I’m always looking for new ways to get free things online or even to make a little cash on the side (Google Adsense for example).
The problem is that all of the things I’m using, like PayPerPost or Google Adsense (er.. the only two things I’m using), poses a problem for people without a blog!!!
Therefore, let me introduce you to something called: Swagbucks
You may have heard about this a lot from other blogs, but it’s actually not that difficult and quite easy to use. PLUS, it’s open for not only the U.S. Canada AND the United Kingdom!!!
(Finally. How great is that?!??!?!)
HOW IT WORKS
Swagbucks is kind of like a portal to Google and Ask.com.
In a way, they’re asking you to search on their site, and their results are Google or Ask.com results, which means… it’s just like using Google or Ask.com.
There is no discernible difference, except for the fact that you’re using Swagbucks to search Google instead of going directly to Google.
HOW DO THEY MAKE MONEY OFF THAT?
This is a question I (and you) should always ask when faced with a free new service that seems too good to be true.
In actuality, they’re making their money, not off YOU (they’re paying you in Swagbucks that you can redeem at stores later), but off their advertisers.
See, every time you search on Swagbucks, they show you advertisements from THEIR advertisers, and have a whole network of online shops that kick them back a percentage if you buy from them while using Swagbucks to search.
Kind of like passive money, the same way Paypal or eBay would make cash — they take a percentage or charge a fixed amount to their advertisers.
THIS IS WHAT THE PAGE LOOKS LIKE
It’s very clean and simple, like Google.
Actually, it’s exactly like Google, just indirect.
You’re still going to get the power of Google using Swagbucks, but you’ll be earning cash, or gift certificates from Amazon instead!
WHAT CAN I GET OUT OF IT?
You can redeem your Swagbucks for prizes, or you can decide to use it to get a gift certificate, which is what I’m doing.
Here are all the options I find interesting, particularly the “CASH” option where you can get the Swagbucks converted to money, and sent to your Paypal account (score!)
Other interesting options would be if you have a Target you can visit, or if you like to buy iTunes music or even buy books from Amazon.
DO THEY NEED A LOT OF INFO WHEN I REGISTER?
Registration is easy, they only ask for your country and state/province, as well as a birth YEAR, not a birth date.
They do ask for your address later, however.
HOW EASY IS IT TO DO IT & EARN MONEY?
Very.
There are other options like getting your friends to sign up (referrals) and I think you each get a bit of Swagbucks to start.
New members get $3 in Swagbucks, and the referrals get an amount as well (an amount I don’t know about because.. I don’t have any referrals yet).
Here is MY referral link, if you are interested in signing up for this opportunity, and I’d greatly appreciate it if you used me as a referral!
To make it easier to remember to use Swagbucks (always a problem for me), I just set my homepage default to Swagbucks and I use that to search from now on!
Just within the first couple of seconds, I earned $2 for searching via Swagbucks, getting the same GOOGLE.COM results.
Here’s a quick tutorial on how to set that Swagbucks search page to your home page, so every time you click on the cute little “Home” house button, it takes you straight there to search!
In Firefox it is under Options > Tools > Main. In Internet Explorer, I think it’s either under Options or Preferences.
Anyway, here’s the gist of how to set (any) website to be your home page when you first log in.
Open a browser, click on TOOLS then OPTIONS:
And right under Firefox’s Main tab, click on CURRENT PAGE to set the Search.Swagbucks.com site to use as your current page.
Now every time you click on the home button, it brings you straight there!
SIGN ME UP!
Awesome. 
If you would be so kind, you can use my referral link here to sign up for your very own account.
And yes, you can change your name after you set it, as well as your email address, address and password.
- Top 5 pieces of software I can’t live without
- Review: HP Premium Fax All-In One C309A Printer
- Why Phil should really not be allowed to have babies (a.k.a. my review of “Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel”)
- Review: Wise Bread’s 10,001 Ways To Live Large on a Small Budget
- Review: The Diva Cup
Languages, prices and the ups and downs | Fabulously Broke in the City
on Oct 9th, 2009
@ 7:03 AM:
[...] FB's Shared Google ReaaderTwitterFacebookEarn free $$ via Swagbucks [...]
SeeJaneGetRich.com
on Oct 21st, 2009
@ 9:17 PM:
I just started using Swagbucks today and I gotta say that Swagbuck results are very different from Google results. I pulled up both sites and did several searches and none of them even came close to matching each other. Swagbucks tended to have all these sponsored sites come up that weren’t that relevant.
Reply
SeeJaneGetRich.com´s last blog ..Part I: Hey, Where’s my $50 Bucks?!
FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com
on Oct 22nd, 2009
@ 9:00 AM:
@SeeJaneGetRich I’ve seen that as well, which is why I normally scroll down halfway the page to get a couple of hits. But if you prefer Google, go w/ them.
I find that Swagbucks will give you a couple of bucks per day, if you just do random searches, and then you can go back to using Google