Saturday, February 26, 2011

Double NOSOs... WHOA!

If you haven't been completing your NOSO offers.... GET TO IT! I'm saying this because for the past couple of weeks doing your daily NOSOs has been bring in not one but TWO SBs daily. This changes your yearly possible total from 365/yr to 730 SBs/year from just doing your NOSO offer (if this lasts). Please note that you do not automatically receive your bucks, but must complete a "captcha" located at the top right hand side of the page. Just type what it says to type.

Happy Swagging!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

How do I get "Holiday Bucks??"

Holiday Swag Bucks are earned, spent, and found primarily through the "Search" feature of Swag Bucks (around Christmas there was a holiday 5 which could only be earned by watching SBTV.) In case you forgot, "Search" can be found through Earn -> Search or it is also located directly on the Swag Bucks toolbar. Holiday bucks exist in predetermined denominations that are announced by the site at the beginning of the promotion. They can only be found around holidays.

There are always five holiday Swag Bucks to be found. If you acquire each one of these at least once you will earn a bonus of 50 Swag Bucks at the end of the promotion! Right now there are Valentines bucks. They exist in these denominations: 7,8,12,14, and 20. I like holiday bucks because not only does it add a little excitement to the search, but they are also adorable. Here is an example of the Valentine's Day 14:



Cute, right? Anyway if you're ever curious about what they look like, who is winning them, etc. you can always go the the Swag Bucks facebook page where some people literally troll the site all day talking about such things. If I have extra time on facebook, I'd rather spend it on the Free Samples site, but that's just me =)

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

More Ways to Win with Swag Bucks!

Here I have included more ways to win Swag Bucks that were not included in the previous post. They are just as easy as the ones mentioned before, so read on to get your earn on!

#10 Coupons: Use coupons? Yes? No? Then you've just earned yourself another simple way to earn Swag Bucks. Even if you don't use coupons, I suggest doing this and placing the coupon near the product so that someone else uses it. Each redeemed coupon (must actually be used, not just printed) gives you 10 SBs. Clearly, coupons can be extremely lucrative when it comes to Swag Bucks. Just go to Earn -> Coupons. On this page you will see the beginning of the coupons (it goes on for pages) that you can then print and redeem. If you have printed from coupons.com before, you will notice it is the same. If you have never printed coupons you will be prompted to download a '"coupon printer." Don't let this scare you, they download very fast and are extremely safe. My Norton even popped up clearing the program for download. Please note that points accrued from coupons will take 8-12 weeks to process to your account.
**Remember, you can always find out what points have been made and how by hovering your cursor over your name in the top right hand corner on the Swag Bucks website until you see the dropdown menu. from here, click on "My Swag Bucks." Now you will see your total SBs. Look right above this and there will be a tab labeled "ledger." Click that. It will look something like this:
My Swag Bucks account ledger
#11 Games: Games are fairly new to Swag Bucks and I hope it is eventually expanded upon with better games and ways to earn. For right now though, you can either play games to randomly earn Swag Bucks here and there just for playing or enter into tournaments which cost Swag Bucks but if you win the pot will be much sweeter. I rarely play games honestly they are easy but can sometimes feel like a waste of time and I have never entered a tournament.

#12 Trade Ins: You can now trade in your phones, mp3 players, books, and video games and consoles to earn Swag Bucks. Just go to Earn-> Swag Bucks where you can find your product. There it will tell you how many Swag Bucks you would earn if you traded in your item. You can also print out a free shipping label so it costs nothing out of pocket and you can recycle you old things. I even noticed you can trade in defective console systems for Swag Bucks (better than the trash, right?).

#13 Codes: Swag Bucks frequently puts out codes that can simply be redeemed by going to their home page and typing it in the text box on the right hand side under "Enter Your Swag Code." Swag Codes sometimes appear on the Swag Blog. If they are on the blog they usually look something like this: AuX29BJjr36 (a combination of upper/lower case as well as alpha/numerics). *ALL codes are case sensitive* Codes can also be released via their facebook and twitter pages. There are sometimes "clues" where The Swag Guy will release a clue such as 'What is an 8 letter word that can be used in place of 'tax?' One letter is capitalized' and you have to figure it out and guess the capitalized letter until you get it right. Other times they have put two letters on the blog, two letter on their fb page, and two letters on Twitter. You then have to unscramble them yourself. The 'hunt' is supposed to be fun and sometimes is though I found myself frustrated when I couldnt figure out the names of the last two girls eliminated from The Bachelor the prior week. I was seconds late.
**Never put an active code on the fb page, or any page, or tweet about the answer (you can still say that there IS one and where, just not what it is). Swag Bucks will ban you from their page and possibly suspend your account.

More Posts to come!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

OK I Signed Up! But How do I Earn??

Signing up may seem like the easy part but honestly, most things about Swag Bucks are easy. Here are the easiest and most popular ways to earn SBs. In a later post, I will go further into detail on some of these ways.

#1 The Toolbar: Can it get any easier? All you have to do to earn your daily Swag Buck from the toolbar is download the toolbar (you will be prompted after signing up or can go back later) and then open your browser at least once during every 24 hour period.  I installed my Swag Bucks toolbar on my Internet Explorer browser however you can install it on other types of browsers, I just use IE the most. As soon as I go to use IE it immediately pops up that I got my 1 Swag Buck for the day and I literally did nothing extra. Using the toolbar can net you 365 SBs per year.  It would take 450 days to get one Amazon.com $5 gift card by never doing anything related to Swag Bucks again (except maybe to log in to redeem your points for a prize)

#2 Daily Poll: Very simple, this daily Swag Buck is earned by completing a user-submitted poll which is always random and can be about anything. For example, yesterday's daily poll asked "How Often do you shampoo your hair?" Then there are generally 5 or six choices. This poll had 5 and you could choose between things such as "everyday" and "once a week." I remember one that asked what our favorite Christmas cookie was. So, as you can see, they are no brainers. The daily poll is located under Earn -> Daily Poll. You can earn 365 SBs per year by completing the Daily Poll. If you ONLY decided to use the toolbar and complete the Daily Poll, you would earn 730 SBs per year. It would take you 225 days to earn one $5 Amazon.com gift card by only doing the poll and having previously downloaded the toolbar.

#3 NOSO: NOSO stands for No Obligation Special Offers. NOSO offers can be found under Earn -> NOSO. Once you go to the NOSO page, click the "Start Earning Now" button on the left hand side to begin. Then, Swag Bucks will show you a couple of offers for things such as blood sugar readers and higher education but you do not have to fill any of these out. I repeat, you DO NOT have any obligation to fill out and submit any of these offers. Below the offer will be an option that says something like "Skip" or "See Next Offer." There are usually between 1 to 5 of these offers. Once completed, Swag Bucks will alert you that you have earned your daily SB from the NOSOs. You can earn 365 SBs per year with NOSOs. If you ONLY did your daily NOSO, Daily Poll, and downloaded the toolbar, you would earn 1,095 SBs per year enough to earn two $5 Amazon.com gift cards. Note that a $10 AGC actually costs more than two $5 gift cards however there are limits to how many cards you can buy per day (2) and per month (5).

#4 Trusted Surveys: Trusted Sureys can also be found directly under Earn -> Trusted Surveys. You will automatically win your one SB by just visiting this page daily. This means you can earn up to 365 SBs per year by visiting this page. Once at this page you will see which if any surveys are available, approximately how long they will take and what your chances are of qualifying. You can earn anywhere from 10 to 250 SBs per survey. Keep in mind that sometimes once starting the survey you will be kicked out due to the quota being filled or you not qualifying for one reason or another and this is sometimes frustrating, as it can seem like a waste of time. I have earned quite a few SBs through surveys but I have also had my fair share of duds.

#5 Special Offers: You will automatically be directed to the Special Offers page after completing your daily NOSO bucks or you can find Special Offers by going to Earn -> Special Offers. Special Offers are things you can sign up for, buy, or watch to earn SBs. Some things are free, some cost, and some are really involved and you may not want to deal with. I personally only sign up for things I already want and buy things I'm already going to buy. You can earn around 300 SBs if you are going to purchase a Groupon anyway by finding it through Special Offers. The best special offers, in my opinion, are the short promotional videos that offer 2 SBs upon completion. Short, simple, and they do not need any of my personal information.

#6 SB TV: SB TV consists of short videos (around three minutes each) that you watch to earn.  On the top right you will see a bar. When that bar fills up from you watching videos (once click on one they will autoplay unless you turn it off) you will then earn 5 Swag Bucks. This is limited to 15 SBs a day. But be careful, periodically they want you to enter in a "captcha" to make sure you are actually still there. This can sometimes be a fairly long process. I turn the sound off and place the computer in front of me so I can see if I need to enter the captcha, then continue to watch tv.

#7 Search & Earn: Using Swag Bucks search feature is very similar to using a Google search engine only with not as good results. It is fine for simple things but it isn't very helpful during more extensive research on a topic as search results are limited. You can search and earn easily using your handy dandy toolbar or through the main page by going to Earn -> Search at the top. To use the toolbar, just enter what you want in the text box and then click "Go Win." You will earn SBs randomly through searches. These wins can be anywhere from 7 to 50 Swag Bucks but cannot be predicted. I usually win about 3 or 4 times a day this way and my wins are usually between 7 and 11 SBs. I find that Search wins can really boost my points on a daily basis.

#8 Referrals: Referrals are exactly as they sound. They are someone who signs up to Swag Bucks using your specific referral link, banner, or widget. You can find your own referral link as well as other ways to get referrals and promote by going to the top toolbar and clicking on "Promote."

#9 Shop & Earn: I mentioned Shop & Earn in my previous post. It is simple and is as it sounds. Go to the top of your Swag Bucks home page then go to More -> Eevn more -> Shop & Earn. If your store is partnered with Swag Bucks, find it and go to it. Now all you have to do is go about your business and shop as you normally would. You will earn 2 SBs for every $1 you spend.

Now that I have told you the basics on how to easily earn Swag Bucks, what are you waiting for??? =)

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Swag Bucks - The Internet's Most Valuable Digital Dollar!

Ever wished you could make a little extra money online? Ever wanted to treat yourself to that little something extra but felt too guilty to spend the dough? Well now you can and trust me because I HAVE!!

Now you will definitely not live off of Swag Bucks (sometimes referred to as 'SBs') or even make enough to pay your rent. However you can make it through your entire Christmas holiday season without spending a dime on presents or splurge on that something extra. For instance my recent weakness is Urban Decay makeup, which goes for $17 an eyeliner! Well, I've decided I want a collection. The good thing is, I know how I can get my makeup for a lot less money out of pocket than if I didn't have Swag Bucks! There are three ways in which I can use Swag Bucks to help me save money during my shopping experience. First I can earn Swag Bucks by buying the makeup. Or I can choose to pay with Swag Bucks I have previously earned. Lastly, there is even a way to do both at the same time, costing me no money out of pocket and earning my digital $$$ at the same time.

Scenario #1 (EARN SBs): I buy My Urban Decay makeup through a store that partners with Swag Bucks. For instance, I like Ulta because they often have coupon codes that I find on http://retailmenot.com/ , and because I can earn 2 Swag Bucks for every $1 dollar I spend. Every store you see there on Swag Bucks currently offers the 2 SBs for every $1 spent. To find out where you can get in on scenario #1, follow these directions: Once you have signed into Swag Bucks you can find which stores you can earn Swag Bucks through by going to the top of the swagbucks.com web page along the toolbar to "more." Then go to "Even More." Next, go to the bottom right and click on "Shop & Earn." There you will see a text box where you can either search for your store, or you can select a store from the drop down menu. There are also choices on the side so that you can browse shops by category.

Scenario #2 (PAY w/SBs): I buy my Urban Decay through Amazon.com using the Amazon gift cards bought only with Swag Bucks. On the Swag Bucks site one of the best value prizes is the $5 Amazon gift card for only 450 SBs. Though they do offer other ones of higher monetary value, the $5 one is the best value. There are other options, but I will get more into that later. Rewards are located in the Swag Store. The link can be seen on the left hand side of your home page. You can narrow it down to just gift cards. Prizes are defaulted to list from those that cost the least SBs to those that cost the most in case you are ever having trouble locating it, it is one of the lowest costing gift cards though there are many to choose from. This way I can just accumulate enough $$$ in gift cards to cover my entire costs through Amazon.

Scenario #3 (EARN SBs and PAY w/SBs at the same time): This will cost you a few more Swag Bucks than using an Amazon.com gift card, but it gives you the best of both worlds and costs no money out of pocket. The closest way to actually getting money in your pocket through Swag Bucks is by buying  PayPal gift cards which cost 700 SBs. This way you can use the money accrued through PayPal to buy my Urban Decay through Ulta.com and earn 2 SBs for every $1 I spend while doing it. Not too bad, huh?

So as you can see, Swag Bucks has helped me out a lot and can help you, too. However, this is JUST the tip of the iceberg! I will be explaining a lot more about how to earn and utilize Swag Bucks in the near future so stay tuned!

NOTE: This blog is in no way affiliated with Swagbucks.com or any of it's partners. It represents the ideas and experiences of the author only, Colleen R.