Okay, I need some advice. I was wondering where the best place is to find the Mystery Shop Companies that conduct shops in your area? I am signed up with over 150 and have found about 6 that has shops in my area. I do check Jobslinger from time to time but was wondering if there are other places. I know they are out there just finding them is tough.
Thanks in advance for your help, I usually get good advice here!!

Did you check Jacob's "sticky" at the very top of the forum?

He has hundreds of companies listed. You may be able to do a search by just
putting your state in.

It sounds like you are doing exactly what you need to do. Over time I have heard mention of clients who are being shopped and I think, "Darn it, I have those HERE!" When I expand the search beyond my immediate area, I can see the shops in other areas, but they just aren't shopped in mine. So it may well be that you pretty much are in touch already with what is in your market.

I feel your pain...sort of. I have tons of low paying shops in my area. Most 10-20 miles away. I only recently started finding shops that average more than $7-10 on a regular basis. You just have to keep looking. One thing you can do is see if the companies you are signed with have Facebook pages, and things like that. Some jobs are only posted that way.

You can try MSPA, Volition. Corporate Research and Marketforce seem to have shops all over. There are also plenty of companies that do phone shops, you don't necessarily have to be local, but they only post them in certain locations rather than nationwide.

Hey avonlady
another hint
keep an excel sheet or little black book of some sort to keep track of companies applied for but you are doing the right thing!

Thanks for all of the good advise and quick responses! I am doing Market Force and Corporate Research those are two of my six. The other thing I was wondering about is do all of the MS companies send out emails when they have shops available in the area or do you just have to go in once in a while and check? Boy that really takes time and I never have found anything on the job boards outside of emails!

I did get a lot of the companies that I signed up with off Jacob's sticky but have not figured out how to do a search by state. That would be a large job for somebody with a lot of time on their hands to catalog the MS companies by state.

There are a number of companies who have work in my area but who do not send out emails when they post and a number of companies that email out a day or more after they post when the reasonable jobs are already taken.

It does take some time to figure out when companies are likely to post so that you can go to their job board at the right time when shops are available. Luckily Prophet4 companies let you see what shops others have already taken and put in a request for the job in case the current shopper needs to cancel or otherwise does not put in an acceptable report. Sometimes some of those companies will notify you the next time the shop shows up in case the current shop is finished by the currently assigned shopper.

Some companies note on their website front page or notes after you have logged in when the next round of postings will go up. Mark your calendar.

There are several companies I checked today to see if they are noting when shops will post for next month. Force of habit . . . I am not scheduling anything for May. If I were, though, my calendar would have the dates noted to make sure I got there. One company I find posts in my area usually the last Saturday night of the month (are we talking here about a very small business?). Another small one usually posts at night between about the 3rd and the 5th of the month. Another puts up the shops I am interested in on the very last day of the month for the following month. For most of these shops, you snooze, you lose.

the.avon.lady1 Wrote:
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> I did get a lot of the companies that I signed up
> with off Jacob's sticky but have not figured out
> how to do a search by state. That would be a
> large job for somebody with a lot of time on their
> hands to catalog the MS companies by state.

Not only that, if they even COULD do that (not all companies allow you to see outside of your own area) by mid month it would be inaccurate as companies add and lose clients, some clients are a one shot evaluation, some clients have a quarterly evaluation of each location, some may be only a semi-annual evaluation of each location.

Wow Flash you really have it together! I guess I just have to take a day toward the end of the month and give them all a try. I am sure I am missing jobs just waiting for them to email me.

While some schedulers will send you notice of their treasures, most send you the trash nobody else would take in hopes that you will. If you are getting few emails for shops you may have some stiff competition in your area and that means you need to be even more proactive.

I have bookmarks of separate 'sets' of companies that can be 'Open all in Tabs'. One set is companies erratic enough in postings that they need to be checked daily. One set is new-to-me companies I am still trying to figure out if they have anything here and when they are likely to post. One set is companies that I know roughly when they post and can pick and choose who I look at or check them all. Then there are bookmarks of sets of companies in alphabetical order with whom I am signed up but who do not have anything in my area or I have chosen not to work with them at present. I go to those only if something interesting pops up in my email and if it appears they have gotten their act together or have interesting shops in my area, they get moved to a more active bookmark set.

Thanks Flash never thought to bookmark them in groups. I do have the few that I do on a regular basis bookmarked, the rest of them that I have signed up with just sit in my 'emails to keep' folder in my email. So it sounds like I have some work to do and maybe I will get as good as you!

And as you bookmark, make sure you have your computer remember your login and password for you. Then you can go down your tabs and have a few start logging in while you go back, check out the first company opened's job board and close it if it is not interesting, then move on to the next company opened etc. Every once in a while, go back and close the tabs where you have logged out already and log into a few more. I can fly through a check of 30 companies in under 30 minutes.

I found the link to the MS Job Board here in this forum (thank you!) It is a job board for companies that use Shopmetrics software. There is no cost to register, and you are able to set up your account with your zip code and the search distance you'd like.

You will be able to see all the Shopmetrics mystery shopping providers that have jobs in your area. You can link the ones you already are with onto your account, and also sign up with others you are not registered with yet. I have five companies with jobs regularly in my area. I can see all the available jobs, along with jobs needing backup shoppers if I choose, with one visit to the MS Job Board.

Here's the link for it, if you'd like:

[www.msjobboard.com]

Good luck!

Now I know why your name is Flash, Wow 30 in 30 minutes! I will give your system a try and I know others reading this will benefit from it as well. thanks for sharing!!

A big thanks to Shops4aliving too. Yes I definitely am interested thanks for posting the link!

Wouldn't it be great if Sassy Companies and the other one that begins with a P (can't think of the name of it right now) would do a job board like the Shopmetric companies did. That makes it sooo easy to locate shops in your area.

You are probably thinking of Prophet. The other challenge is client companies will often change MSC's so you might never know exactly where your favorites will pop up.

Avon lady triena aboutface corp i work for them aS A mystery shop and market force too

the.avon.lady1 Wrote:
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>
> A big thanks to Shops4aliving too. Yes I
> definitely am interested thanks for posting the
> link!

You're very welcome. I am glad it worked out for you!

Client Companies changing MSCs is another good reson for the
MSCs to come up with an easy system for the shoppers to find them. Seems to me it would benefit the MSCs that are trying to place jobs with shoppers as well as the shoppers. Anyway just my two cents.