I have seen several paid survey ads on this classified ads site asking for payment. Not!

Is there such a thing as a marketing company paying you for your opinion? Sure there are survey companies out there doing that but they are like gold nuggets – very scare. In fact, most “online surveys” are scams.

Why do legitimate paid surveys exist in the first place? They exist because large companies are always trying to ascertain what you think of their product or service. These product surveys can vary from autos, education, magazines, phones, perfumes, shipping, cable/telephone, gadgets, web services, apparel, stocks, entertainment, financial, and the laundry list continues. This is an important part of a company’s marketing strategy.

Here are a few tips to consider before joining a survey company.

1. If the survey company is asking you to pay a membership, you can almost be 100% certain it is a scam. The survey company should be paying you (monetarily or gifts), not the other way around.

2. If the company is asking you to pay for paid surveys list, you can pretty much surmise the only one making money on this effort is the operator of the list. Needless to say, they are either a middleman or low-life scammer.

3. If they are asking for credit card information, that should be an immediate RED flag. Don’t give out your credit card information to anyone unless you truly trust the source. Next thing you know, you will probably see some unauthorized charges on the next billing cycle.

4. Remember that legitimate survey companies are using your feedback to make important business decisions relating to demographics, marketing, product development, and advertising. For example, when you try/test a product sample or a service in a store, the survey marketing company or the producer is gaining valuable research information.

5. If you do find a legitimate survey company, make sure the payout level is fairly low. See if the company pays out in the first place and was it in a timely manner. I imagine it would take a lot of surveys to attain a $50 or $100 payout.

6. Be extremely wary of claims of making outrageous amounts of money with surveys. The operators are just trying to bait you into buying their programs. Making money on the Internet is not an easy endeavor. It is like anything else worthwhile in life; you really have to work hard at it.

7. Remember the old US postal axiom: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Now that sounds like good advice. Caveat emptor!