How many survey sites to join for a decent income?

United States
June 13, 2009 1:28pm CST
Here is something I have always been curious about, and I thought that I would just ask those who know. How many survey sites does one need to join in order to earn a decent income at it? For instance, I once ran across a "rule of thumb" that stated for every dollar you want to earn (doing surveys), you need to be a member of that many survey sites. So for example, if you wanted to make one hundred dollars a month doing surveys, you needed to be a member of one hundred survey sites. Now I am not sure if that is true or not. For myself, I went from being active on a couple dozen survey sites to just doing four of them (the rule of thumb actually holds true for these). Of course, a large part of that is that I found out for the same amount of time that I do much better as a writer. Go figure. Anyway, how many survey sites does it take to make a decent living at it? What is your rule of thumb about how many sites you need per dollar?
2 people like this
15 responses
@applepod (224)
• Malaysia
13 Jun 09
so far i have not do any survey but did try before but i found it's a scam or the site is not exist. I haven't found any site that earn a decent income.
3 people like this
@Shar19 (8231)
• United States
13 Jun 09
I belong to a bunch of different surveys and I probably only make about $40 - $50 a month total. A lot of times I wind up not qualifying for the surveys once I spent about 15 minutes going through the screener questions. While I like doing the surveys I think the money is pretty low for the amount of time it takes to finish a survey.
2 people like this
• United States
13 Jun 09
I really hate spending fifteen minutes on a survey just to be told that I do not qualify. It always feels like such a ripoff when that happens.
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (169834)
• United States
13 Jun 09
That is a good question. I find it really varies. I made about 228.00 last month but they were not all from survey sites there were a number of forums and things like that paid me in giftcards. You can check out my blog for more info. This month is not going to be nearly that good. I'll be lucky to make fifty dollars. I am planning to join some other sites as well. I think I belong to about 30 or so now, but there are only a few you can really count on.
2 people like this
@littleowl (7157)
14 Jun 09
Hi morgan, being honest I have never found any survey sight good for a good income, but at least the ones I do douo pay up it is just that you have to wait til you reach a certain amount of money before you get it...LoLo
2 people like this
13 Jun 09
I don't think you could come up with a figure because everyone is different. For example for a couple of years I pursued doing paid surveys and was a member of around 24 sites. But I was lucky to make £5.00 from them in the course of a month. This was down to being screened out of the majority of them as I didn't fit the desired profile for that survey. Where as I know of people who make 4 or even 5 times that amount from being members of the same survey sites. The fact that I seemed to spend more time being screened out than actually completing surveys made me give up doing the majority of them and only bother with a handful now.
2 people like this
• United States
13 Jun 09
One good site that you do surveys and stuff like that is Cashle.com.They are in partnership with points2shop.com.Low $1 payouts.Very good site if you have some spare time on your hands.
@talisman (1300)
• United States
14 Jun 09
Hello morgandrake! That's a really interesting question! I used to do survey sites a few years ago. In fact, it's one of the first things I did to earn money online. I never once made a decent income from it and I was signed up for a LOT of sites. I can't even imagine how many I would have to be signed up on to make any sort of an income and there are so many factors that come in for how much you make (such as the number of surveys you receive, the number you actually qualify for, etc) that it wouldn't be dependable. Thankfully, I never meant for surveys to be a full time job. I eventually found much better things to earn money online (like my home based business ) and stopped using surveys for extra money. They're fun to do every now and again, but not for money.
1 person likes this
• United States
14 Jun 09
What type of business did you start? Myself, I went from being a "hobby" writer to a "self-employed" writer (or at least that the way the IRS thinks about it). Basically, I just got more serious about it after it became my sole source of income. The few surveys I do currently are when I do not feel like writing.
• United States
14 Jun 09
Hey morgan to be honest with you most surveys are a waste of time. They eat your time and patience and ask you a ton of questions just to shut you down in the end and say "You Don't Qualify!". The only survey site that I deal with these day is a site called MySurvey. They are fair and legitimate and they pay you for Every survey taken even if you don't qualify. Just shoot me a PM if you want to sign-up.
1 person likes this
@Darkwing (21583)
14 Jun 09
I would think it probably takes a good many. I only belong to one... a good one, which sends me at least one survey a day. For the surveys, you earn points, and the points are converted into cash. You need a thousand points to be paid, which takes me around two months, and the payment is in the region of £40, or currently, about $60. So, I think it depends which sites you choose. If you can find three really good ones, then the task is much easier. Brightest Blessings, my friend.
@Kowgirl (3490)
• United States
14 Jun 09
I quit doing surveys after I did NOT get paid from CashCrate. Everyone was telling me how great this site was and I was dumb enough to try it. Even did surveys that required my credit card. But that's another story...another loss. I was using about 4 other survey sites but so many surveys I did ended up being ones I did not qualify for after wasting my time doing them. Too bad they don't tell you that before you spend time doing them. So I dropped them also. I would think you could make a nice amount of money with 10 survey sites if they paid for every survey you did. But that's just not how they work. Not enough time in a day to do enough surveys to make a living from them.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (85421)
• United States
13 Jun 09
I don't think I could join enough survey sites to earn a decent income. So many seem promising, and then you hear from one of its members that is only looks good, but when it comes time for payout, they get nothing. Personally, I belong to four legit survey sites, but a couple of them have more choices for prizses than money. I don't do the 'earn a dollar for every survey taken' kind of sites.
2 people like this
@klw5000 (213)
• United States
14 Jun 09
I tried the surveys, but I felt they were a waste of time. It seemed that you would go through a series of questions and never qualify for the actual survey. There are a few other type sites that like such as paid emails. It just depends on how much time you want to spend and what you really want to accomplish. But for me, I say thumbs down to surveys sites!!!! Good luck!!!
1 person likes this
@jules67 (2788)
• Philippines
14 Jun 09
Now, I only have 2 survey site. I just joined them and I hope I would really earn something from them. I admit that it takes a lot of time doing the survey but I guess that is what it takes to earn something out of it. Have a nice day!!!
1 person likes this
• Norway
14 Jun 09
I have joined just one survey site. It is globaltest market and I will think of joining more if I can be sure that those site are not scam.
1 person likes this
@xanlui (38)
• Philippines
14 Jun 09
I don't know. I only tried one because some require payments first and others are not available in our country. The one I had takes time to update you with new surveys. The only good thing to do is find referrals, which for me also takes time. I have about 50% of the minimum payout when someone posted from another forum that the site was a scam. :(
1 person likes this