I've recently found two sites where you can make money from doing online surveys ... I've not had time to put them to the test so I have no idea how it will take to get the money in your hands.
The sites are:
onepoll.com
and
toluna.com
I'm guessing that it will not be that quick at making money, but if a few short surveys a week can make extra cash for Christmas, then maybe its worth doing.
I signed up to Toluna, but I found that I was never eligible to actually complete any of their surveys so I gave up on it in the end. I have heard of people doing quite well out of it though.
I've not done many surveys with Toluna either, as I find that I am not eligible for lots of them, but like you I've heard of people benefitting from the surveys, so i'll try for a bit longer.
I have just registered with NOP, they will give you points, 50,000 = £50, it might take a while to get £50, but with an election due in the near future, they will be doing lots of polling.
I have been put off from doing online surveys. I can't remember the names of the companies I'm talking about but having registered for a couple of these companies, I found I was getting asked to fill in a few questions to see whether I was eligible. Kind of a survey within a survey. Always always always found myself to be ineligible which, after a while, got my suspicions up. I've given up!
TNS is another provider of surveys - you get points for doing the surveys - I convert mine to nectar points - managed to get 1,500 nectar points in about 4 months - thats £7.50 towards the christmas shopping at Sainsbury's.
I have signed up for a few surveys looking to earn a bit of money through the points scheme.
However have come across many problems.
Panalbase.com for example invite users to surveys and credit your account. this is all fine until after completing the surveys a week later you get an email response telling you that they failed to record your response and you were not credited.
Losing interest with it all...