Survey companies pay users like you and me money to complete online surveys. Usually you sign up at their site and they’ll send out online surveys for you to fill out. Each survey pays a certain amount of money or points and once you reach the minimum payout they will send you your money.

Personally I have only joined one survey site and have filled out 13 surveys so far. My total earnings for those 13 surveys are now $26.9, halfway to the $50 minimum payout.
I find the earnings to be a little slow since surveys are few and far between for me. But that may be because I have the wrong interests or am in a wrong target group. I have also heard that people in the US get a lot more surveys and I live in Canada.

Some people really get into it and sign up for more 5 or even 10 sites. Some sites obviously send more surveys out than others but I have heard of people earning over a few hundred from them.

This definitely isn’t like the paid to read emails where you spend more than half your day with your fingers glued to your mouse clicking emails for mere half pennies. Every now and then you get a survey and I find it much more relaxed. Definitely worth trying out if you have some spare time and don’t mind filling out random surveys. I certainly don’t and I can think of lots of times when I completed surveys for companies for free!