Swagbucks Special Event

I know I have mentioned Swagbucks many times, but if you still haven't tried it, it's a great time to start!  They're having a Spring Into Action event, with lots of extra earnings opportunities through the end of April.  Right now, you will get 50 extra Swagbucks for signing up using the code SPRINGIN2SWAG.

Lately, I have been earning about $50 per month from Swagbucks, and I basically do all the earning in the first hour of the day while I drink my coffee and read around the web.  Since Swagbucks has added more ways to earn since my original Swagbucks post, here is my official list of ways to earn.

• Get 1 SB every day for answering the daily poll on the answer tab at the top.
• Get 1 SB every day for the NOSO stream on the discover tab at the top. (just click no thanks on 3-4 offers)
• Go to the front page, and there are always a lot of 1 and 2 buck videos.  Just click through and open all of them and let them run.
• Earn anywhere from 6 to 100 on a search win.  I usually get one every morning and just do a few searches till it happens.
• After that, I go through the special offers tabs under discover.  My favorite areas are RadiumOne (always lots of 1 and 2 buck videos) and Peanut Labs (tons of good surveys).  The PaymentWall page also has surveys.  I tend to avoid the other walls simply because they don't have the easy earnings I look for.
• Also under the answer tab are the Swagbucks surveys.  You can get 1 buck for disqualifying from the surveys, so some days that is what I am for.
• Print your coupons through Swagbucks (also under the Discover tab) and get 10 SB per coupon that you print and use.  I always make sure to leave the coupons I won't use at the grocery store.  Then I still get my 10 SB and someone else gets a savings on the items. 
• Watch videos for SB.  This is under the Watch tab, and you'll get 3 SB for every 10 you watch.  I rarely use this earnings opportunity.  I don't have the time in the day, and I don't think the time required makes it worth it.
• I prefer using my mobile phone to watch videos with SBTV Mobile.  The videos continue to play with very little effort on my part, and I get 2 SB for every 5 videos.  This is something else that I make part of my morning routine.
• My favorite new earning opportunity is the daily goal.  Every day there is a new goal, and you will get a 10% bonus for every day that you meet the goal.  If you hit the goal every day of the month, you get an additional 200 SB in addition to the daily bonus.  You can receive over 500 SB bonus just for reaching the goal every day.
• Use your earnings to buy rewards.  My rewards always start with $5 Amazon Gift Cards, because they are the best deal.  At 450 SB each, it makes each Swagbuck a little better than a penny.  You are able to buy 5 of each type of reward, so my next goal is a $25 Amazon Gift Card.  I generally get this much each month, so $50 total.  

It's as easy as that.  There are many other ways to earn--you can use the shop and earn area, though I prefer to do my shopping through Ebates.  You can earn Swagbucks playing games as well.  You can earn Swagbucks by referring your friends, so please use the link I posted if you like the information I provided.

These are my earnings for each day in April so far. The first number is the daily goal, the second is my actual earning for the day, and the third is the bonus I received for making the goal.

 4/11/2013

80

109

8

 

 4/10/2013

90

107

9

 

 4/9/2013

110

138

11

 

 4/8/2013

90

167

9

 

 4/7/2013

70

200

7

 

 4/6/2013

70

115

7

 

 4/5/2013

90

239

9

 

 4/4/2013

100

156

10

 

 4/3/2013

80

113

8

 

 4/2/2013

90

199

9

Happy Earning!

Swagbucks Birthday Bash

If you haven't yet joined Swagbucks, now would be the time. They always start new members off with 30 Swagbucks just for joining. In conjunction with their 4th birthday bash on February 27th, they are offering a bonus for new members. This week, you'll get 140 Swagbucks just for signing up.



When you register, enter code BIRTHDAYBASH12 for the bonus bucks.

I have earned $860 since I joined Swagbucks a little over 2 years ago. Sure, that's not a fortune, but it's decent. I get my payouts in Amazon gift cards, then use that to take advantage of all the Amazon deals for everyday household items and also for our Christmas shopping.

If you haven't already joined, do it! Click that picture above or this link, and don't forget the code for the bonus bucks. Then, you can follow the earnings strategy described in this post.

Some other important info:

• Explanation of Swagbucks is here.
• How to earn with Swagbucks is here.

I recently wrote up something for a friend on my earning goals, and how I do it in just a few minutes in the morning.  If your goal is 5 of the $5 Amazon gift cards each month, it's easily attainable with just 75 Swagbucks per day.  My goal is to try to get 200 per day so that I can get another $50 AGC every other month and boost my earning.  Here's a quick morning:

• 75 SBTV (that's the max of 25 wins)  **  Right now, they're allowing 50 wins for 150 Swagbucks.
• 20 search wins (I can always win twice a day, sometimes three times)
• 2 daily bucks for checking out NOSO
• 1 buck for answering the daily poll
• 5 survey disqualification (if you try to do a survey but aren't qualified, you get 1 buck for trying)
• 2-5 Ad Rewards videos (this is one of the offer walls, you watch videos and get 1-2 bucks)
• 2-4 Gambit videos (another offer wall)

I don't do a lot of the big special offers, but just looking around every morning on the offer walls will find a few good easy point offers, like signing up for a newsletter or liking some business Facebook page.  I can do this while I have my coffee in the morning.


If you do qualify for surveys, you're getting 50-300 Swagbucks for those. 

Year End Earnings Wrap-up

I have posted before about some different ways to earn money with online activities.  You can read the overview HERE.  If you have questions about individual earnings sites, you can contact me through the comments.  As stated before, I would never endorse a site unless I had gotten paid by them.  I won't inflate my earnings to make it sound better than it is, but I also don't spend as much time as possible on the different sites.

I want to say that Swagbucks singlehandedly funded my Christmas shopping.  If you haven't done Swagbucks yet, or if you started it but didn't really do much, you may want to give it another look.



Ok, the totals.  I may have forgotten some sites, so I will add to them as I remember.  I usually request payments from all right before the end of the year so that I can use the extra money for shopping.  Ebates pays out as the payments arrive, and I do order Amazon gift cards all year long from Swagbucks.

Swagbucks: $390, mostly in Amazon gift cards but some Paypal (cash!) payouts.  I currently have enough Swagbucks for another $50 Amazon gift card, but I'm waiting for the first of the month.
Inbox Dollars: $36.38 check
FreeRide: $25 AGC
MyPoints: $30 B&N gift cards
Ebates: $33.93 in Paypal

I'm going to have to go back and check out the survey sites and add that information here later.  Total for the year-- $515.31.  Again, I did not get rich, but the extra money was great for Christmas shopping.  I also use some of my Swagbucks Amazon earnings throughout the year to buy some grocery items.

Read my descriptions for each one.  I do not do the high point offers that need a credit card or free trials that need to be cancelled.  Each one of these, I do the bare minimum.  I also was much busier this year, with two or three jobs at times.  Some sites fell by the wayside so that I didn't even always click all the easy email points.

MegaSwagbucks Friday -- Signup DEAL

It's hard to believe there are many people left who haven't already tried Swagbucks.  If you haven't, today might be the day to start.  Why?  Because it's mega swag Friday.  Every Friday they have bigger search wins and more often, so start doing what you can to earn.  I save Amazon gift cards for Christmas shopping, and also use it to supplement my grocery shopping.  $25 a month is an easy goal.  My total in just over a year and a half is now $650, all gotten in Paypal or Amazon dollars. 

ANOTHER reason today would be a good day to join is that Swagbucks has a new member promotion called 5 for 5, that will get a new member 70 bonus bucks just for signing up.  It is usually 30, so this will start you right out with 100 bucks. Use code 5For5 when you register (new members only, but they are now allowing more accounts per household.)

• Explanation of Swagbucks is here.
• How to earn with Swagbucks is here.

I recently wrote up something for a friend on my earning goals, and how I do it in just a few minutes in the morning.  If your goal is 5 of the $5 Amazon gift cards each month, it's easily attainable with just 75 Swagbucks per day.  My goal is to try to get 100 per day so that I can get another $25 AGC every other month and boost my earning.  Here's a quick morning:

• 75 SBTV (that's the max of 25 wins)
• 20 search wins (I can always win twice a day, sometimes three times)
• 2 daily bucks for checking out NOSO
• 1 bucks for answering the daily poll
• 5 survey disqualification (if you try to do a sruvey but aren't qualified, you get 1 buck for trying)
• 2-5 Ad Rewards videos (this is one of the offer walls, you watch videos and get 1-2 bucks)
• 2-4 Gambit videos (another offer wall)

I don't do a lot of the big special offers, but just looking around every morning on the offer walls will find a few good easy point offers, like signing up for a newsletter or liking some business Facebook page.  I can do this while I have my coffee in the morning.

If you have any additional questions, let me know.

Swagbucks Signup Deal!

If you haven't read about Swagbucks, you can click the link there to read about it. I have a special offer for today only (through 4 pm PDT) where if you click "get code" on the swidget on my sidebar, you'll get a code for 20 Swagbucks to sign up. It's only for new referrals, though. The code is good until midnight PDT and it looks like it's JOINTHEFUN.  (Looky there, I didn't even make you have to click to get the code.)   You'll also get 30 Swagbucks just for registering, which will put you pretty far towards your first reward.

You can click through my link to join, though, and we'll both get more bucks.

Last Minute Back to School Deals

 Many in our area have already started school. We're much later than our neighboring towns this year, so I get to enjoy the clearance deals that will surely be coming next week. If you're still in the market for a few more school supply items, Staples and Office Depot are still offering some deals. Sneak preview their Sunday ads, and I'm sure all the other big box stores will have something in their ad as well.

• Office Depot's Sunday ad HERE.  I see a lot of 1 cent items, like folders, rulers, and pencil boxes.  They also have 1 inch binders for 50 cents each.  
• Get a $25 gift card with some calculator purchases, almost 20% back.  
• Get $10 off $50 with code 28755419 or print a coupon HERE.  
• Teachers get 10% off, check it out HERE.
• Staples' Sunday ad HERE.  There's a $5 off coupon right in the front page.
• They also have 50 cent 1 inch binders, and there are TONS of coupons in the ad.  Looks like a good week to go and check out Staples.
• This looks like a great laptop deal.  It's going to be $350, then an additional $50 off starting Sunday.  Camp out for it.
• If you shop online at those stores, get 4% cash back at Staples and 2% cash back from Office Depot through Ebates.  If you haven't already signed up through Ebates, you can get $5 cash back just for signing up and making a purchase this month.  I've posted about Ebates HERE, but it's just a shopping portal that gives you rewards for clicking through them.  They often have coupons to help you save even more.

Ebates 11% Cash Back!

That's like getting an automatic 11% discount on your online orders PLUS you can still use any coupon codes you might have.  I've written about Ebates before, so you can read a full description on that post, but Ebates is a shopping portal that gives you cash back for online purchases.  If you're going to shop online, definitely use one of the shopping portals (MyPoints, Swagbucks) to earn for your activity.

Normally I shop around the three sites to see which will give me the best deal, but I guarantee 11% $CASH$ back is going to be the best deal for these stores involved in the promo:

• Macy's
• Ebags
• Gap
• Old Navy
• Sephora
• Shutterfly
• Barnes and Noble
• Shoe Buy

For the full list, go to Ebates and see for yourself.   They usually also round up coupons for you to use while shopping, so it saves having to search for those as well.  Did I mention that they're also giving people $5 to join?  This is also part of their birthday celebration.

Great Swagbucks Earnings This Week!

If you've been thinking about getting into Swagbucks anyway, this week might be the week to do it.  They normally give 30 bucks for registering, but they are upping it to 50!  Use code SWAGNATION5 when you start up.  If you're already doing Swagbucks, they are allowing a lot more earning opportunities this week.  I've won twice this morning already for pretty substantial amounts.

You can sign up in my swidget on the side or click right here:



Also, if you've signed up and haven't been using it, you can look at how to earn in the blog post I did a while back. Find that HERE.  It really is easy to earn.  I don't sign up for a lot of the special offers, but have already earned almost $200 since the beginning of January.

As always, I'll answer any questions anyone has.  You can email me if you know that, or leave comments below and I will respond.  I have it enabled for you to leave comments anonymously if you'd like, so don't be afraid to ask.

Now will be a good reminder as well, if you are interested in more sites like Swagbucks, I review all the ones that I trust (meaning that they've paid me and they aren't a scam).  On the right side bar of my blog, there is a tag cloud (all the little words I put at the bottom of each post) and you can click on GPT, Cash, or earning in order to find all the posts about the sites.  I have also looked at a lot of different earning sites and done the research, so I'll answer questions about particular sites if I haven't mentioned them in my blog yet.

How to Earn with Swagbucks

I have many friends doing Swagbucks now, and I've had to repeat how to earn a few times, so I thought it would be a good time to make a list on my blog.  I started Swagbucks at the beginning of January, and have earned $65 in Amazon gift cards so far.  I'm about halfway to the next $5 gift card already, so it is adding up faster than many of my favorite GPT (get paid to...) sites.  If you aren't doing it yet, go ahead and click on the picture below to get started.  It's no obligation, and you just use it like you would google.



Here is a list of the best ways to earn:

• Search using swagbucks.  I know I use google a lot when I want to find certain pages, or if I see something I want to learn more about.  I think it works best if you don't sit and search over and over.  They want you to use natural searching, so that's what I try to do.  It seems random how they hand out the bucks, so doing it repeatedly might do no good.
• They have a special offers page where you can earn more.  I am not one to do those kinds of things, but you can join Netflix or Blockbuster and earn a lot, among a lot of other things.  There are free trials and no obligation offers that won't cost you any money.  
• Even if you don't do the special offers, if you go to the "No Obligation" section every day and skip each one to the end, you'll get 2 SB a day.
• The different special offers pages will have videos you can watch for 1-3 SB each, and sometimes you can find another one on the front page.
• The swidget on my right sidebar will often list a code or give a clue as to where to find the code.  These are limited time bucks, and usually happen once or twice a day.  Some days there will be many more.  Just click where it says check for code, and it will say if there is one available.
• You can also earn 3 SB for every 10 videos you watch on Swagbucks TV.  I've found this one to be good if you switch back and forth between screens. 
• Answer surveys in the Trusted Surveys section.  These will usually earn you 50-200 Swagbucks, but even if you don't qualify, you can get 1 buck for trying.  They'll give you up to 5 SB per day for disqualifying.
• Referrals are one of the best ways to earn.  You will receive every search buck your friends do until they hit 1000 bucks earned.  If you have 10 referrals, that can mean 10,000 bucks that you didn't have to work for.  NICE.
• Link your Swagbucks account to your Facebook account, and it will post on your page every time you search and win or find a code.  This helps with two things: you may get more referrals, and when your friends get a search win, the chances are good that if you go and do a search, you will too.  Just today I logged into Facebook and saw that two of my friends got a code, so I hit the swidget and found it, too. 

I hope you'll find the tips helpful in doing your earning.  I've found that this is a little more time intensive than some of the other GPTs that I do, but the earning potential is a little higher as well.

Swagbucks

I guess I never explained that Swagbucks widget over there, and I see a few readers have signed up.  This one is a similar GPT site to some of the others I've detailed.  You can earn "bucks" in several ways, but the main way is through searching through their site.  If anyone has used Blingo, it's very similar--but it is better in that the search engine is through google and you can actually find what you're searching for.  I just use it like I would use google and every once in a while, I win a buck.



You can also earn swagbucks by doing offers (I generally avoid the offers because a lot require you to pay or remember to cancel some trial offer.)  They have a shopping portal you can use as well, giving bucks for each real dollar you spend when clicking through them to shop.


I use all the GPT sites as something that gives me a little bit of unexpected income, but I don't expect any to really give me some huge amount of money.  For that reason, I don't give them a lot of time.  Like MyPoints and InboxDollars, I click their emails and shop through MyPoints and just let the points build over time.  The extra time in emails is negligible, since all I do is click and delete.

The "swidget" on the right will sometimes contain a code that will get you from 1-5 bucks, so I just click on the check for codes button a few times a day to see what happens. 

Surveys--My Favorite

This is my favorite survey company, and they are VERY RARELY looking for new people. If you're an avid follower of my blog, you'll be lucky to get in by clicking on the banner ad at the top of the page in this blog. Good luck! They have sent me about 5 surveys in the last week, and every time you do a survey for them, they pay you $3 straight to your paypal account within a couple of hours.

These ads don't last long, because they don't recruit too often. Jump on it!

Snow Day Freebies

It looks like most of the country is being hit (or will be soon) by a large winter storm. May as well get a few freebies while you are stranded in your house. This is the view out my front window of about 3 inches of snow out of our expected 8-12. After we get all that snow, mother nature is sending in the wind to blow it into giant drifts.

So, enough about the weather! How about some freebies? Remember, these can go fast if enough people catch wind, so act fast if you want them. Some may last for months, so go ahead and check the old threads. It's worth a try.

• Free ebooks from Sesame Street.
• Free Stacey's pita chips when you friend them on Facebook.
• I just got another great freebie from Vocalpoint. That one's over, but they send them out all the time. They send out samples of a lot of products, plus tons of coupons that they want you to share with your friends. Nothing wrong with that. Sign up for Vocalpoint HERE so you're ready for the next freebies.
• Free samples from Splenda.
• Free knee pain guide.
  
• Free earplugs from 3M.
• Free Gettysburg visitor's guide.
  
• Free sample of personal lubricant.
• Free glucose meter, but then you'll get tons of junkmail from Quality Health. Some people like them, I don't. Use a spam email if you don't.
• Oooh, a free scented bookmark for reading your trashy novels. What could be better?
• Free hot beverage from 7-11. Wish I had one closer, because looks like you could print as many as you want.
• $3 coupon for GE Holiday Lights.

I had another good mail day, worth slogging through the snow to get $15 in SC Johnson rebate checks (you can still try for these, very easy), $35.70 from Inbox Dollars, $5 coupon from Toys R Us, and 3 $10 off coupons for JC Penney.

Making Money at Home-Surveys

There are so many sites out there that it's hard to know what's legitimate. I can say after looking around that there is no magic site that will allow you to make thousands of dollars a day with no work. I have found a few good sites that will pay you a small amount of money for doing a small amount of work. I will only list sites that I have used and where I have received a payment.

There are different ways to earn money from home. You can do surveys, mystery shopping, and GPTs (or Get paid to...). This is not a complete list, rather the ones that I have personal experience with.

I will focus just on surveys for this post, then follow up with more posts on other types of money-making opportunities.

Survey Companies

Starting with surveys. I have several survey companies that I work with, and will often get 5-10 surveys per day. The value of the pay varies based on the company, but most offer anywhere from 50 cents-$5 per survey. Obviously, you are not going to get rich doing these, but they also don't take long.

One additional benefit of the survey companies is that they will send out items for your family to test out, usually items that you would use every day. I've done product studies on diapers (a whole month's worth of different types of diapers to compare and answer questions about), toilet paper, feminine protection products, food, drinks, shampoo and conditioner, body washes, you name it, we've tried it.

I've also gotten referred from the survey company to do other types of research, and those are sometimes very lucrative. I did a survey that lasted for about 9 months and required a couple of minutes a month to keep it current, and ended up making $300. Another recent one paid me $10 to play a game with my family.

Next I'll review a few of the companies I work with.

Everyone loves Pinecone Research. They pay for every survey right when you complete it, right to your Paypal account. Most of the time, it is $3 per survey. The only problem? They have plenty of people doing surveys, so only occasionally look for new people to participate. You may run across a banner ad, and occasionally they will send out emails to their current participants asking them to refer.

One of my favorites, just for coolness of survey topics, is HCDSurveys. They send out a lot of political polls and also interesting ones about current news, movies, and TV. They usually pay 50 cents-$3 per survey, and you get paid by check once you reach $10 earned. Click HERE to sign up.

Another great survey company is MySurvey. They send several surveys, and pay with a check in increments of $5. Just as an example of my earnings, 1000 pts would be a $10 check, and I earned 270 for the month of October. Earnings vary from month to month, and it also depends if your family fits the profile they are looking for on each survey. Click below to join.



I started with Ipsos I-Say a long time ago, and did their surveys only sporadically because they were fun but only paid in chances to win prizes. I did win a couple of times, but the prizes weren't necessarily things I wanted/needed. I'm glad I stayed with them, because one day I found that they are now paying cash. They still have chances to win prizes, and the prizes are huge, but I no longer win. I do get a check every once in a while, so that's ok.

Ebates

Ebates is another great shopping portal, dedicated mostly to online shopping. When you go to Ebates, you will be able to look for online coupons to use in your shopping, and they also pay you cash back to shop through them. That's right! They send you a big fat check every three months.

As an example, for Victoria's Secret, they have a coupon for $15 off $100 that you can use. In addition to saving $15, Ebates pays you 4% cashback to shop through their site. If you bought $100 worth of items from Victoria's Secret, they would cost you $85 instead, and Ebates would add $3.40 to your big fat check. It's not a lot, but every little bit of savings helps.

Some people think that this is a pain, to remember to look at the different shopping portals, but for me the money I get in return makes it worth clicking one of the links I have bookmarked. I usually go to both Mypoints and Ebates to see which one will offer me the sweeter deal.

Again, I would love to answer any questions through the comments section, or comment me your email address if you'd like me to refer you to the site.

Mypoints

By far my favorite GPT (get paid to...) site, and probably the one to which I've earned the most is Mypoints. Mypoints gives you points for doing things you do every day--5 points per email, 50-200 points per survey, anywhere from 2-10 points per dollar spent through their online shopping portal. My favorite, though, is the coupons. They have links to coupons you can use online to save 10% or more, get free shipping, or other online shopping codes.

They also have my most used and most beneficial option: printing out grocery coupons to use at the store. The best part--the coupons through their site are often higher value than the Sunday paper coupons, and Mypoints pays you to use them! I get 25 points every month if I print and use 10 coupons from two different sites. I also get 10 points for every coupon I use in the store. These points add up fast.

Mypoints pays out their rewards in the form of gift cards from places I shop. Some are cheaper to get than others--the best value are from Borders, 1400 points for a $10 gift card. There are also cards for Starbucks, Burger King, Target, Kmart, and Amazon. I use my points to get Target cards because I can maximize the dollar value with my coupons and bargain shopping there. In just the past month, I've redeemed for $75 in Target gift cards.

I'd be glad to answer any questions about any site, just leave them in the comments. Mypoints also offers rewards for referrals, so please click through my link if you're interested in joining.

InboxDollars

This is the first of many posts explaining different sites that pay you in money, gift cards, or free products. I want to explain up front that many of these places pay their members to refer people. I will use referral links if possible, but I do want people to know that I am profiting from the link you click. I will not ever post any place unless I have personally received payment to know that it is legitimate.

Inbox Dollars gives you $5 just to sign up (click that box above!) They send offers and surveys through emails. If you click on the link in the email, you will get a few cents. They offer differing dollar amounts depending on the offer, if you take it. Many people will do offers where you get a free trial, or you sign up for something and cancel before they start charging. I don't have the discipline to remember to cancel, so I avoid almost all of those. Surveys will give you from 50 cents to $1 for a few minutes of your time. I just submitted for a check for $35.70, which should arrive in time to help with Christmas shopping.

Good Mail

I know many people dread getting the mail, because it is full of bills and junk mail. I love it! I plan to add the contents of my mailbox often as an example of how I earn and save money for our household. Generally, I will just add my mail to new posts, but I am going to dedicate this whole post to the last few days of mail.

Thursday:

• Free sample Oregon Chai PLUS $1.00 coupon.
  
• $10 check from Synovate for doing surveys through email.

Friday:

• Free sample Pampers Extra Protection PLUS $1.50 coupon. (Click the link, this sample is still available!
• Free sample Taster's Choice coffee--This was 6 separate samples of their new flavors. Still available!
• $10 check from HCG Research for doing surveys through email.

Saturday:

• $25 Target Gift Card from My Points. Click link for my full explanation of this site and its benefits.
  

Monday:

• $7 Pantene coupons from Vocalpoint.
• Free Red button from Inspi(red).
• 3 Sesame Street Board books from redeeming my Pampers points from diapers and wipes. These will be great stocking stuffers.

====================================
It's mail like this that helps towards our bills, either by lowering the grocery bills or simply giving a check or gift card for a small amount of work. As the days go by, I will put a new post to explain each site and how you can make it work for you.