I really want to be a mystery shopper, but I have a few questions. I have been reading a lot of post on this board and one thing I don't understand is why do the shops pay so little? I would like to make $200 to $300 a month. Is this realistic as a new mystery shopper? Are the shops that pay more only offered to experienced shoppers? How do you find out about the better paying shops, are they special invitation only? Can someone explain telephone mystery shops to me and how much do they pay? Thanks for the help.

Robyn, I will try to write you a more detailed answer tonight. Right now I have to hit the road. I have ten pumping convenience store shops to complete today and tomorrow. All of them are base pay (think modest) ranging from $17 to $18 including reimbursement. This is mostly what I do, and I've done 589 this year through the end of May. I have been doing for a few years and I have not happened across many well paying shops. All jobs on earth are hard and don't pay enough. Ask anybody you meet on the street.

Thanks for your response, look forward to hearing more.

The biggest issue in making this successful is where you live and how far you are willing to travel. MDavisnowell lives in a fairly rural area and puts in a lot of miles on her vehicle. I live in a small city and have a lot of opportunities within a 25 mile radius. In my area $200 to $300 per month would be no problem at all. Those in larger cities have clients that are not available to me, so they have even more opportunities, though they complain that they also have more competition.

Really the only way you will know if this works for you is to register with a bunch of companies and try it. The basic companies that are beginner friendly are Market Force, Stericycle, Maritz, Bare and Bestmark. They offer shops any place in the country that there is a post office, gas station or fast food place. I think most folks find that it takes 3-4 months to 'hit their stride' with shops and of course during that time they sweat bullets because they are spending their own money and not seeing it reimbursed until they are also paid for the shop and that may take anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months, depending on the company you are working with.

Thank for your feedback. By the way I live in Prince William County Virginia area.

robyn,
You will have tons of opportunities between where you live and the Dulles/Herndon/Tysons areas. You will just need to sign up with a lot of companies (MSCs) so that you can put together several shops per trip and you will soon exceed your goal. You are in one of the fastest growing retail markets in your region!

Every day that you do not have at least 2 shops scheduled, sign up with 5-10 more MSCs from the list of nearly 200 at the link at the bottom of the page. You now own your own small business and signing up to see every possible job is part of the work for starting the business. Don't be discouraged if some companies do not show any jobs near you when you first sign on and look at their job boards. The supply of new job postings waxes and wanes within the month and over the calendar quarter.

Start slow, trying one bank shop and one fast food shop and one fast casual shop, one retail, etc. Soon you will find out what you like most among the kinds of shops available to newbies. Built up your reputation for good, timely, reports with the MSCs that have those shops so that you will begin to see btter paid and/or more interesting shops, while also trying a few companies new to you.

For more tips, read all of the topics at the top of the New Shoppers area that are marked "sticky". Enjoy!

That is certainly is a high density population area so there should be many opportunities there. I couldn't start to tell you what the shopper density is in the area as I am in a totally different area of the country. Sign up with a few companies, select a shop or two to try. I would encourage you to go with a shop that has a low out of pocket expenditure for your first shops as we all screw up when we start (and even when we are long time shoppers who got lazy and failed to read the revised instructions) because there are a number of things to remember and it is far better to lose your time and only a couple of bucks if a shop is rejected than it is to be out of pocket a whole bunch.

Robyn, sounds like you are in a very good area. You should be able to make several hundred dollars a month with no problem. I recommend starting out with one to two shops a day and building up from there. The better paying shops are video shops and after you get started you might want to look into video shopping. I decided against it myself for personal reasons.

Post offices are good but you'll have $5.95 and up per shop outlay if you do the post offices. I recommend against the "C" scenario because it has a very large outlay of the shopper's money. Many bank shops won't have outlay at all so that would be good to start with. Also apartment and new home shops won't have cash outlay. Convenience stores will have $1 to $2 inside purchase outlay plus an outlay for the cost of the gas, but if you have to have the gas anyway no harm done as the required amount will be reimbursed. I do enough stations that I hardly ever (think a few times a year) pay for gas without reimbursement coming back to me. Grocery stores will offer a modest fee plus a reimbursement on groceries. Some of them are more generous than others.

The key is to keep signing up, the more companies the better.

@robyndianne wrote:

I would like to make $200 to $300 a month. Is this realistic as a new mystery shopper? .

I earned that in shop fees within a couple of months of starting, and I was only shopping for four or five companies at that time. However, I drove about 250 miles to make that, so after mileage and taxes, your profit is less than you earn.

It is quite realistic where Robyn is, without so much driving.

Thanks everyone.

I rarely do low $ shops any more. I aim for at least $75-100 worth of shops just to drive out the door. I work full time but manage as many as 200 shops per year. In 2012 I did 197 shops and averaged about $38 per shop. In 2013 there were 155 with an average of $45. Last year I did less than 100 but averaged $75. In one case I did a hotel shop in very rural PA town and while I was there a different MSC posted an offer of $100 for a high end jewelry shop the next town over; a lucky find.

jchris, good for you. Sounds like you've got that average way up there and this is working for you.

I shop part time and did 949 shops last year but I can't hit your average shop fee, sure wish I could. I'm at 589 through May. For the first few years I shopped less and my average went up some every year but now I'm taking on more work and seeing averages decrease a bit. I could be more selective and get a higher average but then I would sacrifice total dollars. I think I'll continue to concentrate on total dollars coming in rather than being more selective, what's been referred to as working smarter. I certainly agree it's smarter to work less and get more but I get more I can put in the bank if I do more shops.

The reason I'm commenting on your post is twofold, first to congratulate you on your average and second to point out to newer shoppers there is more than one way to do this. If you don't need to shop much, for example you have other income, then it makes sense to concentrate on ONLY the better paying shops. But if you need day to day steady income, you may want to take a look at taking on quite a bit of base rate work and adding in the better paying and bonused shops when they're available.

Experience teaches us that the bonused shops are available toward the end of a month or toward the end of a quarter or toward the end of a project. That gives us some idea of when we should leave some slack in the schedule to have time to pick up the goodies when they float by. I know, for example, that at some times I may as well book myself up with whatever I can find because it's not the time when anything special will be offered. At other times I know it's smart to leave some slack so I can take on other work on short notice.

As we say down here, more than one way to skin a cat.

I think that is a realistic amount of money to earn per month with mystery shopping. I can usually do that without too much effort but I live in a busy city. Cell phone shops do not require an outlay of money and can be done pretty quickly. There seem to always be those on the boards. I have been doing a lot of gym shops that do not require any money up front. Good luck - I think you will meet your goal pretty quickly.

you can easily make 200-300 part time....some of it will be in reimbursement (groceries you would normally buy anyway).

you should be able to get $300 with 30 lower paying jobs....that is about 1 per day..but it is better to try to get a few in a small area per day to reduce your travel expenses

Hi Robyn,

I'm just starting out as a mystery shopper. There is a lot of legwork to do to get yourself organized and this website is wonderful with all the tips for doing that! I've copied many of the tips I've found here and created a document for myself in Word that I can refer to often. One of the most important tips is to create a spreadsheet for yourself in Excel in order to keep track of each job that you do and the info that goes with it. We are classified as independent contractors and need to report our income to the IRS come tax time. I'm starting out small and then build up to more companies gradually once I feel I have a handle on everything. I have a part-time job and work volunteer jobs as well so time is of the essence and I want to do this the right way.

Welcome to the "club" Robyn and good luck to you!

Hi folks...since my question was - in essence - the same as Robyn's, I thought I should just add my specific question here. This thread has been EXACTLY what I wanted to read today so thank you! My question is just "what is the group's opinion on the opportunities I might have out of Elkton/North East, MD (Zip Codes 21921/21901)?" I am almost exactly 1 hour from the stadium complexes in both Philadelphia and Baltimore plus Lancaster, PA at about 45 minutes.

Thanks again!

Look around you. Do they sell cell phones near you? Are there grocery stores? Are there hardware stores? Restaurants? Fast food places? Gas stations? Post Offices? Retail stores? Discount stores? If they are within 15-20 miles of you then you will have a number of shopping opportunities within 15-20 miles of you.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2015 04:51PM by Flash.

I get that, of course. Just curious for more. Thanks.

Since the only people who could give you more are other shoppers in the area, you may or may not get an answer. If someone is willing to answer it could still be days before they visit the forum and see the question. Meanwhile, check out the various job boards like jobslinger to see what is posted. They don't have everything available since many companies choose to only post opportunities on their own websites. Regardless, you should come away with a decent overview for your local area and any farther out if you are willing to travel.

There is a lot of work in your area. IMHO, traveling to Philadelphia is not likely to make sense. I live a lot closer, and rarely does it pay for me to go into the Philadelphia city limits. There are mileage and time issues just getting to the area, and then lots of time in city traffic and PARKING FEES. I often see shops in your area, but time and distance are an issue. Once in a great while I will go to Elkton. I go the Newark once or twice a month. Both would be good areas for you, as would the Outlet Stores in Perryville. Maybe Christiana Mall would also work for you. I think that time and distance going to Baltimore would be too great, and the same is probably true of Lancaster. You really need to think in terms of creating routes.

@imachristian13 wrote:

Hi folks...since my question was - in essence - the same as Robyn's, I thought I should just add my specific question here. This thread has been EXACTLY what I wanted to read today so thank you! My question is just "what is the group's opinion on the opportunities I might have out of Elkton/North East, MD (Zip Codes 21921/21901)?" I am almost exactly 1 hour from the stadium complexes in both Philadelphia and Baltimore plus Lancaster, PA at about 45 minutes.

Thanks again!

I looked up my state and there are no results found. Can this be correct? Nevada

Welcome, gloriaj,

There are jobs in Nevada. Unfortunately, your state is the only state in the country that requires by law mystery shoppers to hold a private investigators license or work for someone who holds one. There are a few companies in Nevada that you can work for. I don't recall offhand which they are, but you can search the forum.

Good luck

I'm a Christian, Zero in on Maryland and Chespeake house and consider them your malls. Several of the businesses in there get shopped. Then the truck stops, car dealers, and fast food that is all around you. Use jobslinger to identify what companies have work in your area today, and don't waste time signing up for companies in BFE. Get a certification and they will seek you out. Don't try too hard to drive to Baltimorgue or Philly for work a first. Start in your back yard. Does that box lot auctioh place get open much any more?