Mystery Shopping Tips

Many people new to mystery shopping complain that the pay is too low, that there aren’t any good assignments available, and that its just not worth the effort.

Unfortunately, these are the same people who don’t follow my simple advice of applying to mystery shopping companies, actively looking for assignments, and following through.

A recent discussion on MysteryShopForum.com really opened my eyes on this. The question was asked: What was your favorite assignment in 2007? There were some really interesting answers, and some very high paying assignments. Including getting $305 for much needed plumbing, eating a delicious streak dinner(for free) at $100 a head, and earning an EASY $100 for just one simple fast food assignment.

But guess what — the people that had the great assignments are the ones who are serious about their mystery shopping…And they show it by following through. They have done the simple legwork of finding good mystery shopping companies to work with, and they have established routines of getting assignments from those companies.

Not surprisingly, these people are also some of the most active members of MysteryShopForum.com — showing that it PAYS to be involved in the community.

So YES, there are people out there who are getting fun high paying assignments with mystery shopping.

Want to be one of them? Here’s what I recommend

1. Apply to a few mystery shopping companies a day for 4 weeks. Then narrow that list down to companies that you want to work with, and that have assignments in your area.
2. Become an ACTIVE member of MysteryShopForum.com. Dive in headfirst. Ask questions, answer questions, and just plain get involved. It is bar-none the most powerful way to become an expert mystery shopper that knows exactly how to make the most money and get the best assignments. (Just look at members such as Flash, Bugspost, Nwazshopper, Rudymiker, and JoanG and you’ll know what I mean.)

Please not that I am not a tax professional, so please understand that this in not tax advice, and may not be accurate. I recommend consulting an accountant. Also, TurboTax is very helpful in walking you through filing your taxes.

Being a mystery shopper means you are an independent contractor — which means you are effectively running your own small business.

With that, comes a load of advantages with your taxes. Yes, your taxes will be a little more complicated, but you get to have a whole slew of deductions that would otherwise have been unavailable to you.

This is important, because many people LOSE a lot of money because they miss out on their deductions.

When filling out your IRS forms, you get to do something called a Schedule C. This is where you report all of the money you’ve been paid as part of your business (yes, all of it!). But you also get to report ALL of your expenses. And with mystery shopping, there are a lot of expenses. Continue reading ‘The Hidden Money in Your Tax Return’

So you’re ready to get your toes wet with mystery shopping? Then now is your chance to get started. In fact, its actually really easy to get started with mystery shopping.

The formula is very simply.

Apply to mystery shopping companies + check websites for jobs + apply for assignments = Get paid to shop.

But whats really cool is there are shortcuts for each of the pieces of the formula, so that you can spend less time getting started, and more time getting paid to shop.

The bottom line is this: You need to find companies in your area with assignments that you want.

The most effective way is to apply to every mystery shopping company that you can find, and then sort out which companies have assignments in your area, and which don’t. Most highly successful mystery shoppers have a working list of 10-20 companies that they work with on a regular basis, and then another 10-20 that they keep a loose eye on for assignments.

The trick is to find those companies. One way to do that is to apply to every company you can find. Spend a few hours a week on it, and in a few weeks you’ll have more assignments than you know what to do with.

But there are some shortcuts:

• Search job boards for old assignments in your area. Chances are, if the company had an assignment in your area last month, they’ll have one for you this month. Apply to those companies!
• Search the MSPA job board for assignments. This is a great way to find companies that have assignments in your area, because you can search by location.
• Read forums such as MysteryShopForum.com to learn about companies in your area from other shoppers, and to learn about which companies are highly rated, and which aren’t.
• Apply to scheduling companies such as Kern Scheduling or ShadowShopper. They’ll find companies in your area with assignments. Apply to the companies they refer you to.

The bottom line is that if you want to get started with mystery shopping, you need to apply to mystery shopping companies. Thats step one, and its really the only step that counts. If you do nothing else, I recommend applying to at least a couple of scheduling companies, and doing a search on the MSPA job board.

Once you build a good list of companies in your area, you should be able to establish a pretty solid mystery shopping business. But you’ve to apply!

It’s been more than a month since I’ve posted here, and I thought I’d give you an update.

I spent the better part of December, and the first week of January traveling in Vietnam & Thailand. Upon getting back, I got a cold, and have been recovering from it.

Vietnam was a wonderful country. I was initially ambivalent about traveling there, because of the recent painful history between our two countries. My girlfriend’s father lost a limb in Vietnam, and my mother lost many good friends. But, upon arrival I was pleasantly surprised by the warmth of the Vietnamese people.

For the most part, they have put the pain of the war behind them, and are optimistic, entrepreneurial, and almost always ready to share a smile or a laugh.

I had a wonderful time in Vietnam. Perhaps the favorite thing that I brought back from there was two pounds of what I believe to be the best coffee in the world. It was purchased from a beautiful garden cafe in an alley off an alley, in the coastal city of Phan Theit.

Thailand was such a contrast to Vietnam. The city of Bangkok is a very wealthy city, with a whole strata of social classes, from rich to very poor. But the highlight of that city is in the street food. At night, restaurants appear on the sidewalks, seemingly out of nowhere. Complete with tableclothes and candlelight.  These sidewalk eateries serve some of the best food in the city.

A delicious meal for the equivalent of about $1 is something remarkable indeed.

Now that I am back home in Seattle I am planning several new projects to help out mystery shoppers.

The first of which is an audio CD that will get you started with mystery shopping, and then give you some of my best secrets earning a very nice income.

It’s good to be back.