LinkedIn Surveys aims to let market researchers contact and question LinkedIn users.  That means around 30 million well-defined professionals are on tap, and as LinkedIn’s always happy to point out, these people tend to enjoy better positions and higher salaries than the MySpace and Facebook crowds.

Users will get offered gift cards from places like Amazon and Starbucks in exchange for their participation.  Or, in a nice touch, they’ll be able to make donations to charities.  And LinkedIn should simply receive an undisclosed amount of money from researchers for facilitating the whole thing.

Now, for the ramifications.  Since every company is in a perpetual state of wanting more money, this method of looking for income in a new place needn’t be taken as a sign that the online economy is collapsing.  Moreover, since LinkedIn has run tests with six firms, LinkedIn Surveys obviously isn’t a spur-of-the-moment effort.

LinkedIn’s sure to enjoy the fruits of the deal, though, and if you happen to have a LinkedIn profile, we’d encourage you to keep an eye out for survey offers so that you can do the same.