Everyone is taking paid surveys these days. But few are making the big money you see advertised all over. These 7 steps will dramatically increase your profits from taking paid surveys online.

Step 1 - Find a Free Paid Surveys Directory

There are several websites out there that will try to get you to pay up to $60.00 for a paid survey directory. There is no need to pay for a list of paid surveys. There are several websites that offer this type of information for free and they can be found easily by searching MSN, Yahoo, or Google.

Step 2 - Set up an email account just for your paid surveys

Once you have established yourself as a paid survey panelist you will start to receive several invitations to participate in paid surveys everyday. You don't want these emails getting mixed up with other email accounts you may not often check. The best thing to do is set up a free email account at Yahoo, Hotmail, or Google and use it only for your paid surveys.

Step 3 - Join the Top 20 Paid Survey Panels

Anyone just starting out should always start by joining the top 20 paid survey panels. These are the most popular survey panels and also the ones that are known to send the most paid surveys on a regular basis. You can easily find the top 20 survey panels by typing in top 20 paid survey panels on any of the major search engines, like MSN.com or Google.

Step 4 - Confirm Your Registrations

Sometimes a paid survey panel will send you a confirmation email or follow up survey to check that you are really the person that registered. Make sure you confirm all registrations. You may not be considered an official panelist until you confirm your registration.

Step 5 - Check Your Paid Survey Email Account Often

Several people may be invited to participate in a paid survey. But sometimes there are only so many people needed. In order to maximize your profits you want to be able to respond to a paid survey invitation as soon as possible. Make sure you check your email at least once a day.

Step 6 - Take All Surveys

Alot of times you will be sent short surveys that don't pay very much or only enter you into a drawing. This is very often a survey to see if you fit the demographics for a more important and higher paying survey. If you do you may be invited to participate in a high paying survey or even a focus group or product test. This can be very profitable.

Step 7 - Invite Others to Join

Several of the most popular paid survey panels offer their panelists even more money for bringing in other panelists. These companies are in constant need of new paid survey panelists as alot of people lose interest after a short period of time. You can make alot of money recruiting others. Some of these paid survey panels will pay you up to $4.00 just for getting someone else to sign up. These are some of the companies that have referral programs:
Survey Club - $1.00 per referral
NFO My Survey - $1.50 per referral
Lightspeed Research - $.75 per referral
Survey Savvy - $.82 per survey taken from your referrals

These are just a few. Most all of the top 20 paid survey panels have some type of referral system. As you can see this money can add up quick. An informative article or ad on a high traffic forum or message board can easily bring lots of new sign ups.