You may be asked to pretend you are looking for an apartment; interested in joining a gym; looking for cell phone service; or even considering buying a piano. Your job may be to rent a video; bring your car in for an oil change; have a meal; have a drink at a bar; go grocery shopping; etc. You could be asked to call a mail order house and evaluate its service, or even to check out a company's web site and see how easy you find it to use.

Almost any type of business-big or small, well-known chain or not can use mystery shopping services. The types of shops you do can be as varied as you like, or you may decide to specialize only in certain kinds based upon your own personal preferences and pay or work involved.

Summary: You can have "Perfect Work-At-Home Job" and a way to regularly earn money and freebies that stretch your household budget on your own schedule forever. Use your new work flexibility as a mystery shopper to take time for yourself, your loved ones and to do things you always say you would do "if you had more time".

"The Perfect Work-At-Home Job: Mystery Shopping" by Melanie Jordan can be downloaded at: www.infopost.com/ItemDescription.asp?navtyp=SRH&ItemI=79676 For a printed copy, e-mail the author for purchase instructions. Subscribe to "The Perfect Work-At-Home Job Update" free e-zine Hire Melanie Jordan as your personal mystery shopping coach e-mail: Mysteryshopcoach@aol.com

5. I would have researched market better before developing a very time-consuming product. I would have posted questions on related forums, created a mini-product, and located my major competitors first.

If I had done my homework before creating my 1st product, I would have realized that I needed to target it better. In other words, I would have focused on a specific niche of customers to market it with more success. Product that is too generic is hard to create an ad copy for, find good places to advertise, come up with good keywords for Search Engines and discover common characteristics in your customers.

************ Even though I have made a lot of mistakes in launching my e-business, there are some things that I would have still done same: ************

1. I would have still created my free book, which was actually a smaller version of my 1st product. There are a lot of web sites and directories which collect free e-books (or link to authors' pages) and bring a lot of quality traffic.

If free book is of high quality, it also spreads a good word about you as an author. Amazingly powerful viral marketing tool, and I found it to be excellent for building my mailing list.

2. Regardless of controversy about reprint rights, I would have still offered resell rights to my products. It helped me generate quick cash and allowed me to acquire things my business really needed: advertising, software, and supplies. Somehow, until you start making money with your business, you are very hesitant to spend any. Reprint rights gave me resources I needed to take my business to next, more professional level.

But since there are many loopholes in reprint rights business, I will think twice now before doing it again with my future products.

3. The fact that I chose to write about what I already know saved me a lot of time and embarrassment. It is always better to focus your business on what you are already an expert on, or something that you really want to get into and are willing to invest time learning.

4. I would have definitely hired a professional graphic artist again to design my book covers! What a blessing... You see a cheesy e-book cover and you think, they want me to buy this piece of trash? Regardless of book quality, people are bound to judge it by its cover :-)

5. My own domain name (actually 4 of them) was a really smart decision. A memorable and a unique name makes you look more professional, serious about your business, and Search Engines will love you! And, yes - Search Engines. I wouldn't spend my life on optimizing my web site for every Search Engine and directory, but I would definitely devote some time to choosing right keywords and submitting once a month. Just so they know you exist.

There is a lot more to discover and much more knowledge to gain. Learn from your mistakes and don't repeat them next year.