When you look at the paid survey business, there are a lot of things to keep in mind: first, everyone wants to make money. That means the survey website, the business paying that survey website, and you are all at odds with each other. Most of the time, the business wants to cut costs, and the survey website wants to maximize profits; so the natural move is to lower payouts to the survey-takers.
That’s why it’s important to try all the survey companies you can, estimate how much free time you have to do them, and how much time they take, and prioritize to only do the best paying companies each day. Though indeed, not all survey companies have daily surveys: it seems Cash Crate and Cash Lagoon are the only consistent daily survey-givers. Some other survey companies will send out e-mails notifying you when you have a new survey, and it’s always nice to see that new $10 survey invitation, however it’s sometimes a bit insulting to see a “$1 survey invitation” unless you’re a child who still finds $1 to be valuable.
So by prioritizing how much time you will spend on it, and focusing on the survey companies that pay well, you can help avoid wasting time with low-paying survey companies. Best of all, you can send a message to those low-paying survey companies that they won’t be getting your services, while rewarding the good paying websites with your time, helping your wallet, and their accounting books.
Yet, above all, there is a type of “paid survey” company that is all too prevalent and far worse than a low-paying survey company: one which expects you to ultimately pay them. Many try to trick you into buying services, despite originally promising to “pay you”. Beware of these. Often times, they have a lengthy sales page, so instead of reading it all, just scroll to the bottom and most likely you will see them asking for “Just $79.99″ or some other ridiculous price. Or, if they are smarter, they ask you to sign up for some e-mail newsletter, which then tries to get you to buy that product. Don’t fall for these!
Another method, which is not so bad, but should be watched for, is quite a common practice in the industry: free trial services. Many of them offer to pay you to try a product, which unless you cancel, will bill you after the trial period. Be sure to cancel, unless you really, really, want it! After all, your purpose was to earn money, not spend it! So enjoy the trial period, but cancel after.
As long as you follow these methods, and know where to look for the good survey companies, you can avoid the low-paying surveys, or worse: the scam survey websites.