Getting refferals to sign up to online survey sites that you are a member of is a tough task, IF you don’t know how to go about it. Even people that think they know how to get referrals end up falling short.
As you have probably found out the hard way, it is not how many referrals that you get, but it is the quality of those referrals. You want to attract people that want to get paid for taking an online survey. You don’t want some unmotivated browser, that will join and do absolutely nothing. There are many easy ways to make your referral number skyrocket, and most of them do not involve you having to pay for internet adverstising of any sort. This involves everything from homemade flyers to pass out at a local college, or telling each and every one of your family members and friends (you won’t believe how good of a referral a friend/family member can be).
You may want to dive into the paid advertising portion once you get comfortable with what works and what doesn’t work, but, who knows, you might not even NEED to pay for any sort of advertising (ex: google adwords). You might end up making a nice amount of money getting people to join...