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Get Paid to Shop and Eat | 11 August 2006 |
Ever fancied getting paid to shop and eat? Welcome to the world of mystery shoppers, where you can earn and have fun as you work. Mystery shoppers pose as undercover customers to evaluate various businesses and their employees. They pretend to be normal customers and ask questions, buy a product or two, and even return them if they are dissatisfied with the product. Mystery shoppers let the business owner know how customers perceive the business being done.
Mystery shoppers hired by the business house are required to prepare an objective report on everything possible with relation to how the employees treat the customers, how the merchandise is displayed, and how knowledgeable the staff is. Mystery shoppers can also shop at a client's competitor to find out how well the competitor's product stands in the market. Mystery shoppers also monitor pricing, or verify if the business is in compliance with government regulations and business ethics. Mystery shopping should not be confused with opinion-based research. Shoppers are not paid to give their opinions; they are paid to report their observations.
In this era of emerging e-commerce business and online marketing, the information from the reports prepared can make the online business owner identify any shortcomings and make the stores safer and more user-friendly for their patrons. In fact, online businesses as well as regular businesses are able to reward their employees based on the positive reports about excellent service.
Any one who is above 18 years of age can enroll for mystery shopping. It is a fun job in the real sense of the term, where you get paid to work for the business and also get food and merchandise as perks. You can earn money to shop in your favorite shop, dine in your favorite restaurants, see a movie at a multiplex theatre, or even play golf for free.
You have tremendous scope to do mystery shopping online also. You can get assignment by emails and you can take as many of them as you want. You have the liberty to do the job full time or part-time. On an average, mystery shoppers can earn up to $50 per hour. It is a good opportunity for students, retired people, housewives, and even full time employees looking for an alternative source of income apart from free goodies and free dining benefits. Unfortunately, you may find many websites that claim to get you daily work for a mere $20 to $30 sign-up fee. Most of these have only one purpose: to take in your hard-earned money without providing relevant information on how you can make money from mystery shopping. These should be avoided, as there are many legitimate mystery shopping companies that you can work for.
Online mystery shopping companies looks for almost the same qualities in a person as those that are required by offline mystery shopping companies. The shoppers have to be honest and sincere. They have to complete assignments by a certain deadline. The online mystery shopper should be able to give his or her views objectively and should also be able to write expressively. It goes without saying that for online mystery shopping, you should be net savvy.
You should not expect a steady flow of income from online mystery shopping.
Payment is normally made through check within two or three weeks. Overseas shoppers who do not want to receive a check in U.S. or Canadian dollars are sometimes remunerated via other means, like gift certificates.
After you apply you are given an unpaid training assignment. You are given a scenario and you are asked to alternate between the client website and questions. As you go through the site, you have to fill out a questionnaire, answering questions about how you have experienced browsing through the website and if the information about the products shown on the website is as pe
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1001 Ideas: Teach Businesses To Do E-Business |
10 December 2007 |
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If you can teach businesses how to accept checks from customers over the Internet, or by phone, fax, e-mail, or web form, you're on your way to a healthy earning opportunity. It's fairly easy to do, and fairly easy to teach, and with a good ad, you should be able to develop a good second income. If you've never done this before, there are tutorials on the Internet, and books in your local library.
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