Making Money With Swagbucks

The world of cashback sites has taken off with dozens of new companies popping up and offering monetary rewards for consumers just to shop online. The concept is simple. Instead of going directly to an online shop, you access the retailer through a link from a cashback website. You still receive your item directly from the retailer, but you also get some money from the cashback website which is often in the form of a percentage of the price you paid.

There are so many cashback sites available today. Most people are familiar with Rakuten (formerly Ebates) but if you search cashback sites in Canada you will get a number of results including Shopper Army, Swagbucks, Great Canadian Rebates, etc. What differentiates these companies from Rakuten, is that a lot of these sites also offer other ways to make money. You can get paid to do a survey, watch a video, play a game, etc. It might sound too good to be true but three months ago I joined Swagbucks and put this site to the test (I was a skeptic). Surprisingly, with a small investment of time (and actually a lot of fun) I have made over $250 in Amazon gift cards! Here is how I did it.

What is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is a free online rewards membership program. Members sign up and almost immediately they can start doing different tasks and earning points in the Swagbucks currency called SB. Essentially, each SB represents $0.01 and once members have as few as 300 SB, they can redeem the points for free gift cards or Paypal payments. The different tasks that can be done include surveys (this where I get most of my SBs), watching videos, playing games, etc.

Making Money With Swagbucks

There are a lot of features on Swagbucks but here is how I have managed to make over $250 in Amazon gift cards in three months.

Surveys

Getting paid to take surveys is probably the most popular way to make money through Swagbucks. It doesn’t require users to spend any money to make money and it is a popular way for members to get free gift cards. An average survey can take anywhere from 5-20 minutes and the payout is usually 50-100 SBs. I have lucked out a number of times with a survey that has paid 1000 SBs which equates to $10! I find myself doing surveys when I am on hold on the phone, sitting in an Uber, trying to fall asleep, etc. You control the time commitment and some of the surveys have actually been fun!

Scanning a Receipt

Swagbucks pays its members to scan receipts from places like grocery, convenience and drug stores. To make money by scanning your receipt, you need the Swagbucks App and from there you snap a picture of it. The payout is 5 SB per receipt but there are days when I scan 4-5 receipts based on the errands I ran that day.

Shopping Online

I typically use Rakuten when I shop online and want to make cashback, however, I have noticed that Swagbucks has some Retailers that are not available on Rakuten. For example, this year I bought a lot of Christmas presents from Sporting Life and I used Swagbucks for cashback since it was not an option on Rakuten.

Swagbucks Live

Swagbucks Live is an online trivia game that takes place every weekday at 8pm EST except Friday which is at 3pm EST. It does require a separate app but all you have to do is join at 8pm and there is an announcer who goes through 10 multiple choice trivia questions which you answer on your screen. You get 1 SB for each question you get right but there is also a grand prize of $1000 every night that is split amongst all the winners. I have won a number of games and my earnings have been anywhere from 20-80 SBs depending on how many other people have won. It’s hard to make a lot here but I participate more because it is fun and my husband and I compete against each other. 🙂

Other Tidbits

In addition to what I covered above there are other ways that also payout. For example, you get rewards for hitting certain SB milestones on Swagbucks, you can earn bonus SBs by hitting a target they set for you daily, you can play games which payout, and more.

Redeeming SBs

There are a few ways to redeem SBs. You can can redeem to Paypal or redeem for gift cards. It is important to note that that you can’t redeem for cash or a cheque in the mail. Okay, here is my secret. I only ever redeem my SBs for Amazon gift cards. Swagbucks gives you 25% off if you redeem for certain gift cards such as Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, etc. This means that you essentially only need 1875 SBs to get a $25 Amazon gift card as opposed to 2500 SBs! That is like paying $18.75 for a $25 Amazon gift card…you get a bigger bang for your SBs!

Conclusion and Incentive

I was definitely a skeptic about making money with Swagbucks but after three months I am sold! It is a legit site and if you are comfortable using sites like Rakuten then this is no different. I have bought most of my Amazon beauty purchases this year using gift cards from Swagbucks which has been a pleasant surprise! If you are interested in signing up and trying it yourself, I am including a link below which gives you a 300 SB bonus once you hit your first 300 SB. Enjoy and good luck!

Click here to sign up and make money!