Some of these survey makers (about 20-25% of the total) pay their participants well, on time and as agreed. They respect their privacy and treat them in a responsible, professional manner. Consequently they have low turnover amongst their participants and have no problems with finding enough.

Others (the remaining 75-80%) underpay and mistreat their participants so they can keep more of the total survey fee being paid by the sponsor. They use "smoke and mirrors" pay plans with drawings and promises for the future instead of cash. As a result their survey participants get little or nothing.

Sometimes they even sell participants' data to sales companies that bombard them with offers for unwanted merchandise.

As a result, these survey makers have high turnover, are constantly losing survey participants. They must hire recruiters and pay them high fees to recruit replacements.

To participate in paid online surveys, you will need to get your hands on a list of good survey makers to sign up with. The paid survey sites can provide these, but also you will find "free list" sites out there on the Net, loudly telling you not to pay for something that they will give you for free.

Anyone with a list to offer, whether a paid survey site or a "free" site, has only two ways to get paid. They get paid by membership fees or they get paid by recruitment fees. The "free" sites ONLY get paid by recruiting fees. The paid survey sites get paid by membership fees, but some also collect recruiting fees.