A warning to my readers: the word ‘swag’ is used far too often in this article. If this word irritates you, you may not enjoy this article. Do try to ignore it – there is money to be made here.
Swagbucks is a rewards program where you can earn gift cards, cash, and many other rewards for the things you do every day online.
You can earn points, known as Swagbucks (SB), by searching the web, answering surveys, and performing other tasks through their site.
I need to emphasise that you probably won’t be earning quickly: one £5 PayPal voucher will cost you 999 Swagbucks. The best you can hope for, if you’re actively earning through Swagbucks.com, is one of these a week. However, you will be able to earn Swagbucks very gradually over time, with very little effort put in on your part. I’ll put a link to the site below for convenience, since the next part of this post is a sort of ‘guide’ to Swagbucks.
The SwagButton Extension
The first thing you’ll want to do once you’ve set up your account is download and install the so-called SwagButton to your browser. This will bring you 1 SB every day, as well as notifying you when a ‘Swag Code’ is available, and where to find it. Most likely you’ll see 2 Swag Codes every day, each giving you around 3 SB once you enter it into your SwagButton.
Default Your Search
Next, you should default your search engine to the Swagbucks search. Details of how to do so can be found here. This is powered by Yahoo!, so does mean if you want to search effectively through your address bar (apologies if you use Yahoo! normally), you will have to take the extra time load Google first. By defaulting your search engine, you increase the likelihood of earning Swagbucks through your searches: this is usually around 5 SB, but you can earn upwards of 50 SB from searching. My advice? Run some searches through Swagbucks like Facebook, YouTube – sites you’ll use often – and bookmark or favourite these search results. Then instead of going directly to the site, go via your bookmarked Swagbucks search; you’ll find yourself earning Swagbucks without even trying.
The To-Do List
Now, the To-Do List. Complete any 6 of the 8 items on the list and you’ll receive a 1- 4 SB Bonus; complete all 8 items and you’ll receive a bigger SB Bonus. The easiest way to do this is to simply go in order of the list:
- The Daily Poll takes a few seconds at most and rewards you with an additional 1 SB.
- Earning at least 1 SB in the ‘Watch’ section checks off the next item. Just mute the video and let it play in the background until you need to ‘rate’ your experience.
- If you’ve installed the SwagButton as suggested above, then you don’t ever need to worry about this third one.
- Simply clicking the ‘Daily Search’ item in the list completes the search for you – and you might even earn SB when you do so.
- You need to complete at least one offer from the ‘Discover’ section each day. I recommend finding a low-paying free offer, since you only need to earn 1 SB to check this item off your list. Typically you’ll earn at least 10 SB when you complete one.
- Again, simply click the ‘Deal of the Day’ item in the list to check this one off. It’s up to you if you proceed to complete the offer, but since it’s usually a paid-for offer I tend to avoid doing so. I feel as though there are better places to earn cashback online, such as Quidco or TopCashback, and doing so through Swagbucks will likely impact your earning potential elsewhere.
- Simply attempting one of the Gold Surveys will complete this task. Click the item in the list to be taken to the surveys page, and attempt as many or as few as you’d like.
- Now you need to qualify for and complete one of the Gold Surveys.
Complete this To-Do List every day, and you should easily complete your Daily Goal, earning you (at least) another 3 SB when you do so.
Apps, Offers, Surveys and More
Completing everything up until now will earn you a fair amount of Swagbucks, sure, but if you really want to maximise your earnings with this site, you’re going to have to do a little extra.
There are a number of mobile apps available that allow you to earn Swagbucks every day by simply watching videos, these are:
You can earn a total of around 50 SB or so by completing each of these apps every day. I recommend installing them on an old phone so you can still access your current one while you’re running these apps. I typically don’t use these to earn Swagbucks, since I’m running so many other apps on my phone to earn money. See ‘5 Passive Income Generating Smartphone Apps‘ for more like this.
Completing more surveys than is required for your To-Do List is a great way to earn a bunch of extra Swagbucks. There are so many surveys available every day, each offering between 20 and 200 SB for your time. You could potentially earn a PayPal voucher a day if you’re really committed!
There are a bunch of other ways to earn Swagbucks and maximise your earning potential here. As mentioned above though, I try to avoid paid offers because they tend to clash with (and pay less than) Quidco and TopCashback. Installing mobile apps is a personal favourite of mine, though I suggest you do so on an older phone or tablet that you’re not using often. Just browse the ‘Discover’ section and see what you can find!
Ultimately, despite its unfortunate name, Swagbucks is a great site for bringing in very small amounts of idle income, as well as a little manual income, depending on how you use it. While it is not my first recommendation for earning online, it is still a tool that I will use throughout the Idle Experiment.
If you like, you can sign up here, if you hadn’t already done so above.
Or check out the Resources page for more great ways to earn money online.
Cecil Shiu
November 18, 2016 8:25 pmSaved as a favorite, I love your web site!|