If you have spent much time browsing through Squidoo, then you are actually witnessing "what people do for money" as Lensemasters.

Having your own quality Squidoo lens can bring you some extra money in terms of "royalties" (your share of profits for ads shown throughout the site) and also affiliate income (to be discussed further along this page)

Some very successful Lensemasters make a tidy sum just on Squidoo, so creating a free Squidoo account and making a lens or two is probably one of your best, no risk choices for pulling in a little extra cash into your PayPal account each month.

If you don't know how to make a lens, you can get some ideas and tips for creating a lens here

When you have got used to building lenses, you can take it to the next level using basic html

And when you want to really get going at this Squidoo thing, you can think about marketing your lens to get more visitors

You might see a lot of info on the internet about earning bucket loads of cash by taking online or telephone surveys.

Take these claims with a pinch of salt. You will earn lots if you fit into a specific target group (or lie about yourself - but you will be found out and penalised eventually!), but for the average Joe (or Josie), you can realistically expect some pin money and a lot of fun.

Some survey companies reward you with cash, others with vouchers for stores like Amazon etc.. and some let you accrue points that can be exchanged for goods.

There are other perks to taking paid surveys that keep me interested. I have had chance to preview new TV shows, tried new chocolate bars, beauty and grooming products and home goods that I got to keep in return for expressing what I thought of them.

Ever heard the term "got to be in it to win it"? Some companies save the better paying surveys and product tests for people who have already done a few of the lower paying stuff. I have been invited to focus groups, product tests and higher paying surveys as a result of taking some of what I would class as "crappy" surveys that turned out to be screeners in disguise (a screener is a mini survey that gets a bit more profile detail about you to check whether you fit the bill for the opinions needed on something).

You can read my reviews and ratings of my favorite paid survey companies on my family web pages: Darren's Paid Survey Reviews - There is actually two full pages of info there for you and links to international survey companies.