Surveys that pay in gift certificates are slightly less desirable to me than either those that pay in cash or those that pay in cash for points, but as any good stockbroker will tell you, the key to investing soundly is to diversify your holdings, so I am a member of several of these sites. By far the best is Valued Opinions ($117.65 earned, $100 rec’d since 2008-02-18), my #5 highest earning survey site, because they provide the most frequent and highest paying surveys, they offer Amazon gift certificates, which are almost as good as cash if you shop Amazon.com as frequently as I do and they also have excellent customer service.

The other gift certificate sites on my list of Top 30 best paying survey sites are less significant to my overall plan, but I include them because they do pay in Amazon gift certificates, which I often redeem for DVDs or CDs that can easily be resold after viewing or listening. ClearVoice ($37.20 since 2008-02-18 has been very slow lately sending surveys and crediting me for surveys that I have taken, but they are still ranked #23 out of 30 for me. Keynote ($20 since 2008-03-01) has stopped sending me surveys entirely, but I occasionally take surveys from them through other sites. Datatelligence ($20 since 2008-03-01) is another site that I cannot recommend very highly; however, I still receive the occasional survey from them. Their customer service is close to non-existent if you fail to be credited for a completed survey, as I have on several occasions.

BuzzSponge ($20 since 2008-03-01) is a very innovative and fun survey site that pays in Amazon gift certificates. Although I haven’t earned much from this site, its online community is so much fun to be a part of that I continue to participate sporadically. Some survey sites, like Survey Exchange, offer Reward Choice certificates, which allow you to redeem for rewards from various merchants, offline and online, but they also offer you the option of redeeming your points for Amazon gift certificates. A few other legitimate survey sites that pay exclusively in Amazon gift certificates that you may want to try are: TestSpin (rumored to be considering offering a PayPal option), Baker Street Solutions ($12.50 since 2008-03-01) and My Business Insight.

Finally, I would like to point out that I have also been a member of several online communities, often through CommuniSpace, that pay in Amazon gift certificates. The best example was the Capitol One forum that I joined through SurveySpot, which not only paid me a $10 Amazon gift certificate every month from May through December 2008 sent via an email promotional code, but which also awarded me an Apple Macbook and Apple iPod Touch when I won their year-end contest.