sites these days also collect a small registration
fee. Hence, this too adds to the revenue of the site. Also this
sites host links to other sites. Hence they also earn money from
the affiliation with other sites. This brings the point of paid
survey directories. These are the sites, which simply have names
of the actual paid survey websites. This means these sites are
mere directory and they themselves do not conduct any survey.
The actual survey conducting sites pay them for maintaining
their names in the directories sites. Apart from this like any
normal site, the paid survey sites and directory sites also have
some advertising revenue.