Every year, companies in the United States spend over 250 Billion dollars trying to convince consumers to buy their products and services, and that's JUST in the U.S.!

Although the lion's share of that money is spent on advertising, a huge amount is devoted to market research.

Understanding how we as consumers think and why we choose certain products over others, enables companies to improve their goods and services. The better they understand us as consumers, the more money they make.

Because it PAYS them to know what we like and want, companies are willing to PAY us for our opinions.

It makes perfect business sense. Using the Internet as a direct channel to ordinary people like you and me, paying for online surveys is a cheap, efficient and very effective way of gathering quality and highly targeted market research.

There are companies that will pay you up to:

** $ 99 per online survey
** $ 250 per hour to participate in focus groups
** $ 150 per hour to take phone surveys
** $4-25 per hour to view movie trailers

Online surveys are general forms generated by marketing research companies, to get information on a particular product or services. They perform detailed investigation on the feedback they get from you and pass it on to top companies.

Focus groups are meetings wherein the attendees express their opinions on a particular particular topic. They are generally conducted by phone or in chat rooms.

In other cases you can get paid to:

** Be a Mystery Shopper
** Shop and read emails!
** Drive a free car

As a Mystery Shopper you are sent to a designated retail or commercial area to buy a product or service. You then evaluate and comment on your overall buying experience with that establishment.

Some companies and advertisers pay cash for every email you read about their products. I've read about some who doing this and making between $1,000 to $1,800 a month, no gimmicks.

No doubt you want to know how about the free car! These cars have advertisements on them. Drive them, and you won't pay insurance or monthly installments. The companies providing these vehicles earn their money from the advertising on the vehicle.

Payment is made in different ways. Some companies pay instantly via PayPal, whereas others will mail you a check.

In lieu of cash, some companies pay with:

** Napster Music Downloads
** Buy.com Gift Certificates

Other companies will enter you into drawings for large cash prizes, let you earn points that can be used to buy products, or redeem these points for cash.

Whatever the method of payment, you will be provided with the exact compensation details before you decide to participate.

Finding paid surveys online can be a time-consuming process, and there are number of scam operaters in the business.

Fortunately for us, a few smart entrepeneurs have developed big databases of reputable companies that are paying for online surveys.

They themselves use those databases to earn all or part of their incomes.

The various databases that I researched list between 300 and up to almost

To gain access to these databases costs a one-time membership fee of between $29.95 and $37. However, just one hour online can pay for your membership!

Most accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Eurocard, and Visa-Debit, MasterCard-Debit, and Novus cards, PayPal and online checks.

You have nothing to lose either. If you're not satisfied, each company offers a money back guarantee of between 60 and 90 days.

Most of these listing companies offer incentives to join such as:

** Ebooks
** 250 free business cards
** Automation Software
** 2 free airline tickets
** 3 day 2 night vacation

Your membership will entitle you to the latest industry news and you will be generally notified when new companies join the database.

Generally, the surveys are between 10 and 15 minutes in length, and although you can make up to $100 by completing one survey, $10 to $25 is far more typical.

Although you probabaly won't get rich completing surveys, or participating in focus groups, you could make a tidy sum doing it either full or part-time. Basically, the more surveys that you complete, the more money you will make.

I rather prefer stacks of $10, 15 and $25 checks to the alternative - no checks at all! :-))

This great opportunity is well-suited to anyone who works from home, students, stay-at-home parents, retired people, and for those with special needs. And you can do it from anywhere in the world!

And it doesn't matter if you live outside the U.S. This opportunity is open to people the world-over. As long as you can cash a U.S. dollar check, you can be in business.

Here, listed in alphabetical order, is a list of the best online databases of survey companies.

Get Cash for Surveys

# of Companies Listed - 300+
Guarantee Terms - 90 days
Paid Surveys Fee Range - $5 - $150
Focus Group Fee Range - up to Ј250
Bonus - Automation Software
One-time subscription fee - $37.00
GO: Get Cash for Surveys

Paid Online Surveys

# of Companies Listed - 275+
Guarantee Terms - 90 days
Paid Surveys Fee Range - $25 - $99
Focus Group Fee Range - $30 - $200
Bonus - Copy of Home Business Connection Magazine and Automation software
One-time subscription fee - $34.97
GO: Paid Online Surveys

Paid Surveys Online

# of Companies Listed - 300+
Guarantee Terms - 90 days
Paid Surveys Fee Range - $5 - $75
Focus Group Fee Range - $50 - $150
Bonus - 3 Day 2 Night Vacation
One-time subscription fee - $34.95
GO: Paid Surveys Online

Survey Junction

# of Companies Listed - approx. 700
Guarantee Terms - 90 days
Paid Surveys Fee Range - $25 - $99
Focus Group Fee Range - $30 - $200
Bonus - 2 round trip airfares
One-time subscription fee - $32.95
GO: Survey Junction

Survey Scout

# of Companies Listed - 450+
Guarantee Terms - 90 days
Paid Surveys Fee Range - $5 - $120
Focus Group Fee Range - up to $200
Bonus - Automation software
One-time subscription fee - $34.95
GO: Survey Scout

Survey Platinum

# of Companies Listed - 450+
Guarantee Terms - 90 days
Paid Surveys Fee Range - $5 - $150
Focus Group Fee Range - up to $250
Bonus - ebooks, 250 business cards
One-time subscription fee - $34.95
GO: Survey Platinum

WorkOnline4Pay

# of Companies Listed - 400
Guarantee Terms - 60 days
Paid Surveys Fee Range - $5 - $75
Focus Group Fee Range - $50 - $250
Other Services - $4 to $25
Bonus - 2 free airline tickets
One-time subscription fee - $29.95
GO: WorkOnline4Pay

Have your say, and help shape the products and services of the future.

Select one or more from the Internet Online Paid Survey Database companies listed above, and start collecting steady, regular, monthly paycheck working from the comfort of home.