There are companies and corporations that spend billions of dollars every year in advertising. You see their ads on TV, hear them on the radio and even get them on your cell phones. Obviously, these companies make money by "convincing" you to buy a product through these ads. How do they know what will make money for them and what? Good question, because they don't know. Some companies will try sample ads to a select population and then monitor their results before ramping up to a full scale ad campaign. Other companies will hire a marketing firm before launching an ad campaign in order to get the best information on domestic trends, user habits and interests. Once a company hires a marketing firm, the firm will then collect data from a select populace using web site traffic results, TV ad results and yes...even paid surveys.

By completing a paid survey, you are offering information about yourself: your habits, opinions, likes and dislikes to the marketing firm. That firm will sell your information to another company that will in turn try to sell a product back to you via an ad somewhere.

So, back to the point; Is participating in an online survey worth your time? If you are unemployed and looking for a job, or employed and still have some free time, then participating in paid surveys might be for you. Marketing firms will collect information about you when you sign up and then use that data to match you with current or future survey needs. If you are selected to participate in a survey, you will be notified and given a link via email that will point you to the survey. Four to Six weeks later you will get a check in the mail for your participation.

Surveys are a great way to make an extra $25 to $50 a week in your spare time or after a long day of job hunting. If you are disabled, or a stay at home mom surveys will work well for you too. You can multiply the number of surveys you are selected for by signing up with multiple marketing firms possibly earning $100 to $150 a week. Just be sure to do something productive between each participation letter you get.

If you think paid surveys are for you, there are a number of legitimate paid survey companies available. For every legitimate paid survey company however, there are a dozen scams.