Free Money? Almost!

*ETA: I took out links for now because wordpress isn’t playing nice, but I’ll add them in if/when I can figure out what’s going wrong. In the meantime, I listed them all out in the first comment 🙂

On Swagbucks:

If you follow me on twitter (which I think is how many of you found me), you’ll know I talk about Swagbucks every so often. It’s something I discovered sometime in February, 2009. Thus O_o holy cow – just calculating, I’ve made around $450 (in gift cards) from them. In less than two years, for doing nothing. (Well, almost nothing. Seconds of clicking, really.) Proof? You’ll notice that’s a screen cap, and how long the page goes by the size of the scroll bar. I’ve also conveniently included links to everything linkable that I talk about.

In the two years since I joined, I haven’t noticed any sort of increase in spam, or any security risks. My email hasn’t been hacked, and so on and so forth. Just to let you all know, because I know that’s often a concern – and a very valid one.

What is a “swagbuck”? Well, basically a virtual dollar that you trade in for stuff. Obviously I gravitate towards the Gifts & Rewards Cards. Aside from a few sweepstakes (called “Swagstakes”) that’s where I spend all my Swagbucks. Yes, it sounds stupid, but hey, it works. “Swag” to me is defined as “stuff we all get” – probably because I spent so long in school and discovered it while in school. There almost is a free lunch when you’re a student.

You can win swagbucks by searching via the swagbucks search engine (based on google and yahoo and ask?), finding codes which are released almost daily, watching videos, and a few other daily tasks. I’ve actually timed it, and you can get a minimum of four swagbucks a day – which takes less than a minute. (I think it was like 49 seconds… both times I timed it. Yes, I actually do put thought and preparation into these posts!) Searching wise, you can enter anything. Many have a random search bookmarked, and click it a few times a day. Sometimes you get bucks, sometimes you don’t. For the denominations, anything from 7-50 swagbucks may be rewarded on any given search. Also, if you don’t trust the links (which I don’t if they’re “sponsored links”) – I just run the search then type in the url. I seem to visit the same places over and over so they’re already there anyway. The links are also listed – like a google search, so click through at your discretion. I don’t tend to like the videos as much because many seem to be older youtube videos, but what I do like is the meter- which tells you how close you are to winning swagbucks. You have to watch X number of videos. And… if you leave it on in another window and check back every so often, it’s an effortless way to make 5 or more swagbucks.

The four tasks are as follows: 1) Refreshing the toolbar/simply having it installed 2) Answering the Daily Poll question [the day of] 3) Checking the “Trusted Surveys” – you don’t even have to complete any [most people screen out of most anyway, it seems, or at least my age demographic – but those are extra. I’ve gotten a few] and 4) Going through the No Obligation Special Offers, aka NOSO – I don’t do any of them, I just click “skip” as many times as it takes for me to get my buck. (And yes, I included the skipping time in the 49 seconds.) If my math is right, even if you only do those four things every day you can make $20 a year. Which, somehow when I was doing it mathematically is around $9/hr. But you know, don’t hold me to that, because I’m definitely not a mathematician.

As I stated, there are a number of ways to “win” swagbucks. Personally, I would caution against the do X for swagbucks “Special Offers.” E.g., trials of magazines, or downloading or installing whatever toolbar (outside the swagbucks one). I’ve done fine without, and those “free trial” types have a way of biting you in the ass. You know the horror stories about people getting like $300 bills for supposedly free magazines, etc. But if you want to go ahead and do them, by all means – go for it!

If you want to, you can friend Swagbucks on Facebook – where if there are codes, users often post hints… or on the Twitter account. There are also other twitter accounts such as WeLoveSwagBot which tweets a link to anything potentially a code.

I know other people use swagbucks too, to varying degrees. It takes a tiny bit of effort to figure out, but I feel like this post sufficiently explains it so you can go forth and win. At least enough to make joining worth it.

There’s also a “Shop and Earn” section, where if you click through from the swagbucks site, you get X number of bucks for Y number of dollars. I generally use this if I’m buying from a place where I don’t get any sort of extra cashback bonus from my credit card. It’s nice because iTunes, Target, Macy’s, Barnes & Noble, Newegg, and a hundred+ other stores are part of the program. And, if you buy some sort of electronics from Newegg, you can really rack up the shop and earn bucks. What’s even better is sometimes there are coupons listed.

*Disclaimer/Note: I would really really really love if you used my referral link (http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/limecello). You don’t have to, but if you sign up it’d be a nice thing to do. And we all know the universe eventually rewards those who do nice things, right? Anyway, what do I get from it? I get matching swagbucks for the first 1,000 bucks you earn via searches. So, translated into gift cards, you’d be giving me ~$10.00, at no cost to you. I don’t see any of your personal information, or what you searched, or anything. It’s just a little way to share the love.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments, or if you want me to respond via email say that. I’m happy to do the best I can! Oh, and yes, I realize the swagbucks look absolutely goofy and spammy. I have to say, when I started, the site looked different, otherwise I never would have considered it. It seems the larger swagbucks get, the more cartoonish it becomes. But, I’m not going to complain about it too much, because the gift cards keep rolling in. <3

0 thoughts on “Free Money? Almost!

  1. Limecello Post author

    Since the editor isn’t playing nice… hopefully I can enter the links here:

    Swagbucks: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/limecello
    Rewards: http://swagbucks.com/swag-store
    Swagbucks TV: http://player.swagbucks.com/
    Daily Poll: http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=co-daily-poll
    Trusted Surveys: http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=px-survey
    NOSO: http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-no-obligation-offers
    Swagbucks Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/swagbucks
    Shop & Earn: http://www.swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-shopping

    Reply
  2. Kristi

    Thanks for the push 🙂 I actually signed up already from a friend but you inspired me to do it again and maybe I will do it every day. Amazon g/c sound really tempting!

    Reply
    1. Limecello Post author

      Enjoy, Kristi – I hope you get all the Amazon GC you desire 😀 [Quick note they limit you to 5 $5 gift cards a month, so personally I’d redeem them as soon as you get them.] And I’m sure your friend will totally appreciate the referral points!

      Reply
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