Earn Extra Spending Money for Christmas by Mystery Shopping

By Karen Fritscher-Porter

Earn extra spending money for Christmas. Don't wait until mid-December. That's too late. You must start now. If you are going to need a little extra spending money in December, whether to spend on yourself at some of the great holiday sales or to put a little something extra under the family Christmas tree, try mystery shopping.

There are hundreds of companies that hire mystery shoppers as independent contractors to shop and eat on their dollars, not yours. And they sometimes pay additional flat fees (also known as paying you cash in the form of a check or direct deposit to your bank or through PayPal---that's how you'll earn extra spending money.). Though there are plenty of scammers out there who try to blend in with the mystery shopping industry (and by doing so sometimes give the mystery shopping industry a false bad rap), mystery shopping and mystery shopping companies are 100% legitimate, honest and for real. And many are not even new. They've been around for years.

Mystery shopping is a marketing service provided to retail stores, restaurants, banks, apartment leasing offices and everyone else who sells a product or service to the consumer. The intent is to have shoppers pose undercover (hence the mystery) to experience and report back to owners and managers (through the mystery shopping companies) objective facts about the service they received or product they purchased.

Owners and mangers of stores, restaurants and other companies hire mystery shopping companies to shop them. The mystery shopping companies then outsource the individual assignments to mystery shoppers. You can be the mystery shopper. That's how you'll earn extra spending money---through flat fees plus you'll get reimbursed for restaurant meals and retail products.

Warning: A mystery shopping company may ask you to purchase a restaurant meal or make a (usually small dollar value) purchase at a store (which you'll either return to the store or get reimbursed for by the mystery shopping company); BUT they will NEVER ask you to cash some huge check for them (they're not crazy enough to give big amounts of money to strangers---which is what you are to them). And they will NEVER ask you to use significant amounts of your own money to make a purchase. Never! If your mystery shopping assignments seem too good to be true then they aren't from true mystery shopping companies so steer clear. You do have to work a little to get and accomplish true mystery shopping assignments (but geez, you get to shop or eat out in the process for free or paid to do so) and earn that extra spending money.

You can find mystery shopping companies and apply for their assignments in at least two ways:

1) Browse the Web looking for them and register at each site you find; or 2) Buy a list or join a membership site that offers you database access to a list of mystery shopping companies they compiled (by doing similar research).

Don't let anyone tell you that the latter is not legitimate (because there are many people spouting this all over the Web and they are simply wrong or misinformed). Buying a list of mystery shopping companies or subscribing to a database of these companies is no different than if you ordered a print directory or pamphlet through the mail from someone who had compiled this information. It's a similar concept to your local telephone book yellow pages. That's a directory too. The only difference is your local telephone directory charges the advertisers for the listings and gives you the book free. In this case, the mystery shopping database companies don't charge for the listings but charge you instead for the list they researched and compiled.

The whole point of buying a ready-made list of mystery shopping companies or accessing a membership database is to save you time of doing the same thing. Some of the better mystery shopping directory sites also offer you tips or advice about how to find more mystery shopping jobs. They don't promise you or get you mystery shopping jobs. Some also will give you tips on how to get called back by mystery shopping companies or how to complete your mystery shopping reports. If you're new to mystery shopping that is good information to know---because lousy mystery shoppers will get "blacklisted" by the mystery shopping companies and agents. So learn to do mystery shopping right the first time. That's what you're paying (usually a quite modest) fee for to these mystery shopping database and or informational membership websites. You are not paying for actual mystery shopping jobs or assignments.

And if you do mystery shopping right and you don't earn extra spending money, or at least not enough by Christmas, there is always January. That's when you'll need extra spending money to pay off all the holiday bills you incurred.


Go to http://www.Christmas-Cash.com to read more about mystery shopping and how to earn extra spending money. Website publisher Karen Fritscher-Porter is an experienced mystery shopper of several years who knows firsthand that anyone can earn extra spending money through mystery shopping.
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