Well, I just joined this forum and, although it's not the first one I've joined, I think it probably will become the one I am most active in. I've been doing mystery shopping for a little over 3 years now and find I really enjoy it. My daughter is the one who first got me started. She had been mystery shopping while going to college and one day she sent me an offer she had received from a company to do a mystery shop in my part of the country. It was for a Cenex convenience gas station in a little town about 20 miles north of where I live. I wrote to the company and told them I was interested in trying out this mystery shopping thing and that I was close enough to do this job for them. They wrote back to tell me to sign up with them and then apply for the job. Of course, by the time I did all that, the job had been taken by someone else. So I sat back and waited because I didn't know much of anything about what I was suppose to do to get jobs and because I had my own retail store to run in the meantime. It took about 4 months before I got an offer from this company to do a mystery shop for them. It was another Cenex and it was just across the river from my home town. I signed up for that shop and set out to see what I had gotten myself into. I was so nervous that some of the pictures I needed to take turned out so blurry the company said they needed clearer ones and I ended up going back the next day to retake those pictures. Well, I ended up getting a whole $12 and being reimbursed another $2 for that shop. I decided it was kind of fun and maybe I would try another one. But I didn't really get started doing shops regularly for another 4 months. Now I've signed up with about 30-40 companies but I do most of the shops for about 5 or 6 companies. Most of the companies I'm signed up with don't have any mystery shops to choose from in North Dakota where I live. So I do a lot of traveling and I don't mind that too much. I closed my retail store last year since the business had dwindled and the expenses seemed to be going up all the time so now I am free to travel as much and as far as I want, as long as I can make the trip worthwhile.

But I guess I've rambled on enough for now so I'll just post this and see what happens.

Welcome gcarterh! Your first steps into mystery shopping sound much like other newbies. Now that you've shopped a few years, I bet you have much to share. Looking forward to hearing more from you Share the fun!

I just joined the forum, but I have been shopping since last August. I love doing it and enjoy the extra money, but I don't have a lot of time to shop so am not making as much as I would like. I am trying to focus on the better jobs and companies, and I know this forum will help me with that.

when do we get shopping

Thats entirely in your hands. Simpliest way to start is to sign up with a bunch of companies listed on these forums and start checking your email for jobs...

that you can apply for.