3/16/12 Swagbucks Update AND a Tip!

Aaaand I'm a day late on my monthly Swagbucks update, BUT I didn't do much Swaggin' yesterday, so my stats should still be pretty accurate. This marks my third month as a Swagger (these are terms you pick up from spending time around other Swagbucks fanatics. ha), and I am proud to say in my three months with Swagbucks, I have earned a lifetime 20,756 Swagbucks! This translates to roughly $230 using the $5 Amazon gift card as my rate of exchange (90 SBs = $1). Amazing! Here is a screen shot of my redeemed gift cards:

That's right, it goes onto a second page now :) I have redeemed $125 in Amazon gift cards, $50 in Paypal gift cards, $10 off at Diaper Junction (we're trying out cloth diapers), and $5 at Barnes and Noble. That's $190! From searching! And surveys! And filling out offers! AHHH! I could not love Swagbucks any more than I do. It is simply wonderful!

As I looked over these stats, I was curious about my biggest moneymakers. If you are a Swagbucks member, you can look at your ledger (hover over your name at the top of the SBs page, click on "My Swagbucks", then click on the Ledger tab) and arrange it by Category using the drop down menu on the left.  Special Offers are my biggest money-maker. Even excluding the 3600 SBs for a credit card offer I completed, I've earned over 7000 SBs from Special Offers! (Surveys -- almost 5000 SBs -- and Tasks  -- almost 2000 SBs -- follow up in second and third places.)

Here's my tip for today:

My best resource for finding out about good offers without spending my life searching the pages is through Facebook. Occasionally, people will post offers they have completely successfully on the main Swagbucks Facebook page. I have also found the Swagbucks Offers That Credit page to have a wealth of information, including follow ups, cancellations, and ticket submissions. I will note that people are less careful of Swagbucks official rules on that page. They often talk of using false information to complete offers which is not acceptable according to Swagbucks and is just downright dishonest! However, I find the page to be infinitely useful and I owe it much credit for my crazy-high Special Offers total.

I'd love to hear about your Swagbucks experience! What is your biggest "money-maker"?

If you aren't a Swagbucks member, I hope my experience will encourage you to sign up! Referrals are another way to earn Swagbucks. Once you are a member, if people sign up through you, you can earn matching Swagbucks up to 1000 SBs. Consider signing up through me and then tell all your friends and earn Swagbucks from them!

Swagbucks Birthday Bash!

If you have not yet joined Swagbucks, now is the time to do it! They are offering an extra sign up bonus -- instead of just 30 SBs, you will earn 140 just for joining! Sign up here and enter BIRTHDAYBASH12 to get your bonus bucks. The code expires 2/27/12 so hurry! Just this sign up bonus will put you a quarter of the way toward earning your first $5 Amazon gift card :)

Once you sign up, you can RSVP to the Swagbucks Birthday Bash! Just with your RSVP, you will be entered to win one of 4 $1000 prizes! They will also offer lots of bonus opportunities to win Swagbucks in celebration of their birthday. There has never been a better time to join Swagbucks!

Read more about my tips and experience with Swagbucks here.

Sign up and start earning the fun way!

2/15/12 Swagbucks Update

Today, I have officially been a member of Swagbucks for two months. I can't believe how much I have earned in such a short amount of time! Here is a screenshot of all the gift cards I have redeemed since becoming a Swagbucks member:

Allow me to do the math for you: in two months, I have earned $100 in Amazon gift cards and $5 in Barnes and Noble gift cards! Let me explain why I choose the gift cards I do. The $5 Amazon gift card offers the biggest "bang for your buck" (in this case, Swagbucks). At 450 SBs, you are cashing out at 90 SBs per dollar. Since Swagbucks has a limit on the number of any one individual prize you can redeem per month, you can only take advantage of the best deal $5 Amazon gift card five times per month. Since it is the best deal, however, it is the first thing I redeem every month! Since my goal has been to earn us a "free" Christmas (free other than the time I spend on Swagbucks), Amazon is the best option for us. The Paypal gift cards would also be an option, but they cost more SBs for the dollar and pretty much everything we could ever hope to buy is on Amazon anyway.

Here is a current screenshot of my Swagbucks Ledger:

Note: This doesn't include any of my Swagging from today (except for
the automatic 1 SB I get for having the toolbar installed).

You can see, I currently have 3,598 unredeemed Swagbucks. I am saving up for the biggest Amazon giftcard I can get by the end of the month (probably the $50 one again). My lifetime Swagbucks earning is sitting at 14,728! I have earned 14,728 in 62 days as a member which roughly translates to 237 SBs a day. Using the $5 Amazon gift card as my rate of exchange (90 SBs = $1), I have earned roughly $164 or about $2.63 a day. Obviously, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme, but I will almost certainly reach my free Christmas goal!

What I love most about Swagbucks is that I can earn this extra money with very little effort. My total includes one credit card application and acceptance for a Discover Card. This netted me 3,600 SBs, but it was free and we can use it to earn rewards by buying thing we would buy anyway. I have also completed two paid offers -- one for a computer game and one for an online privacy service. The only reason I completed those offers was because the Swagbucks payout was more than I spent to purchase them, meaning I was earning more than 90 SBs for every dollar I spent. I've only done it twice because that scenario is rare, but it is worth looking out for!

How do I earn the rest of my points? I do my daily thing (see my post here). The surveys have netted me the most SBs for the least amount of time and effort, but there is an ebb and flow to the survey world -- sometimes I get offers, sometimes I don't. I don't waste my time with Swagbucks TV. Some people click their fingers off to "max out" every day (do the total number of rounds they allow), but I find this to be a major waste of my time. The payoff just doesn't outweigh the effort involved. I keep my eyes peeled for codes, search using their toolbar, and visit the Facebook group often. People regularly post about offers that worked (or didn't work) for them, so I have found out about some gems there. Mostly, it is a routine thing, but it really pays off! For a stay at home mom with a few minutes to spare here and there, I will be so thankful come November and December when we don't have to scramble for extra money from our budget. My Amazon gift card balance will be fat!

Keep a lookout for next month's Swagbucks update! In the meantime, become a member yourself using any of the links in this post :) there is still time to earn your family a free Christmas!

Disclosure: All the links to Swagbucks will sign you up through my account.

1/1/12: Swagbucks Update

One of the things I want to feature here is my adventure with Swagbucks. I have challenged myself (read the post here) to earn enough Swagbucks for a free 2012 Christmas! At first, I thought this was a pretty lofty goal. After just two weeks of being a Swagbucks member, however, I think this may actually be possible! Let me explain.

Every day, I log on to the Swagbucks website and complete a few short tasks. I take the Daily Poll, complete the NOSO (No Obligation Special Offers), and browse the Trusted Surveys. I search a few times using my toolbar. Occasionally I complete a Special Offer. I usually complete at least one round of Swagbucks TV.

Here is a breakdown of what I earn every day in just a few minutes:
Daily Poll: 1 Swagbuck
NOSO: 2 Swagbucks
Trusted Surveys: Varies, at least 5 Swagbucks
Toolbar: 1 Swagbuck
Search wins: Varies, at least 7 Swagbucks
Special Offer: Varies, at least 5
Swagbucks SBTV: 3 Swagbucks per round

Every day, with about ten minutes of my time, I earn 24 Swagbucks. This doesn’t sound like much, but it is enough to earn nearly two $5 Amazon gift cards a month. Depending on the surveys I might qualify for, I can earn hundreds of Swagbucks just by answering some questions. Swagbucks allows you to complete 25 rounds of SBTV a day. Many of the Special Offers are free, require only an email address, and earn up to 50 or 60 Swagbucks. (The ones that require purchases can earn hundreds or thousands).

I became a member of Swagbucks on 12/15/11. Today is 1/1/12, and I have earned 2,355 Swagbucks! That is enough for 5 $5 Amazon gift cards! I earned $25 in just two weeks by searching the internet and watching TV. I completed one paid offer, BUT — I spent $2 on the offer and earned enough points to buy a $5 Amazon gift card. That is the only purchase I have made AND I have no referrals under me. (Referrals earn you matched points up to 1000 Swagbucks and are the fastest way to earn. I’m not even using that feature yet!) Swagbucks is really an amazing site and at this rate, I will be able to earn enough to pay for Christmas with no problem at all!

I will continue to post my Swagbucks progress as I continue along. I anticipate great things from this site and encourage you to join. Help me earn by being a referral! (Click on any of the links in this post.) Who couldn’t use a little extra cash here and there?!

(Note: I wrote up this post on 1/1/12 but didn't publish it until 1/11/12. In case you were wondering about the date, that's what happened!)