Swagbucks: The Guide

It is no secret that I’ve been raving about Swag Bucks, but some people still find it confusing, are worried it is a scam or aren’t able to make the most of what Swag Bucks has to offer, so I thought a guide showing what I do to earn SBs might be useful.

I am the last person in the world to download new toolbars onto my internet browser, but this toolbar is great if you’re trying to earn SBs. You earn an initial amount of points for installing the toolbar, then 1 SB per day when you use your browser. It includes handy links to the search bar (more on that in a moment), tells you your SB balance and provides handy links for earning or redeeming SBs. If, like me, you find yourself sometimes staring at your internet browser with nothing to do, having this toolbar can lead to a few extra clicks to earn some SBs. I found the toolbar works well with Firefox, but in Chrome it keeps refreshing the page I’m currently on.

Watch videos (mostly celebrities) and for every 10 videos you watch you earn 3 SBs. You can see your bar filling up on the top right of the screen, and you don’t even have to reach the end of a video to fill the bar another 10%. You can watch each video as often as you like. Once you’ve filled the bar then a pop up will alert you to the fact that you’ve earned 3 SBs.SBTV is limited to 75 SBs per day, or 250 videos.

Daily Poll
Vote in the daily poll and earn 1SB per day. The polls are usually American-themed (as seen below with a Thanksgiving poll) but it takes a few seconds to vote.

Daily Survey
Found on the home page, or sometimes a link in your inbox, there is a daily survey for 70 SBs. These surveys can be from a variety of sources, including Toluna, and being screened out happens a lot. Some days I have to attempt 7 surveys to get one, other days I complete my first survey in 10 minutes. This is limited to one per day via this method.

Surveys
Found under earn>Trusted surveys. Here you’ll find a list of available surveys for you to complete to earn SBs, as well as some shorter profile surveys to top up your balance. There are also surveys located in Special Offers>Payment Wall but I find these tedious and I never manage to complete one and be rewarded my SBs. Another good survey is often found in Peanuts Lab regarding consumer goods for 60SBs. This is there most days.

Inbox
Special tasks appear in your inbox on a daily basis. At the moment I’m having to view a video, click an advert and then answer whether the advert took you to the correct site, or links to videos or special offers that are applicable to you.

Referrals
You can refer friends by providing them with your unique referral link, sending them an e-mail via Swagbucks, posting the link on Twitter or Facebook as well as other unusual methods (such as sending your friends a spoof e-mail). The great thing about Swag Bucks referrals is that they will match what your referred friend makes, meaning you can earn SBs for sitting back and doing nothing.

SuperSonic Videos
Located under Special Offers>SuperSonic or the home page, you will be presented with some videos you can watch to earn 1 SB. Videos are often posted daily and are short (usually under 2 minutes).

Swagcodes
Throughout the day, Swag Bucks launches special codes for extra points. These are usually time sensitive and can be found on their Twitter, Blog and Facebook. There’s also a new Facebook page for Swag Bucks UK which has special UK only codes. By “liking” them on Facebook you often see people posting thanks for the code, which should help you locate the code.

NOSO
NOSO stands for No Obligation Special Offers, which you can find under the “earn” tab. Click through the special offers daily (no sign up required) to earn 2 SBs per day. 

Games
You can earn up to 10SBs per day from playing games. Under earn>games, after each game you play, click on “back to game details” . After doing this twice you will earn 2SBs, up to a maximum of 10 per day.


Tasks
Tasks is a really difficult area for me to write about, simply because I’ve never got on with them. The idea is that you do a simple task first to make sure you understand the requirements, then get SBs for doing things like categorising Twitter users or locating something on a certain website. I can’t seem to get anywhere with the tasks though, and I seem to do countless tests and never get marked for them and never progress.

Special Offers
The special offers sections of Swag Bucks has lots of great offers to earn you SBs. Offers include free trials (remember to cancel!), 5-8SBs videos in Peanut Labs, or signing up for lots of competitions (perhaps using an email address you’re happy to receive lots of emails to) to name a few.

Daily Bonus
Swag Bucks has recently been setting daily earning targets with bonuses for hitting your targets. The current daily bonus target is the carnival’s Test Your Strength where if you hit your target you receive 10% of those SBs on top, as well as more for hitting your target for the duration of the promotion. I love having a daily target and it really spurs me on!

Prizes
Now on to the good stuff! Knowing how you can spend your SBs on Swag Bucks. The shop is full of great products for you to buy. My favourite is 849 SBs for a £5 Amazon voucher, and I seem to be able to redeem one of these per week, sometimes two if I’ve been very lucky. Alternatively, 1,049 SBS gives you £5 via Paypal. These are just two of the prizes available from the Swag Store.