How To Make Money On Swagbucks – Is It Worth Your Time?

Swagbucks Review

Name: Swagbucks

Website: https://www.swagbucks.com

Price: Free to join

Co founders: Joseph Gorowitz & Scot Dudelson

Owners: Prodege LLC, An Internet Media Company owned and set up by the founders, based in El Segundo, CA

Overall Rank: 6 out of 10

Swagbucks Overview

Part of my review will be about how to make money on Swagbucks and is it worth the effort. After you read my review I will let you come to your own conclusions.

Swagbucks is a free to join rewards program. It was founded in 2005 by Joseph Gorowitz and Scot Dudelson. It has evolved into a major corporation through partnering and acquiring other companies like the online polling company called SodaHead.com. This was originally set up to provide polling technology to ESPN, Fox News and Good Morning America.

In 2013 Prodege LLC appointed former Shopzilla and Fandango CEO Chuck Davis as the company’s Executive Chairman. As you can see, Swagbucks is serious about getting eyeballs in front of its clients online entities that earn it advertising dollars. Part of these earnings are distributed as rewards to willing participants.

In the early to mid 2010s it has won several business awards. It has a A+ rating by the Beetter Business Bureau. You can learn more about the history and evolution of Swagbucks on Swagbucks Wikipedia.

Swagbucks allows you to earn points, called Swagbucks, for things you do online or on your phone, naturally. You need to use the Swagbucks Search Engine to earn these rewards. It’s powered by Yahoo, which in turn is powered by Bing.

Here are some of the online activities that will enable you to earn Swagbuck Points:

• Search The Internet
• Shop At Your Favorite Store
• Answer Surveys
• Watch Videos
• Play Video Games
• Find Great Deals

The theory is you do these things anyway, so why not earn Swagbuck Points (SB) that you can convert to gift cards as well as cash into your PayPal account? Remember, all these activities must be accomplished via the Swagbucks search engine.

How Does It Work

Here’s how it works. When you perform the activities above using the Swagbucks browser, you earn Swagbuck points (SB).

For example, when you watch six videos you are credited with one SB. Sometimes that may be 2 SB if there is a promotion. When you search the Internet, you can earn random number of SB depending on what you do. There is a daily poll where you can earn one SB for taking it. You can also earn SB for doing surveys.

Trial discounts and special offers reward you with SB when you take advantage of them. There are video games on the platform that you play in exchange for SB.

When you shop through the shopping portal at stores like Amazon, Walmart, and others that are listed, you earn cashback ranging from approximately 2% to 6% of your purchases. This benefit is in addition to earning Swagbucks.

Swagbucks also has a program called Swagbucks Local where you can earn cashback when you shop at locally assigned stores and restaurants using your registered credit. The cashback rewards you earn are automatic.

When friends sign up through you,10% of their SB earnings are credited to you for life.

There are also Daily Bonus SB that you can accumulate if you exceed certain earning limits or complete a basket of assigned tasks.

You can find out more through this Swagbucks Link.

How Much Time Is Necessary To Earn Swagbucks?

It all depends on the activity you are doing. Typically, when you spend anywhere between a few minutes to 20 minutes on an activity like surveys, it is possible to earn between 40 to 100 SB.

This is definitely not a get-rich-quick or get rich slow program. It is great to earn money at times when you are stuck in a line or feeling bored and want to use your smart phone to keep you occupied.

Realistically it could take about two weeks of activity to earn enough SB to convert it to $50. You also got to be careful not to earn too much as you could be deactivated.

Cash Out Options

Swagbucks can be redeemed for gift cards to stores like Amazon and Walmart. Or you can have the points converted to cash and deposited into your PayPal account. One Swwagbuck point is equivalent to 1.11 cents. For the purposes of this discussion I will round that down to a cent.

In some instances SB can earn you gift cards of value higher than its designated dollar equivalent. It appears there is no hard and fast rule regarding the value and type of the award you can qualify for. When you are in the program you need to check out the details of whatever activity you plan to do to find out what the actual rewards are going to be

Pros & Cons

Pros

Although you cannot get rich using the Swagbucks Program, you might as well be earning something while you are in line in the supermarket or a bank. You can use your phone’s Swagbucks browser to check out products, take surveys and even make purchases through the store portal of this platform, thereby earning cashback.

When you are working hard on your computer and need a break, why not play a video game and earn some SB! Activities like shopping online as well as in local stores are things you do as part of your regular life. You might as well earn or save money through Swagbucks.

There seems to be a variety of options available to earn gift cards, and cash.

A new method of earning SB has been introduced through their movie watching option. Hence, if there was a movie you wanted to watch anyway, you might as well earn SB by watching it through Swagbucks.

Cons

The biggest issue with Swagbucks is the length of time it takes to earn anything meaningful. It is OK when you are able to use dead time to earn SB. But what if you had a goal to earn specific amounts of SB? Are you willing to spend all the time necessary ton do that?

I have read horror stories of people having their accounts deactivated. Or being shipped gift cards they didn’t order and SB points automatically deducted for that purpose.

Worse yet. When customer service was contacted for assistance, they got no response.

The fact that there are so many variables out of your control makes earning SB a hit or miss affair. Sure, money is paid out, but there are cases when it is not. Swagbucks often finds arcane reasons to deactivate your account.

When you do earn SB it may take several days before it gets credited to your account. And when you make a request to redeem your SB into gift cards or cash deposited into your PayPal, it may take one to two weeks for that to occur. In some cases even longer.

Unless they find a reason for deactivation, you will get paid. But not promptly.

There is a good reason for these delays. Swagbucks can earn interest on any cash credits accumulated during this delay in making payment.

When you sign up to earn points through third party sites, you have no control about dangers of your computer being infiltrated by unscrupulous organizations who may want to monitor your browsing and spending habits to bolster their own market research. Is it worth the pain and risk to expose your computer to having its security compromised?

Although this program is free to join, is it really free? The hidden value you provide to the companies who use you for market research appears to be far greater than the compensation you receive.

Swagbucks Target Market

Clearly Swagbucks is directed to individuals who want to earn money online but have no idea that there are better ways to do so. The hype on their website makes it sound so easy and exciting with all the variety of ways you can earn SB.

There is no doubt that Swagbucks does make payments. However, when you look at the average amount their members earn it works out to be significantly less than the worst minimum paying job. After a while it can get frustrating.

Do you really want to have your friends sign up and earn 10% of their extremely low earnings?

Swagbucks Tools & Training

Apart from the extensive instructions on the various ways you can earn SB and cashback, there is no formal training. The only semblance of tools is the special Swagbucks Browser.

Swagbucks Support

They do have a customer support section. When you experience a problem you can create a ticket explaining the issue. It is a hit-and-miss affair if you will get a timely response to resolve your problem, . Sometimes you will, and other times you won’t. Definitely not the best customer support you can get.

This can be extremely frustrating since the Internet is filled with stories of members who do not have their issues resolved.

Swagbucks Price Plans

Free to join. But is it really free based on my assessment above?

My Opinion of Swagbucks

I was on the edge to become a member since I could earn 10% of anyone else who signs up through my account. Earning a gift card or two in using dead times like waiting in lines seemed like a good idea.

However, when I weighed up the negative aspects of being an active member, I had second thoughts. I didn’t join. If you feel that this is an easy way to earn freebies and cash is a good perk to have, I won’t hold it against you if you decided to join.

Overall they are a hugely successful company with seemingly good intentions to do two things.

1. Provide market research data to their partners and customers
2. Provide a continuous supply of consumers to help provide this data and giving them an opportunity to earn benefits like gift cards, cash and cash back on the side.

The most valuable benefit to me would be earning cashback on purchases I was going to make anyway through their shopping portal. And having the option to earn cashback using my registered credit card in designated local stores.

However, since I am retired and not a frequent shopper, I didn’t feel the need to have these benefits. For those who are younger and spend a lot, I can see the benefits of joining Swagbucks and taking advantage of these cashback benefits.

In the final analysis you have to evaluate your own situation to decide if Swagbucks is right for you

Summary

Website: https://www.swagbucks.com

Owners: Prodege LLC

Price: Free to join

Overall Rank: 5 out of 10

Verdict

Swagbucks is legit. But not something that appeals to me. I can find more useful and profitable ways to use my time. If you truly want to earn significant money in the long term that could help you replace your job, I have a better recommendation for you.

My Recomendation

How would you like to build a website and use it to make passive income that keeps growing with time? If you answered, my next question is how would you like to learn how you can do this for free?

Let me invite you to check out my review of a company called Wealthy Affiliate that has been in business for almost 15 years and has over two million members learning and creating profitable online businesses that pays you while you sleep. This is in deep contrast to Swagbucks where you only get paid while you are active doing things on their browser.

Thousands of members of Wealthy Affiliate are building successful affiliate marketing businesses using the extensive training, support and comprehensive website services on their platform.

What dies it cost to join? Nothing! All you need is an Email address to join, No credit card requires. You can find out the details through my review: WEALTHY AFFILIATE – IS IT LEGIT?

If you like what you see, there are links within this review that you can use to connect with the sign up page.

If you have any questions about this my Swagbucks review or about Wealthy Affiliate, please leave them in the comments section below. Or you can send me an Email to:

Edwin@affiliatemarketingforleaders.com

I will respond to you promptly.

All the best to you in your quest to enhance the quality of your life.

Edwin