Swagbucks preliminary thoughts

Update: Now that I have received my first payment and screenshotted it for payment proof, I have moved over most of this content to my Swagbucks review and guide. I will leave these preliminary thoughts here for historical reasons, but please see my review and guide for more updated information.

I won't be updating this to a review and guide until my first payout, in the form of a $5 Amazon gift card, finishes processing. Apparently, this process can take 5-10 days, but I have already earned the SB and am just waiting for the process to go through. Once it does, I will be able to post payment proof.

Swagbucks is a way to earn gift cards online. The way you do it is you earn SB, the internal currency, and then redeem the SB for a gift card of your choice. 100 SB is basically equivalent to 1 US dollar, although some gift cards might be discounted, and the cheapest one costs 140 SB for a mere 1 dollar gift card, so it's probably best to wait until you have at least 300 SB before redeeming them for a gift card worth $3 or more.

I believe, in theory at least, that if you got one of the Visa reward cards, you could use that to buy cryptocurrency from an exchange. However, for the purposes of my first payment proof, I am in the process of getting a $5 Amazon gift card. A word of warning for the privacy-conscious: Swagbucks did require that I verify my identity via either text message or snail mail prior to allowing me to begin redeeming my SB for the Amazon gift card.

Also, please be sure to use a password of 20 characters or fewer. I generally use very long passwords for the websites I earn on, but unfortunately this caused an error on the page for redeeming SB for an Amazon gift card, and I had to shorten my password to 20 characters.

Affiliate Disclosure: I receive referral commissions if you use my referral link, which appears multiple times on this page.

Sign up bonuses

You get a 300 SB bonus (as of January 2021) for using my referral link. However, you don't get the 300 SB immediately upon joining. You have to go earn about 300 SB on your own first, and then the 300 SB bonus for using my referral link should be applied to your count, after a processing delay. I am not certain if there is a time limit to earn 300 SB in order to get the 300 SB bonus, but I did not see a time limit when I signed up using someone else's referral link. Here's the screenshot of the bonus I received for using someone else's referral link. I registered on January 21st, and received the bonus on January 23rd.



When I signed up, I used the sign-up code "REDDIT" to get 70 bonus SB to start out with. Note that this is separate from using my referral link. You can both use my referral link and also use the sign-up code.

There is also an additional cashback bonus that you only receive if you shop through Swagbucks within about a month of signing up. There are various conditions, such as I believe you have to spend at least $25 to get the $10. I believe you need to use a referral link to get it. As of the time I signed up, it was a $10 bonus, but I have read that sometimes it is only $5. 

Surveys

I earned most of my Swagbucks for my initial $5 Amazon gift card by doing surveys. Gold Surveys, one of Swagbuck's offerwalls, seems to be pretty high-paying, and reminiscent to TheoremReach in that they award partial credit for disqualifications. I encounter rather annoying errors in a couple of the surveys, but the support was very helpful and gave me credit for these surveys after I provided screenshots and other relevant documentation.

Videos

Another way to earn on Swagbucks is by watching videos. This pays a lot less than surveys but I know a lot of people prefer it because surveys can be time-consuming and frustrating at times. Swagbucks' video offerwall - or at least the video offerwall that I tried on Swagbucks (maybe there's more than one?) is nGage. I was confused about how it worked at first. I thought it was more or less like Hideout.Tv where you just watch videos ads and all. I knew it wanted me to rate the video, but the very first video it gave me was a full length movie, so it took me awhile to watch it before I thought I was supposed to rate it. It turned out the thingy waiting for me to rate the video had timed out by then. So, apparently, what it actually wanted me to do was watch the video for a certain number of seconds (it times you) and then rate the video based on my initial impressions during those seconds. Once I figured this it, I was able to earn by watching videos. Again, it doesn't pay as well as surveys, but sometimes folks just don't have the time or energy to deal with surveys.

The first video I saw -- the one I didn't get paid for because I sat and watched the whole thing before trying to rate it -- was actually quite good. It was a spy movie featuring Eddie Murphy and I rather enjoyed it.

Daily poll


Swagbucks has a daily poll where you can answer one easy question for 1 SB (the equivalent of one US penny, basically). Think of it like a daily faucet with a question instead of a captcha, worth one penny. 


You can find the daily poll from the To Do list on the left side of Swagbucks. In fact you can find a number of Swagbucks activities from the To Do list.


Searching the web

You can also earn a small amount of SB by searching the web through Swagbucks. Make sure you read the rules first though. Basically, don't search only for the purpose of earning SB, don't click on anything you aren't genuinely interested in, and stuff like that. The search results will be powered by Yahoo. The SB is not rewarded in every single search. It seems to be either rewarded randomly or based on some hidden algorithm.

As of January 25th, only a very small amount of my SB comes from searching.

Daily Goals


If you complete certain "daily goals" to earn a certain numbers of SB, you'll get bonus SB. Each day has multiple goals - a first level goal and a total goal. If you reach the first level goal enough days in a row, you can win streak bonuses. Also, the goals and rewards may increase if you complete them enough days in a row. I am a little confused on how this works, but I think the bonus SB might be applied to your account at the end of the month or something like that.

  

Swagbutton

As a new user, you should see an offer to install the Swagbutton in your browser for some SB. I decided to go ahead and do this since the extension actually did have a lot of good reviews. If you keep different browsers for different purposes (which I strongly recommend for security reasons, plus it makes it so much easier to organize bookmarks), you might want to put it in your shopping browser, since apparently it helps you get discounts when shopping online.

Coupons and Cashback


Swagbucks has a section with coupons and cashback for when you are shopping online. I didn't see anything that interested me so far, but feel free to browse this section if you are interested! I noticed that the $10 bonus I got for using someone else's referral link (and which I hope you will get for using mine, though I've read it can change over time) applies to cashback from shopping through Swagbucks. Fortunately, I have approximately a month from signing up to use it, so there's no rush.

Other offers


Swagbucks also offers a variety of other offers, some of which appear to be the same sorts of offerwalls as you see on a number of other websites. I found a few to just visit a website, with no obligation to purchase.

See also

For more ways to earn online, see these other reviews and guides by me:

Also see my list of my favorite faucets and cryptocurrency websites, some I am still testing, and other things I recommend.

For a VPN with a browser-only option, meaning you can use it for your non-earning browser or browsers but not for the browser or browsers you earn on, see my Windscribe review. Please remember not to use Windscribe in the browser or browsers you use for earning on Swagbucks or other earning websites. Windscribe is a VPN. However, it is useful for other purposes, like keeping your politics private from your ISP.

Affiliate Disclosure: I receive referral commissions if you use my referral link, which appears multiple times on this page.

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