Anyone who has ever been on a site where you are paid for taking survey has seen some pretty remarkable income figures that the site claims you should be able to achieve. Many sites even have income calculators to further sell up the hype. While some people fall victim to the thought process that they'll be guaranteed to make $4,000 a month from filling out paid surveys, others are a bit wearier.

Like any method for making money online, it is possible to make $4,000 a month. I'm sure you think I'm contradicting myself, but I'm not. The person who makes $4,000 a month filling out online surveys will be one in a million, but believe me, that person is out there somewhere.

So where do these outrageous income claims come from? It's obvious that the average person is not going to make $4,000 a month online from taking surveys. But can they make close to that? And are the income claims so completely bogus?

Most people who are paid for taking survey usually make between a few cents and $5 per survey. There are surveys that pay more than that, but they are few and far between. Focus groups do pay more, but the prescreening process is pretty tight.

When you look at an income calculator on a paid survey site, they aren't lying when they total up the figures of what you could possibly make. You could make X amount of money per month if every single survey you found that you qualified for paid $5 per survey. Realistically though, you will not get filthy rich by being paid for taking survey.