Like everyone else, I enjoy a little something for nothing. Whether it’s food samples from a warehouse store, or a free pile in front of a neighbor’s house, free stuff always adds a little excitement to my day.
I had been reading Angela from Frugal Living NW rave on and on about a search engine called Swag Bucks, and finally went to take a look for myself. I signed myself up to give it a trial run and see what all the fuss was about.
Here’s what I found — Swag Bucks is a Google-like search engine that randomly rewards you with points that can then be spent in the Swag Store. Points can also be earned when you online shop through their site, as well as a number of other ways. (Although I do next-to-no online shopping.)
So I started doing my online searches through Swag Bucks in January and have already earned $25 in Amazon gift cards, which I’ll use to buy the 14 piece Pyrex storage set, (as seen in my Amazon store to the right) that I’ve been pining after. Yeah . . . I know, I’m the life of the party. Woo-hoo!
I have looked at other online sites that offer free stuff in exchange for doing surveys (mysurvey.com) or viewing advertisements, (mypoints.com) and found that I was getting around 1¢ per minute of survey work, and remembered that I actually hate looking at advertisements. (What kind of Non-Consumer Advocate would I be if I enjoyed looking at ads anyway?!)
This graphic will show up if you "win" any swagbucks.
What I like about Swag Bucks, is that I’m earning points doing something I would be doing anyway. Is their search engine comparable to Google or Bing? No. But most of the time, I don’t need all the bells and whistles. Most of my searches are to find the phone number or address of a business. Simple stuff.
The fine folks over at Swag Bucks have given me a code for new users to sign up with, which is:
“COINGIRL”
This code will give new registered users 60 Swag Bucks, which is 30 more than usual. To give you a sense of what that’s worth, a $5 Amazon gift card costs 450 Swag Bucks, (SB) and most of the successful searches win you 10SB at a time. (Make sure to use all capitals, as it is case sensitive.)
I know this kind of reads like an advertisement, but it isn’t. I am receiving no compensation in exchange for this column.
Click here to register and take advantage of this offer.
If anyone wants to be referred by me, (you can still use the code) send me an e-mail at nonconsumer@comcast.net and I’ll send you an invite. This will expire on March 17th at midnight PST. (Full disclosure — this does benefit SwagBuck users to refer friends.)
Do you have an online site you use to get free stuff? Please share your faves in the comments section below.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I recently joined and have been pleasantly surprised that I earn points searching for compacty things. I thought maybe I would only get points if I was searching on items to buy, but decided to try it anyways. But swagbucks chi-chings points for searches on recipes, replacement parts, and used curriculum!
I joined Swagbucks after watching ladies on several blogs I read use it all last year. I joined just after Christmas and have $50 waiting for me in my Amazon account! I’m saving for a new digital camera as our old one only works when it feels like it! I would advise loading their toolbar to make it easy to remember to search with them. I search for the blogs I read daily (such as this one) and earn between 10 and 50 bucks per day.
However you are receiving additional swag bucks for everyone who signs up under coingirl and for the searches they do so this is in fact a commercial for an affiliate marketing type program.
Nope. I get nothing from people signing up using “COINGIRL,” and I deliberately am having people have to e-mail me if they want to have me refer them.
I’m just passing along something cool to my readership.
Very little benefit to me.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
The Non-Consumer Advocate
mea maxima culpa, katy. Thank you for clarifying.
For some reason, I have a negative gut reaction about SwagBucks. But I really don’t have anything to base that on, so I’m going to try it for a while.
I have a mypoints account and they give you points for using their search engine, too, not just for looking at ads and doing surveys. If you do a certain number of searches a month you get a certain number of points. I’ve been way too busy lately to keep up with it, but was happy to get a $10 LLBean gift card from them when I was using the account…
I haven’t bought anything or taken any polls on swagbucks. I have just used it to searches that I would normally do (like how to make an edible model of the earth) and have earned swagbucks.
I like this idea, how is it determined that your search was successful?
Whether you get awarded any Swagbucks seems sort of random, but an icon will pop up with a “Buck” if you’re successful. You can’t miss it.
Katy
I love Google Chrome BUT to get a little ‘swag’ I’m going to try Swagbucks out.
I’m a new reader to your blog and I love all your tips and researched ideas on saving money.
I tried mypoints.com. Yep, I was “earning” about a half a penny a day and getting hit with so much spam I could have canned it.
Swag bucks does sound quite cool! Thanks for the tip Katy