Online Market Research is a growing trend that gives companies a reliable alternative to traditional ways of collecting consumer opinions. Online Surveys are web-based questionnaires that allow companies to learn what consumers think about their products and services.

Online survey panels are hosted by Market Research companies. These companies gather willing consumers with different demographics and geographic locations that which to share their opinions. By forming these online panels, Market Research companies can than perform host online surveys on new products and services on behalf of their corporate clients. The answers from all the participants are then compiled by the market research company and presented to their client.

Paid Survey Companies conduct market research on behalf of companies that produce products and sell services. They offer you cash and prizes in exchange for your time and consumer opinions. Companies are constantly trying to improve their products, and before they launch a new product and an expensive advertising campaign, they need to know about consumer preferences. Online surveys are an easy way for collecting consumer opinions to guide these companies. In exchange for your opinions they will compensate you with cash, prizes, or sweepstakes entries. Some of them even send you sample products, and pay you to conduct product evaluations.

Typical cash paying surveys take 10 to 30 minutes to complete, and the cash paying surveys generally reward you $1 to $10 or possible more for every survey you complete. Others may give you gift certificates or enter you into sweepstakes for cash or prizes. Some sites occasionally offer focus groups. These usually lasts 1 or 2 hours, but generally pay more than $50. For more details and user comments about a particular paid survey site, be sure read the reviews for the particular panel.

Survey Panels ask for personal information like age, hobbies, number of children, annual income, etc. so that they can build a database of people and their corresponding demographic information. This allows the market research panels to match potential survey takers with the product or service being studied. Music videos, for example, are more likely to be viewed by young people than by older people, so that in a survey about music videos, it would be important to ask the respondent for his or her age.

Some survey panels may ask for your address for several purposes–to send a new product to your home to test or to send you an incentive for completing the survey.

The important thing to remember is that respondents’ names and other identifying information are kept strictly confidential. Most respected market research panels follow CASRO’s Code of Standards for Survey Research. This code must be followed by all CASRO members as a condition of membership and requires survey research companies to protect the identities of respondents, and to insure that individuals and their responses cannot be related.

No. Survey panels are only interested in summarized information on the attitudes, opinions, market practices, etc. of the sampled consumer groups. Some panels may offer you gift rewards or products to try as part of a study. However, sales or solicitation is not acceptable or permitted in legitimate and professionally conducted survey research.

Yes, there are several survey panels that accept teens 13 and older. For a list of legitimate paid survey panels that teens can join, please check out our teen surveys page.

While it is true, several of the survey panels we list on this site only accept US and Canadian residents, there is a growing list of survey panels that are looking for international panel members. We have dedicated paid survey directory pages for many nations. To find surveys for your country please visit the corresponding page for your country.

The number of surveys you will receive depends on your demographic profile. Survey panels conduct different studies for different customers, and each study will generally target a particular segment of population depending on the requirements of the client. For instance, a survey study about a new shaving gel would target adult males, while a study about a new portable digital music player may target teens and young adults. The number of surveys you will receive also depends on the survey panel as well. Some survey panels will send more frequent survey invitations than others. The best way to ensure that you receive the maximum number of paid surveys is to join as many of the recommended paid survey sites as you have time for and to complete your various profiles for each survey panel. The profiles are very important because they help the survey companies match the surveys to the desired segment of the population as required by the study.

Yes, all of the paid survey panels listed on this site are free to join. That is because we only list legitimate market research panels. There are lots of sites out there that would have you think that taking surveys involves paying for trial offers of services and products, but THIS IS NOT THE CASE. While it is true some survey panels may send you things in the mail to try as part of a survey study, they will never charge your for the products or ask for any compensation other than completion of the survey study.

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) dictates that online survey panels cannot accept panelists under the age of 13 to register directly their panel. However, input from children is still needed, and in these cases parents that are panel members are often asked to provide input from their children for specific studies.

No, there is no limit. Since each of the online paid survey panels is generally hosted by a separate Market Research Company, you can join as many as you wish. Each maintains their own database of users. However, you will generally have the best results if try to focus on a core group of survey panels, and participate in them fully by keeping your profiles up to date and answers all survey questions thoughtfully. Of course, that “core number” can vary depending on how much free time you have.

Getting started with Paid Surveys is easy. You just need to have an email address and meet the basic residency and age requirements of the survey panel you wish to join. If you are 18 or older and a resident of the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom you have many survey panels to choose from. If not, there are still many options.

To get off to a quick start, check out the Top Ten User Rated Survey Panels on the home page. We would suggest that you get started by signing up with 5 to 10 survey panels to get started. You will then start receiving paid survey invitations via email from each of the panels. Most surveys can be completed in 15 to 30 minutes, and incentives offered will vary depending on the length of the study and the survey panel hosting the study. If you find that you enjoy taking surveys online, and wish to take more surveys, than we suggest you join more of the panels featured on this site.

All the survey panels that we list on this site are free to join, and do not require a credit card or bank account to join. Our only suggestion is that you may want to sign up for a PayPal account if you do not already have one, since many of the survey panels offer Payment via PayPal.