Many ask this question.

Perhaps you too have asked it when you saw survey ads that promise you nearly the earth for a few minutes of your time.

You ask: If this is so simple, why bother with anything else? Why not just do surveys and get rich? And, why isn't everybody doing them?

At the same time you also know that not all are doing surveys. Not all are getting rich with them either. Your gut feeling is that making money online or offline couldn't be that simple.

If you passed up that ad, you did right. But if because of that ad you got the impression that surveys are all hot air, that is something else again.

Some survey ads may be too hard to swallow but surveys, in themselves, are not scams.

The truth is quite the reverse.

1. Surveys are a legitimate commercial activity which you can use to earn income.

2. More important, you don't have to pay to take part in any survey at all.

Here is why:

Companies want opinions of consumers before putting a new or an improved product on the market. They want to make sure whether people will like the new product or not before spending money on development and promotion of new products.

This is what companies were doing long before internet came along. Now internet has made it easy for them to know the opinions of a large number of consumers on a large scale.

So instead of sending their reps to neighborhood homes, the companies now hire market research sites to conduct surveys. These sites then invite their members to take part in surveys. The results of the surveys help the company to decide if a new product will be successful.

In this way when you take part in an online survey, you are doing a valuable service to the company. So it stands to reason that you shouldn't have to pay anything at all. Actually you should be paid for your time spent in giving your opinion.

With this in mind, you can certainly earn from surveys without spending anything.

Here is how to start:

Join survey or market research sites. All such sites are free-to-join. Some will pay you a joining bonus even. This is because they want to have a large member base without which they cannot run their business.

This should tell you that survey sites need you as much as you want them. So go for the best of the lot on the internet.

Here, for example, is a good site to join: Gozing Surveys

This is just for starters, but you need to join lots of survey sites to make a regular income. More sites you join, the more often you will get invited to take part in surveys. Click here for more survey sites

Some webmasters have made a business of providing you a list of survey sites for a fee. These actually are survey databases or lists of surveys which are updated regularly. You may join them if you like but you can make your own list yourself with a little effort without spending anything.

Click here for more information on how to build your own list of surveys to earn regular income from online surveys.