Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Swag Bucks ~ A Primer

I'm sure you've seen my not-so-subtle advertising for Swagbucks here on the blog and on Facebook. I thought I would take a few minutes to share my experience with the site so perhaps you can see why I get so excited about it.

What is it? Swagbucks.com is a web rewards type site where you register and participate in various tasks like searching the web and shopping at your favorite retailers, as well as engaging in other activies such as phone recycling, submitting polls, and completing special offers. A video tour of the program can be found on their home page explaining the concept. Of course, there is no charge for using Swagbucks, but there are terms and conditions you will need to follow, especially a "one account per household" requirement.


Search & WinWhat can I get? The site randomly rewards you with digital currency called Swagbucks (SB), which you can use to buy things from their online store.  The best value is to buy $5 Amazon gift cards for 450 SB.  These can be applied to any Amazon account and once redeemed, never expire.  Unlike some of the other gift card offerings in the Swagbucks store, Amazon cards can be "stacked" - you can use as many gift cards as you have in your account all at once.

How do I earn Swagbucks faster?


Searches! I earn most of my SBs just by using the search engine as my default browser whenever I go online. One thing I do that was kind of a "rethink" in terms of how I access websites is to no longer use the address bar or my bookmarks to access sites directly. Instead, I just type the name in the Swagbucks search bar and then follow their link. This gives many more chances to win those random higher bucks throughout the day for sites I would be visiting anyway. There is a list of "Do's and Don'ts" is published for your convenience so you don't get in trouble for just randomly searching and/or clicking on things solely to try and obtain SBs.

Another fun way to obtain Swagbucks is through Swag Codes. Swag codes are posted all over the place... from the Swagbucks blog, to the fan page on Facebook, the "Swidget", toolbar, Twitter, and Swagbucks partner sites!  They can be part of a hunt where you have to search for clues to build the code or locate it, or they will just be given out via Swagbucks various connections (see above list). Some codes are user-specific, some are not, but all are time specific


Special Offers... Like many other websites, you can now complete offers to earn bucks. I don't participate in any of the paid offers, but there is a daily "no obligations" offer you can do for a chance at a few more bucks. Additionally, you can watch videos to earn micro rewards too... every little bit adds up!


Referrals ~ Notice I did not list this first!  Referrals are an awesome way to boost your SBs, but aren't required in order to be successful with the site. Members are rewarded with a 1000 SB match for each of their referral's searches.  Swag codes and other SBs are not eligible for matching.

Final Notes
I don't do most of the direct marketing type activies (sweepstakes, special offers, etc.) and admit that the browser is at times "Google lite", but I'm always online getting codes and such, and earned $165 in my first year with no more than 3 active referrals at any given time. I get most of the alerts from the "swidget" and the toolbar link, both of which are on the blog (right hand side of the page). They will either publish them directly or tell you there's a hunt with some sort of silly clue. This is not a get rich quick scheme, but is a fun way to get something free for something you do everyday anyway... surfing the internet! You certainly have nothing to lose but a bunch of free stuff!

Click A New Way to Earn! to learn about taking daily polls for micro Swagbucks.

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