Search Engine Optimization And Why You Gotta Use It

Search Engine Optimization And Why You Gotta Use It.

E-commerce is a cut throat business. You have to arm yourself with the proper know-how and the tools to make your site a cut above the rest. 

Each day, more and more sites are clambering to optimize their rankings in websites and if you lose your guard, you may just get trampled on and be left in the abyss filled with so many failed e-commerce sites.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term widely used today by many e-commerce sites. For the past few years and the next ten years or so, search engines would be the most widely used internet tool to find the sites that they need to go to or the product or information they need.

Most people that use search engines use only the ten top search results in the first page. Making it to the first page, more so to the top three is a barometer of a sites success in search engine optimization. You will get a higher ratio of probability in being clicked on when you rank high. The more traffic for your site, the more business you rake in. But, it is essential to grab a hold of that spot or make your ranking even better. As I aforementioned, each day is a new day for all e-commerce sites to make them selves rank higher using search engine optimization. It is imperative to make your site better and better everyday.

So just what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be number one, or maybe at least make your site income generating. With search engine optimization you can get the benefit of generating a high traffic volume. Let’s just say you get only a turn out of successful sales with 10 to 20 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a good turn out of sales already. If you get only twenty to ten hits a day, you only get one or two if not any at all.

So once again, what is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is utilizing tools and methods in making your site top ranking in the results of search engines. Getting yourself in the first page and better yet in the top half of the page will ensure that your site will generate public awareness of your site’s existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could lead to potential income and business. Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add as well to get search engine optimization. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your sites niche or theme.

You may also need to rewrite your sites contents so that you could get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your site’s content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization. You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you could get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffics generated by sites among others are one of the components search engines uses to rank sites. 

Try to search the internet for many useful help. Tips, guidelines and methods for search engine optimization are plenty to be found. Read many articles that can help you optimize your site in search engine results. The more knowledge and information you gather the better. This will all help you in getting those high rankings. This may require a little time and effort in your part but the benefits will be astounding.

If you can part with some money, there are many sites in the internet that can help you in search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases that can help your site. There are also some content writers that have lots of experience in making good keyword laden content for your sites that have good quality. Act now and see the benefits garner with search engine optimization. All of these will result to better traffic and more business for your site and company.

Using Google Adwords To Drive Laser Targeted Traffic

Using Google Ad words To Drive Laser Targeted Traffic

The biggest well known secret in generating wealth in the internet based business or e-commerce is Traffic. Everybody knows it; every site wants it and every site needs it. The point of websites is to be visited and viewed.

Many elaborate designs, money and countless hours of developing a site to make them beautiful and attractive are utilized. Without traffic, it is for naught.

With traffic comes a potential customer which basically means sales which in turn means profit. While many sites have collapsed in the past with the downturn of many internet based business, many smaller sites have generated good money by concentrating on a certain niche and some sub niches.

This is a reason why e-commerce site laser target certain groups of people and drive them to their site to showcase their sites and products. Precision marketing is essential so that you could count on all the traffic on your site as potential customers.

Using Money to Make Money

It’s a common business notion that if you want to make money, you have to spend money. One good way of spending money for business gain is through advertising. Advertising brings in the people because through advertising, they know that there is such a company or product in existence. With the right type of advertising, you can see the spurt of traffic growth to your site. With a high volume of traffic, even if only a small portion or percentage turns out to be buying customers it is still a good average of profit generating income.

Right now, there is no other advertising scheme that would be worth every cent than using Google’s Adwords. The surge in popularity of Google’s Adwords is very evident as you can see so many sites sporting this ad scheme.

In using Google's Adwords, you pay a certain fee depending on the number of keywords your ad is keyword sensitive to. Each time a person does a search in Google, the keyword or keywords use generate ads in the side of Google which are generated by the keywords they have assigned for their ads.

This method laser targets the traffic a site wants for their site. This also ensures that you are readily visible in the first page of a search result. Paying Google for this ad scheme ensures that your target group of people sees your ads. You drive your laser targeted traffic to your site which provides for their needs and wants. You can also be sure that you can meet their demands and needs.

Aside from Google, you can also be featured in their other search networks, these includes sites like, AskJeeves, AOL Search and Netscape. These sites also show Adwords ads that react to searches done by visitors. There are also content networks, non-search engine sites that feature Google Adwords, which will also carry your ads. But this is subjected to the niche the site features. Your chosen keywords will determine which content network shall feature your ad. The frequency of your ad shall also be determined by your allowed budget.

Laser Targeting your Traffic

To get a good number or estimate of the traffic to buying customer ratio it is good to laser target your traffic. Knowing that your traffic are all potential customers and are interested in your products and company provides you with a more accurate statistics. This will show you how effective your utilizing of Google Adwords is.

Drive laser targeted traffic to your site by using keywords or keyword phrases for your Goggle Adwords that pertains to your company and to your products. There are many online internet tools that can help you in choosing keywords and keyword phrases that are currently in demand that could help drive laser targeted traffic to your site.

With your Google Adwords ad, you are ensured that every click to your ad is a potential customer that is precisely looking pr interested in what you have to offer. Make sure that your Google Adwords ad has the right keywords so that you can drive you're laser targeted traffic to your site.

Using Google Adwords to help boost the drive to increase laser targeted traffic will prove to be very beneficial as many other companies can attest to. The benefits are high with the cost relatively justifiable.

Most Profitable Internet Product

The easiest way to make money online is by selling a product that can be delivered electronically.  There are no shipping or fulfillment costs eating away at your revenue.  Electronic products are easy to produce and it is not necessary to get anything published.  Another great reason for selling products electronically is that delivery is instant and free.  Selling products online is completely automated or hands free.  So what type of products can you sell electronically.

Selling software online is excellent because new software is always necessary.  Programmers at local colleges come cheap, if you have the funds.  If you do not have extra funds, cut them a profit for the first two years.  You will still earn more than your expenses.

Writing an eBook is extremely easy.  People are constantly looking for information.  Finding a nicely packaged info packed eBook is so much easier than doing all the research yourself. These eBooks sell like hot potatoes and you do not have to worry about printing costs or editors.

Starting a newsletter on a highly popular topic will bring in a lot of people quickly.  You can have these people submit articles themselves too, which will add to your website content.  You just need to make sure the information they send is reputable.  Later, you can offer paid subscriptions, advertising, and product promotions on your website which will drive traffic and cash.

Members only web sites offer the customer a service each month or week or day and charge them a fee.  As long as you are serving your customers with intensity, you will keep them happy for a very long time.  This is very labor intensive but the results are well worth it.

So, as you can see, you could offer a service on your website, such as dog walking or wedding planner, but that would mean that you would need a lot of resources, employees, expenses, etc.  Selling an electronic product online is easier for someone just starting out as an entrepreneur. 

Is Internet Marketing Working For You?

Is Internet Marketing Working For You?

Determining whether or not your Internet marketing campaign is working for you is a very important part of the advertising process. 

This is so important because while there is a great deal of Internet marketing which can be done without a great deal of expense, other types of Internet marketing do have financial costs associated with them. Also, in both cases there is a time and energy burden to orchestrating the Internet marketing. 

For all of these reasons it is important for business owners to continuously evaluate their marketing techniques and strategies to determine what is working and what is not. This will help the business owner to focus his efforts on marketing strategies which are providing positive results as opposed to those which are either not providing results or are only providing lackluster results. This article will examine a few different marketing strategies as well as how business owners can evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies.

Affiliate marketing is certainly one of the most cost effective Internet marketing strategies available. This marketing strategy involves having other website owners known as affiliates post an advertisement on their websites to direct Internet traffic to your website. This marketing strategy is cost effective because in most cases the affiliate is only paid when he produces a desired result such as enticing an Internet user to click through the advertisement or to purchase a product or service once they click through the ad. While the business owner is only paying for the advertisement when it produces a desired effect, it is still worthwhile to evaluate the effectiveness of these ads to determine whether or not they are working well.

Fortunately affiliate marketing ads have a natural feedback mechanism which makes it easy to evaluate how well the ad is working. This feedback is provided in the form of code imbedded in the advertisement which specifies which affiliate generated the website visitors. This information is provided for the purposes of issuing payment to the affiliate but it can also provide the business owner with useful information on which affiliate ads are the most effective. This information is especially useful when the affiliates are posting different ads. The business owner may conclude the ads posted by the more successful affiliates are more appealing to potential customers and may opt to use this style of ad for all of their affiliates.

Business owners who use Internet marketing strategies such as posting on message boards to promote their business might want to consider asking customers to complete a short survey when making a purchase. This survey can include useful demographic information which is always helpful for marketing as well as information regarding where the customer learned of the products or services you offer. Including the message board web address as one of the responses will give you a good indication of whether or not the message boards are helping to drive customers to your website. You may also have some unofficial feedback in terms of the response to your postings on the message board. If the general consensus is in support of your posts, you may infer you are generating some interest in your business or website through this tactic.

Finally, an Internet marketing strategy can be evaluated by studying website traffic results as well as sales receipts. Anytime you implement a new Internet marketing strategy or technique it is worthwhile to study your website traffic reports and sales receipts carefully to determine whether or not there is a spike in either traffic or sales immediately after the marketing effort. For example, if you send out an e-newsletter to those who have requested additional information about your products or services, you may notice there is an increase in traffic or sales soon afterwards. This is a good indication the e-newsletter was well received and effective. However, if there is not a marked increase in traffic or sales subsequent to the e-newsletter it indicates the marketing effort was not effective.

What Is Lead Generation?

What Is Lead Generation?

Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into those leads we just talked about.

Whenever someone outside the marketing world asks me what I do, I can't simply say, "I create content for lead generation." It'd be totally lost on them, and I'd get some really confused looks.


So instead, I say, "I work on finding unique ways to attract people to my business. I want to provide them with enough goodies to get them naturally interested in my company so they eventually warm up to the brand enough to want to hear from us!"

That usually resonates better, and that's exactly what lead generation is: It's a way of warming up potential customers to your business and getting them on the path to eventually buying.

Why Do You Need Lead Generation?

By showing an organic interest in your business, it's those strangers and prospects that are initiating the relationship with you -- versus you, the business, initiating the relationship with them. This makes it easier and more natural for them to want to buy from you somewhere down the line.

Effective Ideas for Home Based Business Entrepreneurs

How can you establish a business without leaving the comforts of your home and do so with just a small capital? 

The answer is simple and it’s right in front of you. Think for everyone else. Act for everyone else. If they can’t do it, do it for them.

But how would you do it? To know the specifics, take time to attend seminars and workshops for more information and how to gather tips on starting a business. If you don’t want to spend your money on the first suggestion, there’s always an alternative. You could drop by the library within your community and read books regarding management and business. Well at least, that’s free. You just have to be part of the community. Or better yet, use the internet for various researches.

Home based entrepreneurs benefit vastly on having their business right at their doorstep. It extinguishes the agony and trouble of being stuck in heavy traffic and being late. Travel time would take at least thirty seconds from your bedroom to your home office. No dress code required.

You could come to your office on your pajamas, no one cares, and you’re the boss. Family time is not compromised. You are the boss of your own company. Best of all, self-discipline is practiced.

Here are 3 of the best suggestions for gearing up your home business:

     

1. Garage Sale – “the old and perhaps the new”

Sure you have clothes that are used only once. Those that your mother gave you when you were three but you wore them only once cause you never liked it. Remember? That’s right. Sell it on Monday.

Sign board announcement: Kid’s stuff on sale!

Your husband loves sports but that was 5 years ago. Again, sell it on Tuesday. Hunt down those baseball cards and sports gears he kept in his closet.

Sign board announcement: Sports stuff on sale!

Now are you having a clearer picture of what I’m trying to paint? You could sell different kinds of stuff on different days. That would make your garage a bit more interesting.

2. Food for Thought – “Sweet. Spicy. Sour.”

Cooking can be very consuming. But if your hands were made for it, then try the catering business. Supply food for gatherings like parties, anniversaries, meetings, etc. If you’re also good with pastries, then convert your garage or a part of your house into a mini café.

Set up a relaxing ambience that would suit and entice customers to hang around. Give them a reason to stay. A good cup of coffee, light music, and a satisfying bite of their favorite blueberry cheesecake would definitely work up an appetite to keep them coming back for more.

3. Clean it, Scrub it – “From top to bottom”

Having an obsessive-compulsive type of personality can be an advantage and it can be put into good use. Aside from imposing cleanliness within your own vicinity, other people’s house might need it as well. In a generation where time is of the essence, workaholics fail to maintain an organized environment.

That’s where you come in. Advertise your services to those people who badly need grooming. Emphasize that when the environment is healthy, the client is healthy as well.

Are thoughts rushing in? From my point of view, the percent of failure depends on the time when you say “no” or ‘it’s not possible” to realizing that it is.

Work at Home as a Home-Based Business Entrepreneur

Work at Home as a Home-Based Business Entrepreneur

Being an entrepreneur is very appealing but not everyone can become one. One of the quickest and easiest ways to become a successful entrepreneur is by working at home through a home-based entrepreneur business.

Firstly, you need to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. After the evaluation, you can now determine if you can manage your own online business. Aside from the evaluation process, you must know how to plan, organize, staff, and control. 

These are your responsibilities as an entrepreneur. You should be able to work alone because now you're the boss and all business decisions will be made by you. Some say that online businesses can be run without many problems. Well, they are very wrong because even with an online business, you have to deal with certain business problems and risks. You can't eliminate such risks because that goes hand in hand with any business undertaking, both for online and offline businesses. However, you can reduce the risks that you're bound to deal with in the future by choosing the best home-based entrepreneur business that will work for you.

Entrepreneurs are known to be self-starters. Organizing your time is a difficult task but if you want to run a home-based online business, you should be able to do it. Remember, you don’t have a boss that you can rely on. This is your business and you have to be responsible for it at all times.

Running your own business would also mean that you have to deal with different kinds of persons. You will surely encounter demanding customers, moody vendors, and an unreliable staff. To become a successful home-based business entrepreneur, you should know how to deal with them individually. You should know the quirks of every person that you encounter so that you can address them and the situation correctly.

Running an online business is all about your attitude and character. According to some experts who conducted researches about the characteristics of entrepreneurs, there are certain traits that an entrepreneur should possess. As mentioned earlier, entrepreneurs are risk-takers, self-starters, and know how to deal with different kinds of people.

Those traits and characteristics are not enough. You have to have more than that. Another trait that you should possess is being an excellent decision maker. Since you're the boss, you should be able to make quick yet effective decisions. Some situations are filled with pressures but despite the pressures, you still need to make an informed and wise decision. As owner of your online business, you have no one else to rely on when it comes to business related decisions.

To be an effective online business entrepreneur, you must have lots of energy and superior work ethic. Owning an online business may mean working even on late hours and on the weekends. However, you must not be pressured of your tasks. View them as challenges and strive even harder. Your efforts will be rewarded once you see the profits rolling in.  

If you already know the responsibilities of an entrepreneur, then you can assess if you can become successful in an online business. Working at home through a home-based entrepreneur business requires dedication and hard work. You must be able to monitor your finances, tasks, inventory, work schedules, and many others. Good luck and may your chosen home-based business become a success.

Corporate Blogging Secrets Revealed

Corporate Blogging Secrets Revealed

The web blogs which are popularly known as the blogs have been the talk of the town for people who are hooked up in the Internet. This has become the hottest communication tool for the people on the web. 

Web blogs have opened up opportunities for the people who want to create their own web site.

Corporate blogging is one of the greatest services that it can offer. The web blogs have reached even the government and corporate sectors as well. As a matter of fact, a prominent magazine has suggested that some of the companies and employees should spend more time on corporate blogging than they used to.

Experts have advised to update blogs with an average of an hour a day to keep your prospects and viewers updated. What started out to be for personal use and roots for professional journalism is now used as a profitable communication tool for large and small business.

Corporate blogging is used by a company to produce and support a blog to achieve business objectives and to be known with their services. Corporate blogging can give a lot of advantages and purposes in a business setting. A blog can be a place for discussion which is about the issues that are work-related.

Corporate blogging can serve as an atmosphere to encourage internal and corporate communication. Small-scale discussions can turn out to be virtual meetings where people can read insights and what is currently happening. This will give the employees a feeling of encouragement that they can be heard.

Corporate blogging can also promote knowledge sharing and collaboration to the people who have similar ideas and views about a certain topic. It can give rise to good ideas which can be a good reference in the future.

Corporate blogging can institute an employee or company as an expert in their field. When a person posts information about a specific topic, the person practices and exhibits their skill and knowledge about the subject matter which he can be given the authority.

People who visit your site can equate the site and the author with the certain topic that they have just read. The reputation for the subject mastery and the expertise can increase your sales and the consumer opinion.

This can bring put interactive addition to the e-mail newsletters and the intranet. Automatic update for notification is made possible on blogs where more people can stay on top of the newest postings.

Although corporate blogging can be a good help, there are still some drawbacks. This is not a magic solution to all your business needs.

Mostly, people think that corporate blogging promises money that is why most of them turn to blogs and make as many as they can.

However, with all the drawbacks in corporate blogging, a blog can be an effective tool to strengthen the bonds between the consumers and the company. There is no other easy way to get connected with them so this serves as the best alternative.

Corporate blogging will serve you well with the people who are not used to reading the newspapers and magazines, but go online for most of the time.

If you want to be successful in corporate blogging, you need to enhance your knowledge with the use of the tools. Applying good strategies will help you make the most out of it. 

Credit Repair Sales Rep - Very Lucrative Opportunity

Credit Repair Sales Rep - Very Lucrative Opportunity *** (Los Angeles)

• Address:Los Angeles, CA 90001 (map)
• Date Posted:07/16/15
• Job Type:Full-time
• Description:
• Nationally recognized Credit Repair Company is currently seeking a Sales Representative to join our team.
  
  Ideal candidates must be goal oriented and self-motivated with excellent verbal and communication skills.
  
  We are a rapidly growing credit repair services company which services throughout the USA.
  
  WE OFFER A VERY UNIQUE SERVICE RARELY BEING OFFERED IN THIS STATE.
  
  JOB DESCRIPTION :
  
  Generate partnerships and establish relationships with local Mortgage Brokers, Real Estate
  
  Agents, Auto Financing Departments, Bankruptcy and Divorce Attorneys, Banks, and Lenders.
  
  Schedule appointments
  
  Make 25-50 outgoing sales calls per day
  
  Full-time or Part-time role; Work from Home or Office
  
  Commission Based. Unlimited Earning Potential
  
  SKILLS
  
  Strong verbal communication and telephone skills
  
  An outgoing and confident personality with a professional attitude
  
  Desire to work in a team and a strong motivation to be successful
  
  A self-starter who is highly motivated and results-driven
  
  Organizational skills to manage large prospective leads and appointments
  
  A basic understanding of financial concepts and terms
  
  How to read and analyze credit reports is a plus but not required.
  
  EXPERIENCE
  
  Relevant telesales, inside sales and business development experience is a plus.
  
  *** A TREMENDOUS BONUS FOR THE RIGHT CANDIDATE WILL HAVE CONTACTS IN THE REAL ESATE AND MORTGAGE INDUSTRY ON A LOCAL OR NATIONAL BASIS ***
  
  Marketing offline.
  
  Ability to travel to appointments to meet w. Affiliates
  
  Bachelor's Degree Preferred.
  
  Training will be provided.
  
  SERIOUS CANDIDATES ONLY, please submit your resume to the above email address.
  
  We provide all training and Marketing Material for Right Candidate!
  
  THIS IS STRICTLY A JOB FOR SELF STARTERS!!!
  
  You Can Do this By Phone From Your Home or as an add on service!
  
  You Can Do this by going door to door!
  
  FOR THOSE WHO ARE TRUE SALES PEOPLE THIS JOB IS EXTREMELY LUCRATIVE!!!
  
  Thank you!

Read more: http://www.homejobslistings.com/

mystery shopping assignments

If you're looking for higher paying mystery shopping assignments, here are four options. 

(Plus check out the link below for companies.)

1. Credit Card Mystery Shopping Assignments
(Get paid to apply for a credit card.)

2. Audit Assignments

(These can be frustrating, or high paying and fun.
Find the good audit assignments.)

3. Merchandising Assignments(These are often paid hourly, on a steady basis.)

4. Apartment Assignments

(Higher paying, especially if it is a video assignment) If you're looking for companies with these assignments available, one of the best things you can do is visit Mystery Shop Forum. They have hundreds of companies listed, plus feedback about many of them.

Mystery Shopper Magazine: Subscribe Now (Free)

3 Types of Bank Assignments

As a mystery shopper, you know you can find assignments in all types of public places. From restaurants and retail stores to gas stations, movie theaters, health clubs, and so much more. Many assignments leave mystery shoppers feeling flustered and stressed out. Grocery stores, retail stores, and even many restaurants are often just plain crowded, and there is nothing relaxing about wheeling your shopping cart through crowded grocery store aisles or doing a restaurant assignment during peak lunch times. For many mystery shoppers, a bank assignment usually can provide you with a great change of pace. Here’s what you need to know:

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They find companies with assignments available, and send them straight to you.

Bank Teller Assignments. Often, bank assignments will have you deposit a check or cash into your account from the drive thru lanes. For this reason, this type of assignment is typically only available for people who already hold an account with the specified bank. When you perform this assignment, you don’t have to get out of your car, which makes it ideal to do on even the coldest days of winter. It’s also usually a fast assignment. Unless you hit the teller lanes at 5pm on a Friday afternoon or another peak payday time such as the 15^th or the last day of the month, you rarely have to wait behind more than a car or two at most banks. So you can be in and out of this site visit in a matter of minutes.
Open An Account. Some bank assignments will have you walk into a local bank branch and open a new account with a bank representative. With these assignments, sometimes you will be required to enter the bank without an appointment, and this can mean you have to wait quite some time for a representative to become available. Other assignments require you to make an appointment with a certain representative before your visit, and these assignments generally move pretty quickly. Keep in mind if you open a new checking or savings account, you typically have to have cash available to deposit into the account on that day. As a bonus, many banks offer free gifts for opening an account, such as cash, free movie tickets, or so forth, which is a great perk.
Question On An Account. As a variation of opening an account, another scenario that is common with bank assignments may involve you walking into a bank where you already have an account and asking a specific question about your accounts. You may be required to ask your question to the inside bank teller or to the bank representative. This type of assignment typically won’t take too much of your time unless you visit at a peak time for the bank.
These are just a few of the different types of bank assignments you may run across. Pay attention to the requirement for being a current account holder with the bank in question before you request the assignment. Typically, these assignments are a great change of pace from the norm because banks are often far less crowded than retail stores, restaurants, and so forth. In addition, you often have fewer requirements to fulfill on-site with this type of assignment, which makes them generally easier to do.

Save on Gas with Mystery Shopping

Market force Mystery Shopping Written by Tammy S: Market Force is one of the leading forces in the industry of mystery shopping. I have worked for this company for over 5 years. They offer a variety of jobs in a multitude of venues When you sign up with the company you will see that they are very fair and compensate nicely within a month. The range of pay that they offer is anywhere from $3.00 for a telephone shop or over $100.00 for audits.

If you go to their home website at: http://www.homejobslistings.com this will take you to their registration page and from there you can easily sign up and if you have any questions about their program.

When you sign up with Market Force you will be asked what “areas” you will want to work in and around such as a major city that you live near as well as the surrounding cities that you would be able to travel. It all depends on you and how far you want to go to obtain jobs.

I would have to say it is the best mystery shopping company I have ever worked for simply because they are comprehensive and thorough in their directions of how they want you to perform a job. It is one of the easiest websites to follow and you will not be disappointed with Market Force.

My Experience I enjoy working for Market Force. They send you an email every day to let you know which shops are available in your area(s). From these emails you can pick and choose the jobs you want to perform and the jobs that will go along with your schedule. You can also go to their website and search in other cities and states if you happen to be traveling and want to perform mystery shops in your spare time.

I have completed a wide variety of jobs for Market Force. I started out doing cell phonejobs where I would go undercover and pretend I was interested in obtaining a new cell phone. These were the perfect jobs for me to start mystery shopping because they are very easy and I could perform many of them in one day which makes it quite worth it when the day is complete! I also perform telephone mystery shops, mainly to banks, and I will call and get a name and determine if the customer service rep was doing their job correctly.

Another type of job I perform is with the bigger companies such as tire manufacturers and book stores that may need auditing, which means you would contact the manager of the store to help you count merchandise on shelves and let the company know what is out of stock. This type of job is very easy and you get to interact with the managers of some major companies. You get the respect of the managers and a job that can be repeated throughout the year.

Working with the schedulers of Market Force is a breeze. If you have any questions you would contact the scheduler for the specific job and they will get back to you in a reasonable amount of time. They really are very helpful and can steer you in the right direction if you get stuck with anything, such as printing paperwork, or a question about the specific job you are performing. They respond quickly and efficiently.

I have a high regard for Market Force. They have worked with me over the years and if I make mistakes I correct them quickly and they take this into great consideration since no one is perfect! So you won’t have to worry if you happen to make a mistake, unless it is quite major, then this company will work with you to correct your mistake. It may mean that you would be with held from future jobs until a period of time goes by, but this is not an issue since they have so many other jobs to choose from on their web site.

I encourage you all to sign up with Market Force. Happy Mystery Shopping!

Save on Gas with Mystery Shopping

Mystery shoppers have been watching gas prices creep back upward for months with much dismay. The higher gas prices climb, the more money mystery shoppers have to pay to travel to do assignment site visits. With gas prices up almost $1.00 per gallon in many locations in just the last few months, if not more, many mystery shoppers are really starting to feel some pain at the pump each time they fill up.

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They find companies with assignments available, and send them straight to you.

There are some steps you can take, however, to help take the sting out of those painful fill-ups. Here are some ideas:

Gas Station Assignments. There is nothing that will put a smile on  your face faster while you are standing there filling up your tank than knowing  you are getting reimbursed for your gas purchase! Now most gas station assignments will reimburse you for only a portion of your purchase, so don’t expect to walk away with $50 or $100 in gas for free! However, if you make an effort to pick up a few of these assignments each week on a regular basis, you will find that this really will make quite a difference in your overall gas expense for mystery shopping.

Top It Off. While most gas station assignments offer you a reimbursement on a portion of a fill up, there aren’t many that will reimburse you for the cost of a full tank of gas. It’s fairly common to see a $5 or $10 reimbursement, plus a small fee for your assignment pay.

Be sure not to “leave money on the table”, so to speak. Don’t show up at the gas station assignment with almost a full tank of gas and unable to get your full reimbursement on your purchase. If you are bone dry the day or two before your assignment, only fill up a quarter or a half of a tank to leave room for the gas purchase you will be reimbursed for.

Tie A String Around Your Finger! Whether you simply don’t like the extra clutter in your car or you are trying to be more “green”, many people these days opt to not print out the receipt at the gas pump. Keep in mind that you will need to print out the receipt to get reimbursed for your gas purchase. So avoid the urge to go into auto-mode at the gas pump and click “no receipt.” If you need to literally tie a string around your finger to remember to print your receipt, do it!

Say Cheese! Most gas station assignments will require you to snap a few photos of the exterior of the store from different angles. Many mystery shoppers prefer to do this at busier times of the day to  avoid being seen. This can seem fairly illogical, as with many cars and drivers at the gas station, you stand a better chance of being seen. Yet it is far easier to blend into the crowd and not be singled out when the gas station is packed with motorists. You also stand a less likely chance of the gas station clerk glancing out the window and catching you snapping photos if he is busy helping other customers.

The time of day you choose to shop will be up to the assignment requirements as well as your discretion. Just keep in mind that you will likely need to snap photos incognito and think through if you’ll be more comfortable in a crowded or uncrowded environment.

Skip The Goodies! Many gas station assignments also require you to make a small purchase inside the store and interact briefly with the gas station clerk. It may be tempting to buy that candy bar or a soda, but if you are strapped for cash, you may want to make your reimbursed purchase towards a necessity like milk, eggs, or even fruit that are sold in many gas stations these days.

Double-booking It. If you have to be out on the road and burning gas, you might as well make that trip worth your while. With gas prices so high right now, it absolutely makes sense to schedule mystery shopping assignments with location in mind. A great idea is to look for several assignments in the same shopping mall, outlet mall, or retail center so you can drive to one location and complete several site visits. Another idea is to pick up assignments that you can complete en route to places you already need to travel, such as on your way to work or to your daughter’s ballet lesson. You can also try to find assignments that serve a double purpose for you, such as a grocery store assignment where you can pick up your groceries for the week while you are also working on an assignment, too.

When gas prices get as high as they currently are, and especially given the fact that they are only expected to go higher yet, you really have to make some adjustments to your mystery shopping habits so that you can avoid pain at the pump. When you take steps to follow some of these tips, you will find that you can continue to make great money as a mystery shopper without spending quite so much in gas, and this means increasing your overall profits!

Mystery Shopper Magazine

A Basic Mystery Shopping Business Plan

Having retired from my 30+ years as an independent manufacturer’s representative, I was seeking an alternate source of income and a way to keep physically and mentally fit. After exploring several options my research led to mystery shopping and I decided to go in that direction. Since then, I have set specific goals with my mystery shopping, organized a basic business plan, and achieved my first set of goals.
This article walks you through my basic business plan as a mystery shopper.

Advantages

1. Be you own boss
2. Set your own hours
3. Acceptance to the many mystery shopping companies is relatively easy
4. Select the types of businesses to be called on
5. Choose from the many types of mystery shopping available
6. Earn an income based on time and effort

Disadvantages

1. Income and growth is limited
2. Mystery shopping will remain a single person operation
3. Income is earned during the shop/interview but reports of various complexity are then required

Equipment needed

1. Vehicle
2. Computer
3. Printer/fax/scanner
4. Land telephone line
5. Cell phone
6. GPS
7. Micro voice recorder
8. Digital camera

Starting my business
I possessed all of the above equipment from my previous occupation as well as an office in the home so there was little initial outlay. The cell phone and digital camera were upgraded. My approach is that this is a business not a hobby and my objective is to earn an income, not a way to get food or product compensation.
When I started mystery shopping, I researched and choose 12 to 15 companies that seemed to offer the types of shops that I would enjoy, concentrated on 5 of them and proceeded to set and meet my goals.
My objectives
At this junction in my life, I have no desire to work 5 or 6 days a week and 8 to 10 hours a day. Instead I choose to work within a 30 mile radius of my home and average 4 to 5 hours a day. I regularly take Friday and the weekend off. My income per job and per day is based on a strict income/expense ratio and I rarely leave the house for less than a 2 to 1 ratio. It is a very profitable day when the ratio reaches 3 to 1 or 4 to 1, which usually occurs when I am able to negotiate bonused shops.
Setting goals
My original goal was to earn more than I could as a skilled or semi-skilled part time retail employee in a local store. I actually went for an interview in the local Home Depot and decided that was not an option I desired. My first goal was easily surpassed in the first month. There are two directions you can go when a goal is reached. The first is to pat yourself on the back, relax and start coasting. The second is to re-set your goals and work harder and smarter.
Procedure
This is not a business where I feel I can “wing it” so I generally plan a month out and put my appointments and potential visits in an appointment book. The end of the month sometimes brings bonused shops so I try to leave a couple of days open at that time. I am able to do the shops I enjoy and stay away from the ones that I do not.
My business is based on careful preparation which includes logical routing, one page worksheets for the various shops and detailed spreadsheets of my visits.
Conclusion
Because of changing demographics and needs of the mystery shopping companies and clients, I am ready to expand my base and will do so slowly with careful research much as I did when I first started. The information is available and with careful searching I will find companies that suit my needs and likes. Mystery Shop Forum and Mystery Shopper Magazine are both excellent sources of research for finding new mystery shopping companies.

Latest Articles

• QSI Specialists (Mystery Shopping In Nevada) The special circumstances of mystery shopping in Nevada.
• A Basic Mystery Shopping Business Plan For new and established mystery shoppers.
• Featured Shopper: Storm Cloud Storm Cloud shares her tips, pet peeves, anecdotes, and mystery shopping adventures.
• My 7 Most Memorable Mystery Shopping Experiences Ever The most humbling, upsetting, heartwarming, irritating, weird, rewarding, disgusting, and frustrating experiences of one mystery shopper...

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Once you agree to our NEW SHOPPER TERMS & AGREEMENTS, you will be redirected to our JM Ridgway account at SASSIE, you will therefore be registering to JM RIDGWAY through SASSIE. If you are already registered at SASSIE, that simply means you are registered to another MS Company through SASSIE. When you go to the link to register you will see 'JMRidgway - SHOPPER SIGN UP FORM' at the top of the page, thus you MUST create a NEW account if you would like to be registered in our database of available shoppers. AFTER you have registered at JM Ridgway, through SASSIE, our schedulers will then have the opportunity to either contact you right away for an immediate assignment offer; or if your not contacted right away, we will be able to contact you in the future when the need arises.

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New Shoppers
Please begin the New Shopper Application process by reviewing our important Fraud Alert information.
You will need to read all the information & agreements, following the "Links" to get to the to the New Shopper Application, that will then allow you to refer to your SASSIE Shop log, and SASSIE Job Board.

Please Note
We offer hundreds of shops every month all over the country, however we do not post all of our jobs on the job board. If you do not see a job on the job board, you can always write to our schedulers (NikkiA@JMRidgway.com - ph@JMRidgway.com), identifying where you live, to allow them to see if they have any non-posted jobs in your area.

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Management Reporting
featuring SASSIE, the world's premier Mystery Shopping System.

View this brief video for an overview of the SASSIE Reporting System and how our customizable shopping and reporting solutions can help your business improve Customer Service and Increase Sales.

If you would like more information on how we can benefit your business, please contact Scott Ridgway by emailing him at sr@jmridgway.com
or calling him at 209.710.8663.
JM Ridgway's Customer Research information and marketing insights help you make better decisions thereby helping to grow and improve your business. We are offering our clients as an ALL NEW and BETTER reporting program, called SASSIE.
SASSIE offers everything and more online, which includes: Surveys, Graphs, Charts, Graphing, Trending and a whole lot More.
The SASSIE system allows our clients to download a survey via e-mail, PDF and Excel formats, which include the ability to download Excel formatted scoring Charts, etc.
Our Clients also have the option of creating different surveys for different types of shops, taking advantage of the ability to merge the multiple surveys into one Chart or Graph, using a tool that we will be offering called a "Cross Survey Reporting Module"

The slaying of nine African-Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church last week, with an avowed white supremacist charged with their murders, was a particularly savage case.

WASHINGTON — In the 14 years since Al Qaeda carried out attacks on New York and the Pentagon, extremists have regularly executed smaller lethal assaults in the United States, explaining their motives in online manifestos or social media rants.
But the breakdown of extremist ideologies behind those attacks may come as a surprise. Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, anti government fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims: 48 have been killed by extremists who are not Muslim, compared with 26 by self-proclaimed jihadists, according to a count by New America, a Washington research center.
The slaying of nine African-Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church last week, with an avowed white supremacist charged with their murders, was a particularly savage case. But it is only the latest in a string of lethal attacks by people espousing racial hatred, hostility to government and theories such as those of the “sovereign citizen” movement, which denies the legitimacy of most statutory law. The assaults have taken the lives of police officers, members of racial or religious minorities and random civilians.

Non-Muslim extremists have carried out 19 such attacks since Sept. 11, according to the latest count, compiled by David Sterman, a New America program associate, and overseen by Peter Bergen, a terrorism expert. By comparison, seven lethal attacks by Islamic militants have taken place in the same period.
If such numbers are new to the public, they are familiar to police officers. A survey to be published this week asked 382 police and sheriff’s departments nationwide to rank the three biggest threats from violent extremism in their jurisdiction. About 74 percent listed anti government violence, while 39 percent listed “Al Qaeda-inspired” violence, according to the researchers, Charles Kurzman of the University of North Carolina and David Schanzer of Duke University.

“Law enforcement agencies around the country have told us the threat from Muslim extremists is not as great as the threat from right-wing extremists,” said Dr. Kurzman, whose study is to be published by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security and the Police Executive Research Forum.
John G. Horgan, who studies terrorism at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, said the mismatch between public perceptions and actual cases has become steadily more obvious to scholars.
“There’s an acceptance now of the idea that the threat from jihadi terrorism in the United States has been overblown,” Dr. Horgan said. “And there’s a belief that the threat of right-wing, anti government violence has been underestimated.”
Counting terrorism cases is a notoriously subjective enterprise, relying on shifting definitions and judgment calls.
If terrorism is defined as ideological violence, for instance, should an attacker who has merely ranted about religion, politics or race be considered a terrorist? A man in Chapel Hill, N.C., who was charged with fatally shooting three young Muslim neighbors had posted angry critiques of religion, but he also had a history of outbursts over parking issues. (New America does not include this attack in its count.)
Likewise, what about mass killings in which no ideological motive is evident, such as those at a Colorado movie theater and a Connecticut elementary school in 2012? The criteria used by New America and most other research organizations exclude such attacks, which have cost more lives than those clearly tied to ideology.
Some killings by non-Muslims that most experts would categorize as terrorism have drawn only fleeting news media coverage, never jelling in the public memory. But to revisit some of the episodes is to wonder why.
In 2012, a neo-Nazi named Wade Michael Page entered a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and opened fire, killing six people and seriously wounding three others. Mr. Page, who died at the scene, was a member of a white supremacist group called the Northern Hammerskins.
In another case, in June 2014, Jerad and Amanda Miller, a married couple with radical anti government and neo-Nazi views, entered a Las Vegas pizza restaurant and fatally shot two police officers who were eating lunch. On the bodies, they left a swastika, a flag inscribed with the slogan “Don’t tread on me” and a note saying, “This is the start of the revolution.” Then they killed a third person in a nearby Walmart.
And, as in the case of jihadist plots, there have been sobering close calls. In November 2014 in Austin, Tex., a man named Larry McQuilliams fired more than 100 rounds at government buildings that included the Police Headquarters and the Mexican Consulate. Remarkably, his shooting spree hit no one, and he was killed by an officer before he could try to detonate propane cylinders he had driven to the scene.
Some Muslim advocates complain that when the perpetrator of an attack is not Muslim, media commentators quickly focus on the question of mental illness.
“With non-Muslims, the media bends over backward to identify some psychological traits that may have pushed them over the edge,” said Abdul Cader Asmal, a retired physician and a longtime spokesman for Boston’s Muslim community. “Whereas if it’s a Muslim, the assumption is that they must have done it because of their religion.”
On several occasions since President Obama took office, efforts by government agencies to conduct research on right-wing extremism have run into resistance from Republicans, who suspected an attempt to smear conservatives.
A 2009 report by the Department of Homeland Security, which warned that an ailing economy and the election of the first black president might prompt a violent reaction from white supremacists, was withdrawn in the face of conservative criticism. Its main author, Daryl Johnson, later accused the department of “gutting” its staffing for such research.
William Braniff, the executive director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, said the outsize fear of jihadist violence reflects memories of Sept. 11, the daunting scale of sectarian conflict overseas and wariness of a strain of Islam that seems alien to many Americans.
“We understand white supremacists,” he said. “We don’t really feel like we understand Al Qaeda, which seems too complex and foreign to grasp.”
The contentious question of biased perceptions of terrorist threats dates back at least two decades, to the truck bombing that tore apart the federal building in Oklahoma City in April 1995. Some early media speculation about the attack assumed that it had been carried out by Muslim militants. The arrest of Timothy McVeigh, an anti government extremist, quickly put an end to such theories.
The bombing, which killed 168 people, including 19 children, remains the second-deadliest terrorist attack in American history, though its toll was dwarfed by the roughly 3,000 killed on Sept 11.
“If there’s one lesson we seem to have forgotten 20 years after Oklahoma City, it’s that extremist violence comes in all shapes and sizes,” said Dr. Horgan, the University of Massachusetts scholar. “And very often it comes from someplace you’re least suspecting.”