8 Legitimate Paid Survey Sites to Start Making Extra Money Each Month

Surveys for Cold Hard Cash!

There is so much downtime during the day. Whether it’s waiting in line at the grocery store or waiting to pick up a friend, wouldn’t it be great to turn that waiting time into money making time?

That’s why survey sites are so great. Why not get paid few bucks to answer a few questions when you have nothing else to do?

What’s hard is finding reputable survey sites that will pay you a fair amount for the time and effort. We’ve combed through lists of dozens of sites to give you the ones that are legit and can really get you paid.

Table of Contents
  1. 1. Survey Junkie
  2. 2. Swagbucks – $5 bonus!
  3. 3. InboxDollars – $5 bonus!
  4. 4. MyPoints – $10 bonus!
  5. 5. Opinion Outpost
  6. 6. PrizeRebel
  7. 7. National Consumer Panel
  8. 8. Respondent

1. Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie is all about market research surveys and paying you for sharing your opinion. Just sign up, fill out your profile so you get matched with the right surveys, and then take the surveys on any device at any time. You earn points when you complete the survey and can cash them out for cash via Paypal or gift cards.

It’s as simple as that.

👉 Get Paid by Survey Junkie

2. Swagbucks – $5 bonus!

The undisputed leader of rewards sites has to be Swagbucks. They’ve paid out nearly $288 million to their members in the form of gift cards and other rewards.

With Swagbucks, you can earn points for shopping online, watching videos, searching the web, answering surveys, and taking advantage of offers. Unlike many other sites, they offer practically everything so you can always find something you want to do to earn a few points.

For new members, they are adding $5 to your account just to start so you are even closer to cashing in.

👉 Get $5 from Swagbucks

3. InboxDollars – $5 bonus!

InboxDollars got its start in 2000 by paying you to read your emails, hence the name, but has expanded to offer everything you’ve come to expect from a rewards and survey site. The big difference is they pay in cash – no need to go through hoops earning points and trying to figure out how much they’re worth.

You can earn cash reading emails, watching videos, answering surveys, completing offers, and much more. For more on how InboxDollars works, read our review or sign up to start making money.

They’re giving new members $5 to start so there’s no reason not to get yours!

👉 Get $5 from InboxDollars

4. MyPoints – $10 bonus!

MyPoints is one of the oldest cashback shopping portals in existence, second only perhaps to EBates (you can join them too and get $10).

If you buy anything online, you must check a cashback shopping portal first. There’s no reason to leave cashback on the table!

MyPoints has expanded to include all the rewards activities you’ve come to expect, like earning when you watch videos, play games, and answer surveys.

👉 Get $10 from MyPoints

5. Opinion Outpost

I really miss the days when Opinion Outpost had that somewhat hokey western theme but nowadays they’re seemingly more corporate. One of the ways Opinion Outpost separates itself is that they have much larger, higher-paying market research studies that present themselves a little less frequently. You take shorter surveys to see if you qualify and, if you do, you’re matched up with the longer ones.

They also work on a points system, which you can convert to gift cards or cash, and they’re owned by Survey Sampling International, LLC. They have an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and have been around since 2002.

👉 Join Opinion Outpost

6. PrizeRebel

PrizeRebel is a rewards site similar to Swagbucks and InboxDollars, which makes it a perfect addition. It takes just 10 seconds to sign up and you can earn points to complete surveys as well as watch videos, redeem offers and more. You can take the rewards as cash or opt for gift cards from places like Amazon.com.

They have over 7.5MM members and have redeemed over $15 million since 2007.

👉 Join PrizeRebel

7. National Consumer Panel

National Consumer Panel is a joint venture of Nielsen and IRi. It’s not a survey site but more like a market research company that asks you to fill out a short survey including household information. When a spot opens up they will send you a scanner that they want you to scan everything you buy. For doing this, you’ll points you can redeem for cash and gift cards (and products too if you’d like).

👉 Join the National Consumer Panel

8. Respondent

This one is a bonus – I put it on at the end because I just learned about it. Respondent is a relatively new survey site that is more akin to a focus group rather than a market research / rewards site hybrid. You sign up and can browse different research projects that needs responses.

I recently filled out the pre-survey questionnaire about my laundry habits, which qualified me to answer a 10-minute survey about my laundry habits for $5. I had to wait for the researcher to confirm my qualifications and then send me the survey to complete before a reasonable deadline (it was a week).

The site has a lot of surveys but many of them, especially the higher paying ones, are very specific. There was one paying $200 for 60 minutes if you owned a boat.

👉 Join Respondent

I’m a fan of survey sites and every morning I click on a tab that opens up each one of them (a great way to make money fast). A lot of the sites have a poll of the day worth a point or two, a video to watch worth a point, and so I just load them all up and make sure I collect the easy points. If I have more time, I might complete more offers or other tasks that earn me a few cents. It’s not a lot of work and every so often I get an Amazon gift card or cash deposit out of it!

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About Jim Wang

Jim Wang is a forty-something father of four who is a frequent contributor to Forbes and Vanguard's Blog. He has also been fortunate to have appeared in the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, Entrepreneur, and Marketplace Money.

Jim has a B.S. in Computer Science and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.S. in Information Technology - Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a Masters in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University. His approach to personal finance is that of an engineer, breaking down complex subjects into bite-sized easily understood concepts that you can use in your daily life.

One of his favorite tools (here's my treasure chest of tools,, everything I use) is Personal Capital, which enables him to manage his finances in just 15-minutes each month. They also offer financial planning, such as a Retirement Planning Tool that can tell you if you're on track to retire when you want. It's free.

He is also diversifying his investment portfolio by adding a little bit of real estate. But not rental homes, because he doesn't want a second job, it's diversified small investments in a few commercial properties and farms in Illinois, Louisiana, and California through AcreTrader.

Recently, he's invested in a few pieces of art on Masterworks too.

>> Read more articles by Jim

Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank or financial institution. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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  1. Dividend Portfolio says

    Great recap Jim. I’m looking into swagbucks to see if that’s something I can do to pass the time. If I can bring in extra money by doing the things I would otherwise do, then why not? It’s nice to see there are several options for people to either make money online or simply get a little extra money back into their pockets.

  2. Alison D. Gilbert says

    Great post and one that finally got me to do some surveys. I’ve discovered many supplemental survival tools and techniques with varying degrees of difficulty to execute and huge ranges of rewards. I put of surveys for a long time. But, at last, needed to take a load off my feet and do an easy one. I get a kick out of Survey Junkie®. I feel like I am even voting of the future of the marketing industry sometimes.

  3. Roberto Enriquez says

    Is Extrasurvey a scam? I am suspicious when they send me a $2500.00 cashier’s check with assignment instructions.

    • Jim Wang says

      I don’t know about Extrasurvey but I’d be EXTREMELY suspicious of anyone sending me that large of a check.

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