If you haven’t heard about Swagbucks, oh my goodness! Are you in for a treat! This is one of my FAVORITE sites online! Swagbucks is an online membership rewards program that lets you earn money for things you are already buying. You read that right – and as of 2020, they have paid out OVER $423 MILLION in rewards!!  If you aren’t getting in on this, read on to find out how you can make money using Swagbucks. 

How You Can Make Money Using Swagbucks

Many of you have asked me questions on how to make money from home to help cover expenses.  There are so many ways to do this, none of them will get you rich, but I think that you can make the most money out of using Swagbucks. 

I’ve been using Swagbucks as my search engine for about eight years. In the beginning, I was confused about how to make it work for me.  I wasn’t earning Swagbucks for my searches, and it seems to run so slow when I did search. I did some testing and found out how to get the most amount of points from Swagbucks and how to get started using it.

Get Started Using Swagbucks

If you want to make money using Swagbucks, the first thing you need to do is sign up by clicking on an ‘I have a sign-up code’ button. A field will show up for you to enter the code. This must be done before your sign up!

My Favorite Ways to Make Money Using Swagbucks

1.) As a search engine

The easiest way to use Swagbucks is as your search engine.  Simply type in your search into the search bar, just like you would in Google or Firefox. Voila! You’ve earned surprise SB. These Swagbucks don’t pop up every time, but it’s fun when they do! Then hit ‘Search the Web.’

I was really lucky and earned my SB the first time I hit search.  I usually have to search from the main search page (top picture), and then when I get to the next page have to hit the search button again (you can see this button right above the announcement that I have won the 10 SB).  You will earn periodically, I usually only earn Swagbucks once a day.

2.) Earn Swag Codes

A SwagCode is a string of text that you can get by clicking on the Swag button on the extension bar or through the app (it’s great because you get a notification when one is available!). You can find them through the blog, on Facebook, and on Twitter.  These codes can be entered to give you bonus Swagbucks. They last anywhere from a few minutes to a few days before you have to redeem them.

3.) Watch Swagbucks TV

While you’re on your laptop taking care of simple tasks, why not open up a window and run Swagbucks TV (called SwagbucksWatch) in the background?

You can also watch their nCrave channel . Find this at the top under ‘Discover.’ When you watch a list of their sponsored videos, you earn Swagbucks. Be careful: if you try to click away from the list before the timer has reached a certain limit, you will be brought back to continue watching before you can earn your bucks.

4.) Print Coupons

You can also print your coupons off from Swagbucks to earn extra points.

You can earn 25 Swagbucks for each coupon redeemed, plus one SB for each coupon printed. Imagine that savings on top of the great deals you already find shopping at my favorite store like Aldi and using my money saving meal plans.  That is pretty awesome!

While not printable coupons, under the same “Shop” tab, you will also find all of Swagbucks’ brand partners like Best Buy, Sam’s Club, Macy’s and more who offer a percentage off AND Swagbucks for every dollar spent on your purchase. You can see the list here, but imagine doing your holiday shopping this way!

5.) Polls

You can earn SB by taking their simple polls. They don’t pay you much, but by taking 2 seconds of your day, you will earn 1 SB.  You can find the daily polls under ‘Answer’ on the top menu bar.  Then click on Daily Polls.

6.) Surveys

You can also earn SB by taking their surveys. The earnings vary per survey, and the higher-paying surveys sometimes have some steep qualifications. You can still make money using Swagbucks by taking the more generic surveys consistently every day though. And the bonus is they are shorter, so it’s easier to get them done (the higher-paying surveys can sometimes take over 30 minutes to complete!)

7.) Shop their Special Offers

You can earn SB by shopping their special offers too!

If you are planning on getting flowers delivered to someone on Valentine’s Day, shop through SB and earn bucks!  Use these points to turn in for gift cards!

To find their special offers, click on ‘Discover’ and then ‘Special Offers.’

8.) Refer friends

When you share your sign up link (this is mine), you earn referral points.

The earnings eligible for the 10% referral program include the categories along the top menu bar: Shop, Search, Watch, Play, Answer, Discover.  This includes everything found in the drop-down menus such as Daily Poll, Activities, Coupons, and Tasks. Every earn on a mobile app contributes too.

You will continue to earn 10% for as long as your referral is active on Swagbucks.com, with no maximum limit.

9.) Play Games

When I originally wrote this post back in 2014 you could earn money by playing free games. In 2015, Swagbucks partnered with Game Show Network, so now, in order to earn SB for playing games, you must deposit money into your GSN account. You will get a certain amount of SB per Dollar, depending on the offer at the time you deposit your money. At this time, members cannot earn Points for playing games that do not require a money deposit.

10.) Watch Swagbucks on a Mobile device

You can download the Swagbucks app for FREE on both Android and iOS devices.  You can then watch videos in the background throughout your day!

There is no limit to the number of videos you watch per day. You will receive credit once per day for each video playlist you watch.

In fact, as I was typing up this post, I earned SB just for having them play next to me.  How is that for multi-tasking?!

How to Turn Swagbucks into Gift Cards:

You can either shop on their online store using your Swagbucks as cash or redeem your Swagbucks for gift cards. There are so many different vendors to choose from, you can check out the rewards list here.

The best deal for your Swagbucks is the $5 Amazon.com gift card. It only takes 500 SB to earn it, and it really easy to redeem.

Here are some instructions on how to order use your Swagbucks to order gift cards:

First, you need to click on ‘Rewards’ which you can see on the top menu. Then click on ‘Rewards Store’.

Then you will want to choose to purchase gift cards the $5 Amazon.com gift card.

Then click on ‘Snag This’:

You will then need to go to your email and verify that you actually purchase it.  Then it takes 10-14 business days to be added to your account.  They come as a code that you can enter directly into your Amazon.com account.

To pick up your Amazon.com gift card and receive your codes, click the dropdown under your name.  Then choose ‘My Gift Cards’, and you will be able to see all of your Amazon.com gift cards.  Swagbucks sends you an email to you when your gift card has been deposited into your account, and you have to log into your account to get the code.

If you have never joined Swagbucks before, you can sign up and earn 1000 SB immediately when you head over to the Swagbucks store and earn 25 SB on a qualified purchase within your first 30 days.

Here is a list of how you can easily earn Swagbucks points each month and then redeem those for gift cards!

1. Print 50 grocery coupons each week before your shopping trip: 200 SB
2. Refer a friend (300 SB bonus per referral): 300 SB
3. Have your referral add the SwagButton: 100 SB
4. Watch video sets every day for 7 days: 450 SB
5. Answer 5 surveys a day (average 40-200 SB per survey): 3,600 SB
6. Complete the daily poll every day for a month: 30 SB
7. Join using my link and make your first qualified purchase for a bonus: 1,000 SB
8. Add the SwagButton to your Chrome toolbar or other browser toolbar: 25 SB
9. Redeem 2 Swag Codes: 100 SB.
10. Use the Swagbucks search engine daily: 200 SB

There are always different ways to save depending on special offers and deals, the number of referrals you might get, the number of surveys you might take, and more. These tasks are all tasks that can easily be done while multi-tasking or sitting at your computer for work.  Once you do it, it gets easier and easier.