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Working from home: Balancing family with work.
Aug. 14, 2010
Many people yearn for the chance to be their own boss and work from home.
What they don't understand is the difficulties that come with a home-work life and family balance. After a short time, the stress can become too much to bear and the home business can ultimately fail.
The reasons for this new venture can vary from person to person, but usually comes from one's long-held desire to be an entrepenuer.
Before going off on your own and giving up the perks of being a hired employee, be sure to have the support of your wife, or husband, and your family. They will ultimately be your strength when you get down.
Also, when deciding on why you want to work from home, list out all of the pros and cons. Make sure the pros are realistic and not self-serving.
When the time has come to begin your new life, make sure you have a plan for you. Remember, there were reasons why you wanted to leave your previous job, try not to let working from home consume your life.
Set a schedule that's reasonable. If one of your reasons was that you have young children you want to stay home with, you may not be able to concentrate enough on work or kids.
Getting out of the house on a regular basis will do wonders for your sanity! If you know other stay at-home parents in the area, try to organize regular times to bring your children for a play-date.
One problem many people have when they begin their home-business is they don't realize how much they keep themselves inside. After a time, the stress starts to build and the burn-out phase begins.
The whole idea behind working from home is to give you the freedom and creative release you've been looking for. Don't let it take on the life of the 9-5 job you wanted to leave.
If you're the only "employee" of this new business, be realistic in what you can accomplish. Once you start taking on too much, your work/home-life balance starts to tip more toward work.
Don't let work define who you are. Enjoy the new freedom you have to set your own schedule and enjoy life!
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The Most Popular Survey Sites
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Look, Listen and Report.
Aug. 3, 2010
When it comes to mystery shopping, SILENCE is golden.
The more you chatter, use industry specific jargon that only employees would use, lead them into giving answering questions the guideline ask for, or give too many details; the more you look like a mystery shopper.
Just give the basic information and let the employee react the way they're supposed to. Then, sit back and listen. That's what YOU'RE supposed to do.
If you don't give the employee a chance to do their job, how are you supposed to do yours?
You may be tempted to try and lead them because your guidelines are asking for specifics, but you're there to see that they are doing the things they've been told to do. If they're not doing them, this is what you're supposed to be looking for.
When you get overly chatty, that may signal to the employee that you're nervous, and that's a clue to them you may be a mystery shopper.
Also, don't give up too much information right away. When the employee asks if they can help, be brief and basic. This is their time to shine and start asking questions to better help you.
If you have to ask for a receipt, just ask for it. There's no need to explain anything. People ask for them all the time, so it's not unusual for an employee to do it.
DO NOT use terms that are specific to an industry when doing a mystery shop. They could have 1000 customers a day and maybe have a couple that work in the industry, too. Using terms that only someone who does the same job would know is a dead giveaway that you could be a mystery shopper.
The easiest solution is to just be you. We listen to things every day without saying a word, the same should applied to mystery shopping. You're not performing the shop to force the employee to make a mistake. You're there to evaluate how they already do their job.
Having an open mind going in will open your ears to hear everything more clearly. Mystery shopping isn't a witch hunt, it's about helping businesses and their employees perform better on a regular basis.
This is supposed to be something fun to do every once-in-a-while that you can make some extra money with. Take it serious enough to gather the necessary information, but don't take it too serious to the point that you feel you may have a new found power.
Just look, listen and report!
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The Most Popular Survey Sites
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What to do if you're the victim of a MoneyGram scam.
Mar. 3, 2010
The chance to make some extra cash without much effort is enticing to anyone.
 Mystery shopping is one of those ways to earn a few bucks and potentially get reimbursed for a movie or dinner. What many people don't know, is they will never make huge amounts of money for doing a single shop.
Each year, hundreds of people around the country fall victim to a so-called mystery shop scam that involves wiring a few thousand dollars in cash using your local MoneyGram location to someone either on the East Coast or Canada.
They are told that if they perform this shop successfully, they're entitled to whatever cash is left over, usually $300-$500. It seems worth it to make a few hundred bucks for a half an hour of time!
The problem is, that cash you wired is going to a scammer. Everything about this mystery shop is fake, including that check you were sent. You'll find that out about a week or two after you cashed it at your bank.
That was part of your assignment. Now, you're on the hook for all that money the bank gave you for cashing the fake check. Instead of gaining $500, you're out the amount of the check, which can be a few thousand dollars.
While you may not ever get that money back, you can at least give yourself a fighting chance. You can try filling out a report with your local police department, but that won't go very far. Unless it's a bigger city department, most don't have the capabilities to find where it originated from.
There are agencies out there you can contact and make a report with that will try and track down the people who initiated the scam. Here are a few of more recognized and valuable websites you can go to.
You can contact the FBI to report a suspected fraud. There they have tips to prevent yourself from being a victim and many different types of fraud schemes.
Another valuable site to use is Ripoffreport.com. To date, they have had over 500,00 reports filed with them and they have an extensive legal directory.
By going to Fraud.org, you will find different types of scams and who can be a victim. Here, you can file a complaint if you believe you've been a victim of fraud and have your name removed from marketing lists to avoid those annoying phone calls from telemarketers.
Don't let your need for money cloud your judgement. It's when you're vulnerable that you let your guard down, just in the hopes that you can get paid quick.
These are type of people that scammers prey on. For them, it's feast or famine. I say let them starve!
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The Most Popular Survey Sites
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How to make extra money by testing products.
Aug. 10, 2010
While testing products for money seems like a great way to earn some extra cash, there really aren’t any true product testing companies out there.
Most products you get to try are from doing online surveys or participating in focus groups. There are a few of these companies that regularly send out products to qualified participants to sample and answer a survey about them.
You’re probably wondering what kind of products get tested. The answer is, just about anything you can thing of like; diapers, food, beverage, razors, shampoo, fragrance, cleaning supplies, clothing items, exercise equipment, pens, detergent, pet food or supplies, etc.
These products are distributed to people from different backgrounds, in different parts of the country to try and get as diverse of responses as possible to gauge their marketability.
The products, most likely will be sent to your house for use. This is because it’s where they will end up anyway, so it makes sense to test them in real-world situations.
Sometimes, though, you may have to sample items in a facility. Either way, once you’re selected to test a product, you will be notified as to where everything will take place.
Product testing is not a get-rich-quick scheme. To the manufacturers who hire market research companies to put together the information on their products, this is serious business and they’re willing to pay for it.
Their feeling is if they have to spend $1000.00 to product testers to make sure their product will sell and get an idea of how well it will sell, it’s worth it.
This way they know to either not manufacture a product that won’t sell and lose millions, or to distribute it and make millions. The money they paid you to try it out is a drop in the bucket and won’t be missed.
The average pay for using a product at home is anywhere between $5 to $25. This is for short term use, maybe a few days up to a week. For longer term use, the pay can go up to $150 or more. These generally last from a few weeks up to a year.
Most of the time, you will get to keep what you use, but sometimes, depending on if it’s a product that isn’t in the market yet, you’re required to send it back.
For each product, though, you have to sign an agreement that you won’t disclose any information about the product you’re testing to anyone outside of your household or you could be subject to a lawsuit.
That’s pretty easy to follow; and think, you get paid for doing something simple!
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The Most Popular Survey Sites
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What is mystery shopping?
Dec. 22, 2010
 What is mystery shopping? Otherwise known as "secret shopping", it is used by businesses, in different retail sectors, to measure how well their locations are performing in terms of customer service, physical environment of the store-upkeep, and appearance of the employees; i.e., proper uniform.
Being a secret shopper isn't a full-time position with a recruiting company, though. Just like online surveys, you are an at-will contractor.
Because of this, you can be accepted or denied assignments based on past experiences; or you can have assignments rejected for approval after completion for not following the guidelines that were given.
Each assignment is specific for a certain location that the client chooses; they can have multiple locations, but not every one may need to be shopped in a given time. The client also gives the coordinator it's specifications on what it's looking for to be examined.
Not every mystery shop agency is a scammer, however. There are hundreds nationally and internationally to are legitimate and act under ethical business standards. These are usually endorsed by the MSPA (Mystery Shopping Providers Association), or SASSIE Mystery Shopping Systems.
If you ever get an email from a personal email account, or a free email account, don't bother with it. You should only get requests from a business email if it's an actual mystery shop agency.
If you're wondering what types of mystery shops are legitimate vs. which are scams, look at what they're asking you to do and how much they're offering to pay. Also, if you should see mystery shop assignments from a legitimate online survey website, check with that website to make sure it's from them.
Almost all online survey websites DO NOT offer mystery shopping assignments. As far as I know, GfK is the only one.
As far as how much you get paid per assignment, the highest I've ever seen $55, and that included a bonus for being a rush assignment. Otherwise, if you're seeing payment being in the hundreds of dollars, it's definitely a scam.
You will NEVER be paid that much for a simple mystery shop. These usually involve going to a MoneyGram or Western Union and doing a money wire. That money is either supposed to wired to someone on the East Coast or Canada.
In the event you jump at the chance, hoping to make a few hundred bucks, keep in mind you have to cash a check the scammer sends you. This check is fake and you will have to repay every penny of it.
This amount can be as high as $2500! If this should happen to you, contact the FBI & National White Collar Crime Center and give them all of the information you have about the person who recruited you. But, hopefully you just read this article and it won't happen to you...
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How to make easy money participating in focus groups.
Sept. 14, 2010
A quick and easy way to make a decent amount of cash for an hour or two of time, is by participating in focus groups.
Focus groups? What is this and how can it make me decent money?!?
Well, a focus group is where a product manufacturer hires a market research firm to contact panelists from its database, or pool, to try out a new product, service, advertisement, website, etc., to get a small sample of input about them.
This pool of people represents the population as a whole by selecting them from many different backgrounds and areas of the country. This is to get as many different opinions on what works, doesn't work or needs improvement.
This is their way of gauging whether or not to put a new idea into production or go ahead with improvements on an existing product. It's a simple measuring stick on how well it will do in the consumer market.
For the cost of performing a focus group, it will pay off in the long run if the product does well or the loss for the research will be minimal compared to if the product flops.
For the payment side of being a participant in a market research project, this can vary on a few different factors. Sometimes, a client may need a rush job and is willing to pay more because the research firm has to push itself to the limit to get together the required types of people, and this can be very difficult.
There are the occasional in-depth interviews that can last hours, or even days. The client realizes this can be taxing on panelists who may need to travel a little further than normal and want to make it worth their time and effort.
Most focus groups, though, usually pay in the neighborhood of $75-$100 for an hour-long session, or up to $200 for two hours. For the higher paying projects, it can go as high as $450.
These are usually reserved for an out of the ordinary interview that may require people from a very difficult to find section of the population; like those who are in a specific job or drive a certain amount throughout the year.
By participating in focus groups, you not only help businesses make better products and provide better services, but you make some very good money at the same time.
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How to find the best paid survey sites of 2010.
June 15, 2010
You can scour the internet until you reach the end for paid surveys. If you're just starting out in the survey game, you may not know which are worth your time, which actually pay you, which ones you have to pay for, and so on.
Knowing you need to supplement your income somehow, but you don't want to get a part-time job. You read on blog sites how easy it is to make money on the Internet.
This idea is fascinating because, for the most part, you can do it in the comfort of your home, wearing your pajamas and sitting on the couch! Why not give a try?
Now to get started. How do you go about finding these precious gems that will fatten your piggy bank and give you the freedom to do what you want? You can do a Google search for paid survey sites and get back over two million results.
That's a lot of sites to check out and would probably take years to go through. And, out of those two million, I would venture a guess that only a hundred or so will actually be legitimate.The searching can become tedious, and after a while you'll probably lose interest because you haven't made any money.
You'll probably write on a blog that paid online surveys don't really exist and they're all a bunch of scams. Instead of typing paid survey sites into a search engine, try searching for a paid online survey directory.
These sites take all of the leg work out of trying to find these sites yourself by listing every one that has been tried and true.
These sites usually get started by someone just like yourself, wanting to make a few extra bucks, who went through hundreds of sites, failing at most and succeeding at others.
They wanted to set these directories up to help others succeed and not have to go through what they did. A few of these directory sites are; MySurvey123, Greenbook and Survey Police. Each one has a comprehensive list of paid survey sites, focus group sites and mystery shopper sites.
If you would rather start off with just signing up for a few sites to begin with to see how it goes, some of the most popular sites are; Survey Spot, GlobalTestMarket, Survey Head and Opinion Square. There are so many to choose from besides these, but these are some of the better sites to make money from.
Surveypolice.com has a panel rating section on their website that lets users rank their favorite sites to use and which sites to stay away from to help others avoid a site or join it.
Also, almost all legitimate survey sites are usually affiliated with a business accreditation, like the Better Business Bureau, that gives a stamp of approval for their business practices. So, if you see BBB, CASRO or TRUSTe, you know that website is accredited and legitimate.
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