I Just had a look at the website paidsurveysonline.com 
Too good to be true? Or should I join up & start making money?

Dear chasask,

I advise against signing up with PaidSurveysOnline.com. If you could
not lose anything by participating, it would not matter. But they are
demanding a sign-up fee of currently "only" $34.95. Such fees are
always suspicious and should give reason to suspicion. Especially, if
there is no whatsoever guarantee that you will ever qualify for any
real paid surveys ot the like.

In this particular case, the reputation of PaidSurveysOnline.com is
extremely bad. A brief Google search in connection with the word
"scam" already revealed meaningful accounts of people who have signed
up with PaidSurveysOnline.com and paid the fee. Please have a look at
some examples, from the Rip Off Report website:

"I paid paidsurveysonline.com for surveys to make money and so far I
have not receive any money I paid the amount of $34.95 on 10/11/2004
for surveys and to get paid to read email and for free samples and I
have been doing noting but filling out applications for surveys or
getting surveys that require me to keep buying thing that I don't have
the money for and I was told I would be receving money right away and
I haven't and its been a month an a half almost 2 months."
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff119622.htm

"Beware in Australia!! It sounded great - some may say "too good to be
true" - and it is...! Do Not Sign Up for this service - it is non
existent! The only service they excel at is taking your money - that
happened within seconds... and that was it!
For the last six weeks I have been trying to get a response from this
company as to why there are no valid surveys (especially for us here
down under), How to get the money back guarantee, and basically how to
end the transaction happily - etc, etc."
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff93830.htm

"I decided to try out paid surveys online. I realized right away that
their website is misleading and they are only out to make a buck by
scamming the american people.
Less then twenty four hours of giving my thirty four dollars and
ninety five cents up through a debit card I requested my money back. I
have emailed them at least six times since requesting some kind of
response and my money back. Not one single soul has ever responded.
there is no phone number for them and the only way I could come across
an address is to click on sending a check or money order which
associates them with nrh enterprises in Lavallette NJ.
there is no webmaster address on their site either. These people are
scamming the american people and they need to be stopped immediately.
You do get access to surveys but most of them are for winning
prizes.... by drawings... or three bucks a survey "if" you qualify to
take the survey and "if" they need more surveys taken. You cannot
possibly make the kind of money they claim! Somebody help me stop
these people!"
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff73412.htm

"they get you online with false statements about doing surveys and
making so much money that you could be your own business and make lots
of money. so a person like me takes a chance,even when his gut tells
him not to and they lose 34.95. which is alot of money if you live on
abudget.this can't be legal,is it?? they give you a list but you can't
get on thier web sites and if you do get to the site then when you
register they tell you your password is incorrect!when you have it
written down!! this is fraud!!"
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff70141.htm

"I have continuously tried to contact these jerk offs for a 'money
back guaranteed' refund to no avail. Now the site seems to be
non-existent, and my emails bounce back.
They run from mulitple names and websites (such as NRH Enterprises,
MaximumPayJobs.com and shoppingjobshere.com.), making it hard to keep
up with them. All of the claims on their website is a load of ####,
including their non-existent money back guarantee.
They claim that their website is updated every day, but in the whole
two months which I have been a member, it was not updated once!!! Not
to mention the fact that their 300 listed survey companies turned out
to be about 50 links which were copied over and over again."
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff70110.htm

These are only the first examples I found with this simple Google search:
"paidsurveysonline.com" scam
://www.google.de/search?q=%22paidsurveysonline.com%22+scam&hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&start=0&sa=N

You might also be interested in some of the opinions on
PaidSurveysOnline.com in the Acid Forum Unveiling popular scams and
hoaxes about online money-making schemes:
http://www.voy.com/113109/92.html

In brief: No reputable company would demand a sign-up fee for granting
you the privilege to work for them (resp. for their "partners"). And
what is even more important - a reputable company would not conceal
their street address and telephone number on their website, as
PaidSurveysOnline.com does.

Most likely, the only one earning money with PaidSurveysOnline is ...
PaidSurveysOnline.

Best regards,
Scriptor

Thanks for your very informative answer..$5 well spent!

there are some legitimate research companies that will compensate you
for answering online surveys--but you can only make a modest amount of
money doing this

I know someone who answers surveys for various market researchers all
the time; she gets lots of small checks, totalling maybe $20-$40 a
month

I don't know if this amount is worth the all the effort (some surveys
are very long & boring)

I think the answer given above is biased and shows only one side of the picture.
I have complied a list of free to join survey companies at
http://biz-whiz.com/article326.html?ref=googleanswers
As for the question "Is it possible to make money doing surveys" -
there is a detailed discussion on our forum at
http://biz-whiz.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-14--.html?ref=googleanswers
Mufad.

You should not pay for a list of paid survey companies. Here's a free
jobs newsletter that provides links to over 325 paid survey sites.
Again, no cost. http://completelistofpaidsurveysites.com
You get a few online survey companies at a time.
Steve

The only site I know that list's all of the "Free Paid Survey"
companies for free is http://www.keysheet.com and thet update daily
and have a nice little forum and answer their emails!

Here's a verified listing: http://www.surveybounty.com/free_surveys/verified.html

Here are some check stubs:
http://www.surveybounty.com/articles/surveycheckstubs.html

Paidsurveysonline is sold through Clickbank (www.clickbank.com), an
affiliate marketing program.  The user that is marketing this program
on Clickbank is "surveys2".  Your best bet is to do a chargeback on
your credit card within the time period your card requires (I think
it's usually 30 or 60 days).  Most affiliate programs such as
Clickbank, Commission Junction, etc., will kick a company out of the
program if they get too many chargebacks from their product.

Ironic though -- I just noticed that Google's "sponsored links" at the
top of this page includes ads for websites that promote the very same
product that is said to be a scam.

some are totally legit, some are scams.  experience is the only way to tell.
gozing for example is kind of a joke, but survey savvy on the other hand is legit.
I signed up for them a couple weeks ago, and have made $43 so far. 
$40 was for one tech survey because I have a lot of background in
computers.  Most people get  3 or 4 surveys a month that pay $3 or
more, and take about 10 minutes to complete.
Link for those interested:
http://www.surveysavvy.com/?id=2027105
screen shot for those who might be skeptical.
http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=setandget&tp=262315&poll_id=0&category_id=20
&warned=y

I bought a e-book on the internet called secrets of paid on-line
surveys. It explains in detail what's going on with on-line surveys.
Not too bad. http://www.secretsofsurveys.bravehost.com