If you’d like a simple way to earn extra cash online, look no further than taking online surveys! When I first started making money online, I did it by just completing surveys. And still, to this day, I earn some extra money doing surveys, which I have been doing for a few years now.
So, whether you’re a beginner and you’re new to taking online surveys or you’d like to learn some tips on how you can earn more money from surveys, this is going to be a good read for you!
There are many survey websites as well as survey apps that let you earn by taking online surveys! Simply find the survey place that works for you and then you can start answering questions as soon as today.
But, in this article, I’ll go over the steps to earn money through online surveys as a beginner. I’ll even give you some tips at the end that can help you improve your chances of succeeding with surveys and earning more money.
Here are the five steps I’ll be going through:
- Learn the brands.
- Know what to expect.
- Be open to reviewing stuff.
- Stay consistent.
- Get others to do surveys.
Step 1: Learn the brands
You may think that the first step is to simply sign up and do the surveys. Well, not quite. Remember that the point of surveys is to give your thoughts on brands and products that you should be familiar with. So, the first thing I recommend you do is to learn as many brands as you possibly can.
The key here is to develop a knowledge of these brands and then form your personal opinion about them, what they shouldn’t have done, and what they could do. There are two ways you can familiarize yourself with brands:
- Experience some brands for yourself! Go to your store and buy brands you never heard of. Try out a new restaurant and see what you think of their food. Go watch the latest movies at a theater and decide what you thought about them. I can tell you that there will be many surveys that will ask about what you think of movies, restaurants, and store brands. So, what better way to learn about them than by experiencing them yourself?
- Do your research. If you just don’t have a passion for adventure, you can learn about the brands from sources such as TV or the Internet. Rotten Tomatoes has good movie reviews. The restaurant websites give you a picture and good description of each of the foods they sell. You can easily find product reviews on YouTube or blogs. These places can give you better ideas of what different brands are actually like.
Once you have a lot of brands in your head and feel knowledgeable about them, then you have a better chance of completing surveys and making money!
Step 2: Know what to expect
If you have absolutely no idea of what to expect from online surveys, it helps to know ahead of time before you get started. Here are three things to understand before you start taking surveys:
- Surveys can screen you out.
- Some surveys are email-only.
- No survey will make you rich.
Surveys Can Screen You Out
The most important thing you should keep in mind about online surveys is that surveys can screen you out or prevent you from continuing because you aren’t the kind of person the company is looking for.
It’s not that you’ve been a bad boy. It just means that you weren’t a good fit. There are a few sites with surveys that won’t screen you out. But, for the most part, getting screened out of multiple surveys is perfectly normal!
Some Surveys Are Email-Only
In certain websites or apps, surveys won’t always be available in one place. Some companies will only release a survey once they have enough questions about a certain topic to ask you. Thus, some surveys are email-only, so you’ll get an email once a new survey is ready for you.
This is why, when you create an online survey account, it’s always best to make sure the email address you put in is actually yours. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to start taking surveys.
There are some survey websites or apps like Swagbucks and ySense that bring together surveys from multiple sources so you don’t have to depend on your email for surveys.
No Survey Will Make You Rich
This is probably the most important thing you should know about taking online surveys: no survey will make you rich! Since it’s pretty easy to just answer a bunch of questions, you can’t expect companies to pay you more than a few dollars for every survey you complete.
So, if you’re looking to make real income online, I recommend you look into things like becoming a freelancer, selling handmade crafts, or affiliate marketing. If you look around my blog, I have dozens of articles on different ways to earn money on the Internet. But the bottom line is: don’t rely on surveys for income. Always think of surveys as a way to earn some extra cash on the side.
If you really think you can get rich by taking surveys, you might as well leave this article. I’m not going to teach you how to become rich with surveys. With that being said, let’s move on to the next step.
Step 3: Be open to reviewing stuff
The real reason why companies give you surveys to answer is because they want to know what people like you think about certain products and brands. In some cases, they will ask a certain number of people to actually try out a new product that will be sent to them through the mail and answer a questionnaire about it or record their thoughts on video using a webcam.
So, if you’d like to make as much money as possible from surveys, you should be willing to get on camera. You can earn as much as $5-$10 just by reviewing products for companies on video! There are some surveys out there that will ask you to record your thoughts.
A good example is Vindale Research which claims to be the highest paying survey site because they ask their members to review certain products and, in some cases, put it on video.
Step 4: Stay consistent
Consistency is key to earning a lot of money from online surveys! The more you spend time completing surveys, the more money you can make. In fact, I personally was able to earn $10 from ySense in only three days just by sticking with their surveys. If I can do it, so can you!
At some point, survey websites and apps are going to run out of available surveys for you to take. This is why you should sign up for multiple survey sites and apps. That way, if you run out of surveys on one site, you still have surveys available somewhere else where you can continue to stay consistent.
I’ve seen top survey earners actually make as much as $50 a day! The reason is that they put all their time into completing surveys every single day. So, if you’d like to see more money in your survey account sooner, all you have to do is answer as many surveys as you possibly can every day.
That’s all there is to it, it’s really no secret!
Step 5: Get others to do surveys
This is probably the best part. You can earn a lot more money by referring survey sites to others. That means you can tell others on social media about the survey places you are part of and actually make money whenever people join that site.
The way you share survey sites with others is through a referral link. When someone uses that link to sign up, the money is credited to you. The good news is that almost every single survey website and app has a referral program. So, if you create an account, chances are you’ll find a referral link you can share.
So where do you share this link? Wherever you are on the Internet! You can post it on your social media pages, blog comments (as long as it’s not spam), in your YouTube video description, or on your own blog!
This is probably the best way you can earn money online by being a part of these survey places. After all, it doesn’t require too much time and energy, and eventually, the money you make from your links could turn into passive income!
Sounds awesome, right?
Conclusion
A Few Survey Tips
Now that you’ve reached the end, as I promised, I will share with you a few bonus tips when it comes to taking online surveys that can help you improve your chances of making some money with them. Here they are:
- Pay close attention! When companies pay people to take surveys, they expect to obtain real human feedback. This is why, when you take surveys, you should always give your real, honest answers to the questions they give you. If they see that your answers are rushed or inconsistent, you may not get paid from doing the survey.
- Sign up for multiple survey sites! There is a saying that goes: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Rather than join one single survey site, go sign up for a few. That way, if you run out of surveys on one site, there will be surveys in others. I have reviews of some survey sites you can join today: ySense, Swagbucks, and E-Poll Surveys.
- Take advantage of bonuses! Many good survey sites offer free money bonuses when you become their member. For example, if you complete at least two surveys on ySense and install their browser plugin, you could earn between $0.20 and $0.50. Even better, if you signed up for certain websites such as Swagbucks, you can earn a free $10 bonus to get you started! This is a great way to help you make a little bit more money with these online survey sites.
Final Words
And this concludes this article on how you can earn money doing online surveys as a beginner and make some extra money. Always remember that surveys are time-consuming and they can’t make you rich.
The good news is that there are better opportunities to earn even more money online besides taking surveys. For example, you could start a blog in just six steps and learn the many ways you could earn life-changing income just with your blog! You may have also heard people making money with YouTube, and yes, you can earn good money by uploading videos.
Honestly, there are many ways you can make even more money online. All you have to do is take a look around this blog as I have shared dozens of opportunities for you to earn income from home.
So, if you’re ready to earn money doing online surveys, my number-one recommendation is ySense. You can read my review of ySense here. They’ve been around for years and I’ve earned great money with them. But, if you need other ideas, here are 21 survey sites and 17 mobile apps to help you get started.
With that being said, the best of luck to you with earning survey money!