I think we've all pretty well established that those big jobs are few and far between. It appears that we have pretty much covered this subject.
It would be nice to have one good-paying assignment a month a month. I'm talking about, say, $200 each time.
I enjoy the health and medical assignments. They are easy for me and I get very good scores on them. The pay is ok, and I get reimbursed if the assignment is for expensive medical tests. I wish I could get them more often. The companies I'm signed with usually have six-month rotations.
I used to do the plasma center assignments. The pay from them is immediate and the pay from the MSP is pretty good. Surprisingly, if you are overweight, you can give more plasma and you are paid by volume. The only drawback was that sometimes they'd get behind on their work and I'd be in there quite a while. I had to know which day of the week and which time of day were better to show up. I certainly didn't schedule anything else the same day that couldn't be moved around on my schedule. The plasma centers also have a program where they will inject you with a vaccination, which they pay you for, then pay you extra for this special blood. The vaccinations are frequent. When I was learning about it, I thought a person had to have the disease first. When I found out what it really was about, I questioned the advisability of the frequent vaccinations. The explanation was that the antibody level lowers over time and they want to keep it high. The lists of things they can do with "donated" (paid) plasma is huge. Some people have the opinion that they are superior for donating blood when others get paid for plasma. The plasma is very valuable. I never did participate in the Special Programs part. I wish I'd found out about it much earlier. I "donated" a lot in my youth. I quit that time because my husband was afraid I was wrecking my health. I did it this time for the same reason, money, but I only did it once a month because that's when the assignment came along. It's amazing to me how many ways it's possible to make money. The problem is that there is a money ceiling that most of the population reaches that I've bumped against several times, and it is never high enough.
I also participate in clinical trials. I have a half-day doctor's appt. tomorrow at a medical research center. I get free appts. and target meds (except this time it will be double blind) and I get paid. I have several medical research center phone numbers on my cell phone. This clinic is very efficient, so I have very little waiting between tests or interviews.
I do merchandising but I don't believe I've had any bonused assignment. I have had C-store audits that were bonused because they were in small towns.
It appears to me that those people who do bonused mystery shopping routes have the best deal in our trade. I'm taking on another job in the fall, so I won't be able to do those except on some Saturdays and the occasional holiday. I don't have a desire to do the overnight kind and I don't own the laptop that would make me efficient at it, anyway.