Take Surveys To Make Extra Money

We get a lot of emails saying that people love our shirts but can’t afford them right now.

I decided to help you out with some ways to earn extra money.

One of the top ways to make extra cash is by doing paid online surveys.

Here’s the deal- you won’t get rich from them, so just make sure you have that expectation going into it. This is just something you can do in your spare time to make a little extra cash. My thought is this would be a good tv-watching activity. Or if you need to seem busy for any reason ;).

There are many survey companies out there, and we are going to dive into a few of the more popular ones that are also known to be reputable. They ask for personal information (they’re trying to figure out how to market to someone like you so they need to know who you are) so I like knowing that it is a company that is legit.

Why Do Companies Offer Online Paid Surveys?

Basically the way it works is the companies get people like you and me signed up to take surveys. Then companies like Pillsbury (just an example- but I recently had a survey from them offered to me) reach out to these survey companies and say, hey, we need to know what ladies who are 25-45 like to eat of our products, could you survey them? And that, my friends, is how an industry is born.

Sign Up For As Many Paid Online Surveys As You Can

To maximize how much you make, sign up for all of the sites you think you want to interact with. That way, if they only send a few surveys a year you’re still getting opportunities elsewhere.

A word to the wise-- many of these sites have ways to earn money by buying gift cards, using coupon codes, shopping at various online retailers, or signing up for a service. If you were already planning on buying paint at Lowe’s, then buy a Lowe’s gift card through the survey site to use on that trip (that is, if you can plan ahead enough for all of that). If you were already planning on signing up for Hulu, do so via the survey site and earn points for it.

Here are the top survey sites that I recommend:

1. Swagbucks
2. InboxDollars
3. American Consumer Opinion
4. Survey Junkie
5. Pinecone Research
6. Vindale Research
7. MyPoints

You can learn more about each company below:

Swagbucks

This site uses gift cards or PayPal as payment. There are also options to earn money just by doing your online shopping or in-person grocery, clothing, or whatever shopping. For example, today I just clicked a button to earn swagbucks for buying eggs and bread. Even using coupons earns swagbucks. And, you can link your credit card and when you go to certain local restaurants (there’s a search function on the site based on your city) you get swagbucks. Planning on traveling? You can earn...you guessed it, swagbucks! They’ll even give you swagbucks for watching videos. They’ve thought of a lot of ways to help you earn money. So far this has been one of my favorite sites to interact with as it is easy to navigate and use, with a lot of ways to make money. And as a bonus you don’t even have to have a completed profile to start earning points like most of the sites require. Then once you’ve earned enough swagbucks you can redeem them for a gift card or paypal payment. For example, right now, $25 on PayPal is 2500 Swagbucks. Also right now the $25 Amazon gift card is on sale, so it costs 2200 Swagbucks. So you can see if you shop the sales even for redeeming your Swagbucks you can make them go farther.

InboxDollars

Right now InboxDollars is giving a $5 bonus just for signing up and verifying your email. The only catch (there’s always a catch), is you have to earn $30 before you can redeem it, but if you complete enough of the activities this shouldn’t be a problem. You can earn money by shopping and playing games, for example, in addition to taking surveys. Update: I just spent the last hour watching videos here. Random news and food were my areas of weakness. And I got to do a scratch and win game for a result of my ample online tv watching. This one is pretty easy to navigate as they reimburse on a dollar amount (vs. trading in points for gift cards, etc.).

American Consumer Opinion

This company was started in 1986 as a small survey panel. They went online in 1996 and opened membership to all countries. So they’ve been around awhile-- doesn’t seem that long ago since I was in high school then but I digress. It is free to sign up, and you get paid for filling out surveys. The company that owns them is Decision Analyst which started in 1978. Long track record here ladies. To get signed up and started just click the link. They will ask you a bunch of questions so they know which surveys to send you. Their site says they’ll likely send a few surveys a year your way.

Survey Junkie

This one works similarly to American Consumer Opinion -- you answer a series of questions to create a profile (what pets you have, children, whether you own or rent, etc.) and then from there they send surveys that apply to you. Once you receive 500 points you can redeem those for cash or e-gift cards. This is open to people age 13 and older-- so if you have a teenager that needs something to do, this seems like a great task for them! ;)

Pinecone Research

This is another survey site that pays you for your participation. On occasion, they may also send free products for you to review (bonus!!) As a heads up though-- they’re looking for a specific type of person and some of their panels are full (hence the site not allowing you to register). I didn’t meet the criteria for one of their open panels. 

Vindale Research

This company...you guessed it….does surveys!! And pays you for them!! What I like about them is they frequently email you opportunities for surveys. This doesn’t mean you’ll qualify for everything they send but I like how they send them with a link to click to complete the survey. They also assign a dollar amount for that particular survey and tell you how long it will take (actually most if not all of the sites mentioned above give you an estimated time for completion). I like knowing the actual dollar amount vs. the point system many of the other sites use (get points, redeem them for something). They keep it simple which is nice- you get paid via PayPal. I don’t know about you but as much as the features and multiple ways to earn money are great from the other sites; it can get a little overwhelming and confusing. This is nice and clutter free. Take a survey + earn cash through PayPal = easy.

MyPoints

You can not only take surveys on this site, but you can also buy gift cards and earn points. They have a bunch of online coupon codes for a bunch of major retailers too, so if you’re going to shop at a store anyway, 1) why not buy a gift card from them and earn points and 2) use their coupon codes if available for that store to save money on what you buy? That seems like a win-win to me! They reimburse you via gift cards, for example $5 is 790 points. But if you complete 5 or more surveys within their site within the first 30 days they will add $5 (790 points) to your account. There are multiple ways to earn points much like swagbucks.