Introduction To Mystery Shopping: How to get started | Money Struggle Success

The joys of mystery shopping. I truly enjoy the freedom of having control over how much money I make and always having the option to make money fast when I need it.

Now if you're reading this blog post, you are considering or thinking about becoming a mystery shopper and I will help you out by giving you all the information you will need.

A little information about me: I have been a mystery shopper on and off for the past twelve years.  I relied heavenly on mystery shopping as a single Mom because my full-time job did not pay me enough.  As a mystery shopper, you are considered an independent contractor.  All this means is that you are responsible for paying your taxes from the amount of money you receive as a mystery shopper.  

Social Security Number vs. EIN

Each company will request either number to help with reporting for tax purposes.   I recommend everyone obtain an EIN for 'sole proprietor' which helps protect your social security number from being exposed to multiple businesses.

This is 100% free and really easy to create from the IRS.gov website.  We'll receive your EIN number at the end of the application so make sure you keep that document showing your EIN number, name, and address in a safe place for future purposes.

Step One

You need an email address in order for you to receive jobs and communicate with your scheduler while completing mystery shops.  This step gives you the opportunity to figure out if you will create a new email account or use your current email address.  This is very important because you will receive hundreds if not thousands of mystery shop emails per day depending upon how many mystery shop companies you have signed up with.

You've made that decision; move on to step two.

Step two

When you log on to my website, moneystrugglesuccess.com, at the top of the screen, you will see two links labeled mystery shopping and mega lists of companies.  Click on both of those sections as it has a plethora of information regarding getting started with mystery shopping and a list of over fifty reliable companies that you can sign up with so they can start sending you jobs and you can even start making money today.

Step 3

Disclaimer

Remember, you never pay to sign up for any mystery shop company or to complete a mystery shop assignment. 

Now, once you have figured out what email you're going to use from the list of companies I have provided, choose however many you like and sign up to be a shopper.  Make sure while you are filling out these applications you select to be contacted via email so they can send you jobs every day without you needing to look for them.

You can always stop these emails by clicking on the no contact option at the same location where you signed up to receive the email communication.

Here is a tip:

I find it very helpful to use the same password for all of my Mystery Shop company logins.  When I first started, I used different passwords, and I found myself resetting them all the time because I forgot them.

Step four

Now that you have successfully signed up as a mystery shopper, you can They're logged into one of the companies you signed up with and search the open availabilities based on your address to find jobs to do right now.

The next option is to wait until they send you jobs in your area without you doing any work. 

That's it! This is how simple it is to become a mystery shopper.