Legitimate Paid Surveys – How to Identify and Find Legit Survey Sites

It’s very likely that you have learned about the opportunity to get paid for taking online surveys. However, you may not be fully convinced that this opportunity is legit. It’s good to be skeptical because if you aren’t, you’ll likely fall prey to scams who like to target gullible and naive people.

Yes, paid survey scams do exist. But not all “make money taking surveys” opportunities are scams. You can actually get paid for sharing your opinions but you could also be scammed if you are not careful.

If you are new, you may not know how to distinguish paid surveys scams from legitimate paid surveys. But luckily, you have come across this article which will give you the information you need to help you find and identify legitimate paid surveys and avoid scams.

But first, you need to understand why this opportunity is legitimate in the first place. If you don’t believe that you can actually make money taking surveys, you probably won’t even attempt to give legitimate paid surveys a try. So, let me explain why people are able to earn money taking surveys.

Why you can get paid to take surveys

Companies need consumer feedback and are more than willing to offer a monetary reward for the feedback they receive. Why would they pay for consumer feedback? Because this feedback could help them improve their product and make more money.

Once a company has collected feedback from a group of individuals through a survey, they can analyze that feedback to make changes that will make their product more beneficial and appealing – which ultimately increases the likelihood of generating better revenue for the company when their product finally hits the market.

A lot of research and development goes into many of the products you see on the market. Products aren’t just put out on the market without careful planning and market research. Millions of dollars are spent on market research every year, so it isn’t so hard to believe that someone is able to get paid for participating in market research studies.

The market research company, or survey site, is already getting paid for executing the survey and collecting feedback from those who match the survey qualifications. You can understand how they are able to pay their panelists. They are simply giving them a cut of the money they make from the companies that pay for their services.

The market research company wouldn’t do that well if they didn’t have members who would be willing to participate in surveys. A company goes to these survey sites to get quality feedback. If the survey site doesn’t have people who can participate in surveys, the company probably isn’t going to use their services.

How do market research companies get people to participate in surveys? They offer incentives which ranges from sweepstake entries to cold hard cash.`

This is how you are able to earn cash taking surveys. You take advantage of the surveys that offer cash incentives. And in order to do this, you need to sign up to legitimate survey sites that connect their members with paid survey opportunities.

How to identify legitimate paid surveys

Before you start searching for legitimate paid surveys, you need to be able to tell the difference between a legitimate survey site and one that could potentially be a scam.

Legitimate survey sites usually meet all of the following criteria:

They offer free registration

It should cost you nothing at all to join and participate on a survey site. Any site that requires you to pay a fee, either upfront or after you join, is likely to be a scam.

Never pay money to take surveys.

Legal forms are present on website

Legal forms such as “Terms & Conditions”, “Disclaimers”, and “Privacy Policy” are prominently displayed on the website. These pages can tell you a lot about a website such as how they use and protect your personal information, how they work, who’s allowed to use their site, and so on.

Disreputable sites don’t like to include these pages on their site since they are often unprofessional to begin with and they follow an unethical policy that they don’t want to disclose openly in fine print. If they did reveal their policies upfront, they would have a hard time scamming people.

They don’t make unrealistic income claims

Earn $1000 a month taking surveys! Earn $50 an hour taking surveys! Get rich taking surveys! You won’t find these kinds of claims on a legitimate paid survey site. Actually, most reputable survey sites don’t even make income claims. They just simply state that you can be rewarded for taking surveys.

They don’t send spam

Legitimate survey sites will not send you spam. The will send you survey invitations, payments, and occasional news or site updates but they won’t send you spam. If you look over a survey site’s privacy policy or FAQs page, you should be able to learn about their spam policy.

They don’t sell your information

A legitimate survey site will keep your information safe and will not sell it to third parties. If you want to learn exactly how a survey site uses your information, then review their privacy policy.

They don’t ask for sensitive information

Legitimate survey sites do not need any sensitive information from you and will not ask you for it. If a site asks for your social security number or credit card information, avoid that site at all costs. You should never supply such information to a survey site.

They provide contact information

You should be able to easily contact someone at the website if you need support or have some sort of inquiry. Legitimate survey sites always provide contact information.

They only deal with paid surveys

Sometimes, you may come across a site that says you can get paid to take surveys but once you become a member, you find out that you can also complete offers, sign up for trials, watch videos, and so on.

These types of sites are often referred to as “get paid to websites”, GPT sites for short, since they are paying members to do various things, primarily filling out offers and answering surveys.

GPT sites are often confused with paid survey sites since you can get paid to take surveys on both types of sites. It should be easy to tell how the two are different. Legitimate paid survey sites only deal with paid surveys. They don’t ask you to complete offers, sign up for trials, or do anything else besides take surveys.

In review, legitimate survey companies are free to join, include proper documentation and contact information on their website, do not make unrealistic income claims, do not abuse your personal information or ask for sensitive information, only deal with paid surveys, and they make good on their promises – if they say they will pay you to take surveys, you will get paid when you have met their payout requirements.

If you run across a site that fails to meet any of the criteria above, there is a possibility that it could be a scam and you should either avoid the site altogether or proceed with extra caution and do extra research until you have enough information to confidently judge whether or not the site is indeed a scam.

How to find legitimate paid surveys

Finding legitimate paid surveys is simple but it does take time to gather enough information to make sure that the site you are interested in joining is reputable. One reason that people buy into those fee-based membership sites that give you a list of survey companies is because the research is done for them and it saves them from having to look for sites on their own.

Do I recommend taking the easy way out and spending upwards of $50 to access one of these membership sites? No. Although it may take a bit of time to research legitimate paid surveys, it’s free and it gets easier once you are familiar with the process.

Besides, there are sites that list these types of sites free of charge. So, you won’t have to do much research in the end. But just in case you want to know how to find them on your own, here are a few tips that will help you locate legitimate survey companies.

Locating and Researching Survey Sites

Go to Google and search for a list of surveys. You can use queries such as these: “legitimate paid surveys” “list of paying survey companies” “legitimate survey sites that pay cash”.

You will come across websites that supply the information you are looking for. But since some websites can be deceitful, misleading, or unreliable, you need to make sure that you do your own research. If a websites provides you with a list of paying survey companies, research each company on that list before signing up.

To research, you can do the following:

Read reviews about the survey company. Google something like this: survey company + review.
Visit Ripoffreport.com and Scam.com and search for the survey company’s name.
Check BBB (Better Business Bureau) for complaints and ratings for the company
Search for recent payment proofs or signs that people are being paid by the company
Go to the survey website and read over their terms, privacy policy, and FAQs.
Visit online discussion forums that talk about paid surveys and see what, if anything, you can learn about the company based on forum member’s experiences. A simpler way to do this is to Google something like this, survey company + forum.

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8 Benefits You Immediately Receive If You Begin Podcasting Today

The future lies in podcasting.

Let me explain why.

According to a recent Case Study on Podcasting Audiences, three interesting statistics are on the rise.

Smartphone ownership tends to correlate to a greater likelihood of listening to a podcast.
Consumers are more likely to listen to podcasts on a mobile device than on a computer.
Podcast listeners are more likely to listen to streams or podcasts through their car audio systems.
What does all that mean? Well, it all points to a mobile consumer on the move, who’s looking at podcasts as an additional or perhaps alternative source of information. Podcasts stand out for their practical information type of format.

For your brand, podcasting is the new powerful, inexpensive and easy new medium then to reach out to this mobile consumer on the move who wants practical, concise and dedicated information. You already have a focused and passionate audience. It’s now much easier to become a recognized expert in your field of interest or expertise to this group through podcasting, without having to counter the normal conventions of radio, nor the limitations of blogging.

Build your credibility, your sales, your list of customers and gain a fan base very quickly and without the limitations of blogging. Does that sound good?

If these three key indicators listed above are anything to go by, podcasting is the way to go.

Here’s why:

1. Podcasting is still relatively untapped

Armed with positive growth indicators and the move by Car Manufacturers to install podcast players in their New Models, people are gearing up for the future of content marketing and it lies in podcasting. This is a market on the growth curve. Yet it’s still relatively untapped and brimming with opportunities. In the same Research study ‘Podcast Consumer 2015′, by Edison and Triton, they reveal that the age of podcast listeners is evenly spread across almost all age groups. You get an average of 15% listenership among the 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54 age groups.

15% may sound low right now, but consider the impact when podcast players become more accessible and within your reach. And this is across all age groups! What that means is that if your brand will instantly get an dedicated audience, irrespective of whichever age group you are targeting – a nice thing to know as you plan your marketing budget. Slow and steady wins the race. If these are the statistics we are seeing today, as access to podcasts becomes even easier with smartphones and our latest vehicle comes equipped with a podcast player, your audience footprint will naturally grow in the coming months.

Smartphone ownership isn’t going to die anytime soon. We are always updating, improving and searching for a better smartphone model. As you constantly upgrade your phone; and as App builders continually design new entertainment apps, the trend of listening to podcasts on your smartphone will grow by leaps and bounds.

2. Podcasting Adds Value to your current marketing effort.

Even better is the realization that podcasting complements your current marketing efforts.

You don’t have to replace any of your current social media activities. Continue with your Facebook, Twitter, blogging marketing efforts. You can even turn your latest blog post into a podcast episode, add a spin on it and it’s fresh content. Podcasting just increases your footprint and adds you a totally new audience.

3. You will find customer conversion easier with Podcasting

Someone searching for a podcast in a particular topic is already very clear about what they want to listen to. Unlike radio, where the conventional radio listener subconsciously tunes off when the next commercial airs, with a podcast, you have a dedicated listener and one will listen to listen attentively to everything you have to say, as long as you say it well. Because listeners subscribe to podcasts, they have chosen to receive your content. They have already shown interest in your message by subscribing. In addition, a podcast does not get lost in SPAM like with e-mail. You can be sure your message is reaching a focused audience. That gives you a greater likelihood of customer conversion.

4. Become ‘The Voice’

I’m not talking about the popular TV Series. Suppose you have a blog on diet and nutrition. There are over 30 million bloggers competing in that niche and your only chance of recognition is either expensive marketing, or patiently growing your blog audience over months, maybe years, until you reach cult-like status. Plus, you have to learn the essentials of SEO optimization, create fresh content frequently and guest-blogging. Now suppose you focused instead on podcasting? Since its still relatively under-exploited, you can quickly gain that audience you’re looking for much faster and develop credibility as an authority by being one of the few podcasters doing what you’re doing. What would initially have taken you months to achieve, you attain in a matter of weeks. Become ‘The Voice’ in your niche.

As Tom Tate says, “This “first to market” approach to podcasting may be the opportunity you have been searching for to catapult your online marketing to the next level. If you can develop the go-to authority podcast in your niche, you may eventually drive enough traffic back to your site or blog to become the authority on other mediums as well.”

When you hear or see someone on Radio or TV, they have instant credibility. As a podcaster you will enjoy the same credibility. People will value your opinion. You can leverage this position to influence your audience, promote yourself and even make money. The trick is to leverage on a specific niche and do everything possible to dominate that niche. If you have an audience that is interested in that topic or interest, they will come back repeatedly.

5. You Quickly Gain a Very Focused Audience

With the right content, you will gain listeners fast. Your audience is potentially worldwide. You can offer quality content to keep in touch with your customers and keep yourself, your product or your service in the front of their mind.

6. Break Through The Clutter

Podcasting is a great way to cut through the clutter and reach your audience. You overcome probably radio’s greatest barrier with this tactic. This makes podcasts very effective for promotion, marketing and growing a focused audience.

7. You can define and express your own unique style without limitations

Marc Maron interviewed President Obama at his home in Los Angeles, earlier this week. While that’s impressive, it’s the fact that President Obama mentioned the “n… ‘ word during that podcast interview that created headlines.

Wait…

You mean President Obama did an interview on someone’s home? Mark Maron, 51 years old, has a podcast show called WTF. You don’t need much ingenuity to figure out what that stands for. His unique interview style on his podcast can be either comforting or uneasy, which makes it even more interesting that President Obama agreed to the request. But, it’s a style of communication that seems to draw in listeners by the dozens.

“I think what resonates with people is kind of raw honesty and authenticity,” says Maron. “If anything defines whatever the brand is, or if anything defines the success that I have in talking to people in interviews, it’s that there seems to be something very personal and raw in how I engage with people.”

8. Podcasting is a Convenient, Automatic and Inexpensive Way to Reach Your Audience or Customers

Getting started in podcasting is relatively inexpensive. All you need is a good computer, a strong microphone and a broadband internet connection. Later, you can buy nicer gear if you want. For now you can get started with minimal cost. In fact, all the equipment you need at start-up will approximate $ 500. The Blue Yeti USB microphone for example costs an affordable $128. Invest in a good ShockMount, Mac laptop, recording software like Garage or Audacity and you’re good to go. In a later article, we’ll show you this cost breakdown. All you need is something to say and a desire to say it. If you were to try and do the same thing on the radio, you would have to face all sorts of FCC regulations, and unnecessary expenses. Consider how much you currently spend on radio ads. More than $2,000 per campaign? In many cases, this is not even a fraction of the radio budget. Podcasting removes all that cost and trouble. One reason that podcasting has become so popular is that it’s automated. Listeners subscribe to your feed. This means they don’t have to remember to return your site to check for new content. When you post new content, it’s automatically downloaded to your listener.

It’s so easy to get started. In less than a day, your podcast can be on the air and available to millions all over the world. All you need to start your podcast is a computer, a microphone and a broadband internet connection.

If you have any questions about how you can leverage podca

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