This Mystery Shopping Job Pays More Than Others — Up to $200
You might’ve heard that mystery shopping is our favorite way to get free beer, groceries and extra cash.
Well, we recently received a great tip about some of the highest-paying mystery shops out there: video mystery shopping!
High Pay, Low Profile: Video Mystery Shopping
No, I don’t mean browsing Suncoast or Blockbuster Video, not that you’ll find one. (R.I.P to my favorite lazy date night activity — good thing The Penny Hoarder has other ideas.)
I’m talking about mystery shopping for furniture or scoping out apartments while covertly videotaping your experience. Spy-style.
Video shops have higher payouts than other mystery shopping experiences — $50 or more.
“The fee is higher because, in theory, we are dealing with a higher caliber of shopper,” explains Jenna Greenfield of Measure Consumer Perspectives.
Although some professional mystery shoppers purchase their own expensive equipment and undergo training programs, Measure lends amateurs a video camera and shows them how to use it for only a small rental fee.
No worries if you’re not a cinematographer, or if the last video you took was on your cell phone. (By the way, we checked, and cell phone footage doesn’t cut it. The quality isn’t high enough, and it’s less covert).
Instead, you’ll use a high-tech device that looks like a shirt button or pair of glasses — sweet, right?
Video shopping’s a good enough gig that you could do it full time, traveling from one shop to another, making hundreds of dollars a day.
If you want to become a professional video shopper, you might want to check out training programs through outlets like Video Shopping Pros or the IMSC (which is hosting an upcoming conference in Vegas).
Heck, you may even make up some of the lost health insurance benefits so many independent contractors face: Jenna says her company sometimes offers dental video shops that pay between $150-$200 — and include a free cleaning!
Ready to Go Undercover?
These positions are lucrative, so they fill up fast! You’ll want to get registered right away and be on the lookout for them.
Sinclair Customer Metrics and Reality Based Group are other outlets for video shopping jobs, but Measure Consumer Perspectives is our favorite since you don’t have to provide your own equipment.
Sign-up is quick and easy — you can even link it to your Facebook to save time entering redundant information. Then, you’ll be able to look through the shops available in your area — including these high-paying video ones!
Your Turn: Will you sign up to be a video mystery shopper?
Disclosure: We appreciate you letting us include affiliate links in this post. It helps keep the beer fridge stocked in the Penny Hoarder break room.
Jamie Cattanach is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder and a native Floridian. She’s passionate about learning, literature, chocolate and finding ways to live the good life as cost-effectively as possible. You can wave hi to @jamiecattanach on Twitter.
