If you read online content, you will find that many people say there is no way to make a lot of money with paid surveys. You will make some money, but not a lot, they say. A long time ago, these same sites claimed that surveys are a complete scam, but now they started to blog about paid surveys saying that there is not a lot of money in this business. Although this is true to some extent, we have to say one very important thing that you also will read in their articles. If you read carefully, you will notice that every writer who blogs about surveys will say in a different way that you cannot earn a lot of money with surveys.

Yes, this is absolutely correct. Making money with paid surveys can lead to different amounts, and experienced survey panelists can earn more. In fact, on our blog, we have always found new ways for people to make more money.

Here, we will list a few of them and explain more about them below.

Make Over $100 with Surveys by Registering with Over 30 Companies

Recently, we have reviewed many panels that pay their members to register only. Here is the list of over 30 companies who pay for registration only. Their bonuses are about $5-$10. The cool part is that if you register with all of them, you can have $100 at the end of the day. In fact, you can register with all of them in just a few hours. That’s really not a lot of work. The downside of this is that these are only one-time offers. But when you register, you will be stimulated to work more and you will receive high-paying offers more often. The catch is that some of these companies need some time to verify that you are a real person and they have some additional requirements before you actually get the bonus. For example, one company will ask you to complete your profile survey, which is a part of their verification process. Other companies will allow you to cash the bonus but only into your survey account, and the money will stay there until you reach the minimum cash-out amount. For example, if the bonus is $10, but the minimum withdrawal amount is $30, this means that you will have to complete more surveys before getting paid.

The companies that we have reviewed are legit and actually pay the bonus. This is a part of their efforts to get more members registered with them. If you go to this list and register with all of them, you will have over $100 in a few hours.

Focus Groups

Focus groups are well known in survey business because they pay a lot. The typical amount varies between $50 and $150 and the time required for these tasks is from less than an hour to a few hours. For that much money, it’s ok to spend a few hours, right? You can find information online about focus groups paying $300-$400. But are they legit? EliteSurveySites team hasn’t found such focus groups, and there are probably people who exagerate. If you find any of these offers, let us know. We will be interested to post your story here.

There are several types of focus groups around:

• In-Person Focus Groups. These are local focus groups. You will be in a room with about 10 people discussing some products or services. This means that you can apply for these groups only if they are in your city. The typical time is a few hours. You will be well awarded. But the catch is that you have to qualify and get approved beforehand. Most focus groups require that you haven’t participated in focus groups in the last few months.
• Online Focus Groups. These are focus groups that are conducted online in chat rooms. Here, people have better chances to qualify because these groups are not local. But the downside is that you will have a serious competition ‒ more people who apply for the offer.
• Telephone Interviews. These are another type of focus groups. The difference is that you will not talk face to face, but just answer questions on the phone.

Why do focus groups pay so much, are they scams?

Focus groups pay more than traditional surveys because their managers believe that the quality of answers that they receive this way is better. In other words, focus groups will give them better feedback regarding their products and what they have to improve to sell more of them. But why do they pay so much? As the matter of fact, this is not entirely true. Focus groups can even save money to their managers. Let’s say that a company that wants to conduct research on their product is ready to spend $1,000 for this research. They can interview 10 people in a focus group or 100 people in traditional paid surveys. The amount that the company spends is the same. And in some cases, companies can get better ideas if the survey is in a focus group format because they will better target the participants and also be able to ask them very detailed questions.

Focus groups are well-paying surveys, but they are rare. To get invited to more of them, register with more companies that offer focus groups, and complete your profile survey often. Always apply for invitation if you believe that you meet their criteria and can be of help to them.

Don’t expect miracles. Focus groups are one way that can make you $100 per hour on average, but this won’t happen every day. Do focus groups, read more tips from us on how to make more money with focus groups. Now, let’s move on to the next way to make more money with paid surveys.

Mystery Shopping

Some people will tell you that mystery shopping is a type of focus group and this is true to some extent. However, these two are different things. Legit mystery shopping typically gives you free vouchers that you can spend in shops. You can spend the money on whatever you want. Then they expect that you give feedback to their customer support and tell them what should be improved. This is a great way for shop owners to evaluate the quality of their shops. You help them increase the quality and get free shopping in return. Although some say you can get $100 per hour, in most cases it will be less, say $50 per hour or something like that.

Mystery shopping is typically conducted by big shopping networks, but it can also be in small local shops. They typically reward you with money or the stuff that you bought using the free voucher they gave you. Great communication skills are needed to be chosen for mystery shopping.

Be careful about sites that ask money from you to start. No legit mystery shopping will require money from you.

Mystery shopping is a type of high-paying surveys but it can’t be considered as a full-time job. Do it, find great sites, make money. We are moving on to the next way to make more money with surveys.

Video Surveys

What about $50 per survey? In less than an hour. Yes, that is possible with video surveys. If we had to define video surveys, we would say they are something between paid surveys and focus groups. They are a relatively new type of surveys. The amount that they pay is slightly lower than what focus groups pay, but you also spend less time. Video surveys seem to be up and coming and we believe that they will become more popular in time. Companies pay more per surveys, but with your video answers, the quality of the market research is significantly improving and they want to test this method.

This site pays $50 per video survey, for example. They ask you to answer 7 questions. The catch is that you have to qualify, get approved and then they have to verify the answers. But they really pay. We can’t say what the amount of money for unaccepted questions is, they will probably give you a part of money. But the bottom line is that if you answer their questions honestly, they really pay. Most other surveys we list have started to apply this new type of surveys. When you register with more of them, you will receive more offers for video surveys.

High Paying Offers

By high-paying survey offers, we mean every survey that pays more, is relatively long and is not in the above list (focus groups and mystery shopping). From time to time, you will receive more high-paying offers that you can complete instantly and get paid. The trick here is to be online more often and check for them. Because these offers have quotas. When a company orders a high-paying offer from a market research company – the panel that you are registered with here is what the panel will do. They will check everyone that meets the qualification criteria for this offer (every company targets different people). Then, they will send the high-paying offer to many people at once. Let’s say that the company needs 100 answers only and this offer is sent to 1000 people. When the company receives 100 answers, every next one will be disqualified even if they have completed the offer. So, be fast.

Contests

These are frequent, but the problem is that there are big panels with millions of people registered. And this means that your chances to be a winner in the contest are low. But when you work for more companies, you increase your chances to win. Prizes are different, but they are big. Many panels have contests for over $1,000. One day, it can happen to you.

If you find opportunities that offer a lot of money with paid surveys, these are probably scam. You can always make more money with paid surveys, but not too much.

In this article, we have reviewed some ways to make more than the average survey panelists make. Each of these ways has one big disadvantage, but when you combine and repeat, you will significantly increase the amount of money you make with paid surveys. Start working now instead of reading some scam offering you big money with surveys.

Let us know what other ways you know to make more than average with paid surveys. Let us know if this article was helpful to you and if you learned something new here.

Note also that average-paid surveys shouldn’t be avoided only because you receive high-paying offers. It’s not a great strategy to work on high-paying surveys only. There are many great surveys that pay less but are very easy to do and you spend less time on them. For example, how about $3-$5 for less than 10 minutes? This is still a great deal for many people.

Let’s start making money now.