Who is blogging in the Mystery Shopping business and why? 

People at all levels of various businesses are starting blogs, or online diaries.  These blogs are less formal types of customer relation/press release promotional writing for businesses.  Mystery Shopping is no different.

Kimberly Nasief president of Market Endeavors LLC writes a blog for her company.  One of her posts includes a near discovery: “… ‘the best man (and I) got caught together in the bathroom after the wedding. So, now I need to get another dress for this wedding.’  No joke, a look of horror came over her face…”   Kimberly provides humor, not just Mystery Shopping facts, in her blog.  The set up is similar to a forum, but the candid revelations (a sock frog puppet?) are more informal to qualify this as a blog.  This blog is noteworthy because it is written by an owner of a Mystery Shopping company with the express intention of listening and better communicating with its shoppers. (Volition.com 12/22/03) “…listening to many shoppers claim that they don't ever hear from the people who run the shopping companies, we decided to create an online Blog that lets our shoppers communicate with us in a very informal environment.”
This blog could be improved with more regular postings from Kimberly.

Melanie Jordan, known for her Mystery Shopper Coach's Update, has taken on the form of a blog.  In 2001 Melanie’s Perfect Work-at-Home Job Update e-zine won the NCPMS Newsletter Of The Year and was a finalist again in 2002. Even more than her website, Mystery Shopper Coach’s Corner, her blog has a professional layout and is easier to navigate.  The material is not as fresh as other blog sites. Posts have multiple parts to article-type entries.  The most redeeming quality of Melanie being online is her “ask the coach” opportunity for shoppers.  Shoppers can email Melanie questions and she answers in a straight forward fashion in her e-zine.
Melanie profits from selling books associated with mystery shopping and merchandising; her recommendation of some materials should first be investigated to find out if the information is available in a less costly form.  Often libraries carry copies of the older books, not e-books however.

Shoppers can also blog.  As an independent contractor a shopper has access to differing types of shops and can offer a fresh perspective to Mystery Shopping companies if they are reading.  Company representatives may also be critical of any breaches in independent contractor agreements (ICAs) that are printed regardless of the intended audience.  What goes on the web stays on the web, and bloggers are urged to read ICAs for any prohibitions.

Do you want to start a blog?

Debbie Weil, of Word Biz Report, gives companies and CEOs advice about blogging and the advice: go for it!  Her free newsletters yield many links, not the least of which is for companies to hire bloggers for their company.

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Do you know of a Mystery Shopper Blog that should be reviewed by this newsletter? admin@shoplogs.com
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The Pew Internet & American Life Project
has reported interesting findings on Americans
and blogging:

• In June of 2003, 3% of internet users said they had created a blog or web diary that others could read. By the beginning of 2004, the figure had grown to 5% of internet users. Our survey in late November showed that the number grew to 7%, which represents more than 8 million people.

•  Spring of 2003 found that about 11% of internet users at that time had read blogs. The figure jumped to 17% this past February and leapt to 27% in November. The growth in 2004 alone amounts to 58%.

•  More than one-in-ten internet users (12%) say they have posted material or comments on others’ blogs. That represents more than 14 million people and is a threefold increase from April 2003.

For years you have known about Volition.com, but many smaller forums are starting to be noticed. 

Volition.com is touted as the “Internet’s Oldest Free-Stuff Site.”  Ray Sola started Volition in April of 1995, but the Mystery Shopping Forum was not added until 1996.  Ray started compiling Mystery Shopping information because he was troubled by ‘the lists of readily available free information being sold to people on fixed incomes’ (Volition.com 3/24/04).  The forums were added in 2001 and Sola reports that 20% of readers use the forums. 
Volition Forums sport an active Freebies section, Chat room, Random Thoughts, Merchandising and Support forums.  On the broader site Movie Promotion Giveaways, Classifieds, Free Stuff and Web Designs are some of the interesting topics to be discovered.
Volition.com does run banner advertisement.  The site is heavily monitored by Sola.  It is normal to receive an email correcting or questioning a post, especially when a shopper first starts to post on the forum.

mysteryshopresources.com is a relative new comer to the forums, starting in late 2003.  Shannon Andrews runs a less formal forum were questions are encouraged and topics are freer flowing.  The forum has experts working in the field that answer questions posted about mystery shopping and merchandising often. Notably Jodi Walter, NCPMS independent scheduler of 2004, and various others weigh in from time to time.

Shannon claims that, “moderators have only deleted … 2-3 posts TOTAL, and those were complete spam. We would delete any hateful … posts, but not once since I created MSR have I seen anyone be hateful to another shopper.”

Mystery Shop Resources, MSR, uses EZBoard which gives it a different look and feel than other forums.  You must register with EZBoard before you can post.  They do not run advertisements.  MSR includes: monthly contests/giveaways, scheduled chats, job postings, a place to post your credentials by certification or by state and a resident expert in Sherry Fox to create customs “tags” for your use in signature lines.

mystiqueshopper.com is a forum hosted by Mystery Shopping by Mystique Shopper, LLC.  Mystique enjoyed a flurry of posts in mid to late 2003 and has since only had infrequent posting spurts by shoppers although schedulers still post regularly.  The subscription to scheduling posts is useful, but can contain posts by errant shoppers.  This board is not heavily monitored by administrators, but does have the nice feature of letting registered users rate postings.  Users reach different levels by a combination of ratings and posts.  Since this board is run by Mystique it enjoys the unique option of rewarding excellent Mystique shoppers; any Mystique shopper/board user that earns a 10 on a shop for them may enter to win a “Mystique Bear”, a teddy bear customized to be a mystery shopping bear.