As the name suggests, Paid Surveys are surveys initiated by some company that wants to learn more about consumer behavior, preferences and opinions. Because these surveys are often very detailed, the company sponsoring the survey almost always has to provide the survey respondent with some kind of monetary incentive -- hence the term "Paid" Surveys.

Consumer oriented companies used surveys as a way to improve their products, their services and their marketing effectiveness. While the compensation may seem very hefty for a typical Consumer Reporting reader, the cost is actually quite attractive to the sponsoring company.

A fast food company is debating of taking advantage of the latest "Low Carbohydrate" dieting craze. To introduce a new menu item, roll it out to 10,000 locations and promote it like crazy might cost over $100 million.

At the idea stage, the fast food company might decide to spend "only" $100,000 to run a quick survey to figure out what percentage of consumers that actually go to this fast food chain cares about so called "Low Carb" foods. For a fairly modest sum, they can quickly figure out if this is a good idea for them -- without having to $100 million to find out.

A typical survey might try and survey 1000 participants or so. Even if they pay each participant $50, the total cost ($50,000) isn't very much money as far as these sponsoring companies are concerned.

People interested in getting paid to fill out surveys usually use the following 3 step process.

1. Register your contact information (usually just an email address and zipcode) demographic profile with one or more paid survey companies. Since sponsoring companies usually only want to survey people who meet certain criteria (men, women, younger, older, middle class, high income, urban, rural) only a portion of the people who registered get invited to participate in any one survey. The demographic information you provide helps the survey company match the sponsoring company's request with participants who've registed.

Your email address is used to notify you and invite you to participate in a survey when a match has been made.

2. Accept or Reject the invitation. Once you're invited, you simply decide if you want to participate or not.

3. Fill out the Survey. If you decide to participate, you simply click on a website link and fill out an online form with various questions on it. These questions are almost always multiple-choice or simple "fill in the blank" with one word questions. A short survey might contain 10 - 20 questions and take only 5 minutes. A more extensive survey may contain several dozen questions and take 30 minutes to complete.

4. Get Paid. Once you fill out the survey, you will receive your compensation (see the section below on Compensation).

No skills are required to be a paid survey participant. Usually the only requirements are that you be 18 years of age and have access to an email account (to receive invitations) and a web browser (to fill out surveys)

Compensation varies both in size and the form of compensation. Short 5 minute surveys typically pay less while longer surveys that take more time usually pay more. Compensation can take the form of cash payment (usually a check that is mailed to you or some time of online currency - electronic gift certificate, etc...) or an entry in a drawing for a prize (computer, TV, airplane tickets).

For cash compensated surveys, a short 5 minute survey might pay $10 - $20. A longer survey that takes 30 minutes might pay $50 or more.