Are you a survey newbie or a market research whiz?

Choose a survey provider that can give you just the right amount of support.

I recommend: If you could use step-by-step instructions to guide you through survey design and distribution, try Web Online Surveys, which gives you the first 25 survey responses for free and charges $20 per month after that.

Do you need help designing your survey?

Some sites offer pre-designed templates into which you can plug your own questions.

I recommend: Your survey will be done in no time if you decide to customize an existing survey template at CreateSurvey, including questionnaires regarding customer satisfaction, advertising effectiveness or product evaluation, for example.

Evaluate your many options

Before committing to one online survey provider, consider running a test survey.

I recommend: With so many online survey companies available, including Websurveyor, Infopoll, Inquisite and CoolSurveys, sign up for a free trial and decide for yourself which is the best choice for your company.

Help finding survey participants

Sometimes you may need input from people who aren't yet your customers, or who are in a particular geographic region.

I recommend: Go with a company that can give you access to targeted survey participants if you know you don't have such a database. Zoomerang, one of the industry biggies, is a source, as is Greenfield Online.

Watch the answers roll in

After you've designed and distributed your survey, the next step is making sure people fill it out.

I recommend: Surveymonkey allows you to watch survey results as they are posted, in real time, so you can immediately start to see where your target audience stands on issues you raised in your survey.