While many experts still have high hopes that the economy will pull itself out of its slump by the end of this year, the fact remains that many family’s pocketbooks continue to be strapped for cash. Many mystery shoppers are looking for new ways to increase their income from mystery shopping and line their wallets with a little extra dough. There are a few key ways you can make more money as a mystery shopper this year:
Be First! Some mystery shoppers get bogged down by looking at job boards for dozens of providers. The fact is, it doesn’t matter how many providers’ job boards you search if you aren’t the first one to see the job when it is posted. In mystery shopping, more often than not, the early bird gets the worm. Meaning, more often than not, the first qualified mystery shopper to request the assignment will be granted the assignment. So if you are in the market to pick up some additional assignments this year, take the time scour the job boards several times per day to increase your odds of being the first one to request the assignment.
Clean House. If you are working with too many providers, you may actually be hurting your chances of being the first to see an assignment when it posted. It may be worth your while to concentrate your efforts on just a handful of providers who post the most jobs, including jobs you prefer to work on. Take the time to consider how often you have worked for each of your providers in the past year versus how much time you have spent looking for assignments on that provider’s job board. You may be better off by casting your low-performing mystery shopping companies aside and replacing them with a few providers who offer more jobs in your area.
Choose Your Assignments Carefully. If you need to make some extra cash, you may be determined to take any assignments that come your way. Depending on the travel distance, the time involved in the assignment, and the expense reimbursement for a required purchase, some assignments can actually end up costing you money! So while you should by all means be open-minded in considering what types of assignments you will do, you should still always take into mind factors such as distance, compensation, required purchases, and time.
Ask For More. If you’ve analyzed your costs such as time, travel, and required purchases against the offered compensation, and the assignment in question fell short of your expectations, don’t cast that job off just yet. If the assignment is in a rural location or has been on the boards for a considerable amount of time with no other takes, you should consider asking the mystery shopping provider for additional compensation such as travel pay or bonus pay. In all likelihood, if the assignment is truly a dud with its present compensation, the provider may jump at the chance to get that assignment completed and accept your terms for additional compensation.
Take these strategies into consideration and you will soon find yourself completing more assignments and maybe even getting paid more on the assignments you work on!
Choosing assignments carefully is a must, because some assignments are not worth the hassel.
To determine if your costs such as time, travel, and required purchases are justified by the compensation, it is good to establish a formula or base line for the minimum that you will accept for an assignment. Of course more than mileage must be calculated. Cost per mile, cost per hour to complete and to report, required purchases, as well as the wait time for payment must be considered. Besides checking job boards, be sure to check off the appropriate options when available, to receive email notifications for available jobs.
Once in a while I check the job boards. I get plenty of e-mails for assignments and get plenty of assignments. Sometimes I go to Volition or Jobslinger. I live in Boston.
I am organized and maintain an active list and have two folders set up for providers. One is for the providers that rarely have shops available to me or never seem to have well paying shops. The second is for the providers that have their act together and pay timely.