Businesses all want to know what is on the mind of consumers. This information helps them to direct product development and drives other areas of their business operations. At some point, you've no doubt filled out some sort of customer survey, which was used for these purposes. The question people ask quite often is - is there money to be made by filling out surveys?

There are companies who are willing to pay people for their time spent filling out surveys - you've probably heard at least a little about this at some point. The data they are able to gather is worth their while to pay for, so they will offer cash to those who share their opinions with them.

We get a lot of questions about whether you can really make money filling out surveys and whether these kind of offers are legitimate. We took a look at them ourselves so we could tell you more.

At first, we were skeptical about whether there was actually money to be made this way - as it turns out, there is! If you go about things properly, you can make a pretty good income this way; now, let's look at how it works.

First, you'll have to find a survey network to give you access to paid surveys. There are two options:

Option #1 - Free Survey Networks

You can sign up at no charge for these networks, who will notify you by email when surveys are available. However, the problem is that instead of paying you cash, these networks just enter you in drawings.

Small businesses who cannot afford to pay for consumer opinions use these networks. It's fun to give your opinions, sure - but you won't make very much with these survey networks. The odds of winning one of the drawings is extremely low.

Option #2 - Membership Based Survey Networks

People who want to make real money filling out surveys will almost always opt for these networks.

These networks will charge you a onetime membership fee for access to their lists of survey opportunities. This membership gives you constant updates and outlines various paid survey opportunities.

The businesses that use these networks are larger and can afford to pay people for their time and input. Obviously larger companies have bigger marketing budgets, so they are able to invest more into the marketing research that they conduct.

These membership based networks also have more up to date lists of surveys, so you won't waste your time trying to get into surveys which have already closed. You can decide to spend as much or as little time as you like on these surveys; the more time you spend filling out surveys, the more money you'll make.

The best networks to sign up with are those networks who are so confident that they offer a money back guarantee. If you're dissatisfied with the survey opportunities provided by the network, then you can get your money back.