Carving Out My Niche – Finding a Niche For You

Currently, many of us are stuck at home, most are not by choice. Whether you are stuck at home or not it never hurts to make a few extra dollars online. Even just a few dollars in your spare time will add up to a decent amount each month. Most sites will pay you in cash every month, but some like MyPoints will pay you in gift cards to your favorite stores. I get about 2 gift cards a year from MyPoints worth $50 each. I always pick my favorite restaurants, and that is two to four very nice meals every year. Or if you like fast food that's about 10 meals a year for you. Even when things were normal, you often had some spare time while going about your daily life. For instance, you may be waiting in a queue to pay a few bills, taking the train or bus to the office or school. Whether it’s the current stay at home scenario or any of the other scenarios described, it’s always good to use your free time to put some money or gift cards in your pocket. What is even better is that you get paid with just a few quick taps, clicks, and keystrokes. Yes, you heard it right – by signing up for the survey sites we have mentioned below, taking a few surveys or completing other activities, you can earn a decent amount of money online. PRO TIP: Do NOT sign up for any 'survey sites' that want you to pay them money upfront for you to sign up. Avoid them at all costs. All of the sites on this page are 100% FREE to sign up The list we have composed will focus on informing you about the best, most prominent, and legitimate survey sites that you can earn decent money from. They don’t make ridiculous up-front payment demands and are backed by major marketing research organizations. Using these sites for taking part in online surveys will definitely be worth your while, giving you great monetary benefit for your time and effort. I have tried and tested each one to bring you an unbiased opinion on each. For your benefit, we have also included a link to each of these websites at the start of their description. While going through this list, however, keep in mind that this list of survey sites is not arranged in any particular order. American Consumer Opinion American Consumer Opinion is one of the oldest in the field of research and surveys and currently has more than 6 million members who enjoy the luxury of earning money through participation in surveys and research projects, all while they get their voices heard through the surveys and research projects. Currently, more than 20 million surveys have been conducted via the platform. The website allows its members to take part in both short/screening surveys as well as long-form surveys; their efforts are rewarded in the form of points that range between 5 and 50 for short surveys and 100 to 5000 for long surveys. These points can be redeemed easily once a member reaches the payout threshold of 1000 points. You can opt for additional incentives offered by the website for greater earning potential, including product testing opportunities, watching advertisements, and using a referral system to invite other friends. Signup is quick and easy. Branded Surveys Branded Surveys is a user-friendly and simple-to-operate survey site with a fairly quick sign-up process that can be as quick as connecting your Facebook account to get started. It also offers you a sign-up bonus of 50 points that you can redeem once you reach the payout threshold. In addition to a general survey that can reward you with as many as 300 points, the quick surveys offered by the site are mainly related to ‘personal profile information’ and offer an extra reward of 10 to 50 points for each survey. As far as additional earning options go, the website also has a loyalty program that offers badges for completing a certain number of achievements. These achievements will help you unlock additional earning options such as providing insights on new products that are about to be launched by the companies you care about. As an Elite Silver (600 points) or Gold member (2100 points) you can earn 50 points every time you refer someone and they become Active Elite Silver members. You will receive a link that you can share with your friend on Facebook or Twitter or any social media accounts you have. This is a really quick way to earn fast points. I would be greatly appreciative if you used my friend's link when you sign up. The website is supported by renowned research companies including Forrester and Nielsen Research, so you know that the research surveys and projects on the website are legitimate. CashKarma CashKarma is fairly distinct from other survey sites as it functions primarily as a mobile application accessible only through a user’s mobile device. This internationally-operated site offers you different options to earn money online from filling up survey questionnaires, watching online ads, or signing up for other services. The website’s reward system is based on points that members earn while taking part in different activities. The points you score can be redeemed as cash once you reach the minimum payout threshold. Additionally, there is an instant reward of 300 points for new account holders as an incentive for signing up. You can earn more cash if you use this site regularly as it offers special rewards for scoring different Achievement Badges. There are many different ways to earn free points. For example 50 points for just signing up, 50 points for verifying your email, even 300 points when you refer your friends. For example, if you use my referrer code: freebird30 after signing up, or just use my referrer link before signing up, I will get 300 points and you will also get 300 points when you sign up. Global Test Market Global Test Market (Now LifePoints) has been in operations since 1999. It’s a user-friendly website that offers a quick and simple registration process that requires you to submit only your name and email address to get started. It basically functions as a survey site that offers you money to participate in a wide range of online surveys including surveys related to shopping trends, the popularity of food outlets, automobiles, and more. This means that you can participate in different categories of surveys as many like-minded people. Other than that, you can enter sweepstakes by submitting entries to try your luck in lucky draws that happen periodically. You can also earn extra points by using the referral system on the website to invite your people. Like most other survey websites, it uses a point system to reward its users. It does, however, require a mandatory pre-qualification questionnaire to be filled in for you to take part in surveys. You can cash out at 600 points and receive $5. There are many different and easy ways to earn 100 per survey. The Harris Poll The Harris Poll offers surveys mainly in the domain of global and regional politics and international relations. Even though it has a slightly complicated and lengthy sign-up and qualification process, it’s worth the effort once the money begins to roll in as a reward for your participation in the surveys. The surveys are interesting and include versatile topics such as Trump’s approval ratings, pharmaceutical company reputations during COVID-19 among others. If you want to have your voice heard regarding topics of your interest, sign up for the Harris Poll and start taking surveys that pique your interest. The payout threshold is $10 which is significantly lower than many other sites and the average payout for a survey is $1. After reaching the payout threshold, you can redeem your points via Amazon gift card or even donate the money to charity if you’re feeling philanthropic and generous. I do not recommend this site as a decent option for making money online with surveys. There are just too many hoops to jump through and the payout is not really worth the time. I just wanted to list it here in case you ever came across it and was wondering if it would be worth it or not. InboxDollars Inbox Dollars is a very easy-to-use website that promises a quick and convenient cash return for your efforts and time, which makes it an ideal money-making survey website for beginners. You even get $5 just for signing up and verifying your email address. Along with another .50 for just filling out your profile information and answering some questions about yourself. You can use this website to watch videos, read emails, play games, do online shopping, browsing, or, of course, taking part in surveys. The best part of it all is that you’ll get paid back for all of the activities you take part in. Inbox Dollars also has a Scratch & Win section where you can virtually scratch off a ticket to win free cash. It also greets its first-time users with a five-dollar sign-up bonus. If you regularly participate in the website’s activities, you’ll surpass your threshold of $30 in no time and start earning an impressive figure. Users can be rewarded via different modes of payment, including check, Visa, or Amazon gift cards that they have the freedom and convenience to choose from. As a bonus, you also get $1 for any friend referrals along with 30% of whatever your friends earn. iSay Panel iSay Panel falls under the umbrella of Ipsos, which is one of the largest marketing companies in the world. This panel is a platform where you can earn by taking part in online surveys. This site exclusively offers marketing surveys for its subscribers and does not distract them from other incentive-based activities. By paying you for filling out online surveys, the website lets you earn points that can be redeemed via Amazon gift cards, PayPal, or merchandise. Although the points awarded per survey are comparatively low, the surveys are fast and offer you the opportunity to add up your total points quickly and redeem a pretty penny. In addition to that, many other options are available to boost your income significantly, like prize draws, loyalty points, and more. LifePoints LifePoints is a global survey site and considered as a major opinion influencer throughout the world and has a 5-million strong community of users. It’s user-friendly and has surveys available in approximately 26 different languages. What makes it one of the most in-demand survey sites is the quick and easy qualification process, another reason why it’s 5 million-strong community is continually growing. It offers comparatively shorter and quick surveys, maintaining a points-based reward system for its users with minimum cash in the threshold of $20. You can also earn money on this site by tracking behaviors or experiences of others or by testing out products. If you use this site regularly, you can earn up between 100-200 points per survey. Additionally, you can enhance the effectiveness of your earnings by using LifePoints’ booster points for various activities. MyPoints MyPoints is a platform that lets its users earn money by taking part in online surveys and pools. Like Survey Junkie, it pays its users even when they are not qualified for the surveys and even throws in a free welcome bonus of $10 for first-time users. I have a full breakdown of more details of MyPoints over on My Recommendations Page. I use MyPoints the most just because it is one of the easiest to use. You receive multiple emails each day and you just click on each email and are redirected to a page and once that page loads you receive 5 points. Of course, you can earn more points by taking surveys and even more points for shopping. MyPoints even has an excellent referral program where you earn 25 points per friend and a 10% bonus for the points your friend earns. Like many other survey sites, MyPoints offers you many options for earning money including watching videos, doing online shopping, playing games, and many more. It offers a reasonable payment threshold of $3 that can be redeemed mainly through gift cards like Amazon and Visa. However, what sets this site apart from similar sites is its guaranteed cashback offer on online shopping where you can get as much as 40% of your money back. Like I stated at the beginning I receive two $50 gift cards every year (Just for clicking on 2-4 emails a day!!) MySurvey MySurvey (Yet another site that has been absorbed into LifePoints) is possibly the most versatile of all survey websites in terms of reward system as well as survey options and that makes participating in online surveys both interesting and lucrative. If you qualify for participating in surveys, the site will provide you with surveys that match your profile. You will be able to earn rewards in the form of points ranging from 10 to 500 varying with the length of the survey. Additionally, incentives like random monthly awards of 1000 points (equating to $100) and referral system keep users engaged with the website. This website lays out a wide range of options for you to redeem your reward including Amazon gift cards and PayPal. One Opinion One Opinion is one of the fastest survey sites in terms of sign up process which hardly takes a minute. It also picks out the best surveys that members qualify for, thanks to its survey matching system. This site uses a point system to reward its valued members and for every 1000 points, you are rewarded with a dollar. The payout threshold is 25000 points which can be redeemed via PayPal or Amazon gift cards. The site usually pays around $1 - 5 per survey and with its low qualification rate and simpler sign up process, it is a very easy and one of the most popular survey websites, where you have the potential to earn approximately 2 dollars per hour. Opinion Outpost Opinion Outpost is mainly concerned with surveys related to government, public institutions, and the corporate world. This site is also accessible via social media accounts, adding to the reasons why it’s popular. You do, however, need to go through a screening test to qualify yourself before taking part in the surveys. The users of this website are awarded points for participating in surveys that can last from 10 to 30 minutes depending upon the length. For every 10 points, they are entitled to redeem $1 as a reward after achieving a payout threshold of $5 – possibly the lowest threshold of any survey site. Additionally, you can earn as many as $10,000 in random quarterly prize draws when you regularly use the website. EDIT: I can no longer recommend OpinionOutpost as a survey site. You are more than welcome to search them out and try on your own. Here was my experience with them. I have never signed up with them before (this piece of info will come in handy later). I signed up and gave them my normal info, name, email, password, address, etc. Then I received the confirmation email like the rest where you click the link in the email to verify it's you. Then I went to log in and I got a message from their site saying "My account has been frozen due to data concerns." Odd, but ok. So I email the support email that was in the error message on the site. They reply with a semi-generic message saying "As a member of our program you may only have one account, provide accurate profile information and survey responses. You must also be thoughtful and attentive in responding to our surveys. When we have concerns about any of these program rules we are obligated to take steps to investigate and unfortunately suspend accounts." I have never signed up with them before, I provided 100% accurate info when I signed up, and since I could not log in, I was not ever able to even take a survey. I tried replying to them explaining this and they just replied with the same thing, "We looked again and same as before, nope." (paraphrased) Make of it what you will. I wish I knew what happened, but I do not, so I just do not recommend them anymore. You are welcome to try for yourself. This is also a very important note for ANY of these sites. ALWAYS provide 100% accurate info and be honest when taking the surveys. They are all there to collect accurate information with their surveys and then to pay you for your time. Just be honest and accurate if you are going to be taking surveys. Panda Research Panda Research is an established online research company that has been providing online surveys to its members to fill out for monetary benefits since 2005. This company somehow acquired notoriety amongst the reviewers despite the fact that the company apparently offers high-quality legitimate surveys alongside an easy and user-friendly environment. There are random high-end opportunities that can reward you with as many as $40. Generally, however, you get surveys with rewards ranging between $1 and $3. This site maintains a pretty high payout threshold at $50 dollars but once you reach this threshold, you will be entitled to cash rewards via PayPal, after an on-call verification of your account. Also as a bonus, you get an automatic $3 just for signing up and confirming your email address. Invite Your Friends to Join Panda Research, and get bonuses as well.Encourage your friends to start earning on Panda Research, start earning 10% of your referrals! Once your friends request payment, 10% of the offer earnings will be credited to your account! For example, if I referred Bob to join Panda Research, and he completed $30 of his offers and $20 of Panda Mails, I will receive an extra $3 into my account! The limits are endless so start inviting! Panel PayDay Panel PayDay only refers their members to take part in surveys conducted on other websites and this is a legal practice called ‘affiliate marketing’. This website is more preferable than a few of the other survey sites as it gives you an opportunity for maximum online earning by making a wide range of surveys available in one place. As you sign up, you are flooded with surveys, with some of them offering between $25 - $75 per survey! Generally, however, your payout from participating in a survey ranges from $1 - $3. Pinecone Research Pinecone Research is very exclusive since it does not allow free sign-ups for surveys and online testing. It does so only by inviting people. Nevertheless, you may increase your chances of getting an invitation link by frequently going through their online ads and banners. Although, if you just click on my invite link above you can sign up and start taking surveys. No need to wait around trying to find a banner or online ad somewhere. It is a highly rewarding website that rewards its members beginning with a minimum of $3 per survey via a point system. It follows very strict qualification criteria, however, which is based on specific demographics and, therefore, allows restricted access to online surveys. It is also a very efficient and specific site for conducting surveys since it sends you only the surveys you are qualified for. It even pays instantly once you’re done with the survey. Prize Rebel Prize Rebel is a time-tested survey site that has been operating for nine years and conducts market research for a number of consumer companies and brands. Besides offering online surveys, the website also has daily challenges, lotteries, and social media giveaways that you can participate in to boost your earnings. Yet another survey site that you can invite your friends and earn even more points and cash. It uses a point-based system to rewards its consumers in which for every 100 points, you get a dollar and after achieving the point threshold, you can redeem your points as cash by using a number of available payment options. Since its beginning, this website has awarded more than $9 million to its users. For instilling trust in new users, the number of daily disbursements is displayed regularly on the home page. Survey Club Survey Club is another global online survey site that has been operational since 2005 and claims to have more than 16 million users around the world. This site is different as it often doesn’t host the survey itself; rather, it acts as a middleman for another surveying company. A unique feature of this site is that it lets its users decide which surveys they wish to take on. Most of the surveys are centered on user demographic information, opinions, and beliefs about the product being surveyed. The payout threshold of this site is $20 and payments are generally made via Amazon gift cards, travel miles, PayPal, and more. Survey Junkie Survey Junkie is a renowned survey website that’s mainly concerned with carrying out surveys related to popular opinions about brands and products. Available surveys can range from those you can fill out in few minutes to those that involve a journal, a phone call, and even product testing. The reward system is based on points in where each point is equal to one cent and an average survey gets you anywhere from 10 to 200 points. The best thing about this survey site is that it rewards you for your participation in a survey even if you do not qualify for its criteria. For additional earnings, you can use its referral system to score more points and after reaching the payment threshold of $10, redeem them in cash. Typically it takes about 3 surveys to reach 500 points, which is equivalent to $5. Not hard at all to start making money. Swagbucks Besides participating in online surveys, you can also use Swagbucks for online gaming activities, video surfing, shopping, etc. to make money online. It’s been featured on many news and online media websites such as BuzzFeed, ABC, Save the Student!, The Penny Hoarder and Huff Post This website works on a point-based system, awarding different points for activities you do on the website. These points can then be cashed out through PayPal or gift cards after achieving a threshold of $3. You can also use this website’s search engine to earn reward points. Additionally, you can get a monetary incentive of as many as 150 Swagbucks if you watch ads on its online television. Besides all these rewards, the site often throws out incentives like random prizes and bonus points to appreciate its regular users. Toluna Toluna is one of the most popular and reliable survey sites that claims more than 9 million users across the globe. Besides asking you to fill up questionnaires and forms straight from the marketing departments of brands like CocaCola, Loreal, FIAT, and Amazon, it offers a number of different games and product testing opportunities to keep users engaged. The site requires you to maintain an accurate personal profile to enable you to qualify for survey invites that suit you best. Toluna also rewards its users with points for their efforts. Although the pay threshold is significantly high at 60,000 points, the system offers you gamble with a much smaller number of points for higher rewards. Valued Opinions Valued Opinions operates in more than 20 countries and claims to have approximately 3 million members worldwide. It does not work with cash rewards; instead, it offers retail vouchers or gift cards to its members for their efforts. The average time taken to complete surveys on this site is 20 minutes. After the successful completion of each survey, your account will be credited with $1 - $5. However, while withdrawing your earnings from this site, factor in the deduction of a minimal amount as a processing fee. Additionally, this site offers a unique ‘Badge Program’ that encourages its regular members to earn more by making their way through five levels of achievement. Vindale Research Vindale Research is a safe and reliable platform for online earnings and offers members money to fill out surveys related to technology, health, beauty and fitness, home appliances, automobiles, fashion and many other diverse topics. On average, each survey rewards you with 75 cents to a dollar in cash, depending on its length. To enhance your rewards, you can use for additional options including the Vindale Referral System which rewards you $5 for referring the site to your friend, opening emails, and even watching online ads. You may also be entitled to the occasional sign-up if you’re in luck. VIP Voice VIP Voice is different from many other similar survey sites as it offers its own surveys to members instead of conducting online surveys for third parties. It offers a wide range of surveys across topics to its members. These surveys have the maximum successful completion rate as indicated by NerdWallet’s completion test. This site offers tiered rewards that work on five different levels. To reach each level, you will have to complete a specific number of surveys which means the more surveys you take part in, the higher your level advances and you rack up more points as a result. Qualifying for these surveys depends largely on demographic information. For each complete survey, you will be awarded 25 - 550 points that you can only use to either place bids on items, purchase gift cards, or enter sweepstakes. Honorable Mentions Here I have three honorable mentions. They are very similar to all the others, meaning they pay out in either gift cards, PayPal or Payoneer. They are certainly still very good legitimate sites to try out. 1) Get Paid To Try Get Paid To Try Discover New Offer Deals in your inbox every day! From paid surveys to cashback, trial offers, sweepstakes, and more! The minimum cash-out for this one is $10, so you are able to cash-out fairly quick. You can use Payoneer or Amazon gift cards for your payouts, they do not use PayPal or check. Payoneer is just like PayPal and you can also get a debit card from them to use your balance. Get Paid To Try has been around since 2005, so they are not just a new company. Why is this one an honorable mention? Just because of the payouts only being Amazon gift cards or Payoneer. Which personally I don't mind because I have a Payoneer account and I use Amazon ALL THE TIME. 2) Make Survey Money Make Survey Money has been around for about 13 years now. You can quickly register with your Facebook account if you'd like, or just create an account with your info and email. When you first sign in you will want to skip all the promotional offers otherwise it will take you a very long time to finish the sign-up process. You can come back to them later after you have finished up. You will get a $2 bonus for just signing up. You can also make $1 per each friend that signs up under your account as well. You can cash out with PayPal and other various gift cards at this site. Conclusion These are some of the most credible and legitimate survey sites that I have been able to find and test out. They all have a number of unique features and exclusive offers, among other incentives to earn money online. There’s no restriction on using more than one at a time, depending on how much free time you have and your location. Signing up for all these survey sites will not make you rich overnight. Even signing up for all the sites probably won't give you a full-time income, but it could certainly give you a few hundred dollars a month, possibly even up to a thousand or more a month, if you dedicate some time and energy into it. You can fairly easily get plenty of gift cards to use at Amazon, or your favorite retailer or restaurant. Or in many cases, you can get cash or money sent directly to your PayPal account. As any other sensible individual, always prefer to take part in surveys having the highest time to point ratio, while keeping the different incentives offered by these sites in mind, to maximize your payout ratio. I hope this information can help you bring in a little extra income for yourself or your family. Thanks for reading.

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