Paid Online Surveys - Should You Sign Up For the Paid Guide Sites or the Free Ones?
If you do a web search on "Paid Surveys", or any thing close to that term or similar key words, you will no doubt encounter
several ads offering a 'free signup' to take paid online surveys. Other websites make offers to guide you through the traps and obstacles to
making money from paid surveys, for a small fee. If you join their group they will show you how, steer you to success, but they want you to join
up and pay their membership fee first.
So which is the best way to go? Should you sign up with the free services? (Free always sounds nice!) Or with the paid services? (Would it be
worth the price?)
Most paid survey experts (including this author) will tell you that yes, you can find your way by using the free services, if you want to.
But you will get there a lot faster, make money faster and save yourself a lot of hassle and frustration by choosing a good paid membership
service.
Now you might ask, "Just why is that?" Good question. Here are the main reasons:
1. TANSTAAFL, (pronounced 'TAN staffle') is an acronym for, "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!" That's as true today as
it was towards the end of the 19th century when an astute fellow made that observation about the "Free Lunch" that bars of the day offered....
"Free" as long as you kept buying drinks!
The basic principle is that you can generally just bet that if someone is doing something he is getting something out of what he is doing. When
someone offers you something for "free" he expects to get something out of it, although sometimes, exactly what he might be expecting is not
clear. The paid online survey membership site that collects a fee is up front about it. That's how they get paid. The guy that offers it to you
for "free" expects to make his money off of you after you sign up!
It's better to pay your own guide. You want to keep the guide loyal to you. If you follow a "free" guide being paid by a merchant or
scam artist or worse... he will likely be loyal to those who hired him. And will lead you to places that THEY want you to see, and that you
would probably rather not visit.
2. Responsibility. The paid online survey membership site will be more responsible. They have collected your membership fee, now
they have to perform for you. They depend on these fees from members and must keep a good reputation to survive. They must perform to your
satisfaction or their reputation and future business will suffer.
The free site has nothing to lose and everything to gain, from making money off of you once you sign up. Everyone has to eat. They will feed
themselves by selling your information to companies that want to sell you things, by collecting a commission off of surveys you fill out (for
free or for a low amount), or by any other way they can devise.
3. Accountability. With a paid online survey membership site you can demand your money back if they do not perform to your
expectations. What can you do with a free site? Nothing. Only leave. So the paid site is accountable. They want to keep your
membership fee. So they do their best to make sure that you are pleased with the results. All this works in your favor.
4. What are the goals of each? The paid online survey membership site wants to see you happily making money, for two reasons.
First, so you won't ask for a refund. Second so they can build their list of happy customers who will send more customers to them. That
puts them on your side.
The free site wants to figure out a way to make money off of you! That puts you on opposing sides.
So the bottom line is, when you see the "free" sites, just remember "TANSTAAFL". Then sign up with the best paid online survey membership
site you can find!
