A while back I wrote about just what a swagbuck is. At the time I hadn’t earned enough bucks to get any Swag out of the deal and to be perfectly honest with you I wasn’t entirely convinced of the usefulness of the site. It turns out you can really turn those bucks into cash. Figuratively anyway. I recently converted my earned bucks into $15 in Amazon gift cards which I used to by a car mount for my iPhone. It was something I wanted but wouldn’t normally fork the cash over for. Here is how I earned the bucks:
1.) Straight Searching
Straight searching is the easiest way to earn SwagBucks. I have configured swagbucks.com as my default search engine in Chrome and installed the toolbar in FireFox. This way I am always using their engine to perform my searches.
2.) Referrals
Right now I have a total of 5 referrals but only one of them is really cranking out the bucks. Referrals have netted me a total of 627 swagbucks. That is five bucks for not even doing anything at all.
3.) Other Stuff
Every now and then I get a few SwagBucks for having the toolbar installed, or on a rare occasion I will pick up some using a SwagCode I found. Most of the “other” stuff takes a lot of effort that I just haven’t found myself willing to exert. I am sure i could get SwagBucks quicker if I looked for the SwagCodes everyday but I prefer to just keep on keeping on.
The fact is you can easily earn enough of these SwagBucks to convert the pretend money into tangible objects you actually want. So what is stopping you? Get out there and start earning some swag today.
So I am not exactly a big Get Paid To (GPT) kind of guy. I know I have talked about CashCrate in the past but with 72 active first level referrals I have racked up a whole $1.93 this year. GO ME! Anywho, I have been seeing a lot of people talking about Swag Codes, and Swag Bucks so I thought I would check it out.
What is it
Swagbucks.com is essentially the MyCokeRewards of the search engine world. They incentivize search by rewarding you randomly with Swag Bucks. This isn’t the only way for you to earn but it is certainly the easiest and least invasive in your normal web browsing life. Like a rewards program you collect points called Swag Bucks and trade those points in for items of value whether it be an Amazon Gift Card or a DirecTV Poster. No really you can get a DirecTV poster, I don’ t know why.
How You Earn
Like I already stated, the easiest way to earn Swag Bucks is simply to make them your default search engine and do your regular searches using it. Very rarely do I find myself frustated and needing to actually switch over to Google to find my answers. It is really the only way I have been earning Swag Bucks and I have manged to amass 647 of them in just over a month. That isn’t the only way to make some extra “bucks” though, here are a few more.
- Complete Offers – Much like CashCrate you can complete offers to earn “bucks”. This is where you can really get into the “bucks” but you are going to be signing up for things and handing over your credit card on a regular basis. Offers include things like Netflix, Identity Guard, CreditReport.com, and related type sites.
- Shop – Like Upromise you can earn rewards when you shop online by using the Swag Bucks shopping interface to start your shopping. You get 2 Swag Bucks for every $1 you spend but that may not be worth it if you are getting a good chunk of change through Upromise.
- Trade In – Through Flipswap they will take your old cell phone and “reward” you with some Swag Bucks. Sounds good but check out gazelle.com and flipswap.com directly to see how many real bucks you can get for your electronics. Odds are the real cash value is better than what you will get through Swag Bucks.
- Referrals – Like any true GPT site you can earn by referring your friends. You get matching swag bucks for every friend you refer up to 1,000 per friend. The matching is only based on points earned doing searches but it is still free points.
Overall Thoughts
Like any GPT site it is all about them making money off of you, the thing I like about this is that I am earning Swag Bucks just by doing what I normally do, searching the web. I have managed to rack up 647 points in a little over a month. That is just through searches I would have done anyway. Right now I can cash that 647 in for a $5 Amazon gift Card and still have some leftover. So I essentially made $5 doing what I was going to do anyway. I could probably make earn more points if I try harder, but that takes time and I don’t have a lot to throw around. If you are interested pop over to SwagBucks and sign up to check it out.
There comes a time in everyone’s life where they just need to unload some stuff. As we exist we collect things, things we need, thing we needed, and things we never wanted. At some point you are going reach critical mass on the things you don’t need and those you never wanted. When you reach this point you may just start tossing stuff in the garbage, don’t do it, as the saying goes “One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure.” If you don’t throw it away you are going to have to decide how to sell it. We are going to look at four ways you can offload your unwanted stuff.
Garage Sale
A garage sale is the easiest way to get rid of your stuff for some cash. We had our first garage sale over this past weekend and raked in close to $300. The key to garage sales is traffic and negotiation. Unfortunately my wife was more interested in getting rid of the stuff than turning a large profit so we didn’t do as good as we could have. When you are prepping for your garage sale just go through your house and pick up everything you don’t need anymore and put it in a pile in you garage. As you are collecting your items decide how much you want to charge for them and put small stickers with the price on each item.
As I stated earlier the key to maximizing your gains in a sale of this type is just shear numbers. The more people you have come through your sale the more likely you are to sell most, if not all, of you items. The types of people who frequent garage sales are varied and given enough traffic you can find buyers for even the most obscure of items. Start out by placing advertisements on Craigslist or in you local paper to run the day before and the days of your sale. The craigslist ad is free and effective although the local ad is likely to drive more traffic to your sale. On the day before your sale set out poster board signs to direct garage salers from major roads into you neighborhood/sale. To maximize the effectiveness and the draw of your sale talk to your neighbors and see if any of them are willing to participate on the same day. This will help you cut advertising costs and increase the likelihood of having a great turnout for your sale.
Craigslist (craigslist.org)
As you go through your stuff looking for garage sale items you may come across two or three bigger ticket items that you know people would be willing to pay more than your average garage sale price for. These kinds of items are perfect for listing on Craigslist. Craigslist is essentially a free online classifieds listing that has a specialized site for most urban cities in America. You can post ads on Craigslist for just about anything you want to sell.
The key to being effective when you are trying to sell something on a site like Craigslist is to be as descriptive as possible about the item you selling. Be honest and say if the item doesn’t work or has some nicks and by all means include photos of what you are trying to sell. There are plenty of people who will shops sites like this and only stop to read the ad if the seller included a photo.
Donations
This isn’t exactly making money but it sure could be a tax write off for you depending on the amount of stuff you end up donating. Take all of your decent and working garage sale left overs and just donate them to GoodWill or other local charities. At least this way the items are out of your house and someone will get some good use out of them.
Freecycle (freecycle.org)
Freecycle is the sleeper in the junk eradication department. The premise behind Freecycle is that instead of throwing something away see if someone in your local community may want it first. This includes just about anything. I have personally gotten rid of a non working lawnmower and a wooden pallet by using FreeCycle. You have to become an approved member in your community and then you can post items you want to get rid of and people will contact you to pick them up. People give out anything from baby clothes to broken tools. You can even look for things you may “need” that are being given away by other members of the community.
Photo: (DNoman)
