The business of taking online surveys for money is highly competitive, and there are a lot of things about the business that can be confusing. But the one thing that every successful survey-taker has in common is a commitment to efficiency. If you want this business to be profitable, you can’t waste much time. Taking a single modestly paying survey per day is just not going to cut it. The key to success is taking as many surveys as time allows, and this means maximizing how many surveys you can take in a given period of time. This is not quite as easy as one might think, but with these tips, you can make great strides toward being an expert survey-taker.

1. Nail down your survey sources. The only way to be efficient is to figure out the best sources for surveys and to use them again and again. This helps you filter out all the noise and get access to surveys faster. As soon as you can, take some time to go through all the potential sources for surveys and leads on surveys, and keep track of all that you find useful. Then, whenever it comes time to find some fresh survey opportunities, you can go right back to the sources that you know are reliable.

2. Get a devoted email address. Whether you like it or not, getting involved in the survey business means receiving lots of email, and much of the email you receive will be either spam or barely distinguishable from spam. And obviously, you do not want all that junk cluttering up your personal email inbox. So before going any further, set up a devoted account on Gmail or another email service, and use that address for everything relating to online surveys. Once you have this email address, you can then make things even more efficient by setting up filters that help bring the most relevant emails to your attention.

3. Use automated form fillers. There are a number of free and cheap pieces of software that help make filling out forms much easier. Of course, several of the latest generation browsers offer basic form-filling features, and there are also some browser plugins that extend this capability. But to take things to the next level, explore your non-browser software options. Ideally you will reach a point where all the repetitive questions in online forms will be automatically filled for you, and this can cut substantial time out of the process.

4. Set up a PayPal account to receive payments. Receiving money through PayPal is always much more efficient than the other payment methods, and you typically get your money a lot faster. And don’t worry—setting up a PayPal account is incredibly easy. It can be done in just a few minutes (though linking it to your offline bank account can take a few days).