Do I get paid by the hour? On a per-survey basis? And how much?

In the case of certain focus groups you may be paid by the hour, but generally you are paid a set amount for participating in a survey, focus group, or other opportunity.Most companies will pay you cash, but some will give you free products, gift certificates, a chance to win bigger prizes, or "points" to be redeemed for products, cash, etc

The Truth About Paid Online Surveys - A Question and Answer Session

With thousands of people trying to find a way to make some extra money online everyday, paid online survey sites are popping up everywhere. With so many out there (some good, some - well, not so good) it's hard to determine what to believe. In an attempt to clarify the ins and outs, and the myths and realities of paid online surveys, I've composed a series of questions and answers to help you sort everything out. We'll start with the basics and then get into the nitty gritty.

Question: Is this for real? Why would someone pay me to take online surveys?
Answer: Yes, this is for real. There are literally hundreds of legitimate market research companies out there who offer incentives for your opinion. Companies have come to these firms to get public opinions on their products or services and are willing to pay them to find out what you think. They then pass some of that payment onto you.

Question: What are the surveys about?
Answer: Just about anything that you can think of. You may be asked to review a movie trailer for a new movie, what kind of peanut butter you like, what restaurants you frequent, you name it. From barbeque grills to medical questions to appliances to what you had for dinner last night. There are sites for specific age groups, professions, hobbies and interests. The surveys are generally very interesting and these companies are looking for your opinion on how to shape their products.

Question: How does it work?
Answer: Each company works a bit differently, but here are the basics of online surveys. You will sign-up for a paid survey site. You will enter some basic demographic information (age, gender, etc…), and when they have a survey available in which they are looking for someone who fits your profile, they will send you an invitation to take a survey. The invitation will usually contain a link directly to the survey and the incentive they are offering for you to take the survey. Just click on the link and take the survey to qualify for the reward.

Question: What kinds of incentives are offered?
Answer: The incentives vary for each site, but generally the incentives take the following forms: cash, gift certificates (Amazon gift certificates being the most popular), merchandise (DVDs, small appliances, electronic gadgets, cookware, etc…), and charity donations. Each survey site will offer one or several of the above incentives for your participation in their surveys. Some will offer these straight out, for example "get paid $5.00 to take this survey", some offer these in the form of a drawing and others have a point system in which accumulated points can be "cashed in" for the items above.

Question: Will you get spammed by signing up for paid survey sites?
Answer: No, but you do have to be careful. There are some sites out there that are simply advertising firms posing as paid online survey sites. Here's my advise on how to tell the difference. First, if they offer you a chance at a fantastic prize for signing up, such as a car or a boat, I would be a bit weary and do some more research before you sign-up. Second, if the survey to sign-up for the site consists of a lot of questions as to whether or not you want more information on other products, walk away, you're certain to get spammed. Just remember that a legitimate market research firm will not endorse a product or service, they are supposed to be unbiased. Third, read the privacy policy if you have any concerns. The majority of the sites out there are legitimate and will only email you if there is a survey available or if there is important information they need to notify you of.

Question: Should you pay for a database of paid survey sites?
Answer: No. There are several reasons why you shouldn't pay a dime to take online surveys. First, with a little effort you'll be able to find all of the sites yourself - free. There are a lot of free sites that have pretty good lists and also a few really good free sites out there that have comprehensive free paid survey directories with hundreds of listings. Secondly, market research firms are actually prohibited from charging people to participate in surveys and frown upon anyone who does.

Question: Can I get rich just by taking online surveys?
Answer: I've had so many people ask me if there are going to be able to retire by taking online surveys. Well, that's just not going to happen. Where it is possible to make a decent amount of money by making referrals or by running a survey related website, you're just not going to be making a full-time salary by simply taking surveys. There are a lot of sites out there advertising that you can make thousands of dollars per week or make $45 dollars and hour for taking online surveys (you can actually make $45 dollars an hour for a particular survey, but you won't always make that much and it may only be a 10 minute survey).

Question: How much can I make?
Answer: That's really hard to say. It really depends on a number of factors. How many sites did you sign-up with? How often do you take the surveys you are invited to take? What is your demographic? Etc… But I won't just leave you hanging at that. I would say, if you sign-up for a number of survey sites, take the majority of the surveys you are invited to and are not limited in life experience, you could make perhaps $1,000 to $2,000 a year in cash or something equivalent. Mostly you will get smaller payments ($1.00 to $10.00) for a survey but I've seen them pay as much as $200. Treat this as extra cash, not a career. You can easily make enough to take the family out for dinner, buy a few extras, get a few nice things for around the house or save it all for your Christmas shopping.

Question: So, is it worth it?
Answer: Yes, I think so. Whereas, it's not going to make you filthy rich, it's certainly an easy and fun way to make a few extra bucks. I find the surveys to be enjoyable to participate in and for the time spent, the compensation is pretty good.

That wraps up this question and answer session. Hopefully this article has shed some light on the world of paid online surveys. If you cut through the hype and know what to look for, online surveys can be an enjoyable way to make some extra money. You'll get to see new products before they come out, give your opinion on how to make existing products better and get paid to do so. Not too bad for a few minutes of your time.

About the author: Chris Ohlson is the owner of Free Paid Surveys.net,
www.freepaidsurveys.net
With a comprehensive listing of over 300 paid online survey sites
and dedicated to providing straight-forward and honest information
on paid online surveys.

9 Simple Ways to be an Effective Blogger

Plan to start blogging? Here are 9 tips to ensure you are on the right blogging track.
1. Focus your expertise
Always begin your blog with a theme or a focus. Although you can start one blog for all topics - both business and personal issues - it’s also best to separate your business from your personal blog particularly if the target audience is different. This helps you focus on the theme of your blog and enable you to blog easily without running off tangent!
2. Blog regularly
Commit time to blogging. Blogs are a little different from websites because blogs are expected to be updated more regularly than websites. Be sure to update your blog regularly. For example, I blog twice a week but I do blog extra if I have the time. However, if you worry you cannot blog regularly, try this time-saver tip of mine – set aside a day to draft 4 or 5 blog entries all at one go. Use them on days when you’re pressed for time or have writer’s block and cannot think of anything to blog about.
3. Show your personality
Don’t be afraid to show your personality when you blog. In fact, a blog is the best place to show the best bits of yourself – share as much as you can about how you feel and why you say the things you do. Don’t be afraid to use humour or honesty. Your readers will love you for being frank. Having said that, do set some personal rules as a blogger. My personal mantra is that I don’t cuss or have four-letter words in my blog.
4. Encourage feedback
Your blog exists because you want to start ‘conversations’ with your readers. You have an opinion to share and you want others to share theirs too. Some bloggers prevent their readers from leaving comments by turning off the Comments feature on their blog. I say enable your readers to provide you feedback but moderate comments – remove those which are rude. If you worry about spamming, plug in extra security by getting readers to register before they can leave comments and get the comments sent to you for approval prior to being posted to your blog.
5. Use photos to sell
Photographs always capture attention and convey emotions. They also help break the monotony of large sections of text. Remember to re-size them before you upload them to your blog. This keeps photograph sizes standard and consistent. I use photos which are re-sized to 400 pixels wide by 300 pixels tall. Don’t have gorgeous photos? Get them free from free stock photo sites such as freefoto.com or sxc.hu
6. Include links to other blogs
Include links to other blogs or websites. The mistake most people make is that they don’t want to link out because they’re worried their readers will leave. Don’t worry about them leaving - focus on writing quality engaging content. Your mission is to get them hooked enough that they will bookmark your blog and return often!
7. Use proper grammar and spellcheck
I can’t stress enough the importance of using proper grammatical language when blogging. You don’t have to be an expert in a language to use it well. Just remember that what you blog should be easy to understand without spelling or grammatical errors.
8. Ensure readability
When you blog, keep in mind that you need to ensure that your readers will be able to read easily. Follow newspaper conventions: use subheads to break up long paragraphs, keep one idea to one paragraph and use bulleted lists if the information is too unwieldy. Don’t torture your readers by having white text on a dark or black background. It hurts the eyes! Black text on white or light background always works best.
9. Be personal
The easiest way is to constantly use ‘you’ and ‘I’ liberally throughout your blog. This keeps it casual, friendly and easygoing. You definitely don’t want to blog in the third person because that would defeat the purpose of your blogging. Imagine you are having a conversation with your best friend. Use this mental image when you are blogging and you’ll never be stuck for ideas or words!
About the author: Krista Goon is the co-founder and business partner at http://www.RedboxStudio.com, a web design and web consultancy firm based in Penang, Malaysia. She has been blogging since 2003 (she writes for 3 different blogs - all on different topics) and has given talks about blogging. Find out what else she is raving (or ranting about) in her blog over at http://www.MayaKirana.com

Proven Techniques Help You Blogging - Guaranteed!

The more you understand about any subject, the more interesting it becomes. As you read this article you'll find that the subject of Blogging is certainly no exception.If writing is an art, then, blogging is one way of using words to come up with an art. This is because people who are into blogging are the ones who are artistic on their own sense, carefully choosing words that would best describe their feelings, sentiments, wishes, desires, and everything.Basically, blogs were first introduced as weblogs that refer to a “server’s log file.” It was created when web logging hit the virtual market. Since its inception in the mid-1990s, web logging gradually saturated the virtual community making the Internet a viable source of greater information.However, with web logging, you still need a web site and domain names, but with blogging, you do not need anything just an account with blog providers. In most cases, these kinds of blogs are free of charge.With the onset of blogging in the industry, personal journaling had been a common ground for people who wish to be known all over the world. However, not literally famous as this is not a case on being popular or well-known personality.Generally, blogs are created for personal use. Like a journal, people can write their daily adventures, sentiments, and whatever ideas they want to express online. Nevertheless, with the advent of the online businesses, blogs had gradually taken the limelight in providing businesses a chance to boost their productivity online. This is where the business blogs have taken the limelight.Business blogs are, basically, created to advertise the services or products of a certain web site or online business in order to increase online sales.Moreover, business blogs are also one way of promoting the company so that the other readers will know that a certain company exists online. With blogs, entrepreneurs are able to establish a name in the virtual market through articles that can be very useful in the reader’s life. From there, you can make money out of blogs by simply syndicating it to your business’ web site. This can be done through the RSS technology.So, if you are thinking to create a blog, whether for business or for pleasure, you need to know some tips that could help you get through and make your blog one of the interesting blogs online.Here’s how:1. Consider your audienceEven if your blog is generally personal, still, it would be better to consider the minds of your readers. You have to think of something that would interest them. It's really a good idea to probe a little deeper into the subject of Blogging. What you learn may give you the confidence you need to venture into new areas. After all, most of the reasons of people who write blogs are not at all confined to their own personal motives. Most of them would love to be “heard” (or read) and would love to be known, in some way or another, even for just a minute. Hence, it is very important to come with a write up that everybody can understand, not necessarily that these people can relate to it but they can understand it.2. Pictures speaks a thousand wordsTo make your blogging worth the browsing effort of your readers, it would be extremely nice if you will put some pictures in it. It does not necessarily mean you have to place a picture of yourself. Any photographs will do as long as it does not pose danger or insult to anyone who will be reading your blog.3. Make constructive and beneficial blogsEven if you are free to write anything you wan to say to the world, still, it would be better to create some write-ups that would be beneficial to your readers. After all, its information technology that you have there so better be inclined to provide information rather than sheer quirky entertainment.4. Avoid making multifaceted and complicated blogsIn order to have an interesting blogs, try not to use some highly technical and highfalutin words. After all, it is not a science discourse or a debate that you are making, so better stick to simple facts and short blogs.Bear in mind that most people who use the Internet usually do more scanning than scrutinizing each site word for word. Therefore, it would be better to come with blogs that will not bore your readers just because you have these lengthy articles.5. Make it interactiveAs much as possible and if your capacity will allow it, make your blog interactive. Yu can do this by placing some video or audio clips in your blog.You can even place an area for comments or for some feedbacks. In this way, you can get some impressions or reactions of other people. Who knows, you might even gain some friends just by making them feel at home in your blog site.Indeed, blogs are not created just for the mere fun of it. It also has its own purpose in the world of the Internet.Therefore, for people who wish to harness their craft, as far as writing is concerned, blogs are the best way to do it.As they say, blogging is the contemporary term of creative and commercial writing.Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.
About the author: Wirat Muenpan is the webmaster of Article Ecommerce , Free Article E-commerce Internert Marketing For Reprint http://www.article-ecommerce.com

CPA (Cost-Per-Action) Affiliate Programs

CPA is an acronym or short for Cost Per Action or Cost Per Acquisition. The term CPA is not new. If you browse through the Search Engines using the keyword phrase "cost per action" or "cost per acquisition" you will find numerous websites with CPA related articles dating from 2001 - over 5 years ago.
In a nutshell, CPA is a performance based online advertising payment system in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as a lead, a sale or registration. In other words, merchants/advertisers determine what actions they want to reward and how much they are willing to pay for those actions.
Lead, Conversion or Registration
The actions defined in a CPA or Cost Per Action agreement relate directly to some type of conversion, with leads, sales and registrations among the most common and does not include deals based solely on clicks such as AdSense, which are referred to specifically as cost-per-click or CPC.
The definition of a Lead, Conversion or Registration can vary from one CPA Affiliate Network to another.
A lead or conversion may simply be considered to be no more than a website visitor providing his/her name and eMail address.
In another example, to be considered a lead or conversion, a website visitor may need to complete and submit a 1 page or 2 page application form. In this example, the product in question may be a home loan or payday loan. But it does not matter to the publisher whether the applicant gets the loan or not or has to wait 30 days before they get an answer from the lender. Once the visitor has completed the desired or contractual action, the publisher has earned a commission.
In another example, a lead or conversion may simply be achieved by a website visitor completing a small website form and paying a small $postage fee via a credit card for the advertised product to be sent to their mailing address.
What all this means is that publishers i.e. website owners, get paid not on how many times an ad is seen or even on how many times it's clicked, but according to how many people click on it and take the action specified by the advertiser on his/her site.
Comparison of CPA Affiliate Programs with Cost Per Click or Cost Per Sale Website Monetization Models
CPA Affiliate Programs are very similar to other popular website monetization models whereby a publisher takes advantage of the arbitrage opportunities between low cost traffic and high paying contextual ads or products paying high affiliate commissions.
In one Scenario low cost pay-per-click or other traffic is driven to a website or landing page displaying high paying contextual ads. When someone clicks on the low cost pay-per-click ad, they then get referred to the website or landing page. If that same someone then clicks on a high paying contextual ad, the publisher earns a commission.
In another Scenario low cost pay-per-click or other traffic is driven to a website advertising high paying affiliate products or directly to the advertiser's own website. When someone clicks on the low cost ad, they then get referred to the Product page(s). If that same someone then orders and pays for a product the publisher will have earned an affiliate commission.
The subtle difference between the first scenario and the second scenario is that in scenario 1 the publisher gets paid with a % of the value of the click regardless of whether the visitor purchased the end product or not. In scenario 2 the publisher only gets paid if the click resulted in a Sale. In CPA (Cost-Per-Action) Affiliate Programs the publisher gets paid if the click resulted in a lead.
CPA Affiliate Network
Before you can engage in a CPA Affiliate Program you will need to apply for affiliate membership in one or more of the 50+ CPA Affiliated Network Companies. All applications are stringently reviewed before they are approved.
Once your application is approved there are essentially 7 simple steps to start generating profits:
1. Find the ultimate high paying, high quality CPA Campaigns to advertise;
2. Identify appropriate Keywords;
3. Register your Domain, prepare and upload your Landing Page;
4. Set up super Low Cost P-P-C Advertising Test campaigns;
5. Monitor and Identify Profitable Test campaigns;
6. Turn Profitable Test Campaigns into fully-fledged Campaigns;
7. Rinse and Repeat;
CPA Affiliate Programs can work well with any type of advertising or traffic generation but are especially extremely profitable when undertaken with a pay-per-click advertising program.
Caution - CPA Affiliate Programs are very profitable and are currently fashionable. All Internet marketers should start looking at CPA Affiliate Programs but before they engage in this activity they should make sure that they have read and fully understand pay-per-click advertising.
About the author: Stephen S Alison is a retired "bean counter" who spent 26 years in middle management positions for major US financial institutions in Europe and a further 10 years as an adviser/consultant to a number of European financial institutions. He owns and operates a number of "hand built" niche websites including: http://www.1clickflipping.com and CPA Affiliate Programs