Swagbucks: Earn gift cards for searching online

I don't know about you, but I do a lot of searching online. If I need to find the answer to just about anything, Google is my best friend.

So when Lavonne told me about Swagbucks--an online search engine that rewards you for searching online--I was all ears. Especially when she told me she had earned enough in Swagbucks in the last four months to receive hundreds of dollars in gift cards.

I did some investigation and learned that Swagbucks is very simple to sign up for. In fact, it takes all of about one minute. There are no fees, no credit card required, and no phone number or address requested.

After that, you are credited 3 points to your account and then download the toolbar and every day as you're searching online, you earn a few more points. After only 45 points earned, you can get a free Amazon gift card. Or at 50 points, you can get a Starbucks gift card. There are dozens of other prizes, too.

Now, you might be thinking, "What's the big deal if I only earn a $5 gift card every month?" Well, you're right, $5 isn't that exciting. It's something, but that's only the beginning. You see, your earnings will exponentially multiply when you refer others.

Do you know anyone else who searches online? I thought so. Well, tell them about Swagbucks, send them your referral link, and you'll not only instantly earn more points when they sign up, you'll also earn points for the searching they do online.

Tell lots of folks and you're well on your way to funding your entire Christmas budget with free gift cards from Swagbucks. I'm not kidding you, that's exactly what Lavonne did. See her post here with the details.

For those of you who have blogs, you'll especially want to jump on board with this. It's free, it won't take much of your time to do, and it could generate a nice stream of gift cards in your mailbox.

I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty sweet to me! So what are you waiting for? Go sign up here.

Comments

[TheThriftyMama]

I've heard about this and have been wondering if it is any different from MyPoints. I used MyPoints and it took forever to build up enough points for gift cards. Is Swagbucks really better?

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Money Saving Mom here: Judging from what I've done over the last few days by my own searching and by referring others, I'd say resoundingly "yes!"--especially if you are able to refer others. I've already earned a few gift cards.

With MyPoints, it literally took me *months* to earn one card--and I was reading emails everyday in order to earn it. SwagBucks pays you points just for searching. And so far it has really worked for me.

I've been earning a few points on my own every day just for doing searches like I normally do (I downloaded the toolbar so I can automatically search through it.), and I started referring a few of my friends and my earnings really ramped up. If you have a blog and visitors who like to earn free things and tell others about it, it's definitely worth checking out and signing up for!

[Katie]

Just wondering. If I were to post about it on my blog, how do I go about doing that so if people want to do it, I can still get points from them? Do I post some link or something?

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Money Saving Mom here: After you sign up, go to the section that says "Promote" and it'll give you some banners you can use along with your referral link. Just use those on your blog or in your post and you should get credit for all referrals. Lavonne said you'll get credited for the first 100 points each of your referrals earn. That could add up fast!

[TheThriftyMama]

Thanks!

[Lavonne]

Thanks for the mention, Crystal. I am glad to hear it is working for you! I wish I had stumbled upon it sooner, and feel totally blessed to have my Christmas shopping done, mostly due to Amazon cards from Swagbucks. Just wanted to mention that the Amazon guft cards come in the form of a code sent through your email, and you can add the code into your Amazon account and it will be there until you are ready to spend it. So no waiting for an actual card to come in the mail! Fast and simple, just the way I like it. :)

[jgsnelling]

I read about this on Money Saving Mom.

[julie]

When I signed up for this and it asked me to run the toolbar, I got a message from my security program that said this "publisher was not verified - do you want to continue". Did you run into this problem and accept that it was okay?

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Money Saving Mom here: I personally didn't get any message like that. I have really high security on my computer and from the research I've done, this program is very safe. Of course, as always, I encourage you to do what you think is best.

[SkyNite]

Thanks for all the great info! Since I read about this through your blog I wanted to know how I would give you credit when I register for Swagbucks? The referal link?

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Money Saving Mom here: Just click on any of the links in the post and you should be good to go!

[Alicia]

I use this, and earned a $5 gift card after two months. Boy, that lady does a LOT Of searching to get hundreds of dollars? wow. From what I've seen, you only get so many points a day and more searching doesn't equal more points. Good for her! I'm up to 75 points now and am wanting more to accumulate before I cash in. Maybe she got a lot on referrals? Just read her post....yeah @ referrals.

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Money Saving Mom here: As I said in the post, you definitely want to encourage others to sign up and then to refer others and on and on. That's how you'll really see the earnings happen. Just on your own, you're not going to earn much. It'll be something, but not like you'll see happen if you refer others.

Hope that helps!

[Dearest Jessica]

I just blogged about this today too!

[Bethany]

This sounds really great to me! I signed up with it and was wanting to install the search bar to make it easy to remember. The install didn't work. Well, it said it installed but I can't see it anywhere and it isn't an option when I try to change my search engine. Can anyone help? I was trying to install it on internet explorer but I normally use yahoo explorerer so that would be even better. Thanks.

[Gloria]

Hi! I was wondering if I would be able to use swagbucks without installing the toolbar. I do a lot of searches, and I usually use Goodsearch which donates to my church or a charity with each search, but sometimes I also use Google; however I wouldn't want a toolbar for either - I like to access them from my favorites list, and would like to do the same with this if I could. Any info would help, and thanks for the info! I will use your link.

[Jolene]

I had never heard of swagbucks before your post, so thanks!

[Maria]

Thank You! I'm a searchaholic; this should be great!

[Stacy]

I signed up through your referral link, so I hope you get lots of credits. I hope I do too. :)

[Jonathan]

In response to Gloria's comment, you don't need to download the toolbar to search. You can use www.swagbucks.com as the search engine page - that's what I do.

I've been using it for about 5 months now and I couldn't agree more with MSM - referrals are DEFINITELY the way to go. I have 28 friend referrals and they all use the site regularly, soi I was able to acquire 2800 Swag Bucks for doing nothing! That's Christmas AND bday gifts haha.

[Jessica]

I signed up on swagbucks a few months ago. I haven't gotten any referrals, and I only have about 45 points. But something is better than nothing, so it doesn't matter to me!

[Becky]

I love swag buck. I just got 2 5$ starbuck gift cards for xmas gifts. I was upset that the 15$ itunes is gone before I could get it. that was going to be another gift.

[Pam]

I've been using Swagbucks for a few months now - it's easy and although I don't have anyone under me, I have received enough for a Starbucks card! With no real effort on my part.

[Rachel]

Is it really all that easy? Just search and you earn points? I am on my computer all day at work and I'm always googling for things, companies, addresses, etc. as well as at home in my personal time. When you download the toolbar, does it allow pop-ups and spam? I'd like to do it on my work computer, if possible...

[angela]

I wanted to than you for the swagbucks info , I just signed up , and do alot of searching on the internet, why not get paid for in in swagbucks points!! awesome! Thanks, Ang.