It is not a myth that you can actually earn money taking surveys. You will be glad to know that with enough understanding and effort, you can join the increasing group of people from all walks of life who gets paid for providing information that marketers need. There is little risk involve with answering online surveys and sometimes, you may even get to keep the products you tried!

However, before you get over excited, here are a few tips you should keep in mind before signing up to earn money taking surveys:

• Most paid surveys are free to sign up but if you ever have to pay anything upfront, just do not fork out anything that is more than ten dollars. In fact, try not to even pay anything upfront for signing up. The fact is the paid survey companies needs feedback from you to improve their current products and launch new products, it is in their interest to pay you for your precious information and not to ask you to pay them.

• Do not ever give your credit card number to the paid survey companies. They have no business to ask you to buy something from them. What they want is information and feedback from you to improve their products and services. They will in turn pay you for your time taken to provide them this information and feedback. To earn money taking surveys is really part of a win-win business deal with the paying companies.

• However, do not start harbouring the wishful thought that every person who participates in paid surveys will earn a few thousand dollars each month. How much you can earn each month depends on: - the amount of time you have to complete surveys - the suitability of your lifestyle and profile to match the survey needs Take for example, if you cannot drive then you cannot complete a survey asking you about your driving habits.

• In general, you will be able to get a higher payout if you attempt a survey that requires more time to complete. You can also earn more if you participate in survey focus groups, earning between $50 to $150 for each hour, as compared to the $5 to $75 for a normal survey. This is a rough gauge how much you can earn money taking surveys.

• To facilitate your venture to earn money taking surveys, your profile and lifestyle has to fit the needs of the companies. You may think that it would be difficult for you to get more than a handful of surveys to complete since you might not fit the profile required. The secret is to join as many reliable survey sites that you can find online.