"How I've Earned $7,187 With Mystery Shopping"

By Theresa as Posted On MysteryShopForum.com

I know that I asked a question when someone on an online group returned my e-mail and told me that she had to make it short because she had to complete a "Mystery Shop" Report. There were those 2 words again that peaked my interest when I first heard them on Oprah Winfrey. There was this guy in the audience who said that he was a Mystery Shopper. I never heard about Mystery Shopping again until that e-mail. Well, I asked my "new" e-mail buddy about it and my life will never be the same. She had several years of mystery shopping under her belt and she bombarded me with e-mails full of information. I almost told her to stop sending me information because I was becoming overwhelmed. I did not want to hurt her feelings because she was just being helpful.

Somewhere in those early days I also received an e-mail from Jacob suggesting that I register with as many companies as possible. He also provided information about companies that use Sassie. Being curious and teachable, I did just that. The first mystery shop that I performed was on 3/28/06 (Happy Anniversary), I have since completed 403 Mystery Shops and have made $7,187 very part-time around my lifestyle. I have 18 more that need to be completed this month. I don't know how many companies I am signed up with, but I have shopped for 44 companies. Every time I get a little bit of time, I sign up with other companies that I see on some lists that I have. I lost my mind and signed up to complete 6 shops on Monday. Mission accomplished and I don't think that I will do that again. So far this month I am looking at earning $617 and that is for jobs that I am signup up for through 3/20. There are some dates that I don't have shops for #'s in the upper teens, but I will take care of that.

In the early days I checked companies to locate shops, now I don't have the time and I usually respond to the postings and sign up for shops. Some companies allow a person to self-assign, others will send a confirmation e-mail once a person had applied and be assigned a shop. The highest paying shops I have done have been Real Estate shops. I have also done Bank shops that have paid $30-$50. If a company is in a bind, they may pay more by way of a bonus if a shopper helps them to meet their client deadline.

Someone wrote an e-mail about having to be organized. I am organized and I still want to choke the person who decided to make parchment. That is the one think that makes me nuts. I can't file the paperwork quick enough. One thing tht I decided to do in the early days is to make cheat notes. Between printing the guidelines and the shop forms, I found myself running through paper and ink cartridges at a crazy rate. Now what I do if I have a shop that comes in that is something that I have not done before I type up cheat notes. I have a whole folder in my Mystery Shopping main founder that has over 90 cheat notes. The company name appears on the word document with the name of the company to be shopped. The cheat notes are my little way of summarizing the guidelines of the shop. I love reading but I don't want to spend the time to rint and read the guidelines for shops that are the same over and over again. Never mind having to print the guidelines again. Now I read the guidelines on the company, pull out my hard copy of the cheat sheet and will pencil in little changes that may be new to the shop. The schedulers will more often then not advise if the guidelines have changes. I will take my cheat notes with me and even make up a little postcard with highlights to jot down. My cheat notes are kept in a 3-ring binder with alphabetical tabs where the notes are filed by company shopped. For example McDonalds is filled under Mc. If I have done a McDonalds for more then one company, I break down McDonald's by company. Did you get that, well it works for me.

I know that Mystery shopping is hard work. The amount that a person makes depends on how much effort they are willing to expend. Because I am registered with so many company, I have to, if I can check my e-mail a few times daily. Last night before I went to sleep I had to clear off 82 e-mails.

I have never paid to Mystery Shop and I have no intention of paying to Mystery Shop. I think that Shadow Shopper has me on their mailing list to send out a monthly "We are really desperate!" email They can stay desperate because I am not.

Well, I have to go and clean out my e-mail and I did not edit this prior to submitting it. I hope that I get a 10 grade on this one. I hope that is not sent back for more information or editing, that is also a Mystery Shopping reality.

Happy Shopping

Theresa