Swagbucks Overview

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There are a wealth of sites available now that offer rewards for clicking on pages, searching the web, entering contests, purchasing online, watching videos, surveys and other tasks and other ways to earn. Of the many that I have tried, far and away the best, and the least waste of time, is Swagbucks. Within a month of using the site I have genuinely already received 5 x £5 Amazon vouchers and this is through light use and not making a single online purchase.

The set up is straightforward and using the site incredibly simple. You need to give basic personal details to set up an account including an email address. For this I set up a new address to use in anticipation of the huge amounts of spam I would invariably receive. To my surprise, this hasn't actually been too bad and is mostly limited to emails from sites I've signed up to.

The site is fun and enjoyable to use. Other similar sites can be quite bland and usually functional and plain. Not so with Swagbucks - this is lively and entertaining and makes the site fun to use. There is a menu at the top of the screen with dropdown options for how to navigate through the pages. This includes different pages for ways to earn (which I'll come to later), setting options and other menus such as referral choices. On the home page you will find news updates and direct links to some choice new earning activities, often a link to a video to watch. Alongside this is your progress meter for how many points you've earned in a day.

In Swagbucks, you don't earn money but Swagbucks that are points that can be redeemed for prizes that include goods such as video game consoles or vouchers for retailers such as Amazon or even cash through Paypal but for the latter the exchange rate of SB to $ is worse.

Each Swagbuck is worth $0.01 (or £0.0059) based on the exchange rate for Amazon and many other vouchers they have on offer. These come in a minimum quantity of $5 or £5 (849 SB) depending on the territory you are in. Paypal pays slightly less at one Swagbuck being worth £0.0048 and again pay at a minimum of £5.

Racking up points is easy and can quickly be done by the following methods.

Searching

Simply by searching the internet through their site or though their customised toolbar, you can earn Swagbucks. By using the latter, you automatically earn 1sb each day by opening your browser. The search engine is pretty good although not quite as comprehensive as Google in terms of the searching options (e.g can't search by 'shopping') but for simple word searches it works well. I have found that on occasion the search result page won't load and gives an error message. This aside, it works fine.

On average you can earn from about 3 searches per day if you use the engine for genuine searches. I don't think these are necessarily based on specific search words but are more arbitrary. Earnings per search are usually 7-10sb but can on occasion reach into the 20's or even 30… on very special occasions, even higher. There seems no rhyme or reason to it so better not to try and second-guess or tactically search. Genuine searches will earn you bucks.

Watching Videos

This can be done 2 ways: watching TV clips on various subjects from entertainment to comedy to news items, or watching ads. The former isn't that lucrative - you need to watch in their entirety 10 clips to earn 3sb. These clips can range in length from 0:30 to a few minutes. Often they'll have a commercial before them too. It's a slow earner but can be watched in the background whilst doing something else. Be warned though, there is a limit to the number you can watch and any too frequent viewing might alert Swagbucks to become suspicious that you are a robot and your account could be closed.
More lucrative is watching commercials. I have found that there is usually 10-15 per day earning 1-2sb each in most cases, occasionally more. These videos can be found on the home page but also in the special offers section (more on that to follow) so it's worth checking both. Some ads can be as short as 0:20 but others 4 mins plus. Again they need to be watched in their entirety to earn (although sometimes it can credit a little before the end).

Daily Poll and NOSO

These are really easy ways to earn. By giving your opinion in the single question daily poll you can earn 1sb. NOSO just requires you to click through some offers to the end and you'll earn 2sb. An easy no brainer!

Special Offers

This is a section where marketing companies offer various ways of making more Swagbucks. These often involve signing up for a competition or something 'free'. These can earn often 20-30sb each so a good little earner but be warned, in exchange you are giving away your personal details. I have found that I've not been swamped by junk emails, junk mail or calls as much as I would have thought but am still wary. I don't do ones requiring a mobile number but am considering getting a free SIM card and putting it in an old phone and giving that number. I have also set up a specific junk email account, which I think is worthwhile. As yet, I haven't received anything unwanted through the post. It's more the fact that you are giving away personal data that would concern me but if you're happy to do this, then you can earn considerably.

Also in this section are other ways to earn that often include downloading a free bit of software or adding something to your Facebook account. Similar to the above, I have set up a specific Facebook account purely for this purpose. It generally works fine although some require you to have a minimum number of friends for it to work. 

              

Surveys are a big part of the special offers with many available through each company. These again range in length and earning but will discuss surveys more later.

Finally there are purchase offers that work like most other cashback sites although rather than cash you get points you can exchange for prizes.

Surveys

If you like surveys, you'll love Swagbucks as there is a plethora available ranging in earnings and length - the lowest paying start at around 20sb but go to 70sb or occasionally even higher. There is also the Swagbucks daily survey that you get invited to participate in which earns a flat 70sb for each completed.

Surveys I find are a blessing and a curse. When they work and are quick, they're a great earner. The main problem is the number that reject you after you've already answered a number of questions because you don't fit the criteria. I'm eternally suspicious of this and would love to see stats as to whether the answers you give before rejection get used for anything. Occasionally it feels like a scam because you get rejected from so many but if you are willing to persevere, one will eventually accept you. I take issue with it on principle, but occasionally do them and they can earn you some quick bucks!

Games

Swagbucks has a huge amount of games available and by playing them you can also earn nominal bucks. I’ve found this takes a lot of effort for little reward but if you’re bored and like playing games it’s probably worthwhile but you’ll only accumulate a handful.

Daily Goal Meter

Swagbucks likes to reward loyal users and to that end they have introduced the daily meter. This offers you a bonus if you reach a certain goal of swagbucks in a day – the bonus is usually around 10% and the target is often manageable ranging from 40-100+.

Swagcodes

Most days, Swagbucks will publish online somewhere a code that can be redeemed for bucks. This is often through their Twitter or Facebook but there are also sites that publish them too. They usually have a time limit and can be territory restricted but get there in time and they can earn you 4-9sb each time on average.

Referrals

As with all these kinds of sites, you can also earn through referring friends – send them an invite and if they join and participate you can earn equal of their earnings up to 1000 SB.

I have tried and tested many of these sites and this is by and far the best of the bunch for ease of earning and entertainment. As mentioned at the beginning, within the first month I cashed out 5 times with £5 Amazon vouchers each time (bare in mind they limit cash out of the same item to 5 per month). The voucher came through within a week on each occasion and I’ve experienced few issues. On occasion I have submitted a task and it has not registered but I have found these to be few and far between and in the majority Swagbucks get credited within minutes of completing something.

As with all of these things, it will never substitute a full time job but for a little extra and for a bit of fun, it’s definitely worthwhile and one I can highly recommend.

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UK Only - Make Money From Musicmagpie.co.uk

Here's a smart way to make an extra buck or two. All you need is to live in the UK and have a smartphone. You may already be familiar with musicmagpie and you may already have tried to shift a number of CDs, DVD's or games and received 30p for them because they are popular titles? With a little effort though, you can actually make money from the site.

I've found this only really works with CDs and you need to have a bit of music knowledge for it to work... or to save time at the very least. Many charity shops in the UK sell CDs for £1 or sometimes even less. By downloading the musicmagpie app onto your phone you can scan barcodes in shops and see what Magpie would offer you for the title. The trick is to hunt out the things that look obscure. Anything populist isn't going to make anything but I've found small independent releases can sometimes fetch £2+ as can smaller label classical music releases. It's a bit of trial and error but can make you £10's if you invest some time and know what to look for. The most you can make from musicmagpie on 1 x CD is £3.00 but find the right disc and you can triple your money.

Please bare in mind that musicmagpie can take a month for the money to come in. Discs also need to be in good condition with few scratches for them to accept them. Also any artwork needs to be undamaged (and this includes holes or lines through barcodes).

If you find a few shops that reliably stock good CDs then money is there for the taking.

musicmagpie.co.uk - Any good?

Musicmagpie.co.uk is a website where you can sell any unwanted CD's, DVD's or games. How it works is that you enter on their site the barcode for the CD or DVD and they give you a price for the disc which ranges from roughly £0.30 - £3.00 depending on the disc. Once you have 8 discs you wish to sell to them you can submit your order. Musicmagpie will send you a postage sticker, you package the discs and send them back using the repaid postage. Assuming all is well and they are happy with the condition, they send a cheque in the post for the total amount.

To date, I have 3 orders with musicmagpie and can offer a mixed report on them all. The first thing I will say about the service, is that this is not quick money. The labels take around a week to arrive in my experience if you chose to have them posted and then, because they are through a special shipping system, the package can take forever to reach the destination, and likewise for you to receive the cheque. If you do chose to get sent the postage by email, I have found that 1 in 3 emails seem to go missing and you have to chase them to get it resent.

So, of my 3 items, with each set the postage took a week to arrive and then a further month on average to be processed and for me to receive the cheque which duly came. They also offer a bank transfer or M&S vouchers. The bank transfer is not really any quicker than receiving a cheque and I have no use for M&S vouchers so haven't tried that.

So, would I recommend this service? It depends if you're in a hurry for money and the kind of collection you have? If you are and you want to shift a lot of Westlife, Robbie Williams or Dido CD's, don't bother. You will get measily money for them and it will take at least a month for the cash to come. If you want to unload some more unusual selections, you can often get between £1.50 - £3.00 for them. I sent some of what I would call cheapish jazz compilations and got between £2 - £3 each for them. Some I only paid £1 for. So in this respect, it can be good. The delay in receiving payment is the only down side.

Customer service is usually good and if you send a question you'll get an answer within 24 hours. Discs have to be in good condition and packaging intact before sending. I have heard of others not getting paid for inadequate goods and as far as I'm aware, if they're not happy, they won't send it back either so will be lost for good.

In conclusion, if you're happy to wait for the money then this can be a good service. I'm not sure how regularly things 'go missing' and I am slightly worried for my second package as it's gone very quiet. If anything changes, I will be sure to update this review with words of warning.

Website: musicmagpie.co.uk (UK only)