Anyway, the site I use the most for the lower paying surveys is QuickRewards.net. They have many different survey opportunities each day. You can choose to cash out for Amazon or many other gift cards or PayPal. The thing is, it’s sometimes these lower paying surveys that are “screeners” for the higher paying, ongoing, focus groups. So, sometimes you may do a single survey, get paid the .75 or whatever from QuickRewards and then be offered to participate in a group that goes on for a year or longer and pays you $20-30 per month in amazon cards or more. I’m currently enrolled in five of these type of groups. You can also get these types of screener surveys from other sites like Opinion Outpost.com, Global Test Market, Sunshine Rewards, Survey Savvy, My Survey, and others. Go to Survey Police for a listing of survey site and recommendations as to their reliability. Sometimes the cheaper surveys are just one time surveys and yes, sometimes you do get burned with these sites, but sometimes you “hit gold” and get into a better paying focus groups. It’s hit or miss and your mileage may vary. I’m usually in at least four of five of these things each year, though, so as one ends I usually get lucky enough to get into another. They are out there, but they may not be easy to find or your demographics may not match whatever they are looking for.

Unfortunately, the groups/projects that pay me the most (upwards of $100) are not the kind of thing I can publish. They are offered to me directly by manufacturers or vendors in my industry and are not open to the public. My main occupation makes me someone that they want to talk to and test products for them. I get invited through email, snail mail, or sometimes at conferences or meetings. I just sort of stumbled into this kind of thing. If you’re high up in your occupation or in charge of choosing products for your business, it can’t hurt to sign up to be contacted by manufacturers in your industry, or to look around at conferences, etc. to see if anyone is setting up focus groups. Read your junk mail, too, because sometimes something that looks like a product pitch may be an invitation to do a survey or join a panel.

Hope this helps some of you.

While at WalMart today, we looked at a car charger for our iPhones. It was $23. I went onto the Amazon app while I was standing there and found an even better one for $3.98 so I ordered it. Bingo. Credit used and money saved in the process.

When I got home, I added an order for some socks and underwear rather than buying them from WalMart. Mundane every day stuff but why spend cash or put it on our credit card if I can use the gift card credit I already have?

Another off beat way is to communicate with the websites of your favorite foods, etc. I got 6 coupons in the mail the other day for free full sized products. The is also money that stays in the budget, not being spent.

There are so many wonderful ways to make money on line these days which can be very helpful to those who are staying at home by choice or lay-off. It would be good if you could do an article on these sites too.

Can you email me the details for the companies you do online focus groups with?