The Full Top 5 List
Filling out simple surveys online can be one of the easiest way of making money online, so we’ll be showing you the best options out there.
It requires patience, as it can take some time, but can often be a quick way of making some easy dollars whilst watching television or listening to music. Surveys are not a get rich scheme – hourly rates are never going to reach anything like a regular wage – but many people manage to turn idly filling in online forms into tidy sums to put towards holidays, home improvements or their new wardrobe!
If you sign up to several sites, then you’re increasing your chances of making real money. By being a member of more than one panel, you can expect a variety of work. Here are our favourite five survey websites for money making, followed by a full guide on the top 10 best free survey sites.
1. InboxDollars
By watching video, playing games, shopping online, browsing news websites, and of course, taking surveys, you provide vital information to the platform and get rewarded in kind for it.
You get a $5 bonus for just signing up, so I highly recommend that even if they don’t end up being one of your panels of choice – although I definitely think they will be.
Their wide range of offers cover pretty much everything you can think of, so you can earn money from day one, with little effort, regardless of which activities you choice to focus on ( online shopping, web browsing, watching videos, , taking surveys, playing games, etc).
All in all, they are the go-to all-in-one rewards club for smart, efficient consumers who choose to take advantage of the opportunity to make easy cash just by continuing their usual activities on their laptop, phone or tablet.
AVERAGE EARNING: Up to $5 per survey
PAYMENT METHOD: Check, prepaid VISA or gift cards
MINIMUM TO CASH OUT: $30
2. Swagbucks
One of the most popular sites, and rightfully so, Swagbucks offers traditional surveys as well as a range of additional ways to make cash. Filling out surveys for money will reward you with points called Swagbucks which can be cashed out through PayPal, or redeemed as gift cards for shops including Amazon.com. As a sweetener, they’ll even give you $5 just for signing up.
Swagbucks remains popular as they are a reliable site, offering novel ways to earn rewards, including playing games and watching videos. Completing polls and surveys for money takes around 10 minutes each and can make up the bulk of your time on the site. You won’t always qualify, and getting to a late stage in a survey application process and then finding out you’re not qualified can be pretty galling. The slickly designed website is straightforward and pleasing to use and also allows you to make money on your shopping by offering a range of affiliate links. By simply clicking on the Swagbucks link and shopping at sites including Amazon, Walmart and Nike, you will earn points, as those companies are paying Swagbucks to link to them, and you get a share of their fee.
The site will even allow you to monetise your internet searches, if you swap from Google or Safari to their own search engine. The Swagbucks search engine, which is actually running Yahoo, will pay you Swagbucks every time you search. For games, there are options like Scrabble and Wheel of Fortune, which won’t pay you much, but could be worth a go if you fancied playing a game anyway! Swagbucks TV allows you to watch advertising videos on a range of topics, including news, fitness and entertainment. There’s a snag – your earnings are capped at 150 Swagbucks, but it is worth a look if you’re prone to wasting time watching viral clips.
Free to join, the site runs a range of special offers, including awarding prizes at random, giving you daily targets to hit for which you receive bonus points, and posting deals on their social media feeds. They have a great new app and a strong referral scheme. However, like everything, it’s not perfect – it can start to suck up a lot of your time. Swagbucks runs on the premise of incentivising day to day internet use to make both you and them money, so it is worth being aware of this so it doesn’t end up seeping into too much of your life!
TOOL: Swagbucks
AVERAGE EARNING: $0.40 – $2 per survey
PAYMENT METHOD: PayPal or gift cards
MINIMUM TO CASH OUT: $3 for gift cards; $25 for PayPal
TOOL: Vindale Research
AVERAGE EARNING: $0.50 – $5 per survey
PAYMENT METHOD: PayPal
MINIMUM TO CASH OUT: $50
MyPoints, like InboxDollars is a platform that allows you to you earn gift cards for answering surveys, taking polls, watching videos, and many other online activities (even shopping!).
What I like about MyPoints is that you earn some points even when you don’t qualify for the survey, and they offer a welcome bonus.
What I don’t like is that many offers will navigate you away from the MyPoints portal and onto third-party sites, which can be less intuitive than some of the other platforms.
Income boost: Get a $5 bonus after your first five surveys
TOOL: MyPoints
AVERAGE EARNING: $2.50 per survey
PAYMENT METHOD: Gift cards
MINIMUM TO CASH OUT: $3
AVERAGE EARNING: $0.40 – $2 per survey
PAYMENT METHOD: PayPal or gift cards
MINIMUM TO CASH OUT: $3 for gift cards; $25 for PayPal
3. Vindale Research
One of the oldest and longest running survey sites, Vindale Research is a legitimate option for making some money from filling out surveys. Based in New York, the company offers both traditional surveys and evaluations, by testing products or online services. It’s free to sign up, and surveys pay between $1 and $5 each and product testing starts at $5 and moves up from there. The site claims significantly higher rates of pay, but as this involves slightly inflated pricing, for example discounting fees you may have to pay out to join subscription sites before receiving your end payout, they won’t be included here.
There’s lots of additional ways to boost your income on Vindale, including rewards for opening adverts sent to your email account, or small payments for watching advertising videos online. The site pays out in plain and simple cash, and doesn’t mess around with rewards or gift cards, which many people familiar with the survey landscape find a welcome relief. However, as with OnePoll, you’ll have to earn $50 before you can remove you money from the site, which may not be as tempting as some companies where the threshold is much lower.
Sometimes survey invitation links direct you to other survey companies, rather than keeping things in-house, which can feel a bit like spam. As is common in the industry, you can sometimes get stuck filling out lengthy qualifying questions which take up to 30 minutes just to see if you’re eligible for a survey. Needless to say if you find out you are not then this is extremely frustrating.
One nice feature is the ability to shop through Vindale, as they often have offers available through affiliate links. Before buying something new, like an appliance, it is worth signing into their easy to use website and checking if you can get it for less through Vindale. There’s also a popular daily consumer survey paying $1.50 which you can complete every day, for an easy and reliable boost.
There’s lots of additional ways to boost your income on Vindale, including rewards for opening adverts sent to your email account, or small payments for watching advertising videos online. The site pays out in plain and simple cash, and doesn’t mess around with rewards or gift cards, which many people familiar with the survey landscape find a welcome relief. However, as with OnePoll, you’ll have to earn $50 before you can remove you money from the site, which may not be as tempting as some companies where the threshold is much lower.
Sometimes survey invitation links direct you to other survey companies, rather than keeping things in-house, which can feel a bit like spam. As is common in the industry, you can sometimes get stuck filling out lengthy qualifying questions which take up to 30 minutes just to see if you’re eligible for a survey. Needless to say if you find out you are not then this is extremely frustrating.
One nice feature is the ability to shop through Vindale, as they often have offers available through affiliate links. Before buying something new, like an appliance, it is worth signing into their easy to use website and checking if you can get it for less through Vindale. There’s also a popular daily consumer survey paying $1.50 which you can complete every day, for an easy and reliable boost.
AVERAGE EARNING: $0.50 – $5 per survey
PAYMENT METHOD: PayPal
MINIMUM TO CASH OUT: $50
4. Mypoints
MyPoints, like InboxDollars is a platform that allows you to you earn gift cards for answering surveys, taking polls, watching videos, and many other online activities (even shopping!).
What I like about MyPoints is that you earn some points even when you don’t qualify for the survey, and they offer a welcome bonus.
What I don’t like is that many offers will navigate you away from the MyPoints portal and onto third-party sites, which can be less intuitive than some of the other platforms.
Income boost: Get a $5 bonus after your first five surveys
TOOL: MyPoints
AVERAGE EARNING: $2.50 per survey
PAYMENT METHOD: Gift cards
MINIMUM TO CASH OUT: $3
5. SURVEY CLUB
Survey Club is a bit different from other companies. Instead of hosting paid surveys themselves, they act as a middleman. While you earn money through Survey Club, the paid surveys are technically hosted elsewhere.
This means you might make less than if you took the survey through the primary site, but it can also save you a lot of time, making it a potentially worthwhile tradeoff.
TOOL: Survey Club
AVERAGE EARNING: $0.50 – $5 per survey
PAYMENT METHOD: Gift cards, travel miles or PayPal
MINIMUM TO CASH OUT: $20
Conclusion
So there we have it: twenty three paid survey sites, each with a unique proposition, and each with something special to offer the consumer. Making money by completing surveys has never been easier, and by concentrating on our top twenty paid survey winners you can be sure that the site is legit and reliable. Happy surveying!
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