Homeb>Can you Really Make Money Taking Surveys and Mystery Shopping?
by Michelle Hansen
If you're like me, you get them everyday; emails about taking surveys and getting cash. I'm sure you've heard that there are people out there who earn a good living taking surveys too, right? Well, our curiosity got the best of us so we set out to find the truth about surveys! We were very curious and thought it would be a great resource article to share with all our visitors. Here's what happened on our SURVEY ADVENTURE!
We simply started at Google and typed in "surveys" then poof and viola, there you go, over 160,000,000 links were found! Wow, this is really going to be an adventure. But for our visitors and all of you who have been asking about surveys and their legitimacy, we decided to plunge forward in this scavenger hunt!
After milling through many of the links, we discovered that most were sites that offered survey directories and promised other tools for a small price. One that continued to surface and was recommended by many work at home sites and mom sites promised a $25 paid survey immediately after joining. The site was Survey Scout and we decided to take the plunge with them since they seemed legitimate and highly recommended.
We joined Survey Scout and were given immediate access to pages upon pages of survey companies that they claimed were legitimate. I must say, the lists were easily navigable and showed us which sites paid cash and which ones offered rewards in points and prizes. Some offered both. They also gave us tons of information that we found to be worthwhile in getting started with survey companies. It tells you how many companies you can expect to join to earn what you want to from home and how many hours per day or week you may expect to devote to taking surveys. I was impressed to say the least.
Ok, so I jumped in and started following the directions the company gave. I created a separate email (a real must) for this type of thing as you will get all sorts of email and lots of it. Then I started signing up for survey companies. After going through 5 or so, I began to notice that a few seemed to be a lower quality company than the others. One tip I learned quick and will share with you is, if they ask you to "complete offers" or join this or that in order to receive some bonus, don't bother with those companies. You'll notice them when you start to join the companies and then you can unsubscribe to those as I haven't noticed any worthwhile real surveys from those types. So tip #1..forget the companies that say you need to complete some special offers that are going to cost you money in order to get some product or gift card, etc for free. I've found those not to be legitimate
So, after weeding through those, I did find many, many companies in the lists that were legitimate. Tip #2 is, complete the non-paid surveys or the ones with points offered or some entry into a contest for completing them. Most of the companies will send you these types of surveys to complete before ever offering you the paid surveys. So I think it's much like a screening process. So, take the time to do the unpaid surveys or the ones that offer points in order to increase your chances of getting paid surveys. Once I completed the points and contest entry surveys, then I started getting paid surveys from some of those companies. I found this to be really neat. Some were a couple of dollars and others $10 or more. So..yes I can see where people could make decent money at surveys if you invest this time in being organized and treating it like a business. Also with Survey Scout when you register you get a bonus area of "get paid to read emails" which didn't interest me too much, but for some of you it may. What did interest me was the list of Mystery & Secret Shopping Companies that I got with my membership. This was something that always interested me and made me wonder. Can people really make money shopping and is mystery shopping real? Yes you can! I went through the list and went through the application process with several of the companies and actually got sent on a secret shop within 2 wks of doing so. The application process was detailed. They really want to know that you are thorough and detail oriented. The testing process included several multiple choice tests as well as an essay portion. Once I was notified that I passed and was accepted though, I was able to log into their site and view mystery shops in my area and assign myself to them! Very cool! I went on one shop and made $50 ! It took a few hours of my time to actually do the shop, it was for a new home builder which was neat. Then writing up the evaluation took about another hour at home on my computer. I was notified the next day that everything was submitted properly and that I earned the maximum amount for the shop!
I plan to write more in the future on succeeding at Mystery Shopping as I do more shops. I get tons of requests for information on mystery and secret shopping, so I will write a follow-up on this in the future including tips on mystery shopping. The article will also detail getting started in this arena of working at home. In our search for and evaluation of taking surveys, we gained some great insight on the process of making money with surveys as well as stumbled upon an unexpected bonus way to make money...Mystery Shopping. From what we learned in our research and actually taking surveys and doing mystery shops, we have found that you really can make money with both of these work at home venues. These are certainly not "get rich quick" schemes but you can start small and depending on the time you want to invest, you can really grow an income at one or both of these. I certainly recommend it to moms who want to try this out and make some extra money or eventually grow this into a good income. I believe it can be done if you're willing to devote the time to it. And, you have to admit both are fun ways of making extra cash. If you like to give you opinion and you like to shop, you can't beat taking surveys and mystery shopping. I do recommend Survey Scout since we researched several avenues and found this website to be a worthwhile membership. I can't speak for the other sites, but we did plenty of research before choosing Survey Scout and haven't been disappointed at all.
I hope this has offered some insight to you and been enjoyable for you to read. We had fun doing the research and were excited to actually make money with this. With the little effort we put forth, we made money so with more effort you could probably do well with this. It will depend on the time you devote, of course.
Oh, and the $25 paid survey they promise for joining..it was legitimate also. I believe that one was paid in a restaurant gift certificate, so we enjoyed a nice steak dinner courtesy of Survey Scout ! What fun!
About the author: Michelle Hansen is a home business entrepreneur and consultant who helps families succeed in their home businesses. She lives in TX with her husband and two children. She and her husband, Shane are the owners and publishers of www.mommybizmatchmaker.c om and www.cybermomz.com providing multiple resources for work at home families.
