Hey fellow mystery shoppers, well I'm still very new and hoping to learn as much as possible from this forum and meet some great people. I'm looking forward to scouring the forum to learn everything I can and also follow the proper etiquette. That's actually what made me join right away. This site looks very well put together and seems friendly. Also I'm wondering if there is a place here to post off topic to mystery shopping. Like other types of easy and fun ways to earn. Not survey sites but more along the lines of mystery shopping but not quite. I guess I'll find out as I peruse the site. Feel free to say hello. I love meeting new people from all over.

Welcome to the forum ! You may want to look at the General Chat area or post there also for other topics. There is a large list of companies you may want to join at the link at the bottom of the main forum page.

Thanks so much for replying and help getting started. I have been looking into MS for years but could never find anything legit or without them asking for money first and even then you would just get a guide so i gave up on the whole thing. I just happen to stumble upon this forum when I was looking up reviews for shop tracker. So i guess there is a place to post off topic just didn't realize it till now, but the MSing is why i joined. I can't believe that people are actually doing this. After years of trying to find info i just thought is was all a big myth I'm so happy that it may be possible to do this. I'm so excited and want to read everything here but since that may take awhile. I'm wondering if it would be best to find out how to sign up with companies as it may take awhile to get any MSing jobs. Like I said I'm new but the few posts i did read already taught a lot I didn't know. thanks again for replying and helping out. I feel very welcomed already.

You are in the right place to learn about mystery shopping. You may want to read the forum to get an idea of what companies are like. There are clearly some good companies and then others. Some of the more stable, reliable ones are Bestmark and Marketforce. These typically don't pay highly for jobs but if you sign up today, you could go out for jobs the same day. It's that easy to get a job. Marketforce (MF) registration I heard, takes longer now so you probably want to get in the queue.

MS'ing is definitely legit. You probably won't get rich but some people do this for a living and some supplement their income with this.

What part of CT are you in ? I used to live in Stamford.

I also used to live in Stamford for about a year or so while I was working in White Plains but I'm from East Hartford and still haven't made it out. Did you move far from CT or still live here? Sorry I didn't have time to look up profiles. IDK if we have profiles here.

Wow i just looked at the list of companies and I am officially overwhelmed. Don't get me wrong that is def. a good thing but weeding through them is going to take time and that's why I'm happy that you gave me somewhere to start. Same day huh? That's great if that happens. I'm ready to go! I'm going to sign up with the 2 you mentioned and look around for more. I'm still registering the fact that this does exist.

Do you think 2 companies is good to start? I was thinking of signing up with maybe the top 5. Right now I'm looking to just get out there and work. I do want to get paid as well as possible just like we all do but getting out there and getting work is just fine with me for now while I'm still learning how all this works.

Funny thing is about 10 years ago I used to do demo jobs on the side. They paid $50 a demo (8hrs) and they would have ppl come and check on us to see if we were doing our jobs. They called them "mystery shoppers" at the time and paid them $30 just to stop by and ask a few questions (5-10min) and they were all terrible. They asked word for word the same questions and answers that were on our product sheets. I wonder if demo jobs are still around or better yet the better paying ones where you just check up on the demos? Also seat filler jobs. Those were great. Some you had to pay for which was worth it because they gave you 2 tickets to every event in your state so you didn't have to travel out of state. I think it was $10 a month and some paid you per event but mostly it was that you got to attend every concert, play or whatever w/o paying the high ticket prices. The ones that were out of state paid like $75 to $100 per event but a lot of traveling. IDK if those are around anymore either.

I'm so sorry to keep rambling. I can't believe how much i wrote. All these old ways of earning $ are flooding back that i had long forgotten about. You don't have to answer. I know your probably busy.

Welcome! Sign up for as many companies as you can. They all have different kind of shops, with time, you will figure out which companies offer jobs in your area, which ones have shops that you like, or that are close to your home, or work. I would sign up with 5, maybe even 10 companies, and just give it a month or two and you will figure out which companies are good for you. Once you get to know this forum, you will also learn about many companies. Good luck!