Looking for ways to make a few extra bucks each month? If you have a bit of spare time, you can bring in some extra income by doing paid surveys from home, at your own leisure.

From what I have read, there are quite a few survey sites that don't pay, so I have chosen only those whom have the best ratings, the best reviews overall and I participate in most of them so I can give you information from first-hand experience.

Below you will find links to those sites, a little description as well as my own personal experience for each one of them. You can judge for yourself if the offers are worth your time or not.

How it works

Most survey sites will pay you a few bucks for a completed survey, some pay up to 100$ for a 20-30 minute survey. Some sites will pay a small amount for surveys that you do not qualify for, to say thanks. Most of those listed below pay cash (by PayPal or by check, mailed to you) but some pay with points which can be redeemed for cash or gifts and others put your name in one of their (daily/weekly/monthly) cash draws.

Since you might not receive that many surveys from each survey site, it is suggested you register to as many of them as possible to make the quantity of surveys sufficient to be really worth it.

Before you get started

You may want to bookmark this post so that once you are done with one, you can come back here for more goodies!

Some advertisers can be unscrupulous when it comes to spam (although I am in no way suggesting that survey companies on this list are spammers), I highly suggest that you get an email address that you use just for these types of offers. Might I suggest Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo? Also, make sure you regularly check your spam folder as surveys sometimes find their way in there. In fact, many companies will let you know in advance from which e-mails they will send surveys so it's a good idea to add those to your address book or "white list".

There are some sites out there that make you pay for lists of paid surveys, but all survey sites on this list are 100% free to join.

If you live in the province of Quebec, Canada (where most interesting gift offers or sweepstakes are usually not valid... grrr!), you'll be pleased to hear that the following links are available to you as well as other Canadian and US citizens (might be available in other parts of the world as well, but you'll have to verify that for yourself).

Paid surveys:

Google User Experience Research
If you are selected to participate in this program, you can get paid up to $75 per hour for giving your feedback on prototype services, either in person at Google HQ, or over the web while you are on the phone with a Google researcher. They also have online surveys and according to Google, it does NOT involve having electrodes attached to your body... Thankfully, "Do no evil" is their motto ;-)

Pinecone Research
I have heard many good things about Pinecone Research. Unfortunately, they are very selective about who they accept and the only way you can join is by clicking on one of their banner advertising which I have never personally come across. Maybe some day...

Global Test Market
This site pays you in MarketPoints which can be redeemed for cash once you reach at least 1000 MarketPoints. Each survey pays up to 100 MarketPoints, sometimes more. If for some reason you do not qualify for a survey, you still get 5 points. Each point is worth $0.05 which means when you reach 1000 points, that'll be $50 for you.

I started receiving my first paid survey within a week and got about 1 survey offer every 4-5 days or so since. I highly recommend this survey site.

Hotspex
This survey site is one of the most creative I've seen so far. This site is fun and definitly worth a try! :)
The site pays you in BUX (a sort of points system). You can get BUX by doing surveys, by participating in the Hotspex Hotpot and sometimes (during a survey), you get to "Spin the wheel" for extra BUX points and prizes.

Surveys sent by mail pay a minimum of 50 BUX if you qualify, and numerous "fun" surveys on the site pay you 1 BUX for 5-10 minutes of your time.

For a chance to win a nice amount of BUX points, you can participate in the Hotspex Hotpot. Each month Hotspex loads the HotPot with 10,000 BUX. Members who wish to participate contribute a certain amount of BUX to the Hotpot. At the end of the month one lucky winner who has contributed to the HotPot will win half of the BUX that are in the HotPot. The other half will be donated to the Hotspex featured charity of the winner’s choice.

Whenever you win BUX points, you always have the choice to add them to your balance or donate them.

Thanks to a partnership with points.com, you can convert your BUX points to other points systems(HBC Rewards, Airmiles, etc.) or gift certificates. As an example and to give you an idea of the value of BUX points, you can get a $50.00 (USD) iTunes Store giftcard for about 3000 BUX.

Update 2010-04-03: Hotspex has ended its partnership with points.com. You can use your BUX to donate to charities of your choice, you can buy chances to win contest draws and there are also monthly draws of cash prizes. Hotspex also plants trees on your behalf when you fill in surveys.

SurveySavvy
Probably not the highest paying surveys (avg. $3 per completed survey)... But the most effective way to earn money with them is through their referral system: You get an average of $2 every time a member you refer completes a survey and an average of $1 every time a member they refer completes a survey.

Say you refer 5 friends which in turn refer 5 of their friends and each one of them completes 5 surveys, well that's $175 in your pocket for doing almost nothing... -Ka-Ching- *sound of cash drawer ringing*

Greenfield Online
For most survey completed here, your name gets added to a cash draw but sometimes you can participate in paid surveys ($2, 5$, etc.).

Opinion Outpost
Paid with "OpinionPoints". You are usually paid 20 opinion points per completed survey and you get 10 OpinionPoints ($1) for each person you refer which completes at least one survey. You can cash out once you reach $4.00 (40 points).

ResearchByNet
Become a NetPanel member and start earning NetPoints. Once you have reached 400 NetPoints you can request $10.00 payment by cheque. (750=$25, 1000=$50).

CashCrate
Although not technically a survey company, CashCrate does offer daily paid surveys (usually paying $0.50-$0.80 each).

SendEarnings
Similarly to CashCrate, SendEarnings is not a survey company but offer daily paid surveys as well.
Like Treasure Trooper, Snapdollars and CashCrate, SendEarnings also pays you for signing up for offers, shopping (cash back), reading e-mail, playing games, etc. Once you reach the minimum payout of $30.00 (which I must say is a bit high for this sort of site), you can request payment by check.
Again, like many others, you get paid 10% of the "qualified earnings" that your referrals make.

In conclusion

Join as many survey sites as possible and tell your friends about those sites which pay you for referrals (= more money).

As I find similar sites that are interesting, worthwhile(they pay their members, send lots of surveys) and well rated by participants, I will add them here so check back once in a while.

You found a very cool survey site you would like to share? Make sure you add it to the comments of this post so everyone can share. Don't forget to put your referral link if they offer one ;-)

The idea behind streams4freedom is that in order to be free from 9 to 5 "slavery", you need to set up various streams of income to make money work for you(so that you don't have to work for it).

Getting rich? Becoming a millionaire? It's not my personal goal. When my various streams will be bringing in enough income to replace my 9 to 5 job, that's when I'll know that I have reached my initial goal. On the other hand, the goal of streams4freedom is to share knowledge with people around the world about earning money online and offline. I am no expert, but I am very excited about this project. A lot of what I have learned and practiced over the last 15 years were related to this project in some way or another.

Why become free? Am I a prisoner in the first place?

People who don't have to worry about money all the time can focus on what they really like and want to do. When you no longer have to worry about paying your bills, about having a roof over your head, about having clothes to protect you from the elements and having food in the pantry(and in your tummy), a burden gets lifted off your shoulders and your creativity is able to flourish.

«I work for money, and I can buy all the stuff I need. What's so bad about that?»

What if you were to lose your job? What if the company where you work were to close down? What then? How would you survive?

If you set up various streams that bring you income every month (or every day), then even if a few of those streams dry up, you still have plenty of income coming in from other sources to compensate. It is then much more secure and stable. Remember what they say about not keeping all your eggs in the same basket? Well it's the same idea behind this.

The beauty of the web is that you can share your knowledge, share your experiences with much of the "civilized"(or industrialized) world. Your audience is no longer your neighborhood, or your town, it's now the world.

Some people see money as an evil thing, a dirty thing. Sure, people who obsess over money will do almost anything to get it. Money is simply a medium, a way to exchange time or knowledge for other "useful things". In olden times people traded things they made for food or other necessities. Money is basically a way to exchange value. If you have something useful to someone else, that thing has value.

So do something of value and offer it to people, and you will get something of value back in exchange.