I have been doing modest amounts of mystery shopping for over a year, for equally modest results. I'm trying to figure out how to take things to the "next level," and one of the things that appears to be part of the problem is finding the shops I like. I've been using mostly email notifications to learn what the latest shops are, but for every shop I take, I discard at least seven emails because they are outside the distance, price, dates, or other logistical limitations that I have to work within.

I have now unsubscribed from such emails because they were cluttering up my inbox, and I'm looking for alternatives in how to find and manage new shop notifications. I've tried email filtering systems, but the track record so far has not been stellar, and I doubt I will be going that direction.

So, what do all of you do? Do you have a system for how you get and sort new shops to find the ones you will actually take? What can you recommend I do (or not do) to find the right kind of shops?

For me fairly straightforward. I rarely rely on emails because I find they are mostly for shops nobody wanted--for good reason. There are a few schedulers who send me offers of 'the good stuff', but there are a lot of spammers of the drek hoping SOMEONE will do that $4 shop for $4. I can tick off 20 emails to send to trash in about a minute or less, so I don't turn off emails.

I have a bookmark folder of companies I want to check their job boards daily. With Firefox remembering my login and password for each site, opening the websites to check the job boards is a quick matter. There are about 20 bookmarks in that folder.

The rest of the companies I am registered with are on other bookmarks that can be similarly opened in windows from time to time to see if they have gotten any clients of interest. If I start working with them, they move to the bookmark of companies I want to check daily.

This proves out the adage to each his own. 99.9% of my work is from email notices. I rarely check a job board. In my case one of the motivating factors in getting a smart phone was being able to get to emails quickly because I felt some shops were getting away from me while I was away from my computer. Just with shops picked up that otherwise would have been lost, the phone paid for itself in the first couple of weeks.

I learned a lot from this forum. Regardless of your method, waiting for emails or checking postings, if you want more to select from you have three basic options; more MSCs, expanding the radius you shop, taking on different kinds of shops.

Understand and know your current abilities and limits. Improve both.

Sometimes you just have to try out a shop for itself, especially if you notice consistent work from month to month. Then, get a feel to see if you can maximize your profits with the shop based on the travel time, site work time and report time.

For example, there was a particular shop I started taking at base pay for its simplicity and location for $7 with a tiny reimbursement last year. After paying some dues from consistently taking on this shop, the scheduler began bonusing my shops to $20+ per location and removing the shop limitation per round for me. And then, the scheduler began assigning me the shops at the bonused $20+ rate at the beginning of the round and I began taking on 20-30 locations per route, at that point.

I'm with LisaStL,
But that may be a function of the types of shops that she and I do rather than of the relative prouctivity or one method or another. A video shopper who relied on job boards would soon starve! However, when video schedulers are swamped, they may put a bunch of shops on their job boards, so if I have not heard from a video scheduler in a while I will pop onto tht job board. If there is nothing there, I will call her and ask what she may have coming up for me. In addition, I am on a several small shopper teams that various MSCs have formed to handle all of certain of their shops. Those requests all come by email.

But, when I want hotel shops, I head for certain job boards on the day that I know that they start being posted. Or, when I need in-fill shops for a route, I may peruse a few boards. If it is a long, multi-day route I emails a variety of MSCs stating when I will be where and ask what they can pre-assign to me.

I've found that to find shops that I liked, I've just had to try out a lot of shops. I ended up liking and scheduling lots more shops that I decided to try out on a whim, thinking I wouldn't like them. And I've had shops that I was sure I was going to love and ended up disappointed with them and not wanting to schedule more. Of course there have also been shops that I didn't think I would like and yep, I didn't like them

What works for me is to find some basic categories of shops that are often available in my area: restaurants, gas stations, cell phone shops, storage facilities, banks, etc. Then try out one or two of those jobs for each of the MSCs that offer them. Once you find something that you like, you can figure out when that MSC posts them each month and sign up for as many as possible. I've found that I like the jobs even better once I've done them a few times, so if there's something that is relatively profitable and you don't hate it, try it a few more times to see if it gets easier as you get more familiar.

Since you've removed some of the emails you used to get, you may have to try to turn them back on, or check the job boards manually, at least for awhile as you identify that elusive job type that you like. You may need to branch out if you don't find it right away: maybe you're not really the type to enjoy Mystery Shopping, but you'd like Merchandising, or constructing movie theater displays. There are lots of different types of jobs: way more than I ever imagined when I first joined this forum. Good luck!

I use Jobslinger for the over 100 Sassie companies for whom I can potentially work. I turned off email notification for almost all of them and receive consolidated email notifications via Jobslinger. I have seen that the email notifications from Jobslinger is sometimes later than the emails directly from the MSC which is a problem. I pay the yearly fee and for me it's worth it. I wish there was a similar system to check all Prophet companies without signing onto each one individually. Another resource is Presto Mobile which allows me to see all open Sassie shops in my area on my smart phone. I still receive email notifications for the few Sassie companies that I am most interested in. MSjobboard.com allows you to view a consolidate list of shops that use the Shopmetrics system. Finally, I have a list of companies such as Marketforce and Trendsource that I check at least once per day, although they also send emails but only for shops that have not been assigned quickly.

I do it in a variety of ways. Scheduling is very different based on what you're scheduling. For video you almost exclusively work with the video schedulers directly. A majority of the rest of my work comes from dedicated routes. What I do is occasionally peruse boards to see if anybody has a new client or one has moved. From there I usually stick with the same type of shops. I know the places I travel who has shops that are either quick and easy or they will give a big bonus. I usually don't have a problem filling in with those. And of course I am constantly on the lookout for new companies and shops to work in. For instance I just took a week long trip and picked up a bonused FF shop on the way and another on the way back in the same location. One of my dedicated routes runs about 20 miles from this location and it's one they constantly have trouble filling. So I just sent an email to the scheduler picking up a another location near there on my dedicated route. Now I've added an hour and a half of work to my dedicated quarterly route for an extra $100 in fees as long as I'm able to pick up the FF, but it's one that's done 4 times a month so I doubt seriously that will ever be a problem.

Once you get to know your area and you know your companies, it's really pretty simple.

I take as many shipping shops as I think I can handle in a three week period with the permission of the scheduler. Then I select four in a certain area of town and build a route around the shipping shops by using the job boards. If an email comes in, I check it out too. I was just doing a casino, dinner and four post offices today. Emails directed me to another $62 in shops that will easily fir into those required 35 minute breaks between post offices. So I guess my answer is "some of each". I pounce on those post offices by watching the job board. But mails help me fill out routes. My online calendar is my best friend. I can shuffle days around or move shops from one day to another if needed to get everything in. Some days I can't walk and have to take my power chair. Thank God for understanding schedulers.

ibless,
You are an inspiration! Hope to meet you in Vegas in November!

I like everything here and I guess I do some of everything. I get my video shops via direct email requests. Fortunately, I have plenty of time to work them, Good for me in this heat!. With all the email addresses that come with most internet companies, I set up one for my personal emails and one for mystery shopping emails. I have no problem deleting the emails, and keeping the ones related to my assignments. I use jobslinger and have my parameters set in it. I search the mystery shopper forum job board (Thanks for that tip Walesmaven!). One of the other ways I get good jobs deals with the fact that I live on the outskirts of the city. So I will watch for the surrounding towns where I know shops are hard to fill. Now I am asked frequently to shop those towns. Bonus Bonus Bonus. I do have to be carefull not to take on too much. I frequently have the problem of turning down shops because I don't have the energy. That's really a benefit of mystery shopping!

I usually keep the emails coming in. Often times an email will be about some shop that doesn't interest me, but I use the link in the email to check the company's job board anyway, and I might find something else that way.

@LisaSTL wrote:

This proves out the adage to each his own. 99.9% of my work is from email notices. I rarely check a job board.

I basically I rely mostly on email notices. Once in a while, I check the job board of my favourite MSCs, depending on how busy my week is. I don't even bother to check on the other MSCs websites unless I have some free time. But I have been promising myself to sign up on more MSCs but have been disappointed that the recent sign ups did not have anything in my vicinity.

Email notices with promised bonuses on shops I did not want to do again have stopped and now I am noticing it. However, I have no regrets. I want to do more challenging shops which are appropriately compensated. There are shops that are mainstay and I enjoy doing. I usually take a few days off from mshopping to do other stuff for my own health.

@walesmaven what is a video scheduler?

I am signed up with almost all the Canadian ones that I can find. I have a few that I will consistently check, but a few only have 1-2 clients in my area. I don't exclude them, in fact almost half my monthly MS income comes from those one-off MSCs. Many of those companies get high praise on here for consistently having work.

I do have a few schedulers that I have helped out and I am in their good books, though I haven't been around long enough to be very high on that list.

Edit: I should add when I said "few" I really meant about 20, give or take. And so far, I make an average of $1000/month.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2015 04:46AM by Kakita987.

I have signed up with the Canadian ones too. I am a bit less than you this month but doing pretty well. I just feel like I have more driving to do. I haven't been asking for bonuses yet but as I build up more of a reputation I will. I used to do this a lot about ten years ago but being out of it for so long, most of the schedulers that did know me have moved on or changed to a different position.

I'm a very green newbie, and I've gotten as far as having a dedicated gmail address for my mystery shopping. I made sure it's also listed on my PayPal, so I can receive funds that way when needed.

Within gmail, I have folders for the different MSCs, for those emails that I think I should keep.

I'm sure I read about doing this on this forum, which has a great many helpful ideas from many experienced shoppers, doing a lot more than I will probably ever do.

MS certainly helps fill in the gaps in the household budget!

My next step will be to sign up with more MSCs. I won't turn off emails for a while yet. I check some job boards, and watch my email for those shops that fit my schedule and location.