There's no doubting the fact that some 'paid to' schemes are real, and at least some of them pay. Others are nothing more than time wasting scams and it can be hard to tell the difference. But even with genuine get paid to schemes, is it worth the time that it takes to meet their requirements? You may find that the answer is no.

If you decide to join one of these schemes, a search online before you sign up can be useful in trying to screen out scams. However it is easy to fake a series of good reviews of a company or website, so care needs to be taken when choosing the sources that you view, with internet forums often being a good way to find genuine opinion.

Once you find a scheme that looks ok, you create an account with them and wait. Within the next week or two you will receive an email telling you that you have ads or emails waiting to be viewed, and after logging into their site you begin.

Each scheme will have its own requirements for how thoroughly you are supposed to view the ads, and this is where the time wasting comes in. Many schemes pay 2c or less per email viewed, and will only qualify an email as being read, thus crediting your money to your account after it has been open for a certain amount of time-thirty seconds being common. Some only give you credit if you only have one tab open at a time.

Lets look at those figures. The potential, if you receive sufficient emails to read is for you to read two emails a minute, earning 4c. With sixty minutes in an hour that earns you $2.40 an hour-and that is assuming little to no page load time. Not the sort of income that most would be aspiring to!

Getting paid to complete surveys has the potential to earn you a little more money but the first problem is finding the genuine companies. Many will offer compensation such as coupons for free movie rentals, money off groceries perhaps and that may suit you. Others pay you directly by check, or by a payment agent such as PayPal.

These will pay you anywhere from a small discount, to three or five dollars for a fifteen minute survey. Others may be much longer surveys and the compensation may or may not be increased to make it worth it.

The problem with surveys is that you have to qualify for them. A qualifying survey must be filled out that you don't get compensated for, and at the end of it you may not be able to continue onto the survey. The time spent taking frequent qualifying surveys is therefore wasted.

Some paid to schemes really are genuine and do pay but care is need in picking those out from the scams, and even the real ones will not make you rich. However if you are looking for just a small amount of supplemental income with no real commitment needed, and no particular schedule needed then these may suit you.