Swagbucks

 This is for my friend who asked me to write this and everyone else out there who is wondering 'What in the world is a Swagbuck?'
So there are a lot of survey and freebie sites out there and for those most part I feel like my time is better spent elsewhere. But Swagbucks on the otherhand...I like Swagbucks. Swagbucks is a search engine that give you points, or "swagbucks" for using it. It only takes a few seconds, and really is there a day that goes by that you aren't searching on the internet for something? Why not get rewards for it? They certainly add up over time. Swagbucks uses search results from Google and Ask.com to help you find what you're looking for. An awarded search can give you anywhere from 5 to 100 swagbucks. Sometimes you can earn even more than that. Then you can cash your swagbucks in for prizes. My favorite prize is the Amazon giftcard, because you can get anything at Amazon. I could easily do all of my Christmas shopping at Amazon every year and be happy. (In fact for the most part I do.) You can get a $5 giftcard for 450 swagbucks, but there is a large selection of other prizes too. Here are all of the ways that you get swagbucks. And if you're new to swagbucks and use the code BackToSchool, you'll get an extra 40 swagbucks.

1. Search- I have found that about one in five searches results in a reward. (That's not an official stat, that's just my experience.) You are also more likely to get a reward if you are looking for a specific website like "secretsofmomblog" vs. money saving. Fridays are MegaSwagbucks Day and you can win more often and the prizes are bigger. Supposedly you can win hundreds of swagbucks for a search, but the most I've ever gotten for one search is 47. Still, I'll take it.
2. Toolbar The toolbar makes searching more convenient. Instead of directing to the SB site first, and then searching I just use the SB toolbar. And sometimes it will notify you of swagcodes that are available. Also you get 1 Swagbuck a day just for using it.
3. Daily Polls- Every day there is a quick poll that awards you one Swagbuck.
4. Trusted Surveys- Everyday you can click on this link and be awarded a Swagbuck. If there are surveys you are interested in taking, that's another way to win swagbucks. I've found that more often than not I don't qualify for the surveys, and usually the award is something like 175 Swagbucks for a twenty minute survey. I feel like twenty minutes of my time is worth more than essentially $1.75. But I have taken a few that had a better payoff, like 200 Swagbucks for a five minute survey. I'm down with that.
5. Special Offers-Once a day you can get a Swagbuck for viewing their no obligation offers.
6. Swagcodes-Every so often there are codes floating around the internet. I don't spend a lot of time searching for them. You can find them on the SB toolbar, Facebook, the SB blog and various other places. Enter them into the appropriate box on the SB homepage and press the Gimme! button.
7. Shopping Online- Supposedly you can earn swagbucks for shopping through their site, but the one time I tried I never earned my swagbucks. You earn 2 SB for every dollar spent, which is more or less 2% back. Upromise and Ebates generally have better rebate rates. However, sometimes there are great swag bonuses.
8. Trade In- You can recycle old cell phones in return for swagbucks.
9. Offers- If you scroll down towards the bottom there are bigger reward offers for trying out services, like DirectTV and Book of the Month clubs.
10. Refer friends- When your friends start earning, you do too.