ADDED Invitations, Daily Deals, Surveys, Tasks: SwagBucks 3.0 – How-To Get Started & Earn Tons of SwagBucks!

Posted on March 15th, 2010 @ 10:46 am by Spamgirl

I happened to see an article on the new SwagBucks 3.0 yesterday and decided to take the plunge! I spent most of the day exploring and learning, and I’ll let you know what I found out about getting TONS of SwagBucks:

1. You get 30 bonus SwagBucks for signing up right now!

Click here to sign up, which is the first step to getting FREE STUFF

2. They have a ton of rewards for both Canadian and US stores, which is fab! Something odd stuck out, though – why is a $5 Amazon GC (gift card) 450 SwagBucks (SwagBucks), but a $25 is 3,150 SwagBucks? Then I read the rules – you can only get 5 of the same reward every month. This means you could only get five $5 Amazon GCs or $25 total per month, and if you get thousands of SwagBucks a month, you’d prefer to get more than $25 on Amazon, so you’d like the larger denomination and would be willing to spend more SwagBucks.

3. I found a great site that tells you when SwagCodes are posted (and other SwagBucks earning opportunities) – Engineer a Debt Free Life. BE CAREFUL! You can’t post a SwagCode (or you risk your account), but you can post HINTS on where to find them

Here’s a tip: You can watch their site through their Facebook or Twitter, but I don’t check either of those often. They also provide RSS, but I’ve never figured that out. Instead, I use the Firefox extension Scan For Updates and set it to Scan every 15 minutes and Cosmetic Changes are Ignored.

4. You should also join and follow SwagBucks‘ various social networking accounts:

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

You can sign up for the RSS feed on the blog and receive an email once a day with posts, but on all three accounts SwagCodes will be posted and could only be available for a few minutes! Some are available all day, though – and I’d recommend trying anything posted “in quotes” as a SwagCode Yesterday I got 6 SwagBucks from a code posted on their Twitter, but it was hidden.

5. On the front page check out the 30 minute SwagBucks prize! Your name could be posted there at any time. I’d recommend setting a timer to remind you to check – I personally use Windows’ Task Scheduler and have it open a Notepad (.txt) file when I need to be reminded to do something. SwagBucksHourly is the twitter account which posts the winners, so you may be able to find a script or extension that scrapes that for your name.

6. Special Offers can be free and there are a ton to choose from – and they give TONS of SwagBucks! Wall 2 is brand new as SwagBucks has partnered with Offer Pal (who is also partnered with Amazon Mechanical Turk) to provide SwagBucks-earning opportunities.

DAILY POINTS! 7. You can earn 2 SwagBucks a day by checking out the Special Offers page and clicking the red “Start Earning Now” button on the left. You can skip through them all and you’ll fill in a CAPTCHA at the end to get your SwagBucks.

DAILY POINTS! 8. The best way to get SwagBucks is by searching – I win 2-3 times a day, and my biggest win was 20 SwagBucks.

If you use Internet Explorer: my recommendation is to make your home page http://search.swagbucks.com and whenever you need to do a Google Search, just click home!

If you use Firefox: you can add SwagBucks to your search bar at the top right of your browser! Click here to install the plugin (it’s the second in the list, SwagBucks.com) and then click on the icon next to the search text bar (it will probably be “sb”). Click Manage Search Engines… and then you can put SwagBucks right at the top! To open your search bar without using the mouse, just press ctrl-e and your cursor will be moved there – go ahead and type! For example, when I want to do a search I hit ctrl-t to open a new tab, and then ctrl-e, then I type and hit enter.

Another great Firefox extension to use for search is Auto Context which opens the right-click menu whenever you highlight a word. The menu that opens will ask you if you want to search using whichever search engine is currently active in your search bar, or you can select from a list. It makes searching any phrase on a page easy!

Here’s a tip: If you’d like to search a website and you normally use it’s search plugin, you can use SwagBucks instead. For example, I wanted to find the show Lost on TheFutonCritic.com to find out when it next aired. I searched lost site:thefutoncritic.com and it gave me a link right to the page! This gives you an additional chance to win and works wonderfully to find what you’re looking for.

DAILY POINTS! 9. Now you get 1SB per day that you invite your friends through social media or gMail, and you’ll also get the normal referral SB when they sign up. You can also use their promotional tools on your website, Twitter, Facebook, etc. They have a referral link and banners, email referrals, Facebook connect and a “Swidget” you can put on your blog or site. Anyone who signs up through you gains you SwagBucks!

Here’s a tip: Put the referral link and/or banner into your signature on forums you visit!

If you don’t have a website, you can check out the Swidget:

It isn’t just for getting people to sign up – they post information on SwagCodes there! Keep checking back to see what’s available, they usually have at least one SwagCode per day.

10. Signing up for the newsletter can also bag you SwagBucks! Click here and scroll to the bottom left for the link. (I signed up but don’t receive it, which apparently is a common complaint.)

DAILY POINTS! 11. They also have a Toolbar which increases your SwagBucks-earning opportunities. Make sure to check the messages from SwagBucks for SwagCodes.

12. You can shop online and earn 1 SwagBucks for every $5 spent! If you have anything to buy, buy through SwagBucks!

13. Bought a new cell phone recently? Trade in your old one for up to 3,000 SwagBucks! You can also trade in iPods, video games, and video game consoles. Shipping is FREE in the US, but citizens of Canada or the UK need to pay to get the phone there… but it can be worth it!

14. Submitting a poll idea can bag you 10 SwagBucks if they like it! eMail poll ideas to SwagBucks, and good luck!

15. If you’ve been a SwagBucks member for a while and have received your reward, email a photo or video of it! You get 10 SwagBucks for sharing what you’re enjoying thanks to SwagBucks.

16. Tweeting the best Twitter Tuesday Phrase That Pays can bag you up 50 SwagBucks for runner-up, or 500 SwagBucks for being the winning phrase – check out the Blog on Tuesday to see what the theme is, make sure you’re following them on Twitter, then tweet something witty with @swagbucks and the topic included. If your tweet is chosen, you win a prize! You can also suggest a topic for the next week’s TTPTP by eMailing The Swag Guy (and yes, you get 100 SwagBucks for your topic being chosen.)

17. Akin to the TTPTP, suggesting trivia questions also bags you SwagBucks – as does participating. Every Thursday @swagbucks posts trivia questions which you can earn SwagBucks for being one of the first to answer correctly (50, 75, or 100 SwagBucks). To suggest a trivia question, eMail The Swag Guy – if it’s chosen you get 100 SwagBucks as a reward.

18. What is Swago? “It’s the Swag Bucks version of Bingo! When you redeem items from select categories on Swagbucks.com, you’ll automatically receive a Swago game piece. Connect any 5 pieces to win 1,000 SwagBucks! Look for the Swago icon on the prize description page to know if that item qualifies you for a game piece.”

DAILY POINTS! 19. A daily poll gives you 1SB for answering.

DAILY POINTS! 20. Swagbucks TV lets you watch videos and earn SB. (Canadians: Entertainment videos are viewable here, but avoid the Food category as they won’t play.) At 67 seconds of watching a video you will receive 10% on the SwagBucks Meter (meaning once you get your 10% you can drag the marker to the end of the video and move on to the next) which, at 100%, gets you 5SB. NOTE: at 50% and 99% you sometimes must click a button to say you’re still watching. Be careful!

DAILY POINTS! 21. Swagbucks Games earn you points randomly for playing for free, or if you pay to enter a tournament and win you get a SB prize.

22. Earn 10 SwagBucks for every coupon you print and redeem at your local grocery store! NOTE: US ONLY!

DAILY POINTS! 23. Surveys give you 1 SB every day just for visiting, and more for completing a survey.

24. Daily Deals are Groupon offers – so you get the discount AND SwagBucks!

DAILY POINTS! 25. Tasks are simple jobs you can do for a few SwagBucks. If you’re bored, have at it!

Rewards: Now when it comes to reward time, you have two choices: redeem your SwagBucks for an item (they have all sorts of things, both actual items and gift cards) or enter a Swagstakes. Swagstakes are contests you spend your SwagBucks on to enter, and either are limited by number of entries (if they get # entries, the contests closes and a winner is chosen) or by time (just like normal sweepstakes).

Search&Win Sites: There are multiple sites where you can earn and redeem SwagBucks. For a list, click here.

My recommendation is, if you’re just getting started, read more. How It Works, the FAQ, and Winning Tips are the best places to start.

Need more help? Check this blog post for a list of SwagBucks’ contact email addresses.

Do you have a tip, trick, or SwagCode? Please share it in a comment!

Tags: amazon, free, gift card, paypal, sign-up, Swagbucks, swagcodes, swagstakes, sweepstakes, win
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