Today’s Swagbucks success story is from Liz:
I was very wary of Swagbucks at the beginning and thought it involved downloading a toolbar that could mess up my computer. After seeing so many people post about how they were able to pay for Christmas using only Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks, I decided to research it and finally took the plunge to sign up.
I am happy to say that I was able to pay for my three children’s birthday presents this year, and am now saving for Christmas!
At first, I earned about 25 points per day doing a search, NOSO, daily poll, and any random video that might be on the homepage. Then, after reading on MoneySavingMom.com that some people were earning lots of points even without having any referrals, I decided to up my game.
I usually spend about an hour each morning while I eat my breakfast and drink coffee to work on Swagbucks and I now earn about $50 in Amazon giftcards per month. Here’s how:
1. Using the Facebook page: People post whether they are on “dubs” or “trips”, which means that they have gotten 2 or 3 search wins. If I know that other people have gotten 2 wins, then I continue to search after my first win until I do, too. (If everyone is only on singles, then I don’t waste my time searching more.) 15-30 points per day
2. Swagbucks TV mobile: I don’t have a smartphone, but I do have an iPod touch. I start SBTV mobile every morning on my iPod and only have to monitor it to make sure it hasn’t frozen on any commercial. 50 points per day
3. Radium One Offers: The Swagbucks Facebook page usually has people that comment about which offers are crediting and don’t require spending any money. I use this info to quickly find the offers, sign up, and get points. They also usually have offers for printing coupons or watching videos. 10-20 points per day
4. Encrave: Right now, after getting a search win or doing the NOSO, you can click on a page with lots and lots of offers that simply require you to click on links to get points. 30-50 points per day
5. Jun videos: These all earn 2 points and can usually be found on the homepage or ledger. They are not always there, but when they are, can net between 10-50 points.
6. Surveys: I don’t spend much time on these, but if I see a survey that takes less than 10 minutes, I do it. I usually get about one per week. 50 points per week
7. Making my goal: By doing all the above steps, I make my points goal every day. This gives me a bonus of about 500 points every month!
I am a stay-at-home mom and my husband is a teacher, so our budget is tight. I love that I have been able to get my three kids something special for each of their birthdays without having to eat into our savings. I am now saving up to surprise my husband with a PlayStation 4 for Christmas, using Swagbucks to pay for over half of it!
Liz: Can you email me so I can send you your $50 Amazon gift card as a thank you for sharing your Swagbucks success story?
Becky says
How long do you think it takes for you to do all this activity? IE: how much are you earning per hour? I am not a stay at home mom, and I understand trying to find ways to save money, but is it worth the time for how much money you get?
Frank says
” I don’t have a smartphone, but I do have an iPod touch. I start SBTV mobile every morning on my iPod and only have to monitor it to make sure it hasn’t frozen on any commercial. 50 points per day.”
That’s 500 points in 10 days, or around 1500 points per month. So how do you only earn 500 points / month if one of your daily routines gives 50/day?
Brandi says
What is the ratio? How many points equals how many dollars?
Chris says
1 point equals $0.01 so 100 points = $1.00
Jen says
What is NOSO
carolyn says
Hi I am carolyn I have signed to amazon and now I am doing swagbucks but I know how much swagbucks I need to get to use it for amazon
Lori says
how many swag bucks can you get for watching sbtv on your mobile? after a while, mine says you will get “0” swagbucks for watching this next video, and it stops earning points.
how do the daily goal points add up? when are the awarded, when do they show up on your tally?
how do I find the swagbucks facebook page? do I search in facebook? do I have to like it? do the posts on it get into my newstream?
I’ve been using Swagbucks, but not terribly efficiently since I’ve only amassed $45 in amazon gift cards since June 2013. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the money, but I’d like to make the most of what effort I put into it.
Bethany M says
So if you divide the $50 by the hours you put into it each month, how much is your time worth?
Barb says
I would say what your time is worth depends on what you could or would be doing if you were not doing this. I would not be working a job under any circumstances, so my time is not worth a specific salary. Also, I am almost always doing something else when I do swagbuck. I am also almost always doing something else when I do most money saving or making activities. I mean, if you ask me how much I save while making bread, I’m rarely just making bread. Im probably also cooking something from scratch in the slow cooker, hanging stuff on the line, helping kids with homewor. Its extremely difficult to quantify that kind of thing unless you are doing it alone, and or you could or would work or get extra hours at work.
Jen says
I am very confused here – I signed up for swagbucks because of this post …. and 500 swag points only gets you a $5 gift card to amazon. The title of this post is very deceiving. You say you get $50 to amazon a month, but end the post by saying you earn 500 SB per month … that doesn’t add up, so what am I missing??
Crystal says
That’s just the bonus amount of points she earns — in addition to all of the other points she earns by the methods outlined in the post. I hope that clarifies!
Heather says
Thanks for posting. This motivated me to start using my swag bucks account again. I’m now on track to earn $50 a month too.
lamazogogo says
Is there an end to the NOSO? I have been doing it for about 10 minutes, and 90% of my answers are NO, or NO THANKS— I hope there are SWAGBUCKS at the end of this nightmare!
Erin says
My swagbucks earnings have really dropped off, mainly because the coupons I redeem NEVER post anymore. I use lots of printable coupons, I always print them from swagbucks, but I haven’t had any credit for those redeemed coupons in the last 3-4 months. Has anyone else experienced this?
Jacquelyn says
I joined swagbucks after hearing the great stories on money saving mom. I wanted to earn a ps4 for my husband. He really wanted one but it was not in the budget. I thought with a little extra work everyday I could earn it for him. (I am lucky enough to be a stay at home mom.) So I set myself a goal and did everything free I could everyday. When it was time for swagbucks to payout my rewards they deactivated my account. I emailed then to find out why. They sent me a form email saying I was cheating the system. I wrote back asking for clarification. I hadn’t intentionally done anything to cheat. It took a couple emails to even hear back. I got another form email saying my case was closed and they would not respond to any more of my questions. I researched reviews of swagbucks, and sometimes if you earn a lot of points in a short time you will get your account deactivated. I would warn people not to spend too much time on it. It is something nice for a little extra at the end if the month but shouldn’t be a big part if your day.
Crystal says
Can you email me? I am so sorry to hear about this and want to see if I can put you in touch with my contacts at Swagbucks to see if there’s anything that can be done. How frustrating!
[email protected]
Audy says
Don’t forget today is Crazy 8 Day on Swagbucks. I have earned 16 SB for searching. 1 SB for logging on. And 2 for SB Code HaveAGr8Day.
Molly says
I have been using Swagbucks since the summer, but have only recently been doing it daily. I do the Daily Poll which gives me 1 point every day, I don’t have the toolbar installed because of all the good and bad comments so I just don’t have it. I don’t do surveys because I never qualify. I do some of the trial offers and then cancel afterwards. I received 50 points for my birthday from SB which was nice. I find that I make the most points just by searching and watching videos, and the occasional quick surveys that come through my SB mail. I usually do this in the morning when I am waiting for the kids school bus to come, during my lunch hour on Smartphone and at home after the kids have gone to bed. I find it very worthwhile. While I have not redeemed my points yet, I am saving them so that I can get the big point giftcards, I am aiming for the summer to redeem half of my points and then start my xmas shopping. I find it very satisfying, a way to kill some time when I am waiting for other things. It’s all in how you look at it.
Vicky says
Molly, I was also saving my SB for the larger Amazon gift card amount but found from other Swaggers that the best route is to purchase $5 gift cards at a time instead of the larger amount gift card. If you add up the points for 5 – $5.00 gift cards and subtract that amount against the amount of points you need for the larger card amount, you will be amazed at the difference. For me, I started in December and have earned 2 – $25 Amazon cards. Since I learned this new info, I will now work at getting the $5 cards and add the gift card amount to my Amazon account where it will wait for Christmas. Hope this helps..
Amy says
Only problem with this is they used to limit the number of gift cards you could get in a month to 2. So you would only be able to get $10 worth a month….not sure if they still limit
Crystal says
The limit is two cards per day now. No limit on how many of a specific card you can request. I hope that helps!
Bea says
I have been wary of Swagbucks for a long time. After reading Liz’s steps, I am going to try it. I use My Points and Swagbucks sounds much the same. But it sounds like you can earn more on Swagbucks. I won’t give up My Points, though. I like it. Thanks Liz and Crystal.
Liz says
I’m so glad this encouraged you to try it out! A previous post from Crystal actually got me started 🙂 The biggest thing for me was learning that I DON’T have to download the toolbar! Score! Good luck 🙂
Sarah heredia says
How long does this take every morning? It seems like a good hour or two of work per day.
Barb says
Oh and one last suggestion, I type everywhere I need to go. So even though I know Amazon’s url, since that is the page that opens, I just type amazon in the search page.
someone once told me you could book mark your search pages and they would just referesh, but that sounds too complicated for me.
tanya says
I find that SB directs me to a lot of sites that my antivirus and firewall don’t see as save. Any thoughts?
Andrea says
It’s usually the ads on the sites that aren’t safe.
Sharon says
Another way I’ve been earning Swagbucks is by “shopping” at Walmart online before I go to Walmart.
After I make my grocery list, I’ll go to Walmart.com thru Swagbucks and purchase what I planned on getting anyway. I use the free store pick up option (when it says ready for pick up today). I’ll buy diaper, paper towels, shampoo, etc. Only things I planned on buying and usually the store brand. I also sign up for text notification. The items are usually ready for pick up within an hour. So, I can finish my shopping, pick up these items, and earn a Swagbucks (2 for each $1 spent, although it was 4 for each $1 at Christmas).
Also, when I pick up the items, if they are less expensive in store than on line, the price is automatically adjusted by Walmart.
This has helped me pick up at least 100 extra Swagbucks a month.
Elizabeth says
This is such a great idea! Do you have to ask them to adjust it or it automatically adjusts cheaper instore price?
Sharon says
They did the price adjustment for me automatically. It was a $1 cheaper in the store. The employee said it’s Walmart’s policy and the system notifies them when the item is picked up.
Sissy Sweet says
This is a fantastic idea! I would imagine this would be a time saver as well.
Barb says
I never even thought of this!!
lori says
I swear their toolbar nuked my computer by giving me a nasty virus that we couldn’t remove. Personally, I’m steering clear of Swagbucks from now on.
Monica says
@Lori – I didn’t get a virus, but after logging on 3 times, on three different days my computer a Mac, it did something it had never done in the 5 years I’ve had it. The screen went gray and I had a message in 7-8 different languages telling me to restart the computer. I stopped logging on to swagbucks needless to say.
Barb says
I do not use their tool bar (I use chrome). but I do have my that webpage set as my opening page. And in chrome you have a small icon on the top right of the bar where you type in (whatever the heck its called). I don’t even think there is a bar for Chrome or firefox.
Amanda says
There’s no reason for Swagbucks to give you a virus, so I’d assume that came from elsewhere. As far as I can tell, their business model is based strictly on marketing, nothing malicious. That said, tool bars can use a lot of memory, which can slow down your computer (removing said tool bars will fix the issue), which can be especially problematic on an older (less memory) computer. If you’re not already, you’d do well to use a free antivirus like Avast (it’ll ask you to upgrade, but that’s optional), and http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ is another option, if you think you might already be infected.
I’m sorry, I know this isn’t totally Swagbucks related, but it might be helpful.
Emily M says
I have had their toolbar for a quite some time without a problem. My husband takes very good care of our computer and we haven’t gotten a virus or anything from it.
Kristin says
What’s NOSO?
Danielle says
I do not understand what you mean by using the Facebook page? What are search wins, dubs, etc…? Is it the actually Swagbucks Facebook page?
Andrea says
Yes, there is an official Swagbucks page. People post their search wins (search terms that earned them swag bucks) in the comments. “Dubs” is the slang for the second search win of the day.
Kim says
There are actually two apps for a smartphone. I’ve marked the 2-4 shortest videos I’ve found as favorites, & then play them continuously until I reach the daily max or have to stop the phone to use it for other things. A good time for me to play the mobile videos is when I’m charging my phone. They do run the battery down. I’ve heard of some playing them while in line at the grocery store.
1. SBTV Mobile earns 2 swagbucks for every 5 videos (up to 50 sb each day)
2. EntertaiNOW app earns 2 swagbucks for every 10 videos (up to 40-100 sb each day depending on the day–the last few days have been 40 sb per day max)
Kim says
I’m a fan of Swagbucks. Sure, they don’t pay me much per hour, but it’s nice to get even an extra $5 off with a gift card. It’s worth checking out when you’re making a big online purchase anyway. We had to order a vacuum, and Sears had the best price. But by logging on through Swagbucks we got the best price and a gift card for later. Woohoo!
Erin says
One thing to keep in mind is your cell’s data plan. If your data plan is limited (most are these days!), streaming video away from home sure eats it up!
allison says
How do you get the videos to play without stopping?
joanna n. says
i was curious about this as well; whenever i’ve watched, i’ve always gone back 30 sec.- 1 min. later to click on the next video which can get rather bothersome.
Heather says
I don’t see how making 500 points a month would equal $50 in Amazon cards a month. On my home SB page, it says a $5 Amazon card is 500 points. If this writer is getting $50 a month, that’s a lot more than 500 points a month!
Crystal says
The 500 points per month she mentions are in addition to all the other point opportunities. Those are just the bonus points she gets for hitting her goal number. I hope that clarifies!
Amanda D. says
I don’t have much luck with the searches and surveys, really. The bulk of my Swagbucks are earned from coupon redemption. I print my coupons from the “Discover” area instead of Coupons.com directly, and watch the Swagbucks pile up. (Yeah, it takes 8 weeks or so for them to show up, but it’s pretty darn nice to get that surprise 200-500 Swagbucks show up on my page when I log in. 🙂 )
Amanda says
I love Swagbucks! I do most of mine while waking up with my coffee. I will open up one session to watch videos and just click over every 30 seconds or so and click on the next video. I have signed up for a few trial offers as well. You do have to remember to cancel, but I normally cancel them the next day. Because they aren’t anything that requires a purchase to earn the swagbucks, I get to keep them. Make sure to read as some things you only get the swagbucks if you continue to be a member of what you signed up for for a specified time. I also will open a window when flipping through mail, a magazine and click to change the video. I have earned $65 just since Christmas! My goal is to buy a laptop just using my Swag earnings! I do answer quite a few surveys as well.
Kelly says
I’ve made $300 in gift cards since the end of October 2013. I’ve only been on swagbucks since then but I am hooked!! 🙂
Jenny says
I am starting to wonder if using swagbucks is really the best use of time. For instance, this person spent 1 hour per day on swagbucks to earn a $50 gift card each month. Depending on how many mornings (5-7) per week she did this, she earned the equivalent of $1.67-$2.50 per hour. I am guessing that if someone offered you a job for 20-30 hours per month and offered to pay you around $2 per hour, you wouldn’t take the job. I think earning swagbucks from referrals or coupons is great, but if you have to spend much time doing it – is it really worth it? Just something to think about.
Barb says
Hi, I’m a lurker whose only commented for the first time, but as to the worth, I have a couple thoughts. This person is doing this in her own home, while she’s having breakfast. Any money she makes is profit to her. She doesn’t have to commute, she dresses as she wants, and if her children are not yet in school, she is probably talking to kids at the same time.
In my case I don’t make nearly that much. But as a forced early retiree, a part of my day is spent on savings and earnings-though swagbucks, surveys elsewhere, AmazonMturk and cash crate and the like. I also spend an equal amount of time saving money. SO I think it depends on your goals and priorities and honestly, if you CAN or WANT to work or work more hours.
I honestly do most of my stuff in the evening when watching a movie, as I don’t have to feed and bathe kids then anymore (supposedly, college has it’s own issues).
Emily M says
I have to agree with what Barb said. I am at Stay at Home mom by choice, but I also like to help our family out a little bit each month to increase our savings. I earned $3,000 last year from Swagbucks, Shopkick, Mturk, surveys and the like. I don’t want to get a job that will take me away from my family, but doing a little bit here and there in the evenings when my husband and I are watching a bit of TV adds up to good earnings.
Liz says
Yes, doing this does NOT make a lot of money per hour, which at times is disheartening. (Although teaching doesn’t make much per hour, either…). However, it’s what I have found that I can easily do at home without disrupting our home life. I usually make lunches, eat breakfast, check emails, and get the kids breakfast while clicking videos to get points. I also can do it while cleaning up the kitchen, etc. It’s sometimes annoying to keep clicking on the computer, but it’s also really nice to have a little extra every month for presents or “fun money”. If I spent A LOT more time on it, I could make a lot more, but I’ve found this is the best balance between earning points and not disrupting my day much.
Bea says
I have to agree w/Barb, Emily, and Liz. Whether stay at home mom or retired, earnings add up and any time I can save money, I feel more worthwhile. In 2011, I kept track of everything that I saved (fm coupons, sales, computer site rewards, credit card rewards, etc.) There were some things that were to difficult to factor, such as thrift store buys, but I kept track of most things. The others were just a +. I saved $7742.18 plus the things that I couldn’t keep track of.
AND I did not pay one cent of interest, not even on my credit cards. That, my friends, equals a part-time job and I didn’t have to get dressed or leave the house for any of it, except if I actually went shopping in the store. May not sound like much to some, but, I sure helps when you are on a fixed income. To me, I don’t care if you are a millionaire, saving as much as you can, only makes sense to me.
This does not include what my husband saved on sales and researching until he found the cheapest price on something.
Researching bf you buy can save you a bundle in no time. And, Jenny, most of the things we do to save $ don’t take as much time as it seems like they would. I hear people say couponing takes too much time. I have been couponing since I was about 10 yrs old. It does take time, but I can’t pay retail; it is just not in my blood. Saving $50-80 on my groceries just makes to much sense to me. What I save is my play $ (mostly buying clothes, shoes, and toys (and I don’t pay retail) for me and the family, including children and grands), my donation $, and my tithe $. $7000+ can do a lot of that.
Erin says
Yeah, it’s really only a bonus when you wouldn’t be earning money any other way or would be on a computer anyway. I don’t bother with most of the activities because I don’t want to spend a lot of time or get a bunch of spam signing up for things that I have to cancel. I am a freelance copyeditor, so I typically use the search feature to fact check while I am working and I play videos in the background. If I am close to a goal–and paying attention!–I’ll play videos at night while watching TV. This easily nets me around $50 in gift cards without really investing much dedicated time to Swagbucks.
MonicaBerry says
Yes, I don’t spend nearly as much time nor earn anywhere near as much as this writer, but anything I earn helps. I’m a stay-at-home mom, not by choice, but because when I worked part-time we weren’t breaking even with the daycare costs and we didn’t qualify for financial aid from the state. So, I don’t have the choice of earning more per hour at a “real” job, so the fact that I can get us some gift cards & save some money with the coupons is a nice way to help out with the finances. It’s not much, but it’s something.
McG says
Normally I would agree, but with Swagbucks there is little to be done. Videos for example just keep playing until you reach 10SB. With the toolbar, every search you do is a chance to win FREE money and you do it anyways!
Personally, I don’t go this far in depth but at work we order products throughout the day and I’m getting a percentage of everything the company spends and we book hotel rooms through Club Carlson so I get 2% **PLUS** Club Carlson Points and Car Rentals from Hertz so a few more dollars and again, Hertz Rewards on top of it! I also own a small business and order from Newegg, Amazon, etc regularly so there’s even more. Then add personal shopping and it starts to add up FAST!! Especially during promos like 7% (I’ve seen as high as 28% iirc)!
On the topic of shopping, watch the featured promos… I’ve found some that will pay 2,500 SB for a $10-20 purchase so it’s just free product and extra cash back!
Finally, I tend to relax and watch a bit of TV at night. My laptop is open anyways so I find a high value survey or 2.
If you get in the habit of doing all of your shopping through Swagbucks it can add up very fast! If you’re a deal hunter like me you can double or triple stack your rewards for a LOT! For example:
I book a few rooms at a Radisson Hotel through SB for $400, I use my Club Carlson membership, and use my Carlson Credit Card…
I end up with $8 from SB, 14,000 CC Points (60,000 = $100), and I get another 9% for using the rewards Credit Card. So, on reservation that most people would overlook as just another expense I end up getting about $70 worth of SB, Points and Cash Back!
I can’t even begin to imagine just how much money I have gotten back, but it’s thousands of dollars for free!
P.S. Swagbucks users, try to save up for the discounted gift cards if possible! There are hidden deals like a $25 Amazon Gift Card for 2,200 SB 😉
Meredith says
You basically do what I do!
Anna says
How do you create a goal on Swagbucks? Then you get bonus points for reaching it? Never heard of that.
Jennifer says
Swagbucks sets the goal for you. It’s the meter on your main page and shows a first goal and a second goal. You get extra bucks by reaching your goals.
Sissy Sweet says
Thanks for explain that.
Erin says
What is it with Swagbucks mobile TV freezing? Sometimes it’s fine; other times, it freezes after nearly every commercial.
The owl backpack is on clearance at Target. I got the same one and a pair of shoes for $10 from Piperlime earlier this year. Love it!
Meredith says
Yeah, it ran smoothly at the first of the year and now it’s stuck up again! Also, the Encrave offers have been slim pickings and Jun Vidoes (aka Laptop Guy) are non-existent. I have been doing a lot of peanut lab offers recently. There was one this morning where you just had to do one job search and I didn’t even enter my information for 26 SB. If I do have to I just have an extra email for junk emails that I get them sent to….unless it’s a good offer of course!
Chris says
I used Swagbucks to pay for Christmas! It was great. I was able to buy more presents and it didn’t kill my budget.