Making Money at Home-Surveys

There are so many sites out there that it's hard to know what's legitimate. I can say after looking around that there is no magic site that will allow you to make thousands of dollars a day with no work. I have found a few good sites that will pay you a small amount of money for doing a small amount of work. I will only list sites that I have used and where I have received a payment.

There are different ways to earn money from home. You can do surveys, mystery shopping, and GPTs (or Get paid to...). This is not a complete list, rather the ones that I have personal experience with.

I will focus just on surveys for this post, then follow up with more posts on other types of money-making opportunities.

Survey Companies

Starting with surveys. I have several survey companies that I work with, and will often get 5-10 surveys per day. The value of the pay varies based on the company, but most offer anywhere from 50 cents-$5 per survey. Obviously, you are not going to get rich doing these, but they also don't take long.

One additional benefit of the survey companies is that they will send out items for your family to test out, usually items that you would use every day. I've done product studies on diapers (a whole month's worth of different types of diapers to compare and answer questions about), toilet paper, feminine protection products, food, drinks, shampoo and conditioner, body washes, you name it, we've tried it.

I've also gotten referred from the survey company to do other types of research, and those are sometimes very lucrative. I did a survey that lasted for about 9 months and required a couple of minutes a month to keep it current, and ended up making $300. Another recent one paid me $10 to play a game with my family.

Next I'll review a few of the companies I work with.

Everyone loves Pinecone Research. They pay for every survey right when you complete it, right to your Paypal account. Most of the time, it is $3 per survey. The only problem? They have plenty of people doing surveys, so only occasionally look for new people to participate. You may run across a banner ad, and occasionally they will send out emails to their current participants asking them to refer.

One of my favorites, just for coolness of survey topics, is HCDSurveys. They send out a lot of political polls and also interesting ones about current news, movies, and TV. They usually pay 50 cents-$3 per survey, and you get paid by check once you reach $10 earned. Click HERE to sign up.

Another great survey company is MySurvey. They send several surveys, and pay with a check in increments of $5. Just as an example of my earnings, 1000 pts would be a $10 check, and I earned 270 for the month of October. Earnings vary from month to month, and it also depends if your family fits the profile they are looking for on each survey. Click below to join.



I started with Ipsos I-Say a long time ago, and did their surveys only sporadically because they were fun but only paid in chances to win prizes. I did win a couple of times, but the prizes weren't necessarily things I wanted/needed. I'm glad I stayed with them, because one day I found that they are now paying cash. They still have chances to win prizes, and the prizes are huge, but I no longer win. I do get a check every once in a while, so that's ok.