Swagbucks Challenge - Conclusions

So, as promised in my last post, in which I shockingly unsurprisingly revealed I hadn't won the Swagbucks blogger challenge, here are my conclusions about my Swagbucks experience.

Firstly, the referrals work best if they become active users, and are restricted to 1000 per referral. In a way, it's a pyramid because as more people sign up, people further down the chain are going to find it harder and harder to get referrals.

Secondly, the surveys. I wasted quite a lot of time trying to get surveys to work and kept getting thrown out after answering a few questions, with it telling me they had enough people or I didn't fulfill the criteria. Also, some of the surveys wanted you to sign up to them and I have to say that a lot of them had a very spammy feel to them in terms of the sites they were from and how they looked. I got burned by this a few years ago when I started comping and a lot of them just looked to me that they would generate a lot of spam. I therefore found it very time consuming for little reward.

Thirdly, the swagbucks you can earn for searching are not awarded for every search you make. They are assigned at random, a bit like a raffle, and sometimes, you could do tons of searches and not win any swagbucks. Interestingly, searching for "give me some flipping swagbucks" generated some. And it's no Google. I wouldn't mind using it if it actually gave me the results I wanted but sadly, I had to revert to Google a number of times. Potentially getting a few swagbucks - I don't think I won more than a few - doesn't make up for the time wasted entering your search on two different search engines.

My biggest problem, however, is with the special offers. OK, now I know that they would require you to do something, but by far the biggest earners all required you to join gaming or gambling sites, and usually deposit money. In other words, you have to spend money to get Swagbucks. And whilst you could say you have a chance of winning more money, we all know that the chances of that are pretty small or the sites wouldn't exist. It is this that leaves me feeling most uncomfortable about the whole thing. People don't have a lot of money and may get carried away without thinking it through.

I rapidly came to the conclusion that to make your Swagbucks balance really work for you, you need to have a lot of friends who become equally active, and you need to be prepared to spend a lot of time chasing down the various ways of earning more. (I haven't even covered the tasks which require you to check results on Google, which is effectively working for Swagbucks, or the videos to watch, all of which have an ad at the start, and you need to watch 10 before you earn 3 swagbucks). You need to be savvy about which offers you sign up for and decide if they are indeed worth it and exercise a certain amount of caution. If you are a super savvy shopper, you might want to consider whether you are getting the best return from shopping via Swagbucks, or via cashback sites, as the rate of return vary considerably and a cashback site might give a better rate, especially when you consider that Swagbucks are a virtual currency and when you convert to freebies, you'll get substantially less as you need 849 points to get a £5 gift card.

I have to be honest with you, I'm not sure if I can recommend my Swagbucks experience to you. It feels like, to me anyway, that it's great for those who are into extreme money-saving and have the time to devote to it. I am neither of those things, I like to see results faster than Swagbucks offered me and a little less effort, and so it's not for me.You also need to be super-careful that some of the fastest ways to earn Swagbucks are not costing you more than you would gain in converting your Swagbucks to stuff. So, that free stuff might turn out to be not quite so free after all.

Swagbucks Challenge - the results

Well, you may remember my previous posts about this. I was taking part in a blogger challenge to see how many Swagbucks I could accumulate in three weeks.

At first view, it seemed good.

On second view, it seemed harder - lots of people signed up which would earn me Swagbucks when they earned their points. However, no-one earned any points for me so that avenue proved fruitless.

But no. There are other ways - shopping (whoops, I'd already done most of it), special offers, taking surveys, searching. That would seem great but there lies a very slow way of earning Swagbucks as you generally earn a couple of points at a time. My progress was very slow indeed.

Needless to say, I haven't won the challenge. I did better than some but nothing like as well as others. To be honest, I didn't really have the time that you need to devote to earning Swagbucks at a decent rate.

Still, I have a reasonable stash which I will turn into something useful.

In a day or two, I will blog my conclusions on Swagbucks and whether I will continue to use it in future.

Swagbucks - Limping along

Since I last posted, it's been a busy week. I've been busy getting ready for Christmas, I went to a wedding Friday and I found out on Thursday that my mum has been rushed to hospital after developing a severe bout of norovirus that has affected her heart such that she has fluid on her lungs and that's giving her breathing difficulties. Combined with the usual busy lifestyle that we all lead - with the children who have the proper social life, I just chase after them - these things have all conspired to combine to mean I haven't progressed as much as I would like to get earning more Swagbucks. I have actually got over 5,500 swagbucks after I won a few swagbucks doing their searches, and signing up to a few offers.

I have had no referral points though - if you have kindly signed up using my referral link here, (or have just done so, in which case, thank you!) please note that in order for me to earn points, then you do too so please get searching, shopping and watching videos. I have watched a few videos to earn more Swagbucks, but since then, I haven't had the time to spend time watching them. I tried doing a few surveys but everyone I tried was full and didn't need me so I'm guessing you have to be quick or find a better/different way of earning your swagbucks.

Like I said, I've been busy so I'm limping along. If you'd care to help me, the best way is to sign up using my referral link and start earning yourself.

Go on, you know you want to.

The Tots100 Swagbucks Christmas Challenge - a call to arms!

Every now and then, I agree to get involved in something on this blog and then think, "Uh oh, what have I let myself in for?" Today is one such day; I'm sure I'll be fine but I need your help. Read on!

I am one of the twelve bloggers who has agreed to take part in the Swagbucks Christmas challenge on Tots100. The challenge is to see which blogger has earned the most points between now and 14th December and the person with the most points will win a £250 gift card.

Swagbucks is pretty new to this country but has been around in the US for about 5 years. You may have signed up to similar schemes in the past (I know I have) - it's an online loyalty scheme. It lets you, the user, earn points - or Swag bucks, as they are known, surprisingly - by doing the sort of thing you'd normally do online - watch videos, play games, searching, looking at and buying products. You can then trade your Swagbucks for items from the Swag Store or gift cards to be used at online retailers.

Over the next three weeks, I'll be posting about how I'm getting along with the challenge and providing you with tips to boost your own Swagbucks haul.  This is where I need your help. Everyone who signs up for Swagbucks using my referral link earns me Swagbucks. Not only that, when they start earning Swagbucks, I do too - so this is how it differs from previous loyalty schemes that I have used, which can be quite slow to accumulate a decent balance. So, if you'd like to earn some Swagbucks and help me at the same time, just click here and get registering.

My current balance is 39 points, which is, to be quite frank, pitiful. This is why I need you all to sign up via the link above. I promise you that it's easy and it's free, it's safe and it's legal. And who doesn't want to score some free stuff at this time of year? The potential to earn more points just from doing your Christmas shopping has got to be huge. Saving money as you shop has got to be a good thing at the most expensive time of year.

Keep your eyes peeled for more updates on here, Twitter and Facebook over the course of the challenge.

(As part of this challenge, I will be given extra points to boost my balance.