How to Become a Mystery Shopper

These days, it seems like everyone is looking for a way to make extra money. Whether it's to supplement your current income or to save some money up for a rainy day, there any many ways you can make some extra cash. I wrote about a few ideas in my article Make Extra Money Working from Home. (You can find that article here http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1463999/make_extra_money_working_from_home.html)

One of the ways I write about, and which is generating a lot of questions, is mystery shopping. Many people think that being a mystery shopper is glamorous and fun. They envision afternoons spending other people's money shopping and lunching at fine restaurants. If that was the reality of it, I would be out shopping now instead of writing about it.

I become a mystery shopper a few years back when a friend of mine wanted to pay a website for information on becoming a mystery shopper. I helped her get all of the information she needed - for free - from the internet using Google. We both signed-up with a few companies as mystery shoppers. Within a few weeks I took some assignments and I was a mystery shopper!

Based on what I've learned being a mystery shopper, here are three tips to help you get started.

Never Pay to be a Mystery Shopper

If you Google "mystery shopper" you're sure to come up with a myriad of websites offering to set you up as a mystery shopper... for a fee. Legitimate mystery shopping firms never charge you to sign-up for their services. The websites that charge you a few, are in fact, not companies that hire mystery shoppers but companies that will give you a list of the companies that hire mystery shoppers.

Rather than pay someone for a list of companies that hire mystery shoppers, you should spend some time on a search engine to find these companies yourself. Never pay someone for this information; it's too easy to find it yourself online.

Mystery Shopping is Work

As I previously mentioned, mystery shopping is work. Yes, you do shop and eat, but often times someone else is not always paying for it. Sometimes, I get offers to mystery shop stores where I have to buy a product, but I have to pay for it myself. Of course, I can return whatever it is I bought, but I have to come up with the cash upfront. Most of the time, the payment for being a mystery shopper is $10 to $20 and is for performing they shop and completing the questionnaire (more on that later). In most cases, you can't buy items with someone else's money and keep the item.

Be Prepared to Spend Time after Performing the Shop Evaluating

After you perform the assigned mystery shopping in the store, you'll be required to complete an evaluation. These evaluations are often lengthy and detailed. I've spent up to two hours completing a questionnaire for one shop I did... and it got kicked back as not detailed enough. I had to add to it again and re-submit it. All of this was for a shop that only paid $12 to complete.

Most evaluations must be completed within 24 hours of mystery shopping a location, and if you fail to complete an evaluation on time, or it's incomplete, you risk losing the payment for doing the shop.