Using Swagbucks (And Other Point Programs) To Earn Gift Cards

Today is one of those mainly lazy at home days. I'll go out this evening and make ham and cheese sliders for church (pictures and instructions later). And at some point I'll go ride the bike for at least a half an hour. Other than that, I'm doing a little reading, a little sewing, a little writing-and planning my next two days of cooking for the large bake sale this weekend. Let's just say that more than one pumpkin recipe will be included. And  yea, my camera will be with me through all of the process.

There are more than a few ways to make a little casual money in retirement (without getting a real job or starting a real business). Mystery shopping via app or phone calls, running videos, taking surveys, the list is, while not endless, pretty long. The best way to get started on this journey though, is with a large point program like Swagbucks, or InstagGC  So in this missive I'm going to share some of the ways to do that. 

Since I know that other readers and bloggers know at least as much about this as I do, feel free to jump in, correct me, or add additional information at will. In order to not make this so long that you feel you need to run from the room, after the info, I'll share what I personally do on Swagbucks and how and why. Then I'll give a very short summary of things that others do successfully but I do not, as well as those things I am not sure are worth it. Got that? I'll follow up later with a more intensive post as needed and am happy to answer email questions and lengthy comments if required.

First though, because I'm me, I need to share what I mean when I talk about various types of earnings. Passive earnings are those things I can mainly walk away from-videos that may need to be checked occasionally while I am doing my around the house stuff to see if they are still running, a phone running while a TV program is on, or that kind of thing. Partially Passive earnings for me are those things I can do while I am doing something else. I can do surveys while I'm watching Mindhunter or a football show. I compare these to taking my knitting to a meeting and church. Active earnings are those times when I sit down for no more than an hour to do nothing but work on the computer. And finally there is that large group of things that I do because I am doing something else. This group includes scanning receipts and getting rewards for normal shopping, being paid to do a mystery shop/audit while in a store (an offer recently to photograph a display while I was in Walmart comes to mind) and a host of other things that probably need to be divided into different categories.

Many of these (not all) can be done through a site like Swagbucks. Put simply, Swagbucks is a website that is also a point program. You earn points for doing a large variety of things-from watching videos to searching online to doing surveys to even playing games. These points are then redeemed to gift cards, with a point being a penny, and five hundred points being worth five dollars.

Now, gift cards versus cash: I'll say here that I personally prefer the gift card option to the cash option, however, almost all websites give you the option of Paypal cards and at least one (Amazon Mturk) will transfer to your checking account .  Within that gift card option I choose almost exclusively to go Amazon first, and Walmart second. The Amazon is, I suspect, obvious. I live in one of those rare locations where the local Walmart is the equivalent of an updated Target Superstore and travel to places where Walmart has gas stations, hence the Walmart option.

Signing up for Swagbucks is fairly simple-you need a valid email, and that can be your "family" email or a different one. Whatever you use to sign up, use that specific one for the things you do through the Swagbucks portal. They do have a rule of one account per household, as far as I know. For those who wonder about safety, I have never had an issue. I do have a separate Yahoo address, but that's more about keeping my Comcast email for friends and family than anything else. And frankly, I don't get the spam you might think even though I also do that particular email address for some freebie and reward sites.

Since this is my personal SB page you'll see my daily goal, my inbox, and my current earnings (after I cashed in for a gift card-I usually cash in as soon as I have earned 1000 points or ten dollars).You'll also see the "search bar" in the left hand corner.

On the sidebar, at the bottom of the website, you'll see both a tour and a basic "how it works" tutorial. It's worth checking that out. Above that, you will see the various options for earning points which include shopping, surveys, games, watching videos, searching and the like.

 Once you've created an account, up on the top of the page you will see the following things:  The daily goal of points that Swagbucks has suggested for you (along with the extra points you will earn if you make said goal), a place to enter Swagbuck codes, and an email portal where you may find offers specific to your interests (or not). It's important to know here that if you meet your goals for a week, 14 days or a month, you can also earn additional points. Also, once you reach said daily goal, there is a secondary goal, should you wish to aim for it. My basic goal for today is 50 points with a five point bonus and my secondary goal is 99 with a ten point bonus. That's without the added points for making a weekly goal (25), 14 days goals (100) 21 days of goals (200) and every day of the month (300).  So you see how those goals really add up.

So. What do I personally do on Swagbucks? Remember these are not all the options, and not even all the good options. This is what I choose to do on SB every day (mainly) with the time I have available. I also belong to other websites and in fact do my evening survey time over at InstaGC (more on that later).

• I use the toolbar (or the screen in the window above), to do all my searches. SB search is enabled by Yahoo. This CAN earn me as much as 600 points a month-but I do a great many searches on a couple specific creative and travel topics. Your reward may be less.
• I buy gift cards I would normally use through Mygiftcardsplus.com and earn Swagbucks. Again, only for things I would use. I look at this as being akin to those of us who buy gift cards for gas at Kroger to get 4x fuel points. In my personal case, I have two that I use regularly and others that I use semi regularly. My book group meets at Panera and I usually hit it for breakfast additionally once a month so I buy Panera gift cards (and load them onto the Panera app so I can also get rewards and freebies). My local movie theater is AMC and since all my readers know by now that I am a movie goer, I purchase those and do the same re the app and rewards). I recently also got a Bed, Bath and Beyond GC to purchase that immersion blender we talked about. And my family is more than happy with printable or digital gift cards, so the holidays will increase my earnings. 
  
• I do the little checklist at the side of the page. This includes answering a poll, watching a single video, using the tool bar and attempting a survey. This is not passive but takes a few minutes a day.
• I do any online shopping through the Swagbucks portal and earn points. Obviously this depends on your comfort level with online shopping. I only shop at places that have brick and mortar stores and in store return except for Amazon. (I am blessed to be able to order clothing from two places and know that they will fit).  To give you a couple examples: One of my very few expensive habits other than good shoes is really good face cream (yea, I'm one of those with really dry, really sensitive skin for whom Olay or Ponds do not work).  I order online via Macy's get the rewards and pick it up in the store at my convenience. I have also been known to order my monthly shopping needs (face wipes, chapstick, socks, whatever) online at Walmart and pick up in the store-again earning rewards.
• I do daily deals and daily offers. Again, this one depends on your comfort level. I have purchased something off Swap.com for free shipping and gotten points. I have tried a one month free trial of Blue Apron and gotten points. I have tried out Hulu free for a month so I could watch The Handmaid's Tale and gotten points. The trick here  obviously is to write down on your calendar when these free trials expire, and only do things that are not free for things you would like. I have also gotten one month paid subscriptions as gifts this way, for example, from Barkbox. This would fall under active earning times. My most recent endeavour was a free trial of Stitch Fix (not impressed, more later) for which I earned a thousand points or ten dollars.
• Because I have a smart phone, I have downloaded the seven mobile apps that play mobile videos and earn at least a minimum of 70 SB each day while they run. I do this almost every single day,and often earn bonus points for doing this one. Once in awhile I may get an "are you watching" hint, or have to x out an ad. But yesterday it remained next to me during my three hours of sewing, just as an example, and kept earning, earning, earning.

And there you have it. The basic things I do every day to earn buckaroonies on Swagbucks. Most of them are done casually and passively, either while I am doing something else or when I am needing to do something I would already do normally. For those who are wondering about the fifty thousand dollar question, my daily minimum goal that I set for myself is to get 100 SB per day. Most days I do that and more. On a really sick or busy day? I settle for the first goal. Does this sound like much? Perhaps not. But this is not the only thing I do, and all of these things are completely passive and not time consuming. My little dollar a day is $30 monthly, and with those bonuses can easily be $50 a month-or more! Obviously some months are better than others, for example I'm doing much more shopping and gift card buying now than I might be doing, say, in April.

Now to be clear, this is not the only list of things you can do on SB, not even the only passive things. You can also:

• Do surveys, as many of my blogging friends do. Again, I simply do them elsewhere. Mainly because surveys are done through portals and I don't want to be kicked off a portal for entering it from a different website. Surveys can be the ways to earn the biggest rewards in the shortest time, so I don't want anyone to think that because I don't do them they aren't worthwhile. Because believe me, they are. Semi passive if you do them while watching TV, visiting or whatever. Surveys can range from 30 points to 150 points and from five minutes to 20 minutes. 
  
• Watch TV on your laptop, or do "encraves" (also a type of video) on your laptop. Mainly passive, with occasional check ins. You could earn up to 150 Swagbucks a day in a mainly passive fashion by doing this.
• You can play games, most of which are free and some of which are not in order to earn points.
• You can search for points on social media if you subscribe to their posts on FB, Twitter and the like-and many of these codes can be decent sized
• You can enter sweepstakes if you are very very brave.

And there you have it. My very quick, down and dirty tutorial about how I earn money via Swagbucks. Since I've mentioned InstaGC as well, we'll talk about that at a later date. For now let's just say it's a fairl similar program without all the shopping options and buying options for earning points-and where you set your own goal!

Did I answer questions? Do we need to go deeper by types of earnings? Do we need more information?  And if so in what general area. Feel free to ask questions as much as you need to, as often as you need to. And share opinions, as often as you need to or want to.