Close the YouTube cat videos down. Instead spend your spare time earning $100 a month filling out online surveys or testing products.
There are a growing number
of research companies out there offering rewards for your opinions, however
they're not always as 'legit' as they make out.
With this in mind, we've
created a run-down of the trusted survey sites, personally tested by me and a lots of users throughout the world. We reveal how much you can realistically make from this site and share
some helpful tips to maximise your profit.
Spend a fair amount of time
roaming around the web every day? Cash in on your online habits with Swagbucks!
As bizarre as this might sound, it's possible to make money out of just being online, clicking around the right sites and adding a few bits of info here and there.
Swagbucks is pretty much the definition of
'easy money' – and whilst it doesn't exactly involve cashing in the instant big
bucks, it's so easy to earn points that if you incorporate it into your daily
routine, you really can see a substantial return on your (pretty minimal)
efforts.
Simply create a free account and you'll start earning points that can
then be exchanged for cash or rewards as soon as you've gathered enough.
Essentially, Swagbucks is a
portal that offers users reward points for doing simple tasks online like
searching the web, watching
videos
and completing surveys.
You’ll be ‘paid’ in
Swagbucks points (shortened to 'SBs') which can then be redeemed for gift
cards or cash. The gift cards they offer come from over 1,500 retailers
including Amazon, Starbucks, Argos, M&S and iTunes.
But if you’d rather make
money from Swagbucks, there’s an option to convert points straight into
your PayPal account as cash. Or you can donate to charity if you're feeling
generous.
To give you an idea of what
SB points are worth, a £5 Amazon gift card will cost you 620 SB and you’ll need
to cough up 16,000 SB for £100 cash (via PayPal).
They do accumulate quicker
than you might think, simply because there are so many tasks and activities
looped in to Swagbucks. Many of which you probably do already!
Here are some of the main
way to start accumulating your Swagbucks on the daily…
1. Make Swagbucks your
default search engine

The easiest way to start
earning is to switch your default search engine to Swagbucks (rather than
Google or Bing).
You’ll automatically start
racking up points just for surfing
the web like you normally do, but using their browser instead (in case
you're worried about efficiency, it's run by Yahoo so don't sweat!).
You can expect to tot
up around 10-20 SB points
for every 10 to 20 searches (depends on the search queries). After six months
of everyday searching this can equate to around £300.
2. Watch
videos
Yes, you really
can earn Swagbucks points just by watching a few videos!
The pay-outs here aren’t
that high, but you're getting paid to be entertained! The types of content
you're sent to view varies massively, including everything from adverts to news
content and viral clips.
If you're really unenthused
by the content you've been sent, you can also do a sneaky and just have videos
running in the background as you get on with other stuff and not actually watch
it (it's not like you'll be tested on it!).
Expect to earn 3 SB per 30 minute video, and there's
a limit of 150 points per day up for grabs for this particular task.
3. Download apps to your phone
You can earn a really broad
variety of points for downloading, installing and opening certain apps on
your phone, tablet or computer.
Once it's installed, have a
look around and if it's something that interests you, great! But if not, you
can just delete it and you'll still get your points.
Whilst free apps will get
you around 15-50 SBs, you'll get 10 times that if the app involves a small
payment to download (although, obviously only go for the paid ones if you
actually think you would've paid for it if the SBs weren't up for grabs!).
4. Shop online and earn
cashback
Now, obviously we wouldn't
advise shopping online purely for the sake of getting more points (again, that
just wouldn't make sense really, would it?), but if you are planning to buy
something online, go via the Swagbucks website so you can earn points
(similar to mainstream cash back
sites).
Receive easy SBs from
online stores like Hotels.com, Ticketmaster, WH Smith, The Body Shop,
First Choice and Toys R Us. Just do a quick search first to find out if they're
a participating Swagbuck earner before parting with your cash.
For example, if you're
planning a holiday through First Choice – search for them on Swagbucks and
access the site that way rather than going directly and you’ll earn 3 SB per £1
spent. As holidays tend to involve a bit of cashing out, that should mean
hundreds of points netted from your transaction that you can turn into rewards
or cash later.
Time-rich but cash-poor?
Filling out a few short surveys each day through Swagbucks can be a really
nice little earner.
They usually take between 3
and 20 minutes to complete and you’ll earn around 40-100 SB depending on
the survey. There’s also a daily poll to complete which literally takes 2
seconds for an extra SB.
If you're particularly keen
on the survey route as a way to make cash, we've got a whole guide to the best paid survey sites.
7.Tell your mates
Get SB points stacking up
while you sleep by telling your friends to sign up to Swagbucks with your
referral code.
Not only will you get 500
SB instantly for your referrals, but you’ll earn 10% of your friends’ SB earnings for as long as they’re a member, too!
This is a great way to earn
points passively – and your friends will obviously benefit too.
8. Watch out for Swag Codes
Download the Swagbucks browser extension to
receive notifications about 'Swag Codes' as soon as they become available
(and they'll give you an additional 50SB just for downloading!).
Swag Codes are simply codes
that the company releases to create a bit of buzz around the site and get
members back onto the homepage.
The notifications you get
from the browser extension will tell you where to go to find the code –
on the Swagbucks blog, Twitter or Facebook page – which you’ll then input
into the 'Swag Code' box at the top of your Swagbucks dashboard. Super easy
instant SB points!
9. Complete daily goals
On the left-hand side of
the screen, you'll see a 'to do list' with around 8 different daily tasks that
the site recommends you complete.
Not only will you
accumulate points for each task you complete, but you'll also get bonus points for crossing off
everything on your list in a day.
Similarly, you can opt in
to Swagbucks 'daily goals' option (you'll see the button in the
header), where the site will notify you of your target amount of SBs to aim for
that day. If you mange to reach your goal, they'll stick some extra bonus
points on top for you!
10. Sign up to services
Signing up to free trials and subscribing to services like TV and online gaming can come with quite a substantial reward.
However, as with cashback opportunities, you should only use this option if you're planning on using the service anyway. This is because some of them require you to shell out some cash of your own to sign up.
But if they're free, it could be worth your time since they do pay out a pretty decent amount of reward points!
So now's your chance to go forth and get signed up to Swagbucks so you can start earning SBs straight away. It’s free to join, so you’ve got nothing to lose and tons of rewards waiting to be snatched up.
Just make sure you don't let the sight of high SB points draw you into spending money you wouldn't otherwise spend – otherwise it's a false economy!
11.
Play
games online
Your addiction to playing
games on your phone is finally about to pay off!
Earn up to 10 SB per game
just for giving it a whirl. Some games do rely on you getting to a certain
level before you can earn any SBs, so it does pay (literally!) to be good at
these things if you're going for this option.
But just imagine how much
more rewarding it can be to play a game when you know there could be cash in it
if you get to the next level?
12. Enter sweepstakes
If you're
keen to get involved in more of these sorts of money-making tricks, VISIT us BACK soon!
If you fancy yourself lucky when it comes to taking part in competitions, you can enter yourself into Swagbucks regular limited time giveaways.
Prizes can be anything from tech gadgets like Apple products to a bigger bundle of SBs, but note that this is a bit of a gamble as you need to actually spend SBs to enter into each competition.
So for example, you can enter a competition to win 50 SB, but it'll cost you 2 SB to take part.