| |
| |
|
Careers & Employment Information |
|
|
|
Mystery Shopping
Mystery shopping is an excellent way to make extra money. In fact, some people make a full time living doing it. There are many mystery shopping companies that will pay you to shop, eat at restaurants and take part in focus groups. A mystery shop consists of getting paid to go into a business without the employee's knowledge and reporting back to the mystery shopping company. A focus group is when you get paid to sit down with other people who are also getting paid and discuss new products or services. Mystery shopping jobs and focus groups are easier to find if you live in or near a large metropolitan area. After you do a mystery shop you answer some questions and file your report with the mystery shopping company. These reports are usually set up as a series of questions and often can be completed quickly. The reason they have mystery shops and focus groups is so that companies can get feedback on their employees, products and services. That way they can see where there might be problems and make the necessary changes to improve things. A few years ago I had some free time and I wanted to make some extra money. I took a course, How to Become a Mystery Shopper, at a local community college. After completing the course I registered with a few mystery shopping companies online. You can do a search on Google for "mystery shopping." Bypass the mystery shopping websites that are trying to sell something. You want to find the mystery shopping websites for the actual mystery shopping companies. These mystery shopping companies will never charge you any type of fee to register or to do mystery shops or focus groups. Be sure to read all the free mystery shopping information you come across. There is an art to being a good mystery shopper. Basically you are like a reporter. You will never add your feelings or what you think to a mystery shopping report. Your job is to just answer the questions, report the facts and describe what actually happened during your shop. You never want to give your own recommendations. That is not why you are hired. If the mystery shopping company wants a consultant, they will hire one. All they want you to do is to answer questions with just the facts of your mystery shopping assignment. Once you find a few mystery shopping companies you can then register with them. They'll contact you by email whenever they have a mystery shopping job in your area. You'll only respond to the emails when you want to do the shop. Otherwise you can just delete the email. You get to pick and choose the shops you want to do. A couple of years ago I did some apartment shops for the Jancyn Evaluation Company that took me about half an hour to complete. Since they paid $25, I was basically being paid $50 an hour. You can register with the Jancyn Evaluation Shops Company. They may pay more than $25 today for apartment shops since it has been about two years since I've done an apartment shop for them. Jancyn also does a lot of shops and surveys for the Ross Dress for Less retail stores. I'm not sure if Jancyn still has a business relationship with Ross, but I once handed out survey forms in one of the local Ross stores here in the Seattle area and made $500 for about 30 hours of work. Here's the URL for Jancyn if you'd like to register with them to do some shops. http://www.jancyn.com/ Another mystery shopping company that I get a lot of email requests for shops for is the Secret Shopper Company. They seem to specialize in shops for Veterinary Clinics. They pay $15 plus up to $100 payment NOT including tip + $10. The only catch is that you have to own a cat or dog, which I don't, but maybe you do. Here's their URL http://www.secretshopper.com OK, I've saved the best for last. Fieldwork specializes in setting up focus groups for some of the biggest companies in the US. They pay $50 to $75 for a focus group meeting that usually lasts about an hour. The last one I did with them was for some research for eBay. They were trying to come up with a name for a new category on their website. Fieldwork is located throughout the US in major metropolitan areas. You'll have to visit their website to see if they are located near where you live. It's great if you have children since Fieldwork does a lot of focus groups involving children. Perhaps you can talk your kids into splitting the fee with you. Again, the pay usually works out to be about $50 to $75 an hour. Unfortunately I have no children, but the next time I get an email for a focus group for children I'll borrow a couple of my neighbor's children. Here's the link for Fieldwork. http://www.fieldwork.com/ Now you have a basic idea of how the mystery shopping and focus groups work. Start searching for more mystery shopping websites and get paid to shop, eat and taking part in focus groups. It's easy money! Barry Stein is the owner of aWebBiz.com where he offers cutting-edge tips on all aspects of business. To find more advice, tools and resources to help you succeed in your business, visit: http://www.aWebBiz.com Barry's Internet Marketing Blog: http://awebbiz.com/blog ------------------------------------------------------------- You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your e-book or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included with an active hyperlink to the aWebBiz.com website.
MORE RESOURCES:
Careers-Employment - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
You Can Identify a Problem Solver As an executive recruiter, I interview a lot of people. And while most candidates find a way to look good on paper, their resumes don't always reveal how good of a problem solver they are. Career Search from Within Seeking meaningful and fulfilling work can become a discouraging, confusing and overwhelming journey. Beware spending too much time looking for your answers outside of yourself. Career Education Options For Working Adults Ask yourself this question: "Do I like what I do for a living?" If you answered "no", what are you doing about it? Maybe you have a "good" job, but it's not very rewarding to you personally. Maybe you have job with good pay, but bad hours or worse - a job with good hours, but bad pay. How to Use Flow In The Job Search What is "flow"? Flow as described by the psychology professor and educator, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is a state of being and behavior. The behavior is one of complete absorption in a task. Interview Questions: How To Stump The Interviewer In the limited time an interviewer has with you, their mission is to know you and assess your worth, especially in relationship to the other candidates interviewed. Asking you questions is the way they accomplish that mission. Genes and Work Ethic If you have good genes, you are blessed. If they are exceptional, you might be successful on that alone. Cross Cultural Interviews At this moment in time, the increase in cross border human traffic has meant that companies are no longer dealing with a homogenous native community from which they recruit their staff. Companies are now facing cross cultural challenges in how they recruit, manage and develop a multi-cultural staff. Networking Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them 'Fear of rejection' is the major reason why individuals looking for a career change hesitate to use networking as the most powerful weapon in their job search armoury. This is even the case with senior people who you would have thought anybody would be delighted to receive a call from. Layoff Survival Guide - Do You Have The Career Management Horsepower It Will Take To Survive? In a recent survey of over 662 career seekers, some disturbing trends identified that MOST career seekers don't have a clue what career management skills they have or what those skills are! As a result, it will be difficult for these career seekers to succeed.In fact, only 71% of the respondents recognized they had any career management skills at all! That's why they are particularly vulnerable to future layoffsBefore skipping to the answers, try your hand at identifying YOUR career management skills. The Perils Of Employment: Are You About To Be Let Go? From the moment you are born and you take your first breath, you begin to die.It's just a fact of life. The Interview - A Few Tips for Making a Great First Impression Searching for employment is one of the most nerve-racking activities to engage in. As if the direct need for income is not stressful enough, the process of writing a résumé, networking in your industry, and applying for jobs can leave anyone shaking in their tracks. Useless Resume Objectives What's wrong with an objective on a resume? The problem with objectives on resumes is that a typical objective is self-centered and self-serving; therefore, it is useless. Instead of an objective, use a power statement. Three Steps to Writing Your Own Resume While most professionals hire a professional resume writer, some draft their own resume. People who write a lot for business usually have more success in putting together a sharp, focused presentation; still, anyone can learn the basic steps to prepare his or her own resume. 5 Key Factors to Consider When Selecting an Outplacement Firm With today's economy, more and more companies are finding themselves faced with the situation of having to reduce headcount to remain competitive. Here are five key factors to consider when selecting an outplacement firm if your company is ever faced with a workforce reduction. Free Resume Examples: More Is Better If you ever studied any probability theory in high school or college, you probably remember the marbles.Most introductory probability books talk about drawing different colored marbles out of a bag. A Peek at Nursing as a Career We need more people to choose nursing as a career. There is a national shortage, so the career choice would guarantee future employment fresh out of school. Discuss Your Accomplishments During the Interview When preparing for your interview, you need to be ready to discuss your accomplishments. Surprisingly, many people are reluctant to talk about their accomplishments. Internships: Bonkers or Brilliant? I have something to say that's driving me batty. It's regarding graduates who fuss about not getting a job they like or not getting a job at all for that matter. Resume Writing - Things to Consider You are looking for a job and you are out to land the job of a lifetime. It can happen! Before you consider want ads, job websites, or making inquiries of companies you are interested in, you will need a resume. Avoiding 10 Deadly Interview Mistakes Too many job seekers set themselves up for failure before the interview ever takes place. They fail to target their audience, demonstrate relevant skills and experience, or present themselves in a way that grabs the attention of potential employers.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |