Can You Trust Paid Survey Sites Reviews? (Full Truth)

Online paid surveys have become a popular way to make some extra money and there are hundreds of survey sites.

Because of the many available sites, there are also a lot of people posting reviews about them. But can these paid survey site reviews be trusted?

The short answer to that question is – it depends.

There are definitely a lot of reviews that are useful and that can help you, but there are, unfortunately, many more that are dishonest and have another agenda.

I have tested many sites and done hundreds of surveys myself, and in this process, I have also read a lot of reviews. I have therefore also learned how to recognize a dishonest review vs one that you can trust.

In this article, I will show you how to spot the good reviews from the bad ones, and explain how good reviews can help you get the most out of taking paid surveys.

By now you then might ask yourself why you should trust what I am writing, as I am mentioning there is a lot of dishonest information. I also do not think you should trust me right away.

I encourage you to read the information and see if it makes sense to you. If it does, then use what information you can.

If not, you can just leave the site again, but you are also very welcome to leave some feedback for me at the end of the article so I can find out what information you lack. But let's now get into the actual information.

How can reviews help you?

First, let's start with why it is even a good idea to read reviews of paid survey sites.

I am sure you in many aspects of life are looking for recommendations already. Most people try to get some feedback and read about other peoples' experiences before starting to use a product or service themselves.

This is very nice, and most of us are doing this both online and offline. Unfortunately not all reviews are honest. Not only when it comes to survey sites, but also other reviews. But here I will focus on the survey sites.

In regard to survey sites, it will not cost you money to test a survey site in most cases, unless you end up joining one of the survey scam sites that charge you for joining.

But if you join the wrong sites, it can end up costing you a lot of wasted time and effort. There are big differences in what the survey sites offer and how well they work. Finding pages that provide honest reviews can help you focus your efforts on the sites that are worth joining for YOU.

Why would anyone make dishonest reviews?

If you are not involved with marketing or advertising, you might wonder why people would even make a dishonest review of a survey site.

I have made a video that explains some of the reasons people do fake survey site reviews. You can also read all the details below the video:

There can be several reasons for this. From what I have experienced the reasons can, however, be divided into 2 main ones:

Recommended: See the Best Legit Survey Sites in Your Country

Reason 1 – Reviews sometimes try to sell you something else:

There are MANY opportunities to make money in different ways online. Few of them are, however, actual good opportunities. But many people are making reviews of all kinds of these online opportunities.

I think it is great, as it can help people to avoid getting scammed and wasting their time and money.

Many of these reviews are however overly negative when it comes to survey sites. I have read many survey site reviews that are not very objective, but mostly bashing survey sites because it is not a way to make a living online.

It is true that you should not start doing surveys to make a living or to become rich, but that does not mean that it is not a good opportunity.

Not everyone wants to make a living online, but many are just interested in making some extra money on the side, and surveys are one of the only ways you can do this online without any investment at all and without any training at all. For me, that makes it a great opportunity.

The reasons there are still so many reviews that are overly negative towards survey sites are that they are mostly trying to sell you some kind of other online business tools.

Some of them can be great and might be something you want to join. But the main reason for many of these reviews is to get traffic to the review only to then try to get you to sign up for another product or service instead (and often something you have to pay for).

As mentioned, you might want to join another opportunity that you find interesting, and that is fine. But now you know the motivation behind some reviews, this can hopefully help you make good decisions based on understanding and with a critical mind.

Reason 2 – Reviews that are trying to get you to join a specific site:

There is another kind of review that is mainly to get you to join a specific survey site. If you have already joined survey sites, you will maybe have seen that some of them offer what is called a referral program.

That means that you will get a small commission from the survey company if a person joins through your invitation link.

There is nothing wrong with this, and I am also myself using invitation links like this for some survey sites I review. But only if it is a survey site that I truly recommend and have tested myself.

Using these kinds of links is a way to help cover the cost and time of running a website with updated and thorough information, as this takes a lot of effort – so please feel free to use the links to the survey sites in my reviews, if you find the information useful:-).

Referral links are in my opinion definitely great to use, and a big part of what can make it possible to run a website, but some people are instead misusing them, and just trying to make certain survey sites sounds overly positive and are making exaggerated claims, just to get you to sign up.

What people that write reviews like this do not understand is that in most cases you will not get anything out of people joining through your link unless they will actually also start using the survey site they joined.

And they will only do this if you have given them good and truthful information about the opportunities, so it lives up to their expectations.

So many of the overly positive and dishonest reviews are made from misunderstanding what it means to have a review website – it is about truly trying to help people. That will then also in some cases then lead to your making a bit on your help as well.

There are, however, also some that are promoting outright scam survey sites.

Here they often try to convince you that you can easily become rich by doing online surveys. They are usually promoting survey sites where you have to pay to join, and they will then get a percentage of the joining fee.

Never pay a joining fee for a survey site, and if you read a review that recommends a survey site that charges you to join, you should immediately leave the site and find a more trustworthy source.

Can big review sites always be trusted?

There are some big review sites like for example Trustpilot, where you can find reviews of thousands of products and services, and where thousands of people leave small reviews every day.

Often you can get some good information from these sites, but be aware that these can also be manipulated and people can leave fake reviews in large numbers and affect the results.

I have myself seen reviews on sites like this that are way too positive and have way too high ratings compared to what the site actually offers.

But in general, some big review sites can be useful to visit and get information from. Just still be critical of the results if they are overly positive or overly negative.

If you want more thorough information about a service, these big review sites do not provide this. To get thorough and in-depth information about for example survey sites, you need to find a review site you trust that can give you all the details before you join sites.

How do you recognize a biased review?

I have heard from several people that it is difficult to find non-biased reviews of paid survey sites. That has absolutely also been my own experience and was also one of the main motivations to make PaidFromSurveys.com.

Below there are some simple points to look for to help you spot if a review is honest or not:

Tip 1 – Exaggeratedly negative:

If a review is only negative about a survey site, it can be a sign that it is trying to push you toward buying another kind of product as mentioned above.

This cannot be used as the only way to spot if it is not an honest review. I also have reviews that are very negative towards some scam sites that are trying to cheat money out of people instead of making them money.

When there is nothing good to say about a site, the review will, of course, be negative.

But often you can still read from the review whether the person actually knows what he/she is talking about, or if it is just a superficial review to try to get you to buy something else.

So be aware of whether a review is exaggeratedly negative, but do not use it as the only way to find out if it is true.

Tip 2 – Exaggeratedly positive:

I have also explained this further above. If a review is only explaining the positive aspects, it might be because the person behind it is just trying to push you to sign up.

By exaggeratedly positive I mean if it promises you that you can, for example, become rich, or if you can make a living from just doing surveys 1 hour a day.

This is simply not true, and if people claim that it will make you this kind of money, go somewhere else to get your information.

Surveys can be a great way to make a bit extra and have your opinion heard at the same time, but you need to do it with the right expectations.

Tip 3 – Superficial information:

This point is something you can look at together with the points above. It means that some reviews are not very thorough and do not have any details.

It can, for example, be that the review has no details about who the particular site is for. I have read reviews that, for example, claim that the survey site SwagBucks is the best site for everyone to join to make money on surveys.

It is true that is a very good site and one of the most popular. But it does not give great opportunities for all countries. It mainly gives great options for people in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Ireland, Germany, and France.

If the person writing the review does not mention details like this, it is very likely that it is not a person who actually knows much about the site.

It is, of course, different what kind of information people choose to include in their reviews, and of course, not all information can be included.

But to look how thorough, how helpful, and how many questions a review answer is a great way to see if it is a person that actually knows what he/she is talking about, and thereby if you can trust the recommendation.

Tip 4 – No contact info/person behind:

If there is no contact info or no info in general about the person behind the review, it might be because it is not a trustworthy person who does not want to be contacted.

This is of course not always the case, but for example, do the sites that try to charge you to join survey sites almost never have any real information about who is behind the site.

If it looks like the person has something to hide, it might be because something needs to be hidden and is not honest, and then it is better to find your information elsewhere.

What to do if you find a dishonest review?

When looking for survey site reviews, you will most probably run into some dishonest ones, as it can be difficult to find honest ones.

The easiest way to react is of course just to leave the site and never come back. That is many cases the best.

If you, however, can see that the review is made by somebody that has made an effort, but for some reason does not answer all your questions or you spot some incorrect information, you can leave a comment to get an answer for your questions or to make the person aware of any irregularities.

Personally, I love to get feedback on my articles. I try to be as thorough and precise as possible, but sometimes there are things that slip or errors.

I always appreciate getting any questions or feedback, and I am sure most other website owners that are putting a lot of effort into their pages are the same.

So do not be afraid to ask questions or give feedback when you read reviews. But if it is a site that you can spot as being dishonest, there is no point in leaving a comment. They will not get back to you anyways and probably also just delete the comment.

Final thoughts

As you can see from the above, reading reviews about survey sites can be a great way to get the most out of them by finding the right ones for you to join.

Hopefully, this article has given you a good understanding of why you have to be aware when reading reviews and how to spot whether a review is honest or not.

If you have any questions, comments, or have any experiences with dishonest survey reviews yourself, feel free to leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you and will make sure to get back to you.