Online Paid Surveys - Can I make money here?

The whole "get paid to take surveys" thing has been around for a while, but it's one of those easy money things that has never really been discredited. To better facilitate you all as aspiring writers, and the wider community of people who make money online, I thought I'd have a look at one or two of these offers to see if there are any worth their salt.

What struck me as strange was that a lot of the online surveys require you to pay them money before they start sending you surveys. So I went looking for a free one. This was not an easy task, but I eventually came across GlobalTestMarket. I joined up, and they get you to answer a bunch of questions about yourself before they start sending you surveys to complete. For completing surveys you get "market points", which apparently convert to cash at 5 market points per US cent. I haven't received any surveys yet, but I'm not holding my breath to make millions out of this one.

I eventually gave up on that and took the plunge, signing up for the best non-free one I could find. I At first I thought it was a bit of a rip, but then I remembered that just that morning a friend had paid over twice this amount to sign up to an extras casting agency, who did not guarantee any work. The one I joined, Paid Surveys Online, promises you at least 3 surveys a day at $10 per survey. You can do more, but this is what they say you will definitely get.

So how "easy" is the money? Well, it's not free, but it's as close as it gets. Income potential isn't huge if you live in the United States, the UK or Canada, but it's a good way to make extra money for an hour's work every day. I did some numbers, and if you want to make money taking surveys then you need to move to sunny South Africa, or India or any country that has a weak currency vs. the US dollar.

If you spend a few hours taking surveys for the Paid Survey Program and you live in one of these countries, you can actually make a viable income by doing only surveys! I spend an hour a day taking surveys, no more, and I make more in that hour than I make in two hours of writing!

So my verdict is: if you want to answer the odd survey and get a little check after a few months, join up with Global Test Market. But if you want to really make money taking surveys and earn a viable income from it, then join Paid Surveys Online.

At $10 a survey you are guaranteed to make back the signup cost in the first day, even if you only do the minimum number of surveys. Here's a tip: if you try to leave the front page, it offers you a special $10 off coupon!

Related Discussions

Freelance Writing Site Review

I was recommended to a freelance writing site today that has totally blown my mind. Writer Lance is very much along the same lines as the much-more-famous GetAFreelancer but it is far broader in its scope of media.

Where GAF focuses on web content, ebooks, web developing and technical work, this is primarily a place for writers. The writing jobs on this site are mostly web content, but there is a lot of print media work available as well. What makes this site cool is that a lot of the writing work looks quite fun. There are a lot of humour pieces, jokes, poetry projects, writing competitions and such and such.

I know I focus mainly on SEO writing jobs, but this site has something for just about every kind of writer. I would say that if writing fast, easy web content for easy money is your thing, go to GetAFreelancer. If you want to write slightly more labour-intensive pieces that are a bit more gratifying, I would definitely suggest looking for writing jobs at WriterLance.

Freelance Writing Resources

Proofreading Work Available

I have a project that I have put up on GetAFreelancer that I would like to invite my readers to bid on.

It is a philosophy eBook, around 32,000, that needs editing for style. It is a project that should not take a long time, and I would like someone who knows something about philosophy and not just an editing wizard. The project can be viewed here and payment can be arranged through GetAFreelancer or Moneybookers for South African bidders (this will let you get your money faster).

The full details of the project are available on GetAFreelancer, and you can view these after you have created an account (which is free). Anyone who works on this project will get a mention in the book, which is not something you usually get when you do freelance writing work.

I encourage you all to have a look and see if it's up your alley!

Freelance Work

Writing World - Review

To better serve my visitors who are looking for writing work I have decided to start regular reviews of freelance writing sites. The first on this list is www.writingworld.org.

I stumbled across this site by accident, and I notice that it's a little different from a lot of freelance writing sites out there. There is no signup, and you don't make any account. There is just a big job board where people post advertisements for writing jobs.

This works a lot like a classified ads paper. You have to send in your resume (or at least a professional email) to the company listing the writing jobs, and then they will respond privately. If you want to find a regular client who will give you constant writing jobs, this is the place to go.

It differs from GetAFreeLancer in that this puts you directly in contact with the original clients. The writing jobs up for grabs are pretty much permanent or semi-permanent positions, or they are large single projects like scripts or screenplays.

I always have a "why not" approach to applying for writing jobs, so I will keep an eye on this one. If you see something good on this board, by all means apply for it - the worst they can do is not hire you. There are several good jobs up at the moment, and I think this is a good site to find a single long term client to work for.

writing jobs

Why I Use Google for Damn Near Everything

Google has really come a long way since its inception. Most people still think of Google as a search engine, but to me the G-Men have a lot more to offer. For starters you might have noticed their little acquisition of a website called YouTube, which made instant multi-billionaires out of two punks just like yourself.

This has little effect on users of YouTube and Google, but the guys at Google have a lot more to offer. For starters, I use Gmail. This is the starting point most people use to create their Google accounts, and it gives you access to the best online email system by far, and all of the other cool G-stuff.

Next up, I use the iGoogle homepage as my script aggregator. If you subscribe to any feeds or posts using bloglines, technorati, digg or anything like that you can do it all easier and better on iGoogle. On my front page is my email, a currency converter, a to-do list a Wikipedia search bar, the weather and a George Bush quote generator, because he makes me laugh.

This is not the end, because I have 2 other tabs of feeds - one for blogs I like and have subscribed to, and another for tools like my instant .doc to .pdf converter (which is something I've been hunting after for a long time) and a few other gadgets that I use less often. It makes an excellent home page, and I can see what's going on in my little universe all of the time.

This is all pretty run of the mill stuff, but just go and check out the Google Products to see what they have available at the moment. It's all free and there is a lot of useful stuff. I would recommend the Google Pack (You can see a link to this on the right) if you want to protect your computer and keep everything running smoothly for free.

The most exciting bit of it all, though, is Google Labs. This is where they work on all of the cool stuff. Google Earth (the full 3D interactive map of the earth up to resolutions of a few centimeters) was one of the first graduates of the labs, but a lot of cool things are coming up. There is even a rumor of a complete Google Operating System coming being dreamed up, but this is unconfirmed.

I just have to say, you gotta love a company that gives its employees free foot massages and allows them to work on their own personal projects once a week, with full pay. You might love their search engine or hate it, but the cool stuff they are turning out is really worth a look.

Google Stuff

Writing Jobs at WriteNonsense

I have received several requests recently about writing jobs that I might have to offer. If anyone has noticed, I have two or three features on my blog that allow you to find writing jobs easily -- without shelling out any money first.

I have writing jobs available for my South African readers at the moment. Hopefully I will be able to offer projects to international writers soon, but I cannot give any time frame for this. My reason for this is that the rates I could offer overseas writers are not really worth the trouble. (Unless you live in India, or another country whose currency is weak against the dollar) You can email me to find out what writing jobs I have available at the moment.

For my international readers who really want to get started writing for money, I would suggest looking at the writing jobs on GetAFreelancer. These are the most recent internet copywriting jobs that have been posted. For information on how to join GetAFreelancer, bid on projects and win them, see my post here about how to do it.

If you want to get work through GetAFreelancer, you will need either a Moneybookers or a PayPal account so you can get money out of GAF. There are a lot of other internet copywriting job posts, but this is the one that comes most highly recommended. I use it and I can tell you it is a really easy way to get jobs. You usually end up getting long term clients who supply you with a comfortable flow of work, and that's your ideal situation as a freelance writer.

So, if anyone is looking for online writing work, drop me a line. If I can't help you out I can point you in the right direction. The "Helium needs you to write" ad on the right isn't kidding - they want writers and they pay you in perpetuity! So check it out, write some articles for them and watch your writing earn money!

Writing Jobs

Free Link Writing Competition Coming Soon!

Very soon I will be hosting a free link writing competition on WriteNonsense! This will be open to anyone, and the prize is a free permalink back to your blog.

Actually, there will be three prizes, and they will be as follows:

1st Prize - Your banner on my blog for a week, which will then become a permalink in my "What I Use" bar.
2nd Prize - A free permalink in my "What I Use" bar
3rd Prize - A reciprocal link (I will link to you when I have verified that you have included a link to me)

The winner will also have their submission posted on my blog, and the 2nd and 3rd prize winners will have links to their stories in the same post. I will actively promote the winner's article.

The competition is open to anyone, but obviously if you have a blog it will be of more interest to you. Submissions may be anything at all, and I will post more guidelines and rules when I launch the competition. All prize links will be permanent.

This is the first of many writing competitions that I hope to hold. Keep checking back for updates, because once my traffic reaches a certain daily average I will begin the competition (I want to make it worthwhile for you).

free link

SEO - An Ethical Debate

SEO practices have come under a lot of scrutiny by those who strive to keep the internet a user-friendly and safe resource. There are methods of making your website more search-engine friendly, and there is almost no control over how you employ these. Some of them are considered ethical, and others are not. What are these distinctions, and why should webmasters not exploit every loophole they can to get more traffic?

Traffic means money, and many webmasters will do anything to secure more traffic. The Google Information for Webmasters lays down some criteria for the ethical optimization of pages, which I encourage everyone to read, even if you don't own a website. If you write SEO articles for a living, you might like to know exactly what your work is doing to the internet.

Recently I did some articles for certain multi-level marketing sites. These guys essentially sell software that sets up and maintains an affiliate network. When you give them money, they give you the software and tell you how to sucker in other saps and show them how to sucker in yet more saps. They used to call this a "pyramid scheme", but somehow this one has managed to slip through the cracks.

In my opinion these sites should not be drawing any traffic. One look at their keyword META tags tells you that these guys will do anything to get traffic. Just about any search for anything to do with money, business, marketing etc brings up one of this network's sites, all of which are almost identical.

But now, the honest people on the net face a problem. Either they can jump in and use 'bastard' SEO techniques to compete, or they can stick with being honest, keeping their keywords to a minimum and providing good, relevant content. So why should they do this?

Google's corporate motto is "Don't be evil", and evil is exactly what they strive to weed out. They continually update their algorithms to ensure that sites using underhand SEO techniques do not get traffic. Their stated goal is to create a search environment that rewards webmasters who devote their time to giving their users a valuable experience, rather than looking for loopholes. Eventually, this will happen.

As SEO writers, we generally do not have control over who our client websites are. However, I have refused projects for unethical websites in the past and I urge you to do the same. There is nothing wrong with trying to sell a product, and trying to get a competitive edge. On the other hand, if you have the best products, the best prices and the best value and you get your name out there, your business will succeed.

This is especially true on the internet. As I wrote in my eZine Article one person telling his friends about your site will bring in some traffic, but all of these people want to see your site. This is preferable to a thousand visitors who found your site when they were looking for something else that is more relevant. These users will simply see that your site does not have what they are looking for, and will leave.

This is basically one approach to SEO, and one that I hope will gain greater ground. You can check out my eZine article on the subject here. It's easy to read and it gets into some more interesting stuff, like John Nash's Game Theory (the guy from A Beautiful Mind). Go check it out!

Other SEO topics

Apology and Forthcoming Attractions

Hi and welcome to my Friday commentary.

First off an apology to my email subscribers who have been receiving duplicates of my posts all day. I have been republishing some posts and trying work out some kinks with the Digg application. Note that you can now Digg my blog on the last post - please do this if it rocks you.

I have been writing like a mad thing this week, and I haven't been able to post as much as I like. However, I would like to alert you to a few things that will be going on in the near future:

1. Weekend Special

This weekend I will be posting a special discussion on the ethics of search engine optimization (SEO) as I see it. I have recently been asked to do some work for sites that I believe should not be getting more traffic. I am speaking specifically of multi-level marketing scams, commonly known as pyramid schemes or Ponzi schemes. With these in mind I will be discussing ethical issues at stake when writing SEO articles.

2. My eBook

Although this is unrelated to my normal work, I will be publishing my 100 page introductory philosophy eBook shortly on LuLu. This book is an easy to understand guide to the major issues in metaphysics. It is written to explain these issues to people who have never read philosophy before, as well as for first year philosophy students who want a firm basic understanding of the topics. It will be available for download for around $4.95, and I encourage you all to have a look at it.

3. My NEW eBook

I am starting a new project: an eBook entitled "Investing for the Non Salaried Person". It will be a general guide to starting small investments when you do not earn a regular salary. This is of course aimed at people like yourself who write for a living, and people in seasonal industries like tourism. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions or comments, please email them to me. If I use your contribution I will list you in the front of the book, as well as include the URL of your website in the chapter it deals with (if your site is relevant to the topic of course).

So that's all. Thank you all for visiting this week. Traffic has reached an average of 12 visitors a day, which is a lot more than most blogs can claim after their first two weeks!

Related Topics on Technorati

Write reviews like a Pro!

Review writing can be some of the most lucrative internet copywriting jobs you can find on GetAFreelancer, or anywhere else. Here are 5 tips on how to write reviews like a pro!

1. Know the required objectivity level

The client should specify this, but if not be sure to clarify how objective your review should be. If you are supposed to be plugging a site you obviously have to be nice about it and include the name of the site many times. If you can be totally objective, then it's time to have some fun...

2. Humour - the most powerful review writing tool

When you write reviews, try to make people laugh. Use funny comparisons like "The new iPhone's standard ringtones lack the charm of the elevator classics we all know and love..." If you don't know what a funny comparison sounds like, watch Top Gear.

3. Skip to the boring stuff

Don't waste time checking out all the cool features of whatever you are writing a review about. Scan through the FAQ and the terms and conditions. The FAQ will tell you about any problems users of that product, website etc experienced, and the T&C will tell you any hidden costs or snags that your readers should know about.

4. Bullet Points

According to my sources, bullet points are "back in". Use headings, numbered lists and bullet points to get important facts across, or to increase the impact of your jokes.

5. Be brief and give an opinion!

People read reviews to see what other people think about something they might buy or look at. State your case clearly in your review, and give a concise summary including your general opinion in the last paragraph.


So, if you use those five tips, your reviews should start earning you some good money. I currently make around $12 per 1000 review, but sometimes I get more. In terms of $/hour they are much more lucrative than SEO articles, but they require some actual constructive writing and thought.

If you think you are up to review writing, check out what review projects you can bid on at GetAFreelancer, or email me to see if I have any review work that you can get started on.


Read about review writing