What I can Personally Recommend

Here it is folks, the short list of the paid survey sites that I can personally recommend (I wish it was longer but sadly a lot of the so-called paid survey sites out there are just junk). As always, you can find more detailed reviews of these sites over on the Top Site Reviews paid surveys webpage but here it is in short form:

My #1 Pick: Survey Absolute Probably the best all-around paid survey site out there, Survey Absolute definitely has the largest selection of paid survey sites to register with. Very legitimate, not fly-by-night, and best of all they have a special offer where new members can earn over $280.00 on the first day (it takes a little work to do though, as I discovered. But an hour of work to earn $280 isn't bad at all). They are pricey, but in my opinion worth it, and really you could just join this one site and skip all the others but still make good money with paid surveys.


My #2 Choice: SurveyScout It's been around for a long time, and there's a reason why. In fact SurveyScout is really the industry standard for the paid survey membership sites. I joined SurveyScout before I joined Survey Absolute and for me this used to be the best paid survey site out there. But it is old, it doesn't have as many listings as Survey Absolute and doesn't seem to be updated as often. It's a good second choice though and in my opinion isn't a scam or fraud. At least my experience with it was pretty good.


My #3 Choice: Top Dollar Surveys With very good customer service, a well-organized directory and fairly easy to follow step-by-step intro, this site is a good choice for beginners. I found a lot of good survey companies listed here, and this is a solid site and service, at least in my opinion.


My #4 Pick - Instant Paid Surveys I like this site, even though it's new on the scene. Good site navigation, of course there's a money back guarantee (all of these sites here have that) and some nice bonus directories of mystery shopping sites (sites where you can get paid to shop at stores or eat at restaurants). Is it a must to join this site? Not really (well, not if you've joined Survey Absolute, listed above). But it does give a few more paid survey sites... and every extra paid survey site you register with means more paid surveys.

So that's my top 4. I wish I had a top 5 at least, but there just aren't really a lot of other paid survey membership directories I've been that impressed with.

But feel free to comment and tell your own top 5 (or even top 10). And please feel free to comment on your experiences with any of the ones I've put in my top 4. That's what this blog is all about, getting feedback from others to make sure that the survey sites I'm recommending really are the best in the industry.

Free to Join Paid Survey Sites

For a while now I've gotten questions about the paid survey sites that are free to join. A common question is why I tend to recommend the membership sites like Survey Absolute exclusively when there are other paid survey sites that are free to join. The answer is... I don't. Meaning that I am well aware there are many, many paid survey sites that are free to join which are legitimate.

Some of them even pay you just for joining.

Here's a few examples of some good ones that I've personally used:

#1 -Inbox DollarsInbox Dollars is a site that pays it's members for reading email, taking surveys, playing computer games, and even offers a few mystery shopping assignments. They aren't strictly a paid survey site since they do other stuff too, and they don't offer a lot of paid surveys, but they do offer some paid surveys. They also pay all new members $5.00 just for signing up. While they can be a little annoying from all the emails they'll send you, you do get paid for reading those emails (usually between 2 and 5 cents each) so it's worth it to join, and they aren't a scam site (as always, feel free to post your own experiences with them in the comments section below; that's what this site is all about)


#2 - Survey Club Here's another site I love to recommend to people. Survey Club is a paid survey site that's completely free to join (takes less than a minute in fact) and which sends people legitimate paid surveys by email (but doesn't send you a lot of spam garbage emails). Unlike Inbox Dollars they don't pay you a bonus just for signing up, but at the moment they are offering a $10 paid survey to all new members who sign up, and claim that all demographics are welcome. I joined up a while back so can't speak to this claim as I'm now ineligable, though I'd love to hear feedback from others on this.


#3 - #3 - Global Survey Group Global Survey Group is another of the free-to-join paid survey sites I've stumbled across which is legitimate and not just a site that sends you a lot of garbage email. Their surveys don't pay all that much (a lot of them pay only $2 each) but by the same token they are pretty short too. I can recommend this one too.


So there's a few of the free-to-join paid survey sites that are legitimate. The problem is that the vast majority of those paid survey sites (so called) that are free to join actually don't really have paid surveys. Usually it's just little scam companies looking to scoop up your email and private information and then sell it to the highest bidder. Which is why you have to be careful of the scam sites.

Even the ones that are legitimate are usually pretty small companies. You might only get one or two paid surveys a month from these 'mini' paid survey sites. Of course, every little bit helps, but don't expect to join these sites and make a huge amount of money. If you want to get serious about making money at paid surveys, you're going to need to join one of the larger membership sites (I recommend Survey Absolute, which I've reviewed above).

I have collected a large list of fairly legitimate paid survey sites like the three listed above, which are all free-to-join, and I'm looking to expand that list all the time (so feel free to comment with your own experiences). If you'd like to see the larger list, be sure to join my mailing list, as it's a bonus I offer to everyone who joins the mailing list (which is free of course, and dedicated to finding more paid surveys and alerting people to the scams).

'Paid Survey' Sites that are Scams

Ok, now we come to the heart of what this blog is all about. It's important to know what paid survey sites are worth joining to make real money in this business, but in some ways it's just as important to know which sites are scams and will only waste your time (or worse, use your private information against you.

So this is the section I want people to comment on their negative experiences with the various paid survey sites that 'did them wrong' so to speak.

Now I don't want any slander, or to do harm to any sites that are legitimate that maybe somebody has a gripe with, so please only comment on personal experiences you yourself have had (NOT something you heard a friend of a friend experienced). I'll give one of my own experiences to start. This is going back a little ways, I think the middle of last year or maybe even earlier, but I joined this site called My Consumer Surveys. I barely had time to join the damn thing, then it was gone! I still don't know what happened to that site, but I wish I hadn't joined (and it was pretty expensive if I remember right). By the way, if anybody out there knows what happened to that site I'd love to hear about it.

$10 Challenge - I'll Pay You $10 Myself

Oh this is cool... Alright, check this out, me and my friends who put together Top Site Reviews have gotten our heads together and thought of a cool promotion to get new people started in the paid survey industry.

Specifically, we've put together a way for you to get paid $10 just for signing up to some paid survey websites. That's something we pay to anyone who completes our survey challenge.

Here's the page to go to for more details on how this works:

The $10 Paid Survey Challenge

It's easy and free, takes most people less than 20 minutes to do, and the best part is not only do we pay anyone who completes it $10 in less than 24 hours (using Paypal, so you'd better have a working email address), but also each of the paid survey sites you'll be joining are totally legit and will send you more paid surveys once you've joined them. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

Lest anyone think me a saint for pulling money out of my own pocket let me explain that each of these paid survey companies and websites is so hungry for new people to send paid surveys to that they are paying us a small kickback. So the $10 we send you is generated by that. Anyway it's a win-win, so go over and check it out. As always all sites we've recommended are legit, and have ironclad privacy policies to guard your privacy, so they're safe too.

Mailing List

$20 Paid Survey for signing up to our Mailing List
Hi gang, Scott here. Just wanted to make sure there was a link on the blog here to join the mailing list we've got going over at Top Site Reviews. Joining our mailing list keeps you informed on all the paid survey sites we're discovering (and some of the scams to avoid). Plus, for a limited time as a special 'thank you' for joining our mailing list, you'll get immediate access to a $20 paid Survey (free, all demographics welcome). Join our Mailing List & Get Notified of our Featured Monthly Reviews based on user Feedback.

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