Free Paid Survey Directory
and Paid Online Survey Guide

A great way to earn some extra paid survey income is through referrals. Many paid online survey companies offer some sort of referral or affiliate program. By referring a few friends, running some banner ads or creating a website and advertising it, you can supplement the amount of cash you make. This section will cover the different referral and affiliate types and some great FREE ways to get them.

Referral Types - There are basically three ways to make some extra cash by referring people to paid survey sites (and most other referral programs as well); either a straight referral, by becoming an affiliate or by joining an ad network. The next section will cover the differences, advantages and disadvantages of these three methods.

Straight Referral - By straight referral, I mean that the paid survey site offers a referral program. That is they will either let you send an email through their site to refer a friend or give you a link with a referral code in it. If the person you referred signs up you will get something in return. This is the most straightforward and simple method to refer someone to a paid survey site that you are a member of. You will be able to either login to your account and send an email to whomever you want to refer or be able to get a referral link that can be emailed, put on a web page or posted to a forum, etc...


Advantages
• Simple and straightforward, easy to use and understand.
• No additional requirements other than being a member of the paid survey site.
• Referral compensation is added to your regular survey compensation. So, for those survey sites with a minimum cash out amount, you'll be able to cash out earlier.
• You don't need to own a website in order to refer others.
• Most common form of referral among paid survey sites.


Disadvantages
• Usually less compensation than the other two methods.
• Some paid survey sites only offer referrals via email through their site, there's no referral link. This somewhat limits your options as far as how you can get new referrals.

Affiliate Programs - Some paid survey sites offer an affiliate program. In order to become an affiliate, you will need to have a website (you can learn how to make one on the Create a Website page). You then need to fill out an application with the survey site offering the program and be accepted. With an affiliate program, you will be given an affiliate link and have access to banners and graphics you can use to advertise.


Advantages
• Better compensation than a straight referral.
• Compensation is always in cash.
• Always a referral link for maximum flexibility for gaining referrals.
• You will have an affiliate login page where you can track your referrals and earnings.
• You don't need to be a member of the actual survey portion of their website.


Disadvantages
• Requires that you have a website.
• You have to apply for affiliate status. There's always the chance that you'll be turned down, although the requirements don't seem to be that stringent.
• Your affiliate account is separate from your survey account. You will have a separate login page and a separate cash account with it's own minimum cash out requirement.

Ad Networks - Ad networks are by far the best way to achieve the highest paid survey income. I practically doubled my referral earnings the very first month I started using ad networks. I now collect a steady monthly income from OffersQuest, my favorite ad network and the best paid survey ad network around. Ad networks are basically a collection of affiliate programs organized in one spot. The ad network lists multiple affiliate programs that you can advertise. Once you've signed up and been accepted by the ad network, you don't need to individually apply for each program you want to be a part of. However, like affiliate programs, you must have a website and there are some application requirements that you will have to meet.


Advantages
• Even better compensation than affiliate programs.
• Compensation is always cash.
• Only have to apply to the ad network, so you can advertise many paid survey sites after only 1 application has been accepted.
• Ad Networks list sites that don't otherwise have an affiliate program.
• All affiliate accounts are tracked in one account. You will be able to see your results as a whole and individually.
• The minimum cash out is for the ad network, not the individual paid survey sites. So, if you are promoting 10 sites through the ad network, the money you make from all 10 goes toward you cash out balance. This makes it very easy to meet the minimum requirement.
• Advertisers are found and updated for you.
• There are sites other than paid online survey sites listed so you can spice up your website (and make some additional cash) with other advertisements.
• You'll get one bigger check instead of a bunch of smaller ones.


Disadvantages
• Same as affiliate programs.
• Must have your own domain name.
• More stringent guidelines in order to be accepted. The most notable being a minimum traffic requirement. However, if you are just starting out, with a little effort on your part, you can use the Free Traffic Generating System on this site to meet these requirements.

These are the ad networks that I like to use:
• OffersQuest - By far my favorite. Lots of paid survey sites listed, great user interface, fantastic support and on time payment every time.
• Primary Ads - Similar to OffersQuest in layout. Offer many of the same paid survey sites, but usually not as many. They do have a larger selection of non-paid survey sites.
• ClixGalore - Only offer a few paid survey site listings and their user interface is a bit confusing, but they offer a huge selection of other paid advertisements that you can use on your website.

• Method 1: - Email friends and family. Either send an email through the respective survey site, send a referral link to the site you are promoting or send a link to the web page you've created. Just don't spam anyone, make sure the people you email would actually want to receive email from you.
• Method 2: - Add an email signature to your outgoing email. Most email programs will allow you to add a signature at the bottom of your email. This option should be under options or setup or something similar. An email signature is a short message that will always be added to the bottom of your messages whenever you send an email. Come up with a catchy tag line and add the link to your opportunity to your signature. If most of the email you send is personal in nature, make the message more personal, so that it seems to be directly from you. Theory is, that every time you send an email, there's a chance that someone may check out your site or opportunity.
• Method 3: - Message boards and forums. There are thousands of message boards and forums out there where you can post your paid survey referral link. However, if you find a suitable forum, make sure to read through their rules regarding posting, some will not allow it.
• Method 4: - Traffic Exchanges. This is a great way to get some free traffic to your site. You basically will view other people's websites and in exchange they will view yours. This is great if you're new to marketing on the web and is a great platform for a paid online survey site. If you go to the Traffic Exchange System, there's a complete section on traffic exchanges, a system for surfing multiple traffic exchanges at once and a complete listing of recommended traffic exchanges.
• Method 5: - It Pays To Learn. You can take quizzes on It Pays to Learn to earn QuizBucks. QuizBucks can be used to run banner ads on their site. Some survey sites have banners that you can use, you can create a simple text only banner on their site, or you can create one of your own. Once you've run a few banner ads, look into running your own v-Mail ad. You can only pay for 50% of a v-Mail ad with QuizBucks, the other 50% has to be cash (which you can earn on their site), but the response that you get with v-Mail ads is much better than banners. I got over a 30% click-through rate on the last v-Mail I ran; very effective. For more information you can go to the It Pays To Learn System.

There are other methods of free advertising out there, as well as, many forms of paid advertising. But these are some methods that I use and endorse. Once you get things down, you'll have the knowledge to explore other options.