SWAGBUCKS
First off you need to sign up which is quite straight-forward.
Then, you start using their search engine, just like you did with your previous search engine. Swagbucks Search Engine pulls search results from Google and Ask.com so the results are pretty reliable and almost the same as your old search engine would mine.
Now that you have started using their search engine, you will start getting rewarded every now and then, with Swagbucks.
Note: You have to be a citizen of the US, the UK, Australia, Ireland or Canada and your age must be at least 13-years or above, or the site will not allow you to sign up when you try.
Make Money From Searching
Yes, it sounds a little strange. Actually really strange! There are a lot of people who find it a bit skeptical about online paid surveys and reward programs.
But this particular site is quite trustworthy loyalty program that people can join and earn Swagbucks, and itâs definitely not a scam.
The website has recently expanded their offerings and now there are several other ways to get rewards, which include watching their personal online video channel named SBTV, playing games and taking part in some paid online surveys. I will explain these later. But still, the ball game is in the search engine feature.
After registering to the site, use the search engine for your regular searches and after sometimes (mostly within an hour) you will receive your first Swagbuck.
Most of the time you will receive as much as one or two Swagbucks per day, but from time to time they award you with five, which is fairly rare though.
It may at first seem that if you search all day and night you will have a streak of Swagbucks coming your way.
Sadly, the situation is not like that. Although the Swagbucks website does not disclose how they allocate their rewards, they have confirmed the fact that the rewards are mostly based on the amount of time you spend using their search engine and not the number of searches that you perform.
Other Ways To Earn Your Digital Dollar
We already have the searching explained. Now it is time to see if there is any other ways to fire up the earnings.
Yes! You can refer your friends to the site and get up to 100 Swagbucks per person. But, your reward depends on the people you refer and they must use the service like a regular user.
Actually, your referral reward points are directly proportional to the regular involvement of each person you have referred.
Are you a fan of treasure hunting? Well, you are in luck!
One of the quickest ways to stack up your Swagbucks earning is to look for the Swag codes, digital solid gold that you have to keep your eyes open to find.
The code can be anywhere in the website, but the best place to look for the strings is the official blog of Swagbucks.
Once you find the code, you will have to put it into box in the main page to get the reward right away. If you are lucky on the lookout, you can find more than one code per day.
Contests that the site offers every now and then are another way of bulking up your âSwag bank accountâ. Currently Swagbucks is offering a 25000SB worth  of prize money for a Christmas contest. However, to enter the race, you have to redeem a part of your rewards.
The Swagbucks toolbar is most suited to those who donât have much use for a search engine.
It makes earning Swagbucks easier as you get guaranteed but randomly rewarding Swagbuck points for opening your browser!
The toolbar is compatible with Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Just install their nifty toolbar, and once itâs there; you will have a dashboard for performing all your searches and separate tabs for accessing their other reward programs.
Itâs their in house video channel. Letâs say itâs their version of YouTube and you get 3 SB for watching every 10 videos.
Itâs not much but if you watch a lot of videos every day, then you can earn well from this feature. You can earn up to 150SB per day by watching videos you are interested in.
The site offers daily deals and discounts on items of all sorts and uses. If you try this one out, you are likely to save some money along the way with a SB reward.
The payout can be any amount of Swagbucks. But donât start buying things just to earn rewards.
A Swagbucks registered user can take part in third party surveys. Usually these surveys take longer to complete compared to other SB activities, and the payout is also larger on average.
Great for gamers! There are a number of fun flash games in the site that you can play and get some payouts. At times, you will have chances to compete with other gamers for a bounty.
You can trade in your video games, consoles or books for Swagbucks.
The site has a meter on its home page that flashes an amount of SBs that is your daily goal to reach. If you score the goal, you will receive a bonus of SBs.
The Swagbucks blog displays a random username and avatar in the âHourly Random Winnerâ section.
If you see yours, you have to click the link to claim it. However, unclaimed winnings will not be delivered to your âbank accountâ if you miss the chance!
Swagbucks Review
What You Can Earn?
So you have worked hard enough to make a cashout, what can you possibly get exchanging these bucks now?
If you visit the Swagbucks reward store, you will find a lot of options to choose from; for example â
Apparel & Accessories, Department Stores, Electronics, Food & Beverage, Fun & Games, Gas Cards, Health & Beauty, House & Home, Music & Entertainment, Sports & Outdoors, Travel etc. you can redeem your Swagbucks for actual dollars and send it to your PayPal account or buy Amazon gift cards.
However, keep in mind that you can only redeem your SBs after you have deposited your earnings for at least a week. This is very common among the terms and conditions of survey panels and reward sites though.
Is Swagbucks legit or scam?
No its not! Itâs a free platform offering free products and money in return. They do not promote their site with fake promises and have already paid out $50,093,210 in Rewards to their members.
How much is 1 Swagbuck worth?
Each SB is valued between 1-2 US cents depending on what rewards you choose while redeeming them.
For example, a $5 Amazon gift card is worth 450 SB but a $25 on PayPal or Wallmart egift card will cost you 2500 SBs.
The Company
Basically Swagbucks is an online loyalty program powered by Prodege LLC.
Prodege is a famous provider that brands and incentivized online reward portals and has âSearch&Winâ partners including The New York Giants, WGN America, World Wresting Entertainment and several other big brands.
Prodege is a Los Angeles based company that has over 4 million registered members now, which makes it one of the fastest growing online rewards programs.
In 2011, Swagbucks was ranked #43 on Inc 500 fastest growing company list. Los Angeles Business Journal ranked them as the 3rd fastest growing company in LA. As it was mentioned earlier, this site has ranked as 115th site with most traffic in the United States at Alexa.com and 539th in the world.
The following is a quick demo video that someone has made to give you an idea of how it works:
Is it worth the time?
That depends.
There are two types of people who register on Swagbucks.
The sensible users â they simply use the search engine and the toolbar when they need, play a couple of games now and then, and then cashouts a free Amazon gift card in every 6-8 weeks.
Swagbucks is perfect for these people. They are not doing anything extra to earn a $5 per month. Itâs absolutely free and they have not made any massive effort to gain it.
The chasers â The people, who complete every task, play every game, watch every video and take every survey!
They are simply fooling themselves and wasting their time! Let me translate that for you.
Typically a 10 minutes survey rewards you 10SBs. That calculates into 60 cents per hour. Are you happy with that wage?
Swagbucks is a great scheme for casual users, but it wonât help you retire early, or give up your weekend part time job.
The marketing brilliance of programs like Swagbucks lies in their system of rewarding points instead of currency, because winning 500 Swagbucks sound a lot more fascinating than winning a 5 dollar bill.
A $5 gift card costs 450 Swagbucks, so each buck is worth a little more than 1 penny. Itâs a fairly good reward for doing nothing out of the ordinary, but certainly puny to start a quest for Swagbucks hunt.
Pros and cons of Swagbucks
Pros:
A 100% free platform to join.
A huge variety of prizes.
Simple interface and simplified tasks and surveys.
Cons:
The search engine is not as fast as Google or Ask is.
The Swagbuck account stockpiles slowly.
Its only available in a few countries.
Should you join?
Here is the deal. You cannot make a living on this site and you should not try to do so; it will only lead you to waste your precious time.
But how much do you earn presently while searching the internet? Swagbucks is letting you generate free prizes for what you normally do every day of the week.
Swagbucks brings a lot to the table for sure, but only if you use it in a relaxed way. If you are not an existing Swagbucks user, then you can go to the site, register and install the toolbar to check it today.
1:44 PMCheck out Swagbucks! I use it to get free gift cards! Click my link to join:
http://www.swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-register&rb=15773280&cmp=197&cxid=2003-app