Review: Swagbucks – Get Rewards for Searching
Posted by Jon Lee in Reviews, tags: ask, google, money, prize, review, scour, search-engine, swagbucks
Swagbucks is very similar to a search engine I wrote about a while ago: Scour, the social search engine. I received some comments and e-mails from readers noting that Scour, although they do pay you to search, has a payout that is so low that it wasn’t worth the effort. I agree with this, in fact, after almost a year of use, I just managed to just reach the first $25 payout level.
I wanted to find another search provider to make better returns on my searches and I found Swagbucks. What’s not to like about getting free stuff from something you do anyways?
How it works
Swagbucks is primarily a search engine that is powered by Ask! and Google so you know the results will be relevant. By using their site, you can earn “Swag bucks” which can then be redeemed for prizes, gift certificates, or as entry into contests. There are a few ways you can get Swagbucks:
- Searching - for every search query through their site, you have a random chance to win anywhere from 1 to 100 Swagbucks. After using it for a few days, I’ve already accumulated 15 swag bucks.
- Swagcodes - occasionally (around once or twice per day), the Swagbucks team will post a hidden Swagcode somewhere on their site (usually their blog). Enter this code into your account and receive a couple of free easy swagbucks but these codes expire after a while.
- Trade-in your stuff - if you have an old cellphone or console system/games lying around, you can send them in and they’ll give you swag bucks in return. You won’t be getting a great return for them but if your phone is just sitting around collecting dust then why not make a few swag bucks?
- Shopping – Swagbucks has an online shopping mall with many online retailers. If you purchase something from one of them through their affiliate link, they’ll give you 1 swag buck per $5 spent. With large retailers like Apple, Wal-mart, and Footlocker, you can accumulate swag bucks pretty quickly! They also offer a lot of exclusive coupons too all of these retailers.
- Referrals - If you refer a friend, you get an equal number of swag bucks that they earn from searches! Feel free to use me as a referral.
What you can get
You can start redeeming stuff with as little as 3 swag bucks. There are numerous things you can redeem for but the most popular seem to be the following:
- $5 Amazon.com gift certificate (45 swagbucks)
- Various sweepstakes entries (1 swagbuck)
- Comic books of all types (30+ swagbucks)
What the future holds for Swagbucks
I know of many people that have already received small rewards but I don’t know of anyone saving up enough swag bucks for a large reward yet. Even if you simply cash out for $5 gift certificates, you should be able to accumulate $15-20 per month very easily just from searches alone.
It will be interesting to see how Google-powered search engines will hold up against new upcoming search engines like WolframAlpha which has the potential to become a threat in the future if they choose to extend beyond being a knowledge based search engine.
Sign-up Bonus
If you use this link you can get a bonus 3 Swagbucks for signing up just to get you started: http://swagbucks.com/refer/bonus
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