Financial Friday: Swagbucks

Financial Friday: Swagbucks

by Alice Shaffer

As a professional nanny, I sometimes would like some extra “cash” but don’t want a second job or babysitting gig on the weekends. I have discovered that there are so many different fun ways to earn money on the internet these days. On Financial Friday, we have featured posts on Mypoints & BZZAgent from Carli and today I bring you Swagbucks.

I have seen Swagbucks online for some time via lots of Mommy Bloggers and Facebook.  I decided to take the plunge on April 8, 2010 and sign up for Swagbucks.  I really had no idea what I was doing. I just knew that Swagbucks was a “search engine” that gave you “swagbucks” for searches as well as other things.

I discovered that to get a $5 dollar Amazon gift card it required 450 “swagbucks”. I am happy to report that I have collected 5 of the Amazon gift cards valued at $5 apiece for a total of $25 in 3 months.  That is not too shabby for doing what I do already-going on Gmail, Facebook, and Amazon etc.

I received “swagbucks” for purchasing items through their shopping links.  I purchased some vitamins at the Vitamin Shoppe and things for The Financial Nanny marketing items and between the both of them I received 183 swagbucks.  You get “swagbucks” for making referrals and I have 6 referrals (June 2 through today) and have received 288 “swagbucks” for their “searches.”  Between those two items I received 471 “swagbucks”-enough for one $5 Amazon gift card!  Just for sharing what I love and for shopping for 2 items! I think that is well worth my time of pulling up www.swagbucks.com page and entering my search term in that window versus a different search engine or bookmark.

The cool thing about the Amazon gift cards is that they are emailed to you within a week’s time.  You then take the gift card code and input it into your Amazon account.  It will be waiting for you when you are ready to make a purchase. You can save them up and use them all at once.  I am saving mine for some DVD box sets I want.  This way my purchase is “free.” It really only costs me the time it took to click on or type in the search window on the Swagbucks page or toolbar and enter my search term.  I type in Facebook, AOL, Gmail, Regarding Nannies, The Financial Nanny, International Nanny Association, babies, turtles and anything and everything I already know the web address for.  Sometimes it nets no “swagbucks” and sometimes it nets 38 “swagbucks!”  It is a game of how many and when you get the “swagbucks.”

I just shared with you the simple ways to earn “swagbucks”: searching the internet via their search engine, and shopping.  You can also use their toolbar and get 1 “swagbuck” daily for logging into it.

To earn more “swagbucks” you can shop, complete surveys, watch videos, special offers, and take daily polls. I have done a few videos; they are like a minute or two long. I set them up to play and then I go get a drink of water or make a phone call while they are running. You have to keep your browser open in order to get the “swagbucks.”

I am saving my swagbucks up for the upcoming holiday season as well my DVD box set purchase. By utilizing a few extra seconds when I am online I am potentially earning $5 off a gift or item I will be purchasing in the future from Amazon.  This will also work great if you have a Smartypig goal set up for the holidays and get a gift card from there.

I hope you will look into using Swagbucks for your “internet” time while earning some money.  If you are ready to try Swagbucks go today and sign up. If you click on the link you will be signed up under me and I will receive some referral “swagbucks” for your activity on Swagbucks. After you do that then you can start getting referrals as well. My activity posts on Facebook when I get “swagbucks” or cash in for an Amazon gift card.  I DO NOT HAVE ANY ACCESS TO WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR ACCOUNT.

I look forward to learning what you do have got from your “swagbucks.” Happy Swagging