Paid Surveys: A Hit or Miss?

If you've been searching the web using keywords such as: make money, make money online, make money from home, etc. chances are you've seen offers from companies offering to pay you in exchange for you opinion (and valuable time).

Typically you sign up with the research group, like Vindale or Opinion Outpost (for example), and you take surveys when they alert you of new available opportunities.

Another option is to sign up with sites like Unique Rewards, ClixSense, or Points2Shop and take surveys offered through their partners. Some people have better luck with the individual groups, and some enjoy the offer sites or "get paid to" sites more. It all depends on the person.

When I sign on to do a survey there are a few pages before the actual survey that screen for the best potential candidates. These are typically questions about age, annual income, gender, and so forth. Once an appropriate survey have been selected for you (or you were lucky enough to choose it) you begin to fill out the paid survey. However, I'm typically displeased that these systems will typically boot you from the survey if you're not on what I'll refer to as the "correct path". That's right, fifteen minutes in and the survey then decides to tell you that you're not qualified. Just not cool. But better than the old Survey method; a random call from a call center hoping to milk you for information until you hung up. No reward ever promised.

Sometimes I do get lucky and find a survey that I'm able to complete. These are few and far between, possibly because I'm such an odd duck. So I typically stay away, unless I'm totally out of things to do with my day.

How do surveys pan out for you? Are you the person these companies are looking for? Do you get to complete many surveys or do you feel that they unjustly kick you out of the survey when you're not the perfect candidate?
What survey sites work best for you?