Paid Surveys have attracted considerable interest in recent times as an option to earn money working from home. Many so called paid survey companies have been launched to take advantage of this interest. These companies charge their users $30 to $60 to get access to a database of market research companies. They also promote themselves with advertisements promising massive earnings to their users. On the other hand, free paid online surveys sites let you join the market research companies without paying a single cent. Let us examine what the reality about paid surveys is.

Market research is a multi-billion dollar industry. Companies want feedback from general public regarding their products or services and how to improve them. Before launching new products or services, they need to find out consumer preferences. For these, they conduct surveys and utilize the results to improve their products. Market research companies conduct surveys and other forms of consumer research on behalf of these companies. Previously, surveys used to be conducted in person and over telephone. With the emergence of the internet they have recognized the potential for its use for online market research in the form of online surveys.

The real online paid survey sites are online divisions of market research companies. They pay you for your opinions, with many of them giving you cash rewards. Some of them enter you into prize draws or sweepstakes. These survey sites are all free to join. You have to only find them.

The so called paid survey companies that charge you, gives you access to a database of survey sites. You have to join each site individually. They may boast of having 400 or 500 survey sites in their database. However only about 25 to 50 of them are really worth joining. The rest are not worth the effort of signing up. In addition, they don't feature some of the best survey sites as they have prohibited their promotion in paid survey databases.

There are also issues with spam and unwanted emails. Many people who joined these survey companies paying money have found to their dismay that their inbox has been filled with lots of spam emails. You might think that what you pay for is more reliable than what is free. However, in the paid survey scene the opposite has turned out to be true.

Many people who have paid these companies on an impulse buying decision have later found it difficult to even recover their investment. Paid surveys require a certain level of commitment on your side to join the survey sites and answer survey invites send to you.

Considering all these factors, it is not in your best interest to pay money to join the so called paid survey companies. So, what is the solution?

There are many sites where information on joining the real free paid online survey sites are available for free. They also review each market research company so that you have an idea about each before joining. But there is a word of caution. Beware of the free sites that require you to join a program or newsletter. in order to get access to survey sites. You might get lots of spam email from such sites. It always best to stick with the sites that offer you the information unconditionally so that you can join survey sites at your own pace.

What is your earning potential with these survey sites? There are a lot of factors which determine this. These include your country, demographic profile and willingness to complete survey invites send to you. One way to maximize your earnings is to join more survey sites. Some of the best free paid online survey sites are Survesavvy, American Consumer opinion, Globaltestmarket, Opinion outpost, Pinecone Research, NFO mysurvey, Greenfield Online Surveys, Ciao Surveys, Surveys.com, NPD Research, ECN Research, Opinion square, Ipsos, Lightspeed, Synovate, Netratings nad Surveyspot. Some dedicated survey takers regularly earn $200 to $300 per month. Anything beyond that is difficult to achieve and claims to the contary are false.

In conclusion, free paid online surveys are your best bet to earn money from paid surveys.

Shaj M is the owner and webmaster of the free paid online survey resources site Internet Paid Surveys. The site has separate sections for USA, Canada, UK, Australia and rest of the World, each of which reviews free paid surveys for that particular country. For example, USA Surveys section features more than 50 free survey companies accepting members form the USA.