How to Start Work at Home Business

There are many different kinds of work-at-home businesses that one could start. Here is one that is easy to do and that could provide a long-term independent income stream. It involves participating in paid online surveys and related market research support work.

Consumer opinion surveys used to be made by mail, at shopping malls and by survey-makers sending out agents who went from door-to-door. Now the faster, cheaper and more efficient Internet is the medium for much of this essential information-gathering activity.

Since the survey-makers were no longer getting face-to-face with people in this type of survey, they needed some kind of incentive to attract enough people.  They decided to pay those who participate in cash.  This gave rise to the term: "paid online surveys".

If you can turn on your computer and send and receive e-mails you have all the technical skills you need to participate in paid online surveys. The only other requirements are that you must be 18 or older and you must be a consumer.  Anyone who buys groceries, gasoline and/or clothing is a consumer, so it is very easy to qualify!

To get your name and contact information on the market researchers' lists as a survey taker you need to apply to each one separately. That is where it gets a bit complicated.  There are over 700 market research or survey maker organizations in the U.S. alone and more than 3,000 worldwide. 

Some of these are good, some not-so-good, some bad, some terrible and others are worse.  To know which is which you need a guide.

There are mopre than two hundred paid survey guide companies that maintain lists of who is good to sign up with and who to avoid.  Pick one of these, sign up with them, pay a small fee and they will give you a copy of their list.

The first crucial point here is to choose a good guide company. The one you want will be larger, will have been around for a while and will have a strong money-back guarantee. The guarantee means that they stand behind their service and promise you satisfaction or your money back.

The best guarantees are for 60-90 days and are backed up by a bank or financial company like PayPal or ClickBank.

The second crucial point is to look for a low refund rate. The refund rate is the percentage of their clients that demand their money back.  It is an excellent measure of client satisfaction. A low refund rate means many happy clients. A high refund rate means many unhappy clients.

Look for a refund rate in the 3.0% to 5.0% range, which is ideal; maybe a bit higher would also be O.K. Avoid any with a refund rate of 10.0% or more.

The third crucial point is that once you sign-up with your guide company and get their list of preferred survey makers, sign up with as many as you can, all or them if at all possible. These are the companies that will send you invitations to take surveys and send you checks for those you complete.

For these companies to invite you to take their surveys, they must have your contact and demographic information in their files. They get this info from your application. Without your application they cannot send you surveys to take. Without surveys to take you cannot make any money!

Open a separate (free) e-mail address for your paid survey business. Check your in-box at least daily. Be alert, answer all correspondence right away.

When invitations to take surveys come in, accept all of them at first, later you can high-grade them and accept only the high-paying ones if you choose. At first you need to prove that you are there, are real and respond quickly.

Answer all the questions fully and to the best of your ability.  Respond well and promptly and you will receive more and more surveys to take.  Do not worry about answering the questions.  There are no wrong answers or right answers.  They just want to know what you think, how you feel about the subject.  They just want your honest opinion. 

The survey makers will be cautious at first, then speed up as they gain confidence in you.  Expect your income from each survey maker to grow and to peak in three to six months after filing your application with them.

Just how much money will you make?  It is difficult to guess.  It depends mostly on your diligence and your demographics.  Most serious survey-takers report monthly incomes of $200 to $600.  A few report $1,000 a month and more. 

When you start work-at-home businesses there is always some work involved.  This type of work-at-home business is easy and convenient.  You can conduct it 100% from home. You pick your own hours, and don't have to sell anything.

Your income stream from this work will be independent of any other activity. You just spend a few minutes filling out survey questionnaires and then expect your check in the mail.

Jorge Chavez is an experienced paid internet survey expert at: http://surveysentinel.com