I did my first shop on June 1st, so 3 weeks experience only, whew.
I started with trailer checks, and those are very easy to do and well worth the money if it isn't too far a drive for you. I have also done a Target shop where I just went to the toy department and played with Etch A Sketches to find any defective ones. That was a simple job too, and you get to announce yourself to management, so you don't have to worry about remaining incognito.
The only true "mystery" shops I have done were definitely a learning experience. I signed up for 4 gas station shops that required both a gas purchase and another small purchase, and it required a digital picture of the bathroom and then the pump before I left. Of course all of these shops also require a receipt. Well, my first one I was so nervous about remembering everything I needed to check that I forgot to ask for a receipt, so I drove 12 miles out of my way to go back to get a receipt and forgot to get the name of the cashier from their name tag. I made up a story about getting lost and asked for directions to a street that I already knew the location of. I then mentioned I forgot the receipt and I needed it for my expense account. I got the cashier's name as well and luckily no one had used the same pump I had used, so they were able to call up the last transaction for that pump and get me a receipt with the actual times I was there. I then went and did the other 3 stations and still was nervous, but remembered to get everything. The day did not end well though. In order to get paid, I had to have the pictures and when I got home, I did as advised and saved all my pictures under the job number of each site. What I didn't realize is that I was saving the pictures back into the camera, not on the computer. Thinking I had saved them to the computer, I then deleted them from the camera. I was heartbroken and without the pictures I wouldn't get paid. I let the scheduler know and unfortunately the shops had to be re-assigned to another shopper. I will never make that mistake again, it was all my own fault though, I couldn't blame the company for not paying me.
The one bright thing was that in the middle of the 4 gas station shops I did a donut shop and that one at least went well. My advice for new shoppers is to take it slow at first and get the feel for how things are done, even if it means taking some of the low paying shops at first. The more you do, the easier it will be to remember the requirements of what each shop are looking for. Don't worry, you will make mistakes, but just take them as a lesson and dust yourself off and go again.
I have signed up so far with about 15 companies, many of them don't have shops in my area though. I wish it was easier to find just the companies that have shops in my area, but you can't find out where most of the shops are until after you have signed up. I have already started getting phone calls for specific shops though, so I think that things can only get better from here. I think I read a post from someone, maybe even Jacob, to sign up for about 5 a day, that way you will eventually be signed up for all possible companies and will have many many shops to choose from.
Well as usual I have been long winded, I do have one more piece of advice about applying for shops. I will post that tomorrow. Right now I am going to climb into my hot tub and relax a bit before going to bed.