I see so many paid survey sites that boast large numbers of paid surveys in their directories, and recommend that you join as many paid survey panels as possible. While that might initially make sense, the more panels I join, the more I make, right? WRONG. Of course the survey sites want you to join as many survey sites as possible, that’s more referral income for them, but the reality is that you stand to earn more money by focusing on a handful of quality paid market research panels.

I often get the question, how much money can I make with paid surveys? Well, the real answer to that is how much time are you willing to dedicate to taking surveys, and how wisely are you using that time, and which survey panels you choose. First and for most, not all survey panels are the same, some pay in cash, others in prizes and gift certificates,  some give you sweepstakes entries, and some have a combination of all of the above. Also, many of these panels have profile surveys that are required to initiate the delivery of paid survey invitations, so special care must be taken to complete these profiles accurately. Furthermore, many of the survey invitations contain screeners that are designed to flush out people that do not match the study or that rush through the survey without giving the questions any thought.

Taking all of the above into consideration, you should take a strategy of joining as many survey panels as you have time to partipate in a quality manner. By taking the time to completely fill out your profile surveys, and answering your survey questions with thought, you are more likely to qualify for and complete your survey invitations resulting in more payouts. Also, if you are lucky, you will be invited to higher paying follow up surveys. If you join more survey panels than you can handle you will likely rush through the invitations, which may lead to lower survey qualifications and overall lower  or no payout.

So how many panels should you join? Well this really depends on how much free time you have. But, I think 10 survey panels is good number to start with, and that is why we list the top 10 User Rated Survey Panels on this site. This is a good list to start with because it represents tried and tested survey panels that are recommened by other survey takers. Then if you have time, you may want to add a couple more survey panels to your portfolio and then narrow the list down to the ones that seem to work best with your demographics. The main thing to remember is that if you take the time to complete your surveys correctly you are more likely to complete your surveys, which will ultimately lead to more rewarding experience for you.