I can easily average $50 a day by shopping for a few companies like Maritz and Market Force. Since they let me self-assign, it is possible to create a route of gas stations with stops for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner. At crunch time, bonus amounts give me $200 a day if I am willing to drive a few hours. If the day is really long, I just take the next day off. Last week I made over $300 one day, then took three days off. Don't want to get burned out on a job that should be fun. Having to apply for a shop causes difficulty in scheduling. I have to remember applying and keep a time slot open.

I'd love to get more into merchandising. How did you find available companies?

Hi!
IShop has a shop tracker you can ask Mercedes Eckert if you can buy it. It will help you with scheduling shops. Plus! It comes with a list of over 200 compankes you can sign with...more companies, more oportunities to find shops.
Tell her Ana Inclan sent you
www.ishopagp.com

I suspect that in a big city like San Diego, you could easily average $100 to $200 per day in shop fees if you work full time and are willing to do 5 to 10 shops per day and go beyond the 20 mile limit often set on shop search forms. (BTW, you can change this to look for shops in any zip code, or up to 99 miles from where you are...)

Be sure to check the "Ten Foot Pole" lists on this site for shops or companies to beware of. These would be companies that either don't pay, or for badly designed shops that are a lot of work for no or very little pay. Sometimes a $50 shop can look good, but if it involves three days of phone calls, multiple visits, returns, hours of searching for products online, harassment from the MSP editors, etc., it might work out to LESS than minimum wage. Beware of scams, too.

I keep my companies' login pages bookmarked on my browser, so they're just one click away. You can set up a folder for mystery shopping only, which makes it easier. That way you can sign up for 20-100 companies and not have to remember to enter long urls to log into their sites.

The three main shop formats for signing up and entering data that I've seen are Sassie, Prophet, and Shopmetrics. Then there are proprietary formats like MarketForce, Maritz, A Closer Look, etc. that appear to be unique to that specific MSP company. Prophet is all self-assigned/self-scheduling, which makes life easier. Some Sassie shops are self-scheduled. I try to find as many self-schedule shops as I can, so I can have more control over my day to day schedule. Then I try to fill in that day with shops I apply for. If I see a shop I want to do later than the listed date range, I send an email to the scheduler and ask if the client will allow this.

Keep up with the mileage book. You will need it come tax time. A day's worth of shops can bring in $100 - $200, but you might get to deduct $50 - $100 (or more) just from the mileage allowance alone. Especially with extensive Southern California Driving.

Save every purchase/return receipt, and keep track of expenses related to shopping that are not reimbursed, like ink cartridges, paper, etc. Sign up with Ath Power, and use one of their $85 - $200 fee bank shops to open a checking account with a debit card you use only for mystery shopping--to pay for required purchases (if cash is not required) buy gas, buy supplies, etc. That will make life easier for you come tax time.

I Secret Shop, Jobslinger, Presto shops are other websites with good lists of shops from multiple companies.

First, the common wisdom about getting registered with about 100 companies is great advice. I set a goal of five a day until I reached 100. There are lots of lists of MSPs. You can rarely tell in what areas of the country they offer shops so just apply anyway. (A company I applied to 18 months ago finally had a shop in my area! I did it and met a delightful scheduler who might also schedule for other companies...) Anyway, there were ample shop opportunities popping into my email in no time. At the beginning, I applied for a lot, didn't keep track of my applications, and made a few boo-boos. I now maintain a calendar which shows both accepted shops and applied for shops. I put two $$ in front of an accepted shop so it looks like this on the calendar. $$8am-4pm 801 5th Ave. Bank X (BARE $25). I also bold it. If I've applied for a shop, I put it on the date I selected with the same calendar data as an accepted shop, with the exception of two asterisks instead of two dollar signs. It looks like this: **8am-4PM 801 5th Ave. Bank X (BARE $25). I only record the details of accepted shops on the spreadsheet. This method makes it easy to convert an applied shop to an accepted shop where the details get recorded on the spreadsheet. It helps me avoid putting too many shop on one day or too many narratives on the same day. I put my personal appointments on there so I don't schedule a shop when I have a doctor's appointment but I can decide whether to tuck in a shop on my way to or from there, or have the morning free but an afternoon commitment. Seeing the shop hours helps me decide what is appropriate to apply for, as well as figure out in which sequence I set up my route. If I haven't heard back about job acceptance by the time I personally decide is my cut-off time, I go to the relevant website and cancel or email the scheduler with cancellation notification. When you do excellent, timely work, your self-assignment privileges expand pretty quickly. That is one of the keys to achieving your goals of sufficient, steady income with far less stress than you're experiencing now. It does get better and it doesn't take very long for it to get better if you focus on getting your pool of MSPs bigger and your tracking systems in place.

SueDbar, there is a forum here just for merchandising. It has great suggestions. There are also several merchandising apps for getting your toes wet in this big pond. Mobee, EasyShift, and Field Agent are just a few. They are contract work, much like MSing, but the regular merchandising companies mostly hire as regular W-2 employees.

$35 - 50 a day in San Diego??? You must be living in your car. My daughter & her BFD live in S.D in a small 900 sq.ft apt. & it's $1,800 month...and they're not near UCSD or SDSU. I live in Murrieta and I pay $1650 mo. I have a good part time job and I have been a shopper for 7 years just to make my rent. What's your secret?

I keep a spreadsheet (for tax records, and to make sure I get paid on time for what I did), and I keep a calendar. I put every shop applied for on the calendar with times and a question mark. When it is assigned to me, I delete the question mark. That way when I'm trying to decide whether to do a job, I know whether my time is already filled or if there's a blank waiting for me. It's rough to realize at the last minute that you've scheduled three lunches for 11:30 - 12:30!

This has always been my goal, and need help also.

I worked with a national company for 28 years, had multiple daily deadlines, had to provide detailed reports while seeing about 4 to 7 clients at least 4 days a week. You need to get a daily planner and use it. The old fashioned written kind, keep it in your vehicle with you at all times. Also, as you accept a job, go immediately to your computer calendar function and enter the job there, date, time, notes etc. (At the end of each month, print your calendar page out and put it in the same file for the IRS as your other expenses.) Then you can transfer the computer calendar information to the daily planner-yeah, I know it takes a little time and is old fashioned but it works.
For your daily routine, print your jobs out, get a clipboard, and put them on the clipboard in order to be done. Then on a weekly basis, as you are assigned the jobs, print them out, write date and times on the first page and put them in a weekly file, Monday thru Sunday. Then the night before you can pull the shops, review, put on your clipboard and head out.
Have you tried EPMS, apartment shops; A Closer Look and MaritzCX gasoline shops, bank shops etc,(Maritz pays fast and well) and ath Powers (pays slower, you do have to take and pass test to qualify for their shops (banking) but today, I did 2 shops bank shops and they paid $60 & $85, Also, Bare International, again, you have to take their tests, which I am working on myself now. But, they have great shops. I am working on my Mystery Shopping Certifications now.
Hope this helps, good shopping!
Blue Skye
P. S. Be a record keeper, go to mapquest, route planner and put in your daily route by shop stops. It will not only give you the best route, but give you a record of your mileage and what the IRS reimbursement will be at years end. Keep the mapquest paper provided to show with your taxes.
Keep receipts for ink, paper, phone bill and any equipment you buy during the year. New printer, computer, etc.
All of this is tax deductible. Now I know I am giving you a lot you already know, but it helps to hear it again.

I guess it depends where and how you live. On the east coast here a Hugh amount of jobs are no longer there. Most jobs pay very little and when you count your travel time, gas and report time in addition to the actual job, to. me it isn’t worth it. You may think about getting a dependable job with benefits, because you won’t build up too. much social security this way. I personally don’ t need to get $50 a day from this, so I. can really pick a nd choose. and I do have health insurance and benefits thru another source.

Good luck !

I guess it depends where and how you live. On the east coast here a Hugh amount of jobs are no longer there. Most jobs pay very little and when you count your travel time, gas and report time in addition to the actual job, to. me it isn’t worth it. You may think about getting a dependable job with benefits, because you won’t build up too. much social security this way. I personally don’ t need to get $50 a day from this, so I. can really pick a nd choose. and I do have health insurance and benefits thru another source.

Good luck !

I don't think it's been mentioned yet - and I am not sure of your age - but conventional wisdom holds that, in addition to your living expenses, if you plan to do this as a full-time career, add to your earnings goal enough to put some away in a retirement account. The compound effect is most impressive if you start saving while young.

@yrshopper wrote:

I guess it depends where and how you live. On the east coast here a Hugh amount of jobs are no longer there. Most jobs pay very little and when you count your travel time, gas and report time in addition to the actual job, to. me it isn’t worth it. You may think about getting a dependable job with benefits, because you won’t build up too. much social security this way. I personally don’ t need to get $50 a day from this, so I. can really pick a nd choose. and I do have health insurance and benefits thru another source.

Good luck !

I said that on page one and got no response at all. At $50 a day, she would be eligible for food stamps and welfare. That's called EBT/SNAP in CA.

Don't burn yourself out and overdo it. Remember all the work that's put into your reporting after completing your shop. I made a mistake in taking too many shops resulting in a lack of time to complete all my reports. I requested extensions and thankfully because I was a beginner who didn't know better, they rescheduled my shop. Create a decent pace for yourself otherwise you'll be burned out before you know it. Good luck!

I also do a spreadsheet. I have a calendar book as well that I write my shops in for the day and take with me. When I walk out of a shop and am in a safe place to write, I fill in some basic information into the calendar book to make my report easier.

I find that if I do too many shops in one day, I am up half the night doing reports. Pick the ones with easy reports as much as you can. Also watch out because there are some companies out there that only pay every 90 days. That can put the squeeze on your monthly budget if you were planning on getting paid right away.

I love shopping, but it made me very tired running around every day. You may have been going out of the home to go to work every day, but chances are you weren't pretending to be someone who you aren't and in and out of the car to several different jobs each day. Just managing the emails can be cumbersome too. Pace your self and make sure you are well organized. Good Luck!

My same thoughts..... figure in your car expenses, gas, insurance, etc. and you better be making that to BEGIN with or you are just spinnin' your wheels. If you're deducting $0.54 per mile to go 20 miles and making $20 on the shop; you are only netting $9 for OVER and hour of work with reporting time.

Work smart and don't be a pawn..... don't be afraid to ask for a reasonable fee..... hold out and pick up the BONUS jobs.... let some other sucker wear out their car (they won't have the money to fix it and won't be future competition). ......just sayin' it the way it is. Good Luck..... but LUCK has nothing to do with it.... WORK SMART!

@gypsy wrote:

Work smart and don't be a pawn..... don't be afraid to ask for a reasonable fee..... hold out and pick up the BONUS jobs ... let some other sucker wear out their car (they won't have the money to fix it and won't be future competition). ......just sayin' it the way it is.

This cannot be said enough.

I have a feeling that this is a BS post. Come on $25 to $50 a Day in southern California. Either they have been really beaten down by someone or they do not have a clue.

@2stepps wrote:

I have a feeling that this is a BS post. Come on $25 to $50 a Day in southern California. Either they have been really beaten down by someone or they do not have a clue.

That’s not stopping anyone from giving advice lol

@IvegottaSecret - Thank you for your kind words! Your feedback is appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks for the tip about Ellis, I'll apply there today, as I'd love to get some experience with video shopping.

Thanks for the tips on merchandising, I'll be sure to check out the threads on here today or tomorrow!

Does quicken cost money? I gave up on budgeting software in favor of spreadsheets because I like being able to customize it. However, I'm always interested in trying new methods.

I always shy away from the car dealership shops because I am not in the market to buy a car, and I find it difficult to keep to backstories that aren't at least close to the truth. I have been trying to practice stepping out of my comfort zone with that. I did a mortgage inquiry shop a few weeks ago that I was super nervous about but it ended up being super easy!

Oh my gosh I never even considerer having a "MS Only" bank account. That's absolutely genius! Bank shops, here I come!

Sort of off topic, I'm considering moving back to Denver because SD is very expensive as so many have mentioned. Are there any Colorado shoppers doing full time work? I worry that I won't find nearly as many jobs in Colorado.

@SoCalMama wrote:

@yrshopper wrote:

I guess it depends where and how you live. On the east coast here a Hugh amount of jobs are no longer there. Most jobs pay very little and when you count your travel time, gas and report time in addition to the actual job, to. me it isn’t worth it. You may think about getting a dependable job with benefits, because you won’t build up too. much social security this way. I personally don’ t need to get $50 a day from this, so I. can really pick a nd choose. and I do have health insurance and benefits thru another source.

Good luck !

I said that on page one and got no response at all. At $50 a day, she would be eligible for food stamps and welfare. That's called EBT/SNAP in CA.

I didn't respond to your comment because it's not on topic. I don't think it appropriate to disclose the details of my budget on this forum, but since so many are asking, I'll explain. The budget I created was based on how much money I was making at my "normal" job, which was $1200 monthly (after taxes). I worked part time and struggled to find a full time job in my area with no success, but was able to live on the bare minimum. I'll need to adjust this budget to account for taxes, however many people have said I could make $100-200 daily with proper planning. This would equate to about $6,000 monthly (maximum and before taxes), which is way more than enough to live down here. I live in clairemont, San Diego, and my rent is $1150 for a room in an apartment. I split this with my boyfriend, so my rent is about 600. My car insurance is 100, and my father pays my health insurance, as I am 21 years old. My boyfriend pays our phone bill. Therefore, after all of my fixed expenses are paid, I have about $500 monthly left for food, gas, and everything else. I make this work with extreme couponing, constant deal hunting, and picking up shops that cover some of my expenses (I love doing bar shops because I can have my date nights paid for!) This is a bare minimum number, which I have been living on for almost a year with my "normal" job, and can continue to live on (although I certainly would love to make more.) We are very seriously considering moving back to Denver, where we could rent a decent sized house for the amount of rent we're paying here. This is not something we want to do because we love San Diego. I am not certain I even want to do this full time yet, and I have been applying for "normal" jobs as well. That's why I posted this, hoping to see if it was possible. From the large amount of positive responses, it seems very possible for me to live well by full time mystery shopping. I do believe this is possible because I see hundreds of jobs posted daily in my area, and many of them pay very well.

I hope this helps for some of the commentors asking how I can make this amount work. Obviously my budget needs some work, but in theory it seems possible to do this full time and live comfortably, even in San Diego. I do appreciate any comments that disagree, but let's try to keep it as on topic as possible.

@gypsy wrote:

My same thoughts..... figure in your car expenses, gas, insurance, etc. and you better be making that to BEGIN with or you are just spinnin' your wheels. If you're deducting $0.54 per mile to go 20 miles and making $20 on the shop; you are only netting $9 for OVER and hour of work with reporting time.

Work smart and don't be a pawn..... don't be afraid to ask for a reasonable fee..... hold out and pick up the BONUS jobs.... let some other sucker wear out their car (they won't have the money to fix it and won't be future competition). ......just sayin' it the way it is. Good Luck..... but LUCK has nothing to do with it.... WORK SMART!

Thanks for the advice. I have never had to travel more than 7ish miles out here for any job, because there are so many right near me. I am thinking, however, that planning large routes would be the way to go so I can get higher paying jobs. In the spreadsheet I'm working on. I have columns for mileabe and mileage cost, which deduct from the overall value of the shop, which I use to calculate the hourly wage and determine if it is/was worth it or not.

For those wondering I calculate the overall value like this:
Job Fee
- Out of Pocket Expenses
- Mileage Costs
+ Reimbursements
+ Non-Monetary Value (for example, if I get a meal out of it, that might have saved me $10 I would have spent on food otherwise, if I get to enjoy a night out, maybe that's worth $20 to me)

This is important because I'm willing to accept less actual pay for a job that I have fun with, or saves me money on things like meals. It's really hard to convert the non-monetary value into a dollar amount.

Then for each job I estimate how much time it will take and record the actual amount of time it took, which gives me an anticipated vs actual look at hourly wage.