Adults nowadays who used to be teenagers a few decades ago may like to tell tall stories of how they earned money through odd jobs: the harder the odd job, the greater the bragging rights. But teenagers nowadays have more than just odd jobs to look at as ways to earn money. With the rising availability of income generating opportunities online, even teenagers can benefit, and online surveys are one way for teens, especially younger ones, to earn money online.

With much of the Internet targeting children and teens in a negative way, you need to understand one thing: why are there online surveys targeted at teens? Are they legitimate, or are they simply ways to grab the attention of teenagers with some possibly negative intention to harm them?

First, you need to understand what online surveys are for. Surveys are part of a market research process that takes into account consumer comments and responses about a given product or service. Then, the results are used to analyze consumer behaviour and provide important insight for companies in many of their plans, such as in offering new products or services, pricing these products and services, and even the way they can advertise them. This is why information gathered from surveys is actually valued very highly by companies, and also why they are willing to pay for these results.

So how do teenagers earn from online surveys? The key to remember is that there are some products that are specifically targeted to teens. Although adults can also try to answer these surveys for teens, it is really different when it is the actual user that gives the comments. It may take a few days or even weeks for the first surveys to be sent in, but when they start coming, kids can enjoy having their opinions valued so highly while also earning a little income on the side. Many sites offer surveys for teenagers as young as 13 years old, and these sites even have other ways through which teens can earn, such as through playing games or watching videos.

The advantage of online surveys is that teens can earn income safely from the comforts of their home. However, teens need to be properly equipped with how to detect scams and avoid them. One good thing to remember is that online surveys should not charge a fee to respondents, because they are essentially buying the information provided to them. If your teenager asks you for your credit card number to enter into an online survey site, take it as a warning sign. There is absolutely no reason for any survey site to demand payment of any kind.

Another way to earn from online surveys is that some sites give a referral fee when teens refer their friends. This kind of payment scheme is also legitimate, as survey sites aim to have as many respondents as possible. If you are a teen and enjoying a certain survey site, you can actually get your friends in on it, too.

Online surveys are a great way for anyone, both young and old, to earn extra income from the comforts of home, as long as you know how to steer clear of scams or other illegitimate sites.

With the rise of availability of online surveys for extra income, many people are eagerly jumping into the bandwagon. After all, if it will only take a few minutes each day, anyone can spare the time, especially if it promises to deliver big money. You have probably come across an advertising feature of someone who claims to earn several thousand dollars a week just answering online surveys. While a part of you wonders at the truth of the statement, another part of you wishes you could earn the same thing yourself.

The difficult thing about online surveys is that there are, sadly, scams out there. And the best thing to be able to detect them is for you to understand first what an online survey is all about, so that you can smell something fishy as soon as possible.

Simply put, a survey is a series of questions about a certain topic that respondents give their opinion on. Typically, surveys cover products that the respondent may have used or come across, including advertising, movies, and consumer goods. Falling under the market research industry, a survey can be done as a street interview, a telephone interview, or an online format, which is what has soared in popularity.

After the market research firm or department gets answers to the set questions, they usually quantify the answers and convert them using statistical analysis in order for the data to make sense for the party needing the results. For example, a survey about favorite cola drinks may have questions listing down reasons why people choose a particular brand, such as price, availability, or taste, and the market research firm would collate the data and show, for instance, that 50% of the respondents decided based on taste, while only 20% based their decision on price. They may even go as far as to analyze that women tend to decide based on price while men tend to decide based on taste. This gives you the groundwork for why companies would be willing to pay you to take surveys for them.

With that in mind, you have a few important clues to weed out the scams from the legitimate survey sites:

1. Legitimate online survey sites would not need any of your financial information, such as social security numbers, bank account, or credit card numbers. Truly, part of their analysis would be to know your age, race, and gender, but that’s about as far as it should go. Understand that asking questions about lifestyle and preferences will help them make analysis, but social security numbers have absolutely nothing to do with it.
2. Legitimate online survey companies may ask you to join their database, but not with a fee. Truly, the database is how they get in touch with you whenever a survey comes up that fits your profile, but if they ask for a fee, something is fishy. Online survey companies benefit when there are more people joining their database, and they have absolutely no reason to ask for a fee. The same goes for companies that start sending you subscriptions for sale.

These top two things to remember should help you steer clear of online survey scams. Remember, online survey companies need you, not the other way around!

In the proliferation of online survey services available today, you might be tempted to write them off as a scam. Perhaps you are wondering how companies earn from offering online services. After all, they seem to be very generous with their fees for something that takes only a few minutes for you: doesn’t it seem too good to be true?

Here are a few things you need to understand about how companies that offer online surveys actually view them and your involvement in them:

1. Surveys provide information, and third party companies will pay big money for information. This information includes customer preferences, lifestyles, shopping habits and the like. This kind of information would be those that are most easily accessed online through surveys that people voluntarily fill out. The companies actually earn more money from their clients than they do paying you.
2. The raw data is not as useless as you think. This is because companies are dying to get at the information you have provided, and the marketing research arm of any company can easily make analysis based on the raw data. From that analysis, they can make informed decisions about product launches, marketing strategies, promotional gimmicks, and other important business activities. In the long run, it lessens their risk and increases their chances of making more money. In the end, the money they pay for the raw data is peanuts compared to the prospects they are expecting in the forefront.
3. Online survey companies do very little work in order to lure you in. Yes, they may invest some money in promoting their website to make sure they get lots of exposure, but once there, they virtually have to do nothing to convince you to answer the surveys. All they are doing is to offer you a fee for every survey you answer. As mentioned before, it’s peanuts compared to the money they will earn from the major companies who want that data. Also, they do not have to worry about coming up with the surveys because companies who are interested will give out exactly what information they want to find out. It will only require a few tweaks here and there, and they can get their system running.

Of course, you may come across some survey company that asks you for a fee. In light of this understanding, it might be that they’re after a few more bucks than what the third party companies can pay them; after all, if they can earn an extra $5 per person who wants to answer surveys, they already earn so much more. But then again, there are other companies that request a fee and are actually only a scam. As such, it is important to note that a required fee is a big warning bell for you to run in the opposite direction. Find other companies that understand the value of the information you are giving them, as you are more likely to find great opportunities there.

There are several hundred online survey sites over the internet today, and just like any good opportunity you can find online, they all have their share of pros and cons. And if you can weigh these pros and cons carefully before participating in any of the hundreds of survey companies, you might just be one of the fortunate individuals who actually made great money out of taking paid surveys.

The Pros:

One of the things about online surveys that attract people is that it’s not too difficult to participate in one. In fact, it’s too easy since all you need to do is sign up and wait for your survey forms. The best part perhaps is that it’s all for free. The job itself doesn’t require any special skill or educational attainment from participants. As long as you have some knowledge on using the internet and the email, and as long as you can give honest opinions to the survey questions, you are good to go.

Another pro of online surveys is that they can serve as your second job, thus, giving you extra income. Usually, one survey can generate you more than $5, and doesn’t take more than 10 minutes to answer. Some may even pay you more money for longer surveys, while others offer bonus prizes. In short, it’s actually an advantage to your side once you’ve found a legitimate online survey company to accommodate you.

The Cons:

While good companies actually pay you good money for taking only a few minutes of your time, there are those who bombard you with long survey questions but for little money. This is quite disappointing especially since there are many who are willing to give more than for fifteen minutes of your time each day. You may get lucky and find survey companies that would actually do that for you but also expect your email to be filled with spam from these same companies, pressuring you to visit their site and sign up for worthless offers.

We don’t pray that you end up getting scammed but to tell you the truth, that is one of the biggest risks of participating in online surveys. These scam sites are easy to smell from afar because instead of offering you money for your services, they would give you offers that are too good to be true. These are also the same sites that you see over the internet, promising people about making thousands of dollars in just a few months or even weeks. However, what they actually want is to trick you into giving them your money without anything in return, not even a single survey questionnaire.

This is not to discourage people from joining online survey sites but to actually help them have an idea of what to expect in case they want to join one. If you are interested to take online surveys as a way of making extra income, do not hesitate to do so, because as long as you are aware of the pros and cons and remain vigilant, you will be in good hands.