When the Survey company has a survey that they think you will qualify for, they will e-mail you and ask you a few qualifying questions, like how many bowls of cereal do you eat a week or they may be checking to see if you eat their competitors cereal so they may ask what brands you eat.

If you qualify then you take a survey and get paid or entered for a prize. Surveys can take a few minutes or take much longer so it is up to you to weigh the risk and reward. I like getting paid and don't really care for contests so I will list the sites that pay first then the contest sites last.

The number of surveys you get depend really on your demographic information, but also be aware that sometimes the pre-qualification questions may ask if you have taken a survey in the last 30 days.

The premise behind this is basically the same you see in malls where a mall surveyor will ask you pre-qualifying questions and then if you qualify you take a survey. Sometimes these have incentives. The survey company usually gets a good sum of money for every survey they get completed. I actually got a free pair of running shoes to test out and $200.00 from doing one of those surveys in the mall.