What are Swagbucks & How Can You Earn Them?

One of the parties I was invited to at BlogHer ’11 was hosted by Swagbucks. I joined Swagbucks about a month ago but I have to admit I just didn’t get it. Then while doing some research for a work project I realized that Swagbucks is one of the biggest referring sites for one of the businesses I’m working for. I decided to go to the party because I honestly wanted to learn more about this website and the possibilities it had both personally and professionally.

After I arrived at the party and found my way to the food I sat down and did some people watching.  There were several Swagbucks reps walking around chatting with people talking about a secret code and unscrambling letters.  Again, I felt just as lost as I was when I first visited Swagbucks online.  Another blogger was walking around answering Swagbucks questions and talking about the program so I decided to ask her to explain it to me.  This was the first time I had ever met (or heard of) Southern Savers and Ms. Jenny Martin – whom I now realized is a BIG TIME coupon blogger (I didn’t realize all of this until I got back home of course).  Jenny sat down with us for about 15 minutes and explained the basics of Swagbucks and how you can earn points (bucks) just by searching the web, clipping coupons, playing games, tweeting, and answering surveys.  The only site I’ve ever used that was similar to this is MyPoints.com where they send you emails and you earn points by clicking through to the sponsors website.  Both my husband and I have actually had pretty good success with My Points but I have to admit I’ve started deleting the emails because I got bored with it (and ran out of time).  The hubs is still earning points and a few times a year will receive a gift card in the mail.

After explaining the Swagbucks program with me our conversation slowly turned to coupons and shopping smarter.  I’ve always been intrigued but I just don’t have the spare time or patience to make it work for me.  That’s another post in itself and one that I’ll bring you later this week –  let’s just say I tried her techniques today and I have a LOT to learn.  Jenny was super sweet and I’m so glad she took the time to sit down and chat with me about the program and about saving.

I didn’t stay too long at the party but I stayed long enough to win a $5 Amazon.com gift card and nibble on some NibNobs (delicious bite sized cakes decorated and perfect for a party – or a midnight snack).  I also learned that just like Google.com or Yahoo.com or Bing.com, SwagBucks.com is a search engine. It’s a search engine that rewards you for searching. I installed a simple tool bar that is always running and doesn’t take up any annoying space on my screen.  Since I normally use Google Chrome it took me a few minutes to figure out how to change my default search engine but Swagbucks walked me through the process with a great tutorial.

Now every time I go to search for something online I simply enter it in my search box.  Sure the search results might not be quite as good as Goggle but I can usually find what I’m looking for.  About once or twice a day I will earn between 5-10 Swagbucks for searching for a product or web page using the tool bar.  It’s fun to see a fun little message pop up when you win and the points are immediately added to your account.

5 Easy Ways to Earn Swag Bucks

1. Sign up for Swag Bucks –  Use the redemption code AUGUSTBONUS when you register using this link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/theecochic and you can earn an extra 50 Swagbucks just for registering for the program.  Not only will you earn points but I will too (thanks in advance for signing up using my referral like – you too can get your own referral code to invite your friends).  What are you waiting for?
2. Install a toolbar or plug in for your browser – Ok, I know I’m not a big fan of installing toolbars but this one is really non-invasive when installed in Google Chrome.  I can’t speak for the other browsers so install at your own risk – but you will earn more points just for installing the toolbar.
3. Answer Daily Polls – It only takes about 1 minute to answer a poll question and you can earn 1-2 points.  It may take me a while to save up bucks at this rate but every buck helps.
4. NOSO – (No Obligation Special Offers) – If you have a few more minutes each day you can earn a few points by looking through the NOSO offers.  If they don’t apply to you then you just click “Skip to Next Offer” until you get to the last offer.  There are about 5-10 offers to click through but I’ve earn a few points for my time – even if I don’t complete any of the offers.
5. Invite your friends – That’s where you come in!  Do you want to help me earn some Swagbucks just for trying out the program??  Then visit Swagbucks using my referral link (http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/theecochic) and sign up today.

There are many, many more ways to earn Swagbucks and I’ll be happy to share them with you as I learn more about the program.  Earlier this week I won 100 Swagbucks just for tweeting using the #SwagBucks hashtag in my conversation.  How cool is that??   And I hear there are hidden swag codes on the internet but I haven’t figured those out yet.

What can you redeem your Swagbucks for?

• Gift Cards: Amazon, Starbucks, EcoMom, Home Depot and more!  You can earn a $5 gift card with about 450 Swagbucks.  I’ve been playing with the site for 1 week and have 708 Swagbucks (granted 450 of them were won at the BlogHer party)
• Clothes
• Books & Magazines
• Electronics – yes, if you earn enough you can win computers, iPods, or a new Nintendo DS for my son!  I wonder if I could earn 22,999 by Christmas time??
• Board Games
• Kitchen Appliances – my husband has been drooling over those Keurig coffee pots (that I think are nothing but wasteful)!!!
• MP3 downloads – Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night is only 199 SB’s.

I think I’ll just save up and redeem my SB’s for some gift certificates but this could get fun!  What will you be saving your points for?

Disclosure: I’ve joined the Swagbucks blogging network and can earn Swagbucks by having my friends sign up and play along.  Why not have a little fun and win some fun prizes while we’re online, right?