The search phrase 'online survey legitimate or a scam' is a very common search term when it comes to the paid online survey business - people just don't want to get ripped off and that is understandable..

So which is it?

It's actually a bit of both and it doesn't just depend on luck if you find a reputable company that pays- it depends on doing a bit of careful research.

A lot of this controversy is the fault of the industry itself. Let me explain.

Firstly, there is a lot of hype. Sites claim, for example, that you can do 5 surveys a day and quit your day job. Guess what happens - people then sign up with 'false' expectations. They find that they only get 1 or 2 surveys to do instead of the five or more and shout 'scam scam' to who ever will listenget paid ads.

To be honest I can sympathize with many of these people because they have been 'misled'. Had the survey companies said look you 'should' be able to do 1 or 2 surveys a day for starters and then build up then people would have more realistic expectations and build from a better base.

Secondly, if you think filling in surveys is easy money and will allow you to quit your day job then you should possibly think again!

Why? You may ask. Well, the answer is fairly straightforward. Your income is 'limited' to the number of surveys that are 'presented' to you by the companies. This is something that you have little control over.

What basically happens is that you sign up to do surveys and they email you with surveys for you to complete. If they email you 1 - then that is the potential income that you will have. So obviously the more companies you sign up to the more surveys you will get - Right? Wrong!

It doesn't always work out that way. One of the main reasons for this is that some survey companies will specialize in providing you with surveys that can take 15 minutes or more to fill out and pay you between $1.50 and $3. Not too bad you may say. I can get up to $12 per hour!

If you look a bit harder you can actually find some companies, especially with focus group activity that will pay you up to $40 for about 45 minutes work - it's the old quantity vs quality trade off!

So what should I do?

There are two alternatives.

1. You can search the net for survey sites and find them. You will get a mixture of sites that will ask for an up front fee before you get a survey - don't pay for these sites - most are scams. Reputable survey companies are usually free to join - but even the sites that are free to join often don't pay!

2. You can for a small fee, usually around $35 get membership to sites that find the paying sites saving you the time and hassle in finding reputable sites.

Not all of these are reputable and you have to be careful. The ones that are best offer refunds and don't claim extravagant results. These sites will allow you to make some income to start with and help you to create a legitimate second income.

There's nothing worse than spending time and not getting paid for it. So the answer to the question is online survey legitimate or a scam really depends on two things - your expectations and your 'approach' to finding the right sites.