Here is how I am able to make $60/hr.
1. Video Retail. The typical retail video assignment pays $60 and involves 10-15 minutes onsite with a 20-30 minute report.
2. Video Apartments. The typical video apartment pays $60 and involves 15 minutes onsite and a 20-45 minute report. I don't take these for less than $80 for some MSC's - sometimes I require more.
3. Video New Homes: The typical new home video assignment pays $60 plus a reasonable travel expense (always added in) for 5-120 minutes onsite (45 minutes is typical) and a 5-minutes invoice.
4. Casinos: For 60 minutes onsite, I often get paid $30 and get reimbursed for a meal. Plus, I get to keep my winnings. If you learn how to play Blackjack well, you'll walk out the door with $50-$200 in your pocket almost half the time. Otherwise, you get reimbursed for your losses.
5. Heavy bonuses at the end of a month for driving to those places nobody wants to go. It is not uncommon to have $50-$100 bonuses for 10-minute gas stations, 15-minute bank inquiries, and USPS shops. I have had bonuses of up to $250 for such shops. Of course, you can add shops along the way. Bonused (non-video) apartment shops that pay $70-$110 for 15 minutes onsite and 45 minutes reporting. Apartments often have 18-month rotations, and some need to be shopped two or three times each month. It is not uncommon for the MSC to run out of shoppers, driving bonuses up.
6. Routes: Some shops are super-quick, but don't pay well. If you can get a bunch of them next to one-another, you can make good money. As an example: I did 31 JIB visits plus one box electronics store in a day. My profit for the day was just shy of $400 for about 10 hours on the road. I only spent that long on the road as I had stomach issues (before my first JIB shop) requiring several restroom stops and lost at least two hours when I could not hit all my morning JIB visits (before the 2-4PM no-visit window) on time and had to re-draw my route midday. So.. it was a $40/hr day. On a day when I'm ill and require lots of extra rest breaks, that's pretty good.
7. I almost never take shops at their initial asking price. If work is not available at my price, I take a day/week off.
How I find out about these opportunities:
1. Email and phone calls. Most of my best bonus offers come when I get an email or a phone call from an MSC trying to fill an assignment.
2. Social Media: Sometimes desperate schedulers post offers similar to what they post on this forum.
3. Job Boards: If I see a shop that I know to be difficult-to-fill with a modest bonused attached, I might contact the scheduler and make an offer.
Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.