If you asked almost any millennial what a major part of life today was, all the answers would have a common theme – the internet.

It’s everywhere, on TV, a huge part of social life and we use it everyday in our very own school. This story is even being typed on a computer with internet. It’s unavoidable in today’s society.

So what if you could take an outlet you are on constantly and make money? Sounds too good to be true, right?

Recently I found myself in a predicament that most teenagers can find themselves in at one point or another. I needed money. Plus I was too young for a real job.

So naturally I did what most people do when they find themselves in a predicament. I turned to the internet and started researching. I came across a Wikihow article and online survey taking was one of the solutions for “easy and quick” money making was taking online surveys.

I got started right away and signed up for a site called swagbucks. It was easy enough to sign up just an email, password and you could start taking surveys. The site was set up on a points system where you got x number of points for answering their easy 10 second questions and then more points for watching videos on the site, trying apps or taking longer more detailed surveys. After two days of watching videos and answering questions, and trying numerous things on the site, I had 37 points. You needed 2,500 to get $20.

I quickly grew less ambitious and interested in pursuing making money on this site because it grew apparent that the time needed wasn’t equal to the reward. So I continued my research on survey sites and my search history quickly became filled with “best sites to make money on”, “make money fast online” and “reliable survey sites.” I signed up for many sites, and clicked on and explored even more.

On many of the sites I found that you would click on a survey promising many points or a dollar, or whatever payment the site offered and after answering detailed questions for 5-7 minutes you would get a message telling you that you weren’t the candidate the site was looking for. After this, I would try and answer the questions that did set me up to be the kind of person I guessed they were looking for but wound up with the same results.

The questions would range from the ages and genders of people in your family and how much money your household made in a year to what kind of drinks you liked.

After blowing through 4 or 5 days and many sites, my total earnings were $1. I earned this dollar for answering a survey about different snowboard and ski brands, even though I’ve never done either.

After this money making journey, I learned a couple important things about online surveys. 1) It is a huge time investment. 2) In order to make real money, it takes awhile to learn the site and the quickest ways to earn on them, and even after you know that you have to actually put the time in. 3) Depends on how dedicated you are but for the most earnings you have to use multiple sites plus actively use them (and there is many out there)!

So, is online survey money making fast money or a total bust? Personally I recommend getting a babysitting job, walking dogs, or any other small task since chances are, there is always plenty to do in your neighborhood. But if you don’t have the resources to do this and you do have time (and patience), then this might be for you!

Try it for yourself!

http://www.savethestudent.org/make-money/best-paid-online-survey-sites.html