From the Swagbucks Blog:

Swag-B-Q Team Challenge

The Swag-B-Q Team Challenge begins Monday, July 11th at 8:01am PDT/11:01am EDT and ends at 12pm PDT/3pm EDT on Friday, July 15th! Don’t come empty handed though, we want you to bring an empty stomach and a big appetite! In the meantime though, please RSVP because pre-registration is OPEN!

All members who participate and contribute at least 300 points to their team’s total will receive a SB bonus in the form of a SB Swag Up Rebate! Members of the 1st place team will receive a 40 SB Swag Up Rebate and members of the 2nd place team will receive a 20 SB Swag Up Rebate. Your SB Swag Up Rebate will be made available on Friday, July 15th and will expire on Sunday, July 31st.

Advanced Tips For Earning With Swagbucks

If you're like me you have things to do, and are always trying to make the most out of your time online. I have found a way to earn a lot with minimal effort with Swagbucks. While for me I've been doing this while job hunting, this could easily be done while paying bills, watching Netflix, doing homework or just surfing the web.

I always try to make sure that I reach my first daily goal every day if possible, as this becomes an additional 600+ SB per month between the daily goals adding up and the monthly bonus for getting all 31 days. Don't worry too much because there are also bonuses for hitting smaller marks like 7, 14 or 21 days. By using the different tips I have in both of these guides you should easily make both goals every day.

The mobile apps are crucial to earning quickly and in the guide I outlined before there is great explanation on how to get the most out of the apps. I wanted to add another tip though. I bought a couple of cheap pre-paid phones from Kroger for $10, which allow me to run apps on them, including the Swagbucks TV apps, in order to earn money and not tie up my own personal Smartphone. You do not have to pay for a plan; just set it up on your home wifi and run the apps mentioned. A weekly published list of the best phones available can be found here. Just click on "cheapest devices of the week."

I mentioned NCrave and Watching videos before. I use 3 tabs at all times for Swagbucks, I recommend you mute them all, as it makes no difference to earnings. In the first tab I run watch. You only have to watch these videos until the check mark.(generally 40 seconds or so)

On the second tab I run NCrave which can be found under the watch tab. I recommend using Chrome for this. You will have to check back often, to advance it, but remember if you're moving away from the page, you can only do Ctrl+Tab(or Ctrl+Shift+Tab) to move away, and your mouse must be on the main part of the screen, otherwise the timer will not count down. Early in the year is a little tougher to get good amounts on these, but later in the year you will be able to get much higher amounts through Ncrave. This used to be easier and more automatic. Instead of always doing this, check under sponsored videos, I recommend the all you can eat and the guy with a laptop for 2 sb. Both can add up quickly.

The third thing I do is toolbar tv. You can technically play this from the Swagbutton, but I find it easier just to start from here. These playlists often require you to click on each new video, but sometimes will auto advance. 20 videos equals 3 SB. You only have to wait for the bar to advance to click on the next video.

Shop and earn. Swagbucks will pay you a percentage of what you spend on certain sites including Amazon, Ebay, JCPenney, Groupon, Living Social, Kohls, Walmart, and many other sites. Some sites, including Amazon, will limit the items the cashback will apply to.

Discover can be a big benefit in earning. This section includes hundreds offers from 1 SB to thousands. From my experience not all of these pay out. If you have issues I recommend you make sure you have proof (take a screenshot by using "printscreen" and saving the image) and contact support about these issues. Make sure you know the amount for the offer, and who it was through (popular ways to earn, Peanut labs, Radium One, etc.)

Surveys can be found in the Answer section. I try to finish at least one 50 SB survey every day if I can. These can be discouraging, though, as you can get disqualified or they can fill up quickly. If you run out of gold surveys you can always do more under Peanut Labs.

I love using the Swagbucks search engine to make money. I outlined how I make more in this guide.

Always be on the lookout for swag codes, they are posted almost daily, most can be found on Facebook.

I encourage you to check out the Facebook group that has over 20,000 members and the subreddit for Swagbucks to get extra help. Offers that credit are posted there on a daily basis.

Time sensitive tips:

Check out this guide to other offers you can complete quickly.

You can have multiple people in the same household with accounts on Swagbucks. Me and my wife have accounts, and I use one of the phones for my apps, and she uses one for hers. It is against their terms of service to have more than one account per person, so don't even try it.

There are always events going on, check their blog for the most recent events

Just remember to not get discouraged and if you are feeling burned out to take a break! I hope these tips help you in making a little extra money with Swagbucks.

How to Earn Gift Cards and Cash By Changing Your Search Engine

If you don't have a lot of time, but want to make money doing something you already do, consider changing how you search.

The first site I would suggest you start with is Microsoft Rewards (through Bing). Bing gives you 5 points for every searches from your computer you perform (150 points a day) and bonus points for completing quizzes and other simple tasks. 10 points is equal to about $.01. You can also earn bonus points and do an additional 20 searches for 100 points on your smartphone every day. With a few extra tasks this adds up to about 28 cents per day and takes  me 2-3 minutes max to complete. A tip for doing this quickly: just go to Bing's home page, and at the bottom there are a series pictures of the top news stories of the day. Click each picture until the stories are done.

This also helps you keep up to date on the major stories of the day as well which is pretty nice. I find it easier to try to set a specific time each day and just knock it out very quickly. I don't recommend making this your default search engine, as you are limited on the number of searches you get credited for. Amazon gift cards start at 550 for $5 (475 once you reach gold status). You can sign up here.

In an earlier post I mentioned how good Swagbucks is at making additional money. If you make Swagbucks your default search engine, every now and again you will get a search "win" which will give you anywhere from 5-15 SB ($.05-$.15) and more during bonus times each month. I normally can get 1-2 search wins a day which over a week can really start adding up. One of the secrets I use is that I search the major sites I visit every day through the default search engine, and then save the search results pages as bookmarks. Each time I go to visit those links it's an additional search. Think of every time you open up your email, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Netflix, maps, Youtube, etc. is a search you could be performing and earning money on.

Just today alone I've already made over 20 SB ($.20) just for going to the sites I visit normally every day. You can learn how to default your search engine to Swagbucks here. Use my link here and use the sign up code "RSWAGBUCKS" to get an automatic 70 SB ($.70). Swagbucks pays out in gift cards (as low as 300 sb for $3 gift card) and PayPal (2500 for $25 sent to your PayPal account)

I have tried a few other sites, including GiftHulk and Inboxdollars, both of these can be easy and consistent to use, if you know what you are doing and are both worth trying out.

Gifthulk prefers that you don't do repetitive or continuous searches. Payout for searches is instant and can be quite good. So if you search 5 or so times a day it's a quick way to earn a bit of money. This site has a good amount of other offers, surveys, and a good watch that can help you bring in money on the side. Also make sure to do the daily guess a card. Make sure to sign up with my referral link for a bonus!

Inboxdollars requires that all searches are new, and gives you a bonus for doing searches 4 days a week($.05). They only pay in check, which can be nice the payout threshold is $30. With a referral link, you get $5 just for signing up! Additionally you get paid emails which net you .02 per email you confirm.

Overall these sites can really start adding up. I get at least 2 $5 amazon gift cards per month from Microsoft Rewards. With Amazon's subscribe and save we have been able to pay for some of the basics we need every month using Amazon gift cards. The cost is fairly comparable on the major brands. If you're a college student, this could be a way to pay for some of your books, or dorm needs. Bing also has other gift cards including  Xbox Live membership, Hulu membership,  Gamestop,  and Microsoft store. As always if you know of someone who is looking to make a little money to make it by, feel free to email them this article or share it with them on Facebook and Twitter.

Birthday Bash Team Challenge Best Tips to Win!

Team Challenges can be amazing times to earn. Often there are more swagcodes and earning opportunities than normal during these times. To celebrate their 8th year, they are hosting a Birthday Bash Team Challenge.

From the Swagbucks Blog:
Ever since Swagbucks was launched 8 years ago we’ve always tried to provide the best online rewards experience for you. After all, it’s not about counting your years, it’s about making your years count!

Why all this talk about counting years? Well it’s our 8th Birthday Bash and you’re cordially invited to celebrate with us!

It’s okay if you forgot about our birthday. Don’t bother scrambling for a gift either. We are strong believers in that it’s always better to give rather than receive. That’s why we want to celebrate with all of you at our 8th Birthday Bash Team Challenge!

Put on your party hats and get ready to contribute points to your teams in the following categories:
Surveys
Discover
Search
Watch
Swagstakes
Shop
Swag Codes
The Birthday Bash begins on our 8th Birthday, Thursday, February 25th at 12:01am PT/3:01am ET and ends at 5pm PT/8pm ET! We know that’s a long party but we’re feeling ambitious. We’ll try to pace ourselves, but you only turn 8 years old once!

All members who participate and contribute at least 200 points to their team’s total will be receive a SB bonus in the form of a SB Swag Up Rebate! Members of the 1st place team will receive a 100 SB Swag Up Rebate, members of the 2nd place team will receive a 50 SB Swag Up Rebate!



My tips and tricks for this. Watch is going to be the fastest way to earn. Check out my instructions for doing this the quickest way to make the most through watch on the computer. This includes watch, Toolbar Tv and NCrave.

If you want to boost your search wins I recommend following my instructions here to maximize your earnings.

Discover doesn't earn as much as watch, but if you have the set up going for max points on watch, you can move onto the discover tab and work on 1 SB offers in Radium One and Peanut Labs.

Referrals are always a great way to earn more swagbucks, not only will you earn 10 points for your team, but you will earn an additional 10% of everything your referral earns forever!

I encourage you to check the Swagbucks subreddit or the swaggernaut facebook group for more helpful hints!

Good luck!

Get Cash Back on Your Groceries Through Ibotta.

When you're looking to save money, getting the most for your cash is a must. One way I've learned to maximize my money at the grocery store is to use Ibotta. So let's get down to the details of what this site does. Right now is a great time to get started as it will give you $10 for using a referral link to sign up.

What it does: ibotta has a good selection of redeemable products, and is probably the easiest of this type of app to get started with. Rebate categories in the app (required) range from groceries to flights. I have only used it for groceries, but if you shop at stores with more expensive items, the instant rebates can be higher. ($5+)

How to redeem:

Find the product you’d like and redeem the rebate in-app by either: learning a fact, watching a video, taking a poll, or looking at a recipe (all directly from the app, ~5-20 seconds).

Buy the product at any supported store.

Scan the product barcode and take a picture of your receipt. It's really that simple. I find that it is easiest to do this as soon as I get home, so that I don't forget. This app works for me at all of the big box stores, but not always at specialty foods stores. Any brand items can mean huge savings, but don't generally qualify you for bonuses. 

Profit.

Other ways to earn: Shopping online by first going through the ibotta website (to be honest though, I’ve always found that Swagbucks and Ebates give much better percentages for cash back). 

You can also invite Facebook friends to be part of your “team.” The more team members you have the easier it can be to unlock bonuses(if your friends are already on Ibotta, it will connect you to them, and you will help each other with bonuses), which is the last facet of earning on ibotta (signing up does not in any way put us on a team, they are for when you invite your FB friends only). Bonuses are simply things like “buy vegetables twice in a month for an extra $1” or “Get an extra $10 to your account when your team’s total savings in a month reaches $40, or redeem 5 rebates this month, and your team redeems $20 total.” There are multiple levels to this, so the more you do with this app, the more you can get back

Payout: $20 minimum on Paypal  for cash, or $10 for giftcards for anything from Amazon to iTunes.

You can use this link to sign up.

The Swagbucks Team Challenge! How to Pump Up Your Winnings

Tomorrow morning starts the beginning of a new team challenge!

From the Swagbucks website:
"Starting Monday, January 11th at 8am PT/11am ET you'll be stretching those muscles and budgets on your way to a new you. The Team Challenge ends Friday, January 15th at 12pm PT/3pm ET but a resolution is only successful if you can maintain it for more than a few weeks!

All members who participate and contribute at least 200 points to their team's total will be receive a SB bonus! Members of the 1st place team will receive a 40 SB bonus, members of the 2nd place team will receive a 20 SB bonus!"

For more information and to sign up for the competition go here.

My tips and tricks for this. Watch and Discover are going to be the fastest way to earn. Check out my instructions for doing this the quickest way to make the most through watch on the computer. This includes watch, Toolbar Tv and NCrave.

Discover earns you more than watch, and if you have the set up going for max points on watch, you can move onto the discover tab and work on 1 SB offers in Radium One and Peanut Labs. I also recommend you sort by lowest to highest, as this will maximize your time and points. The lower ones require less effort and often pay out more steadily.

If you want to boost your search wins I recommend following my instructions here to maximize your earnings.

Referrals are always a great way to earn more swagbucks, not only will you earn 10 points for your team, but you will earn an additional 10% of everything your referral earns forever!

I encourage you to check the Swagbucks subreddit or the swaggernaut facebook group for more helpful hints!

Good luck!