Yesterday we talked about how to get organized before approaching the mystery shopping companies, today I want to share with a few that I work with along with how to approach the company with an introduction.

Signing up with a myster shop company:

• Use your mystery shopping email address always that matches with your paypal account.
• Fill out the applications fully.  Try not to leave out any opportunity to express yourself.
• They will mostlikey ask for your social security number.  This is to where they can issue you a 1099 at the end of the year for the money they have paid you.
• Once you have submitted the application, go to you email account and check on a welcome email for the company.  I use this information to fill out my spread sheet on the company.  I also save the email in a folder in my email account for easy referrence. 

Introducing yourself to the companies:

• Always send a seperate email to the company to introduce yourself.  Don’t just rely on the application to get your name known. 
• Use the email address that you got when you recieved the welcome email after signing up with the company.  Usually it goes to someone specific, if not, look on their site for a contact email.  Also, try to address it to a person and not to a generic account.
• Make it short but also showcase your strong points.

Here is an example of a letter that I send to companies.  I just keep it saved in my documents and copy and paste it into the email. I adjust it some according to what I am applying for.

Good morning (afternoon) my name is Anna McMullen and I am very interested in becoming a mystery shopper with your company.  I        feel that I have the qualifications that would serve your organization well.  I am very detailed oriented, reliable, presentable, and understand the need for this service.   I believe that customer service is a key performance indicator for any company selling to or servicing customers.  I believe that reliable information that a company can get from the consumer can help better the company and advance the company to the next level of customer service.

(If you have any mystery shopping experience, tell about your best shop and your worst here)

I am located in Louisville, KY and I am interested in shopping for you within a 50 mile radius of my home.  I travel periodically and would like to contact you when traveling to see if there is opportunities at the destination that I will be traveling or along the way.

I am looking forward to partnering with your company and assisting you with your company’s customer service goals.

Sincerly,

Anna McMullen
(put in your contact info here)

Here are a couple of companies that I work with that I truly believe in and trust.  They also are very good about communication. 

Monterey Mystery Shopping company. 
Click on the new shopper link below the log in. 

Once you get your welcome email, they will send you to a prophet site to register for.  This is the site that you will check for new shops to do. 

___

 DSG Associates. 

I have done insurance shops for this company and they treated me very well.

Sign up under the shopper section by click join.

Tomorrow, I will share more companies with you along with more helpful tips on how to get assignments.

See you tomorrow!

This past week my husband and I have been busy doing Mystery Shopping.  As of yesterday we have earned $154 in mystery shopping and merchandising in the past 7 days.

Today I will be heading to do a mystery shop at a shoe retailer and on Thursday Gregg and I get to eat at the Galt House (very smanzy restaurant in Louisville) for FREE ! 

So, since Gregg and I have been doing this we have had many people ask, how they can get involved and start making a little extra cash through Mystery Shopping.  There is no way in one post I can share with you the ins and outs of Mystery Shopping but I am going to start sharing a little each day with you.

To start you will need to get organized and ready to start communicating with the Mystery Shop companies.   Here is what you need to do:

• Set up a seperate email address just for your mystery shops.  This will make it easier for you to look through quickly at the companies that have shops available.
• Set up a paypal account.  Go here to set it up.   If you already have a paypal account set up, you will need to use the email address that is attached to that paypal account as your mystery shopping account also.   Your email account with the companies need to match your paypal account email.  Some companies still pay with checks but most are going to paying with paypal.
• Set up a binder or an excel file to keep up with your company contacts, shops that you have scheduled and completed.  This is very important because you will need to keep track of your payments.  I am working on a binder for this and it will be available in the near future to be downloaded or snail mailed to anyone that is interested.

If you are interested in the Mystery Shopper Binder, email me at thethriftygeek@live.com and let me know and I will alert you when this is ready.

Tomorrow I will share companies that I feel are legit and easy to work with along with tips on how to approach the companies for work.

See you back here tomorrow!

This past week I was sitting in my home office and I looked over at my husbands bookshelf full of books that he has read but I know will never read again and thought, surely we can get some money back on these some how…. well I picked out a book that looked like it was brand new and asked him if he wanted it any longer.  He gave me permission to try to sell it.

I logged onto Amazon and set up a sellers account.  and typed in the ISBN number of the book.  It pulls a picture of the book and also an overview of the book up.  At that point I chose the price that I would accept.  On the right hand side, it tells you the high and low price of the book.  I chose to sell the book right below the highest priced book. 

It is really about as simple as that.  You fill out a few items on the condition and that is it.  One thing is that you need to be honest regarding the condition of the book. 

You don’t have to take pictures or anything, just list and wait for it to sell.

Well guess what, the next day, I sold the book!!! $18  yeah $18.  For a book that was just sitting on my shelf collecting dust.  Now I have the fever.  I want to list all my husbands books.  hehe.  I think he would not be too happy about that.

Check out Amazon.com and open a sellers account.  You can sell almost anything on there.    Click here to go to Amazon.com

I told  you about a survey company last week called Vindale.  I just recieved a survey offer in my inbox and I got $5 for doing it.  YEAH!!

here is the confirmation……

Dear Anna Mcmullen,

Your participation in the following evaluation has been confirmed!

Survey 6642 – Auto Insurance Quote Evaluation – $5.00

If you have not signed up yet for this survey company, you need to do so.  Click here to get started.

Here are some hot deals that I know that you will want to take advantage of before they are gone.

Bank off at BB&T  Get $100 when you open up an account.  This account has no minimum balance and has no fees.  Check it out here. 

Don’t forget to get your Picaboo Photo book ordered by March 31st.  This is a $39 value that is awesome.  You can use this as a gift, wedding memories, child memories, and much more.  Check it out here.

You Data. This is a site that pays you to look at ads.  I have not really looked at this site lately because they had got to the point on not having ads to look at, but I popped on the site today and I had .50 cents worth of ads to look at today. I know .50 cents is not much but it is a little.  Just think, if you get .50 a day worth of ads and you check it M-F you can get $10 in a months time.  It only takes you less than 1 minute to view the ads. If you want to stay on the site longer, then that is just a bonus of finding a great site.  Check it out here.

Vindale is accepting new participants to take surveys, test product & give opinions.   I have worked with Vindale for over a year now and they have been very faithful in paying me.  When your account gets up to $50 you can request a check to to be sent.  I love this becaues it is CASH!  You don’t have to spend it on gift cards or points.

Here is what you need to do:

• Click here to sign up.  
• When you sign up your email, use your survey email account to where you can just quickly check daily to see if there is any surveys available for you to take.  If you don’t have a specified email account for this, I suggest it but you don’t have to have it.
• Fill out all the questions, it is going to ask several of yes/ no questions.  You can select No on all of them if you want.  You don’t have to select yes to any of them. 
• A confirmation will be sent to your email address.  Go there an confirm immediately to where you can start getting surveys to take.   It will be from Vindale Research (surveys@vindale.com)   and it will say Confirm Your Subcription. 
• Start taking surveys.  You should have a couple in your account when you sign in to do.  I have $7  worth of surveys in my account that I can take today.  This adds up quickly.

Enjoy a new way to make money online.  If you have not signed up yet, Click here

I just finished doing a couple of surveys and with doing these two surveys, my points have collected enough that I will be getting $$$$ from My Survey.  For every 1000 points that you get, you get to cash it in for $10.  I was amazed how fast this time it added up. 

If you want some easy cash, click on the My Survey logo above and you can sign up to start taking some surveys.  Once you have signed up, be sure to tell your friends and family about it by sending  them a email through the referral tab.  That way you get 150 points per referrals. 

Have fun taking surveys.  (I take them while we are watching tv!!)

Take Surveys-Earn Rewards