Are you a secret shopper or willing to be? Maybe you’ve already read a dozen of articles on mystery shopping, paid programs, and various ways to earn cash and prizes online. Different mystery shopping writers provide different perspectives on how to earn, what the best earning strategies are, and what secret shopping sites to select. Here is another piece on the biggest advantages of secret shopping to you. Mystery shopping is an exciting way to actually earn cash and prizes while you’re shopping. Can you imagine that as a secret shopper you are actually paid or rewarded with freebies to make purchases, use services or make product inquiries? That amazing new wave of secret shopping has stimulated hundreds of thousands of people like you and me to go out and shop without worrying about how much they spend. Mystery shopping companies are hiring people on a daily basis to do shopping and provide consumer feedback. If it doesn’t seem logical, than let me tell you why it is. Companies of all sizes and industries are in fierce competition to outperform their market rivals. Whether you own a small auto body store, or a multinational conglomerate, it makes sense to try your best to retain loyal customers and attract new ones. Mystery shopping is a method that allows companies, directly or through intermediary marketing research companies, to obtain consumer feedback on the quality of the formers’ products and services. Through mystery shopping, people pose as secret shoppers and make realistic purchases or use services and then return their feedback to the mystery shopping company that contracted them. Mystery shopping is highly relied upon by manufacturing companies and service providers, while mystery shoppers can enjoy some extra cash and great rewards, freebies and bonuses.

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Many people who start an online home business are employed in a full-time job and have the desire to start making money online part-time from home. Here are some ideas and tips to gain maximum use of the limited time available.

Those who are working in a job only have a few hours a day to devote to their online home business. Some may choose to rise early and put in an hour or two of work before joining the daily commute, others will start working on their online home business when they return from their day job, a few will go the extra mile and work both early morning and evening in an effort to start making money online.

Fin more info @ http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=24775

What’s the Truth about Mystery Shopping, After All?
Found this nice article:

There’s been a heated rhetoric intended to subdue the marketing hype that certain companies or online marketing gurus create around mystery shopping. However, when taking the middle stance between the pro-campaigning and the outright denunciation of mystery shopping as a legitimate and effective market research practice, we realize that mystery shopping is not bad, after all, because it provides unique product and service insights that no other market research method can produce. For mystery shoppers, it’s not simply a great cash-earning opportunity, but also a way to make a difference in customer service and product marketing.

Certainly, mystery shopping has elbowed its way to proving as a legitimate and smart way of earning extra money. It has many critics claiming that mystery shopping is not profitable, and that quite on the contrary – pays too little for the workload that mystery shoppers take on. However, many of the allegedly experienced critics of mystery shopping were either lousy shoppers themselves, or are simply reproducing comments that they overheard from somewhere. Successful mystery shoppers certainly develop some skills to sift through the shopping opportunities they are offered, but these take some time and practice.

Mystery shopping jobs attracts many job seekers, because it requires no previous experience, while providing an exciting and challenging environment as mystery shoppers are actors, market researchers, and objective evaluators all rolled into one. There’s no monotonous work routine with mystery shopping, but it is far from requiring no effort and time. Successful mystery shoppers develop professional ethics and build good reputation with the companies they work for, and that ensures them regular assignments and higher-paid shops. Mystery shopping is definitely rewarding – not only do you get paid, receive free services and merchandise, but also you leave your shop location with the satisfaction that you have contributed to improving a product or service for all customers that will be using it.

Complete article here : http://www.secretwebshopper.com/articles/truth_about_mystery_shopping.jsp

Mystery Shopping : the technology advantage Registered mystery shoppers residing outside the United States can now go to the National Shopping Service Website and download information from “My NSS Lobby” for assignments in their particular areas – similar to a program its domestic shoppers have been employing for years. By accessing this free service, international mystery shoppers registered with National Shopping Service can: - Submit a mystery shopping report or search for available shopping assignments in their area. - Get details about an assignment’s special requirements. - Access prospects, personal payroll summary, shop alerts and shopping tips. - Pinpoint locations and determine travel distances for assignments. “We’re fully committed to developing and expanding our international reach,” Tony Yorba, executive vice president of National Shopping Service, said. “We’ve received a tremendous response and nothing but loyal support from our mystery shoppers, colleagues and associates worldwide. “This tool provides them – as well as newcomers to secret shopping – instant access to our user-friendly proprietary network of mystery shopper recruiting, scheduling, training, and testing applications.” Once shoppers are registered with National Shopping Service, they can access My NSS Lobby for prospective shopping assignments in Aruba, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, India, Ireland, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Venezuela, as well as the United States, including Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. About National Shopping Service: Founded in 1972, National Shopping Service offers businesses a unique combination of mystery shopping resources and measurement solutions focused on brand alignment and customer retention. Using state-of-the-art data collection methods, Web-based technologies and proprietary processes, National Shopping Service provides managers with actionable information necessary to understand and affect customer loyalty while improving overall business performance. For more information, contact National Shopping Service at (800) 800-2704, or visit www.nationalshoppingservice.com