Swagtastic...How to Maximize your Swagbucks

I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but I really think Swagbucks is pretty sweet. As of today I have earned 23 $5 Amazon gift cards this year alone. If that pace keeps up, I'll have about $180 by Christmas. Would an extra $180 at Christmas time be worth a few minutes each day? By few I mean less than five. If so, here's how it works:

1. Refer people. If people sign up THROUGH YOUR LINK you get matching swagbucks for the first 1000 SB they earn. It is critical that they sign up through your link though because you can't get them credited after the fact.

2. 30 SB a month just for voting in the "daily poll" each day. You can only get SB on the actual day though so you can't wait until the end of the month and vote in them all. (Well you can, but you don't get any SB.)

3. Look at the "no obligation special offers" to get at least another 30 SB/month. Just click through and at the end you get the SB.

4. Download the SB toolbar. Just for having it up you usually get 30SB/month.

5. Watch for special codes. If you have the "widget" (see the box at the top of my blog? That's the widget.) you can click "swag codes" and it will tell you if there is a code somewhere. They are often on the SB blog or their Facebook page. Sometimes it's just a code you cut and paste for free SB (they can be low value like under 10SB or I've seen as high as 30SB in one) or sometimes you have to look around the site, but they give you pretty easy clues. The thing about swagcodes is NEVER EVER post them or you get permanently deactivated. Codes usually expire fairly quickly so it's just hit or miss if you get lucky.

6. Watch on the homepage at the bottom of the "news box" if you see your swag name click and you get 100SB. Again hit or miss but it would be a big winner.

7. Take a survey. Just for going to the survey page you usually get a SB. On the homepage go to "trusted surveys" and see if you have any offers. If so, you can try and fill them out. If you are the demographic they are looking for and you do the entire thing (takes about 15 min per survey) you get between 50-250SB. Small risk of wasting your time because unless you do the entire thing you get no SB. But if you're bored and have a few extra minutes you can score some big SB.

8. Check out SB before you shop online. Most of their partner stores give you 1SB for every $2 spent. So if you are planning on making a purchase anyway go through the SB link and get a kickback. I have sent flowers and such and people raved about them.

9. Use the search engine consistently. You won't get SB if you don't USE SB. I keep logged in all the time and I always use the SB search engine. If I don't find what I'm looking for I can always google it afterward but why miss out on SBs? Also I always check my email by first entering "yahoo" in the search engine. All I have to type is "ya" and it pulls it up. I click it and yahoomail comes up. Click that and I'm into my mail. Two extra clicks but I average 20-30SB a day this way. I always check the weather on NOAA, my email, and two coupon blogs in the morning and almost every stinkin' time on one of them I get SB. I would check those sites anyway but checking them through SB gets me free stuff. I see that as a no-brainer.

That's it. That's all I do. You don't have to do all of these, or any of them really, but why not pick one or two and see the SB add up. It is super easy to redeem SB. If you want an amazon card you just go to the SB home page and go to the store. Then click "giftcards" in the left hand side. Click "amazon card" and the SB are deducted from your SB account. They send you a confirmation email. Click on the link. About two weeks later you get another email with your amazon code, and you're in the money. You can stack them, and use them for whatever you want for up to and including the entire order, even shipping. (You don't have to make a minimum purchase or pay out of pocket unless you spend more than you have in gift cards.) I will throw out a tiny disclaimer on gift cards. I once ordered a non-amazon card on sale to some other store. Since I only had $5 there was nothing in the store I could get free and that particular store had crazy high shipping rates so I wasted those SBs. Ever since I've stuck with amazon cards and I've never been disappointed. Ready to jump in? Sign up at the top of my blog and let's all win. Remember it's free, no credit card required.