Saving my online earnings at Swagbucks-Making and Keeping Resolutions update.

I last cashed out at Swagbucks in December for Christmas gifts. Since then I have earned enough for another $20 in Amazon.com gift cards, plus some! Not too bad, considering I do it almost all by myself. I have one semi-active referral that helped (thank you Mel!!).

What the heck is a Swag Buck? (You can also click on "Paid To Search" under Categories to learn more)

At Amazon.com I can enter all of my gift card codes into my account, as many as 5 at a time (I think) to use for future purchases. Because I have a limit to the amount I can enter at one time I am cashing in at Swagbucks periodically so that I can save as many as possible before I need (or want) to make a purchase.

So my SB account balance is going down, but I haven't wasted it! I am either saving for a Steam Cleaner or birthday presents. My daughter Amara's birthday is this month so there isn't time to order anything for her. But I haven't found anything for her that is worth it on Amazon anyway. I have found some really cool ideas for Zachary and his birthday is in July, so I have some time to figure out if I want to use Amazon for him or not. If not, Steam Cleaner it is! I really really want it. Though I am having trouble deciding which one I really want because there are so many to choose from. I have decided that I want one primarily for cleaning the non-carpeted flooring in my house, with the option to do the carpet and fabric as well. And to also be able to get into hard places and really clean anywhere I want. The particular one in my wish list is the best one I could find for the price. If anyone has any experience with it please let me know.

The important thing is that I am sticking to my resolution and I am saving!

Saving my online earnings at Gather-making and keeping resolutions update.

Well, we are almost done with February and I am happy to say that so far I have been successful! This is an update on one of my favorite sites, Gather. Gather is a social site for grownups that caters to everyone.
This is a site for the serious or casual writer who is looking to share their work or get feedback. It's for the artist- the photographer, painter, the videographer and everything in between. It's for the mom or dad who wants to interact with other parents. It's for people who like to play games. It's for the people who love a good deal, want to find the best coupons and bargains and enjoy freebies. It's for people who want to find others like them.
Gather is a place to publish in writing, in pictures and in video. You create a profile page where people can write you a message, where you can share what's on your mind and tell everyone about yourself (all of this is optional). You can make friends, start and join groups, comment and more. Gather rewards your activity with points which can be redeemed for various gift cards and/or Paypal payments. For many people, the friendships and fun you have on Gather can outweigh the benefit of the points.

At Gather I have earned 1,399 points (since December 15, 2008. I have redeemed $130 in gift cards and donations since June 2008). I can cash out for a few different $10 gift cards (Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, CVS and others) there for 625 points. I need 1,565 to get to the next cashout level, $25- under 500 points to go. When I reach that level I have the option of getting Paypal and even more gift cards for stores like Target, Home Depot, Amazon.com, Macy's and others. You can also redeem your points at 3,125 ($50) and 6,250 ($100- though you can only do Paypal at this level).

I actually have decided that it would be best for me to opt for Paypal because I signed up for the Paypal debit card with the % cashback when you shop, which means getting even more out of my free money. I haven't read all of the details about the debit card and what purchases are eligible but I think all purchases made get the cashback. Then, if I want to earn more on my purchases I can use sites like MyPoints, Big Crumbs, Swagbucks and others to get even MORE cash (or points) out of my purchases.


Pretty cool, huh?

I just won 20 Swag Bucks in a contest!!

The Swag Bucks team had a contest on their blog: Guess the score for 20 Swag Bucks

on January 7th. The contest in short:

Tomorrow night is the BCS College Football Championship game featuring the Oklahoma Sooners vs. the Florida Gators. As if there wasn't enough hype around the game already, I'm going to give 20 FREE SWAG BUCKS to anyone who guesses the correct final score!!

So I figured I would give it a try and see if I win. Couldn't hurt. I e-mailed them the score Oklahoma 14 Florida 24.

I kind of forgot about the whole thing then. I knew it was happening soon but I couldn't remember when. Since SB has introduced all sorts of new ways to earn Swag Bucks in recent weeks I have been checking things out more often so today I checked out their blog and saw that they had announced the winner. I got a flutter in my gut when I read it as if I knew I needed to see what it had to say. And sure enough...Winners of the BCS Score Contest. Here is a little blurb:

Why is Tim Tebow so excited? Because loyal Swaggernauts Lorri L. and Alexandra K. (THAT'S ME!) each just won 20 FREE Swag Bucks for beating The Swag Guy's Challenge and correctly guessing the final score of the BCS national championsip game: Florida 24-Oklahoma 14. He's probably also happy because he just won a National Championship :)

So I won! It was VERY exciting! I have enough Swag Bucks now to get a bunch of things but the two best ones are a $5 Starbucks gift card or a $5 Amazon.com gift card. This time I think I will wait though. I trust them enough now to hold on to my Swag Bucks for a while and maybe get something big...or just cash out a bunch of $5 gift cards all at once.

Since joining Swag Bucks on March 30, 2008 I have received 7 $5 gift cards and a t-shirt. Not bad for a short period of time! This is my most successful paid to search site that I use. I actively use 3 different sites for my searches and they all reward in some way.

Want to search and win too? Sign up free at Swag Bucks or click the banner:

This is a good way to start off my birthday weekend!

I Don't Search for Free.

And neither should you!

Why would you search for free when you could win prizes or earn money to search the internet. I belong to a handful of "paid to search" sites. Some of them randomly give out points (or their currency of money) when you search, some pay per search. Most of them give you entries into contests for every search you perform.

My favorite is Swagbucks. At Swagbucks you search and they randomly give out "swagbucks" that vary from 1-5. It might go higher than 5 but that is the highest amount I have ever won. Every buck you win can be redeemed for prizes. If you search daily you will likely win 30 or more swagbucks every month. Prizes can be redeemed starting at 6 Swagbucks, though the amount changes with promotions. Right now they have a bunch of baseball cards that are mostly 10 swagbucks. 6 Swagbucks will get you a $5 e-certificate to a site called Overdrive Electronics. A $5 Amazon.com gift card is 45 Swagbucks and a $5 Starbucks giftcard is 50 Swagbucks. These amounts can change from time to time. They have tons of prizes under 100 Swagbucks and more are added all of the time. If you are not impatient, like I am, you can save for a really big prize like the WII Fit for 1200 SBs, the PSP for 1600 SBs and much more. I use Swagbucks for my homepage so that I can search everytime I get on the computer! I have redeemed 253 Swagbucks to date and currently have almost 40 SBs ready to cash in. I have primarily choosen Starbucks gift cards but have also picked out one Amazon.com gift card. I think this time I will try to save a little longer, especially since I now trust this site to pay!

Next is My Search Funds. MSF pays money for every search. They pay in pounds instead of dollars. There are two ways to use MSF to earn money. You can set your search box to be MSF. That is what I have done. Once I have won my Swagbucks for the day I move over to MSF to make some money. You can also make it your home page. Since I already have my homepage I don't use this option. The most I have made in one day at this site is .44 pounds. (sorry, I don't know how to get the symbol). Mostly I only do a search or two a day. So my earnings there are pretty slow. This site also has some fun gadgets, especially if you want to make it your home page. You can customize it to show a variety of things like news, currency converter, blogs, games and more. I have set mine up but it would be more worth it if it was my home page.

Stay tuned for more of my favorite search sites!

Always remember that you must follow the terms of every site so that you do not violate them and lose everything!