MAKE MONEY ONLINE POSTS: 06/01/15

الاثنين، 1 يونيو 2015

More Bosses Expected To Track Their Staff Through Wearables In The Next 5 Years

While the vast majority of sales for fitness trackers and smartwatches are going to consumers now, research suggests close to a fifth of sales will come from enterprise and industry customers by 2020.

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Warning Signs For Energy Technology Investors 3: Yes, They Can Be That Stupid

The story of Blacklight Power is a startling case demonstrating how Cleantech investors can go seriously astray. The founder, Randell L. Mills, claimed in 1991 to have refuted quantum mechanics and developed a new energy source relying on previously unknown “hydrinos,” and received tens of millions of dollars in investment despite widespread skepticism. He himself said, “It's a revolution very fitting to the 21st century, in a chain of revolutions man has had with fire, steel, fossil fuels, and Maxwell's description of electromagnetism. This is grandiose stuff…”

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1SQavl0

Using Creaming Curves to Compare Performance of Oilfield Operators

Operators have many decisions to make about how to drill and complete their wells: how long of a lateral, how many perforation stages, what is optimal spacing, what type of proppant to use, how much fluid, etc. These decisions can be influenced by whether an operator seeks to maximize the total production over the life of the well, or to maximize internal rate of return.

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The Festivals To Know This Summer

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5 June Music Festivals To Check Out

Sure, spring is wonderful, but there is no season more dedicated to fun than summer. June is a great month for seeing live music outdoors, and there are almost too many options for festivals around the country and across the globe. It can be tempting to spend all of your time and money at the more famous festivals, but there are plenty of lesser-known events that can be just as fun, and here are five examples:

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1FOJWpg

Johnson & Johnson And The 9 Other Stocks Baby Boomers Love Most

Boomers are turning 65 at a rate of about 10,00 per day.

Source Forbes - Markets http://ift.tt/1LWOpb7

27 Good Financial Habits You Need For Ultimate Financial Success

They didn’t fit the typical millionaire profile.

They lived in a modest 1,800 square foot home. They both drove Buick’s that were both completely paid off.

He retired from a manufacturing plant and she a grade school as an English teacher.

Despite their simple ways, they were both millionaires and were one of the first clients I landed as a financial advisor.

So what was the secret sauce? Did he buy Apple stock a few decades ago? Was it some crazy pension buy out? A salty family inheritance?

How about none of the above.

When I asked the husband what their secret was he shared the story about how every time he received his paycheck he would ALWAYS take a portion and purchase savings bonds (Remember: this was long before 401k plans).

That simple routine, which became a ~~good~~ flippin’ amazing financial habit, was the catalyst for them becoming millionaires.

It doesn’t matter if your goal is to become debt free, increase your savings, or become millionaires; all off them require you have good financial habits.

good financial habits for success

Everybody wants to be financially stable, but unless you have plan to get you there, it’s not going to happen.

Financial success is all about adopting good financial habits.
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Here are 27 that will enable you to set (and reach) your financial goals.

1. Live Within Your Means

This strategy is the foundation of all good financial habits. In fact, I’m not exaggerating when I say there will be no point in setting good financial goals until and unless you come to the point where you can live beneath your means.

Seriously.

There’s nothing complicated or strategic about this habit. If you take home $5,000 each month, you live on $4,500 – and bank the rest. As your savings and investments grow, your financial situation will improve dramatically.

2. Pay Yourself, You Deserve It

If you’re having trouble with the whole concept of living beneath your means, it’s time to pay yourself first. If you have a 401k (or some other employer retirement account) this is a simple way to automate the process of saving money. Allocate a certain percentage, or even a certain dollar amount, to come out of your pay each pay period, before you even see it.

Without you even noticing it, the money is transferred to savings and investment accounts, and turns into real money as the years pass. If you don’t have an employer sponsored plan like a 401k, see #17.

3. Give Yourself a Consistent Raise

Good financial goals are more easily achieved if you can build progress into your savings and investment funding. You can do this gradually by increasing your payroll savings once each year.

You can do this almost painlessly by increasing the savings payroll deduction – whether it is for retirement or some other savings or investment account – by increasing your deduction by one percentage point per year.

Let’s say you are participating in your company’s 401(k) plan with 6% of your pay in order to take advantage of the company‘s 50% matching contribution. In the coming year, increase your contribution to 7%. Plan on doing that each year, until you meet the maximum contribution you’re allowed to make.

While this is a great start, the reality is you need to save at least 20% of your income if you have any hope of retiring early (or at all). If you want to get super ambitious and retire at 30, you can take a page out this guy’s playbook and save over 50%.

When I encounter someone only saving around 5% I challenge to increase it by 1% each quarter until they reach at least 10%. From there adjust I have them adjust accordingly so they barely feel the extra amount deducted from their paycheck.

4. Buy Value

By “buy value,” I mean you neither by the cheapest goods, nor the most expensive. Instead, you look to buy the best value for the money. Sometimes it’s worth it to cough up a little extra dough for a product you know will last, rather than paying bottom-dollar for shoddy merchandise you’ll have to constantly replace.

On the flip side, keep in mind not all products are better simply because they’re more expensive – often they’re just more expensive because of perception. Read reviews and shop around.

5. If You Have to Borrow, You Can’t Afford It

Credit is an awesome thing when you’re buying something big, like a house or a car. Very few people have $150K sitting around in cash to buy a home, so for those things, borrowing makes sense. But adopting good financial habits means avoiding schemes to stretch your paycheck. Credit cards are probably the most common way to do this.

Repeat after me: If I have to borrow for it, I can’t afford it.
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This will keep you from incurring fresh debt – and that‘s the beginning of getting out of debt, if that‘s where you’re at right now.

6. Pay Your Bills Ahead of Time

Paying bills late is another strategy to stretch the paycheck. But it’s also kind of like robbing Peter to pay Paul. All it does is give you a false sense of how much money you have, and then puts you under tremendous pressure to cover the difference later. By paying your bills ahead of time, you will gain more control over your finances, and that will make it easier to adopt good financial habits.

My wife is the queen at this! Instead of waiting until she receives our credit card bill, she logs into our accounts and pays it off in the middle of the month. There’s no way she’s allowing any interest to accrue!

7. Read One Financial Book Each Year

If you want to become financially stable, you’ll have to seek advice from the financial masters. Easy to do, since nearly every one of them has at least one book available.

Take advantage of that knowledge. If you only get three or four bankable ideas from reading a single book, think about how many you’ll get from reading a dozen or more.

Some of the personal finance books that I’ve enjoyed over the years include: Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover, David Bach’s Smart The Automatic Millionaire, Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You to Be Rich. And…well there is of course the book on the left:

Dave Ramsey and Soldier of Finance

Shameless plug: My book, Soldier of Finance, can be purchased here.

8. Track Your Spending

If you don’t have a budget, then you probably don’t have even a remote idea where all of your money is going. This is one of those good financial habits you absolutely must adopt you if want to get control of your finances.

By tracking your spending, you will be able to identify the areas of excess. Eating out for 50% of your meals? Cut that back to even 25% and cook or brown bag the rest, and you’ll have a nice chunk of change to contribute to paying down debt or building up your savings.

Start tracking your spending now – you may be surprised to find where your money is actually going.
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9. Spend Less Time Watching TV

Don’t think watching TV has anything to do with becoming financially stable? Guess what? TV is nothing but a giant advertising venue, and I’m not just talking about the commercials. Even TV shows advertise certain wares through a little thing called product placement.

It’s a place where “sponsors” come to peddle their wares, and often, to make you feel insecure because you’re not buying what they’re selling.

Much of our spending, especially impulse spending, is driven by time spent in front of the TV. The less time you spend watching it – and the ads it bombards you with – the less money you’ll feel compelled to spend on things you don’t need.

Plus, by watching less TV you can read more books!

10. Balance Your Checkbook Regularly

With online banking, it’s easy to ignore this step. After all, the balance is available to be checked every day. But the balance does not reflect upcoming charges or outstanding checks. If you aren’t fully aware of these, it could lead to an undersized balance, or even bounced check fees. No bueno.

Balancing your checkbook helps you to avoid these pitfalls, so you know exactly how much cash you have at all times.

11. Shop Without Your Credit Cards

Not only will this keep you from running up your credit card balances, but if you have to use cash or your debit card to make your purchases, there’s a very good chance you will spend less money than you would if you are shopping with a credit card, because you can’t just pay it off later.

It’s real money, being used right now, which helps you make a wiser decision in the checkout line.

12. Pay More Than the Minimum on Your Credit Cards

And speaking of credit cards, if you want to become financially stable, you will need to get rid of those balances. If you haven’t been successful in paying off your credit cards in the past, then you should commit to paying more than the minimum payment due.

This will speed up the payoff of your credit cards without having to come up with huge sums of money to do it. You will simply be accelerating the payoff, and if you pay enough, it will happen more quickly than you think.

Pay attention to your credit card statements. They will often tell you how long it will take to pay off your balance if you only pay the minimum payment, and how long it will take if you pay a fixed amount slightly higher than the minimum payment. Most of the time, there’s a difference of several years.

Yes, I said years.

13. Dust Off That Business Idea You’ve Been Putting Off

Do you have a business idea you have been putting off for quite awhile? You may want to give it a serious try. The internet has made starting and running a business easier and less expensive than ever. Case in point example is my buddy, Steve Chou, who was able to replace his wife’s $100k income by launching an online store.

Another example closer to home is my wife’s blog. She was able to replace her full-time income from her corporate job after starting her blog in about a year.

Best of all, you can run a side business for as long as you like, and that can provide you with an extra source of income. It’s important to set good financial goals, but you also have to carry them through. Starting a business is one way to do that – even if you only do it on a part-time basis

14. Learn to Say “No” to Yourself

This is important when you are shopping, or just out and about. This is really about getting control of impulse buying. You’re out somewhere, and you see some item you like, and you buy it because it doesn’t cost that much. Even worse is the ability to purchase things online nowadays and have it delivered to your doorstep in just a few days. If you do that several times a week, the spending can really add up.

Making just 20 impulse purchases (or fancy coffees) per month at an average of “only” $5, adds up to $100 spent on stuff you really don’t need. That’s $100 which isn’t going into savings or investments, or to paying down debt.

One trick is to enforce a “72 Hour Rule” on any purchases, especially online items. If you really think you need to buy <fill in the blank>, after you add it to your cart make yourself wait 72 hours before you purchase it. After 3 days you should get a good feel whether you really need the item or if you just want it (and don’t need it at all).

15. Learn to Say “No” to Your Kids

If you have children, learning to say “no” to them is doubly important. First, kids being kids, they always want something. And that something tends to get more expensive as they get older. You can save a lot of money by learning to say “no” to the random things they see and decide they can’t live without.

Keep in mind, I’m not telling you not to give your kids birthday or Christmas gifts, or things they truly need. Rather, it’s about their own impulse buying – seeing something and wanting it – but instead, they’re using your money. Telling them “no” will keep more money in your pocket.

But the second issue is even more important.

How you spend money, and particularly how you spend it on your children, has important implications for the attitude they will have toward money when they grow up. Though saying “no” isn’t always easy, it’s a way of teaching an important financial lesson. It teaches your kids they can’t have all the candy in the store, and that’s something they need to grasp in preparation for adult life.

16. Buy Term and Invest the Difference

Everyone needs life insurance, but everyone complains about how expensive it is to buy it.

There is a better way.

Buy term life insurance. Because it costs only a fraction of what whole life costs, you not only save money on the premiums, but you can buy more coverage. And that money you save on the premiums can be invested to build a large investment for the future, which by itself is its own form of insurance.

17. Start a Retirement Savings Plan

Good financial habits can be elusive if you don’t have a retirement savings plan of any kind. But if you don’t have a plan through your employer, there are plenty of options. You can open up a self-directed traditional IRA or a Roth IRA through tons of different platforms. Either will provide the type of income tax deferral that is the essential to building a healthy nest egg for retirement.

Best places to open roth ira

If you don’t have a retirement savings plan, what are you waiting for? Set one up today, and start funding it with any money you have available.

Seriously. It’s better to start contributing a little bit now than to wait until you can contribute a lot. You can even fund it through payroll savings deductions through your employer. Our top choice is Scottrade with the rest of best options for IRA’s here.

18. Refresh Your Emergency Fund on a Regular Basis

There’s a lot of talk on the web about building an emergency fund, but far less in regard to replenishing it once you’ve taken money out of it. And if your living expenses increase over the years, you can even find your emergency fund is no longer adequate.

Take a look at your emergency fund at least once each year, and determine if it is sufficient to cover at least 3 to 6 months of living expenses, based on your current expense level. If it isn’t, set up a plan to refresh it as needed. It’s hard to remain financially stable without a well-stocked emergency fund.

19. Save For Specific Goals

A lot of people understand the importance of saving money in an emergency fund, and for retirement. But less well understood is saving for specific goals. Those goals could include saving money for your children’s college education, saving money to replace your car without having to take a loan, or saving money to make major repairs on your .home.

setting financial goals

This isn’t just about saving money – it’s also about becoming self-funding. That means you pay cash for the kinds of major things other people borrow money for.

I’m a huge believer in revisiting your goals every 90 days. I started this over 4 years ago and I’ve seen my revenue nearly triple while taking more days off than I ever have. So yes, I’m a HUGE advocate of goal setting. Here’s a quick peak on my last quarters goals as well as my goals for 2015.

20. Know What You’re Paying

A lot of people are not terribly concerned with investment fees, so long as their portfolios are growing in value. But there’s more going on with investment fees than people normally think. A difference of just 1% in investment fees can make a substantial difference over time.

For example, let’s say you have a $20,000 investment account earning 10% per year. If you pay 2% in investment fees, that will give you a net return of 8%. Over a ten year period, the investment will grow to $43,179.

But let’s say you have the same investment, but you pay only 1% in investment fees. That will give you a net annual return of 9%. After ten years, the investment will grow to $47,347.

That’s a difference of well over $4,000 over ten years. The difference is even more dramatic over 20, 30, or 40 years.

It’s also important to understand the type of investment you own and the fees associated with it. Recently, I had a new prospective client that owned a variable annuity. She didn’t understand how it worked or what she was paying per year to own it. She actually thought she was only paying $50 per year to own it when, in fact, she was paying over $3,500!

Moral of the story: investment fees matter!

21. Give to Others

This could donating your time to a charity or cause, tithing, or cooking a meal for a friend in need. The point is to put others needs before yours.

It’s easy to put our own worries and concerns at the forefront but when you start focusing on others, the payback is unmeasurable.

22. Become the Go To Guy/Girl at Work

Everybody wants a raise at work, but not everyone wants to do what it takes to get one – especially in a tight job market. The same is true for promotions.

But if you want to fast-track your career, work to become the go-to guy or gal in your office. That means taking on meatier work assignments and stepping up to help management and coworkers when needed. It’s not easy, and it’s not an immediate fix, but it can really payoff in the long run.

23. Get to Work 15 Minutes Early Each Day

By getting to work 15 minutes early each day, you can dramatically improve your work performance, and even reduce your stress levels. Just taking the extra time to organize your day, such as creating a to-do list that makes sure you get the most important tasks completed first, can give you a jump on the competition – your coworkers.

That can be an important part of improving both your productivity and your visibility at work. And that can eventually lead to a bigger paycheck.

24. Cut Down on Your Spending Allowance

Even people who budget can sometimes be lax when it comes to their personal spending allowance. That’s the money you use for entertainment, for casual spending, and for that latte at Starbucks.

Everyone needs a certain amount of free-spending built into their budget, but it’s equally important to make sure it doesn’t get out of control. Since it tends to be spent in small amounts over long periods of time, it’s easy to get carried away with spending on this front.

Start by giving yourself a fixed allowance for free-spending each month. Then gradually begin cutting it down to a more manageable number.

25. Cut Down on Restaurant Meals

Eating in restaurants has become so common these days we hardly notice it. But if you find yourself eating out three, four or more times per week, your restaurant habit has become a major expense without you even realizing it.

Track the number of times you eat out each week, and begin reducing it. This is an excellent way to save money painlessly. And it may force you to sharpen your cooking skills. The Food Network is there to help you with that, should you need it.

26. Drive Your Car a Few Years Longer

If you are accustomed to taking out five year loans on your cars, then replacing them as soon as the loan is paid off, you need to realize that’s a very expensive way to drive. The longer you drive it after the loan is paid off, the less expensive your auto expense will be. That’s another of those good financial habits that will point you in the right direction, and bring you to financial stability more quickly.

The average age of a car in the US is now 11.4 years. That isn’t to say you have to drive your car until it dies, but you should be able to drive it for as long as 10 years. And for the love of man, repeat after me:

Reliable transportation does NOT mean you have to buy a brand new car.
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If you are paying $500 a month for a car payment, and you can keep the car an extra five years after, that will be an extra $30,000 in your bank account ($500 X 60 months). You’ll lose some of that to repair bills, but nothing close to $30,000.

27. Learn to Love the House You Live In

Some people make it a practice to trade up on their home every time they get a promotion or a new job. If you want to become financially stable, it’s critical you learn to live beneath your means – which was the first strategy on this list.

If you can keep your house payment stable while your income rises, you can redirect the additional income into savings, investments, and non-housing debt. That will improve your financial situation a lot more quickly and efficiently than buying a larger and more expensive home every few years.

So there you go – 27 good financial habits that you need to not go broke – and to become financially stable. Pick just a few of them, and watch your finances get better.

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Amazon Gets Visual With Stream, A Pinterest Style Shopping Experience

A new layout from Amazon may look quite familiar. Stream helps users "Find beautiful things" in a format quite similar to Pinterest. The post Amazon Gets Visual With Stream, A Pinterest Style Shopping Experience appeared first on Marketing Land.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Abercrombie & Fitch Needs New Customers

Abercrombie is changing its pace. The millennial customer is now the target with redesigned fashions. Change is clearly needed given the sharp decline in business. Total company first quarter sales sank 14% to $709 million and comparable sales dropped 8%. Sales for Abercrombie dropped 12% to $349 Million and Hollister dropped also 12% to $369 Million. Comparable stores sales fell by 9% and 6%, respectively. On a positive note, management was encouraged by Hollister’s sales growth in Asia, Europe and the United Kingdom.

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1ctgNFx

Sumo Logic Snaps Up $80M To Log All The Things

Funding news today for machine data analytics vendor Sumo Logic who has announced an $80 million funding round. The round was led by DFJ Growth, with new investor Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and participation from existing investors Greylock Partners, Sequoia Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures and Accel Partners. This additional round takes total cash raised to date to just over $160.5 million.

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1PZirRV

Legal Marijuana Dealers -- And The Government -- Need Bankers And Lawyers

Virtually every bank of any size has decided not to do business with legal marijuana companies, concluding that the so-called “regulatory risk” outweighs the benefits of doing business with them, and lawyers steer clear as well.

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1I0L10Z

For The Pricing Of New Cholesterol Lowering PCSK-9 Drugs, Does Dose Size Matter?

Thus, from a commercial standpoint, basing a pricing strategy on dose could be risky

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HR Challenges - Why One-Size-Fits-All Doesn't Work in China

China’s rapid evolution to global financial powerhouse is creating a heightened demand and HR challenges for talented Chinese executive candidates and white-collar administrative staff. Gone are the days when multinationals looked to China only for low cost labor to manufacture goods primarily for western countries.

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1GR6sA5

4 Never-Ending Sources of Great Ideas

Inspiration is a fickle thing. It comes effortlessly when you aren’t running after it. At other times, you might think that it’d be easier finding Polar bears in Australia. Whether you're struggling to come up with great ideas for your ads, blog posts, emails, or even products ... we all know how daunting and painful a white piece of paper can be.

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1RF16eo

Russia Wants To Convince BRIC Partners To Create Alternative Banking System

Russia wants to create an alternative to SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which connects some 10,000 banks together through a $6 billion daily financial infrastructure backbone.

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1dGlv4y

Can We Give Everyone A Smart Phone And Still Stop Global Warming?

Maybe, but it’s going to be impossible without using all the low-carbon energy sources we have available. Information and communication technologies require a lot of power. The human online population topped 3 billion in 2014, but should exceed 7 billion by 2020. Along with this increase, comes a parallel increase in online’s carbon footprint. So large electricity-consuming data centers like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft and Apple are looking for reliable sources of power that don’t emit much carbon. And the answer is nuclear power.

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1dGlv4m

Rio Tinto Diamonds Partners with U.S. Designers to Showcase Diamond Jewelry for Millennials

What do you get when one a large diamond miner such as Rio Tinto joins forces with top US designers to create jewelry for a new Millenial customer? Wearable pieces with an edgy look that diamonds don't usually have -- and a pricetag to match.

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1FoBiLZ

The Biggest Selling Cancer Drugs in 2020 -- Significant Change Expected in Five Short Years

Those with a vested interest in the development of new cancer therapies have been spoilt once again by data presented at the ongoing annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). For the third year in a row, immuno-oncology treatments – particularly the PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors – have dominated headlines.

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1JdFWmi

Accounting Firms Often Fail To Leverage Their Relationships In Their International Associations

A solid number of smaller and mid-sized accounting firms are members of international associations. These organizations provide a number of valuable services. While individual accounting firms can constructively position themselves to get clients from other members, few are doing so in a systematic fashion.

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1PZ3Beh

The FCC's War On The Internet Targets Facebook

Net neutrality absolutists are wasting no time expanding their war on Internet innovation. Now in the crosshairs: charitable programs, including Facebook's Internet.org, aimed at providing free access to the two-thirds of the world's population who are currently offline.

Source Forbes - Business http://ift.tt/1M3eExl

Kenya's 2nd Richest Man Sells Dairy Firm To To Kenyatta Family-Owned Business

Kenya's 2nd richest man Naushad Merali has sold his dairy firm to Brookside, a Kenyatta family-owned business.

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Mystery Worshipping: How to Get Paid to Go to Church

Get paid to go to church? I knew people get paid for singing in church, but my voice wouldn’t qualify me for that gig. On the other hand, this opportunity involved just attending church and filling out a survey. For $45, I could do that.

I entered my name and address on Faith Perceptions’ Mystery Guest Program signup page. I checked a dozen or so boxes, including, “I do not attend church regularly,” and clicked “submit.” I received an email that said, “We will notify you within two business days concerning approval of your application.”

I waited. Two business days came and went. I was starting to wonder if the part where I admitted to not believing in God disqualified me.

The following week, I spoke to Melanie Smollen, the president of Faith Perceptions, who said being a non-believer isn’t an issue. “Our ideal candidate is someone who doesn’t have a church home,” she told me. Well, that certainly includes us atheists.

Later, I learned that my application had been neither approved nor denied, but lost in some sort of techno-purgatory. Smollen fixed the problem and I was approved just after we spoke. Sadly, there were no assignments near me in southern Florida.

But there may be plenty of work where you are, so read on to learn how to make $45 for going to church.

Mystery Worship and Church Marketing

Smollen launched Faith Perceptions in 2008, as part of Hendrickson Business Advisors. “We adapted our mystery shopping program for businesses to the church environment using unchurched mystery guests (sometimes called mystery worshippers), multiple visits and a consistent scorecard,” the company says on their About page. They’ve evaluated 4,300 worship services so far.

Of course, some people think churches should stop marketing altogether. I asked Smollen about that, and she explained that it really isn’t the same as marketing a business:

“Some people are offended by the idea. I totally understand how they can feel that way. But churches are not changing their message based on the data we provide. They just need somebody from outside to tell them if they’re doing what they want to do, which is to provide a welcoming experience.”

She added that “we’re focused on hospitality,” and explained that while mystery shoppers are asked about the message, they’re not asked if they agree, only if they understood it. One of the most important things churches want to know is simply whether new visitors feel welcome, she explained. In fact, when you sign up for the Mystery Guest Program, you agree that:

“The goal of my survey is to help Faith Perceptions evaluate the church in terms of hospitality. The church’s individual beliefs and doctrine are not being evaluated.”

Faith Perceptions is not the first to offer a mystery shopper service to churches. For example, former pastor Thomas Harrison started his service in 2006. His fee is “about $1,500 plus travel expenses for a site inspection, worship-service evaluation and detailed report,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

But Harrison’s business and others, like WorshipImpressions.com, for example, are one-man operations. Faith Perceptions, on the other hand, can provide data to a church from a dozen mystery guests who attend services at different times. That’s good news if you want this gig, because it means they need many secret shoppers in each area.

Working as a Mystery Worshipper

After you attend a church service ,you fill out a survey. “The total time, if you include the service and filling out the survey, is about two hours,” Smollen told me. She added that there can also be driving time, but you are free to accept or decline assignments outside your neighborhood or city.

I asked Sitaram, who lives in Texas (last name and exact location withheld to maintain his anonymity as a mystery guest), about his experience. He signed up with Faith Perceptions 18 months ago and has visited 22 churches. “It’s basically for the $45,” he said. “However, it’s not boring.”

The process typically takes Sitaram four hours or more, because he accepts assignments that require an hour of driving time and spends a couple hours filling out the survey. I asked him about taking notes, which secret shoppers have to do carefully, so they don’t reveal their purpose. He said he used to take notes, but “Nowadays, I am able to memorize everything.”

Sitaram said his experiences haven’t led to him joining a church, adding, “Very few churches have impressed me to this level.”

I contacted another mystery worshipper, Rebecca, from Pennsylvania. She has worked for Faith Perceptions for about eight months and has had eight assignments. She says:

“I wouldn’t do it just for the money if I didn’t enjoy it. I don’t look at it as getting paid to go to church. I look at it as an opportunity to learn about different churches, while being paid to provide feedback that, hopefully, is helpful to the churches. I figure that if a business is doing something that customers don’t like, they’re going to hear about it, but churches may not get that much feedback.”

Rebecca says travel time varies, church services are usually about 90 minutes and it takes her an hour to fill out the survey afterward. If she’s not going to do the survey immediately, she takes a few notes, but only after she leaves the church.

As a mystery guest, you rank a variety of things and provide reasons for your rankings. You evaluate even mundane things like parking availability and cleanliness of bathrooms. Of course, this “investigation” may involve misrepresenting yourself, which brings us to the question…

Will You Feel Good About Mystery Worshipping?

You may have to misrepresent why you’re at the church. When you accept Faith Perceptions’ terms and conditions, you agree, “I will not contact clients or churches to reveal to them my affiliation with Faith Perceptions before, during, or after my visit.”

Mystery worshipper Jeff Winkler says he had to evaluate the children’s services, which required pretending to have children. “I was filled with unholy guilt,” he says in an article about his experience, and explains:

“…I’d never lied in church before. I even abstain from the devotional declarations and Eucharist. So I rubbed my head again and asked for forgiveness. Because later, I’d be asking for a check.”

You could argue that misrepresenting why you’re there doesn’t hurt anyone, and that church officials are giving you permission to deceive them when they buy this service. “I have never felt uncomfortable about this issue,” mystery guest Sitaram told me.

Rebecca, from Pennsylvania, also feels okay about this. She explains:

“I haven’t felt uncomfortable about hiding the reason for my visits. I visit the churches by myself, so that can be a bit uncomfortable when I first go into a church, but most of the churches have been very welcoming. In most cases, one or two members, and sometimes the pastor, come over to welcome me before the service starts. Sometimes people ask if I’m new to the area. I reply that I’m just visiting, and it’s never been an issue.”

And whether or not you like the idea of churches marketing themselves, it’s now an accepted part of building a congregation. Consider that…

Any pastor can buy books like Church Marketing 101 on Amazon
Ministry Today magazine does articles on “Marketing Your Church“
Digital products make promises like, “Double Your Church Attendance in 90 Days“
The United Methodist Church has an online “Church Marketing Plan Tool,” complete with pop-up ads and specific advice on doing surveys, analyzing website traffic and using social media

The bottom line is, churches spend money to grow their congregations. Even a sign out front is a form of marketing. And if they’re spending money on marketing anyhow, maybe you should take a little piece of that action for yourself. Who knows — if you sign up today you might be able to start your mystery worshipping side hustle by this weekend.

Your Turn: Would you like to make money to go to church? If you’ve been a mystery worshipper, let us hear about it.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We would have shared them with you anyway, but a true “penny hoarder” would be a fool not to take Amazon’s money.

Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo-man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror, and roulette croupier, but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).

The post Mystery Worshipping: How to Get Paid to Go to Church appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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