(This post contains affiliate links – please see my disclosure policy in the footer).
If you’ve heard of Swagbucks, you’ll probably think of it as a survey site, first and foremost.
The truth is, Swagbucks is actually a lot more than just a survey site.
It offers a wide variety of different ways for you to make money and is actually more of a task based reward site than one where you’re just completing mindless surveys, which, let’s face it, are pretty drab and boring when you do them too often.
It’s definitely good to mix things up from time to time and, when you do, making money suddenly doesn’t feel like a chore!
If you like the sound of that, then I think Swagbucks probably has something to offer you.
With that in mind, let’s dig a bit deeper into what Swagbucks is all about.
Is Swagbucks Safe and Legit?
There are a lot of shady survey and reward sites out there and if you’re new to using them, you definitely need a bit of guidance on the ones to avoid.
The good thing is, Swagbucks is actually a very reputable site and is probably one of the most well known and respected sites of this nature out there!
For the sake of objectivity, you shouldn’t just take my word for it, however.
I always check out TrustPilot as a fairly reliable way of telling me if a website is credible and Swagbucks scores highly with a rating of “excellent” from 14,000+ reviews at the time of writing this:-
Swagbucks have paid out over $100 million to their members, which just goes to show how engaged and active their members must be.
It also has a A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and is therefore clearly doing something right.
In summary, I am satisfied that Swagbucks is definitely credible and swindle free!
I think you can be fairly confident that you’re not going to get scammed by using it.
Does Swagbucks work in the UK?
I often get asked this question as I live in the UK so I will answer it here given this is also a Swagbucks UK review.
The answer is YES! and UK residents can sign up here with a free sign up bonus.
Swagbucks Points System
Most survey and rewards sites now work on a points system and Swagbucks is no different.
Swagbuck points or “SB’s” are earned by completing various tasks, which I will come on to below.
The points system is very straight forward – 100 SB’s = $1.00.
Swagbuck points can be redeemed in a number of different ways. You can exchange them for gift card with major vendors like Amazon, Wallmart, Visa and iTunes. You can also exchange your points for PayPal gift cards if you just want good old fashioned cash.
If you’re feeling philanthropic, you can even purchase charity gift cards to donate money to your preferred charity.
How to Earn with Swagbucks
Swagbucks is one of my favourite reward/survey sites because there are a multitude of different ways to earn.
This keeps it fresh and a little bit more exciting than your typical survey site.
So let’s explore these various methods:-
Watching Videos
This is quite a cool way to earn side income I think, especially if you like watching videos.
There are numerous categories of video to pick from such as gardening, politics, parenting, travel, technology and even wedding videos.
This is definitely the most passive way to earn Swagbucks points as you can just have it playing in the background if you want. Perfect if you’re working on your computer and want to earn points while the videos play along to themselves.
Unfortunately, watching Swagbucks videos is probably the least profitable way to earn SB’s as you usually only get around 2-3 SB’s for around 20 minutes worth of viewing.
But if you like watching videos then why not earn points at the same time?
Shopping
Another cool way to earn points is to get paid to shop. Sound good?
Swagbucks has a number of featured stores that you can shop through on their website. When you shop at those stores you earn points for every $1 you spend.
They also have coupons that you can use at various stores in exchange for points for every $1 you spend.
Surveys
Yup, probably the most boring way to earn SB’s but one of the most lucrative.
There are 4 types of survey tasks that you can do:-
- Gold Surveys
- Peanut Labs Surveys
- Daily Polls
- Tasks
The most lucrative are the Gold Surveys:-
As you can see, with the right survey, for 9 minutes work you can earn close to around $2 or around $12 per hour. This isn’t bad at all!
The other surveys like “polls” are less well paid but are much easier as you are simply doing a tick box exercise.
Discover Offers
Another way of earning SB’s is to engage with Swagbucks offers that they have with various brands they partner with.
This might involve downloading games, installing apps, trying products, buying products or donating to charities.
These can be quite lucrative. For example you can get 1000 SB’s ($10) for downloading a game called World War Rising.
Playing Games
Probably the most fun way of earning SB’s is to play games.
Swagbucks will pay you up to 1000 SB’s to play the games they have on site.
Pretty cool!
Search Engine
Another cool way to earn Swagbuck points is to use the Swagbucks search engine.
You can put search terms into the search engine and it will bring back a number of results where you can earn SB’s from search related content.
This is normally in the form of cash back offers if you purchase something related to your search.
However, you also occasionally just get points for searching a certain search term.
For example, I searched “shoes” whilst writing this article and got 20 SB’s.
Pretty neat!
Should You Leverage Swagbucks as a Side Hustle?
Let’s be honest, you’re not going to earn millions of dollars with Swagbucks.
But saying that, I struggle to think of a more legitimate reward site or ones that’s as fun and engaging as Swagbucks.
It’s been around for a long time and has paid out millions of dollars to its happy users. This speaks volumes in my view.
The good thing is it’s absolutely free and you even get a $5 sign up bonus, which is, of course, very welcome.
Swagbucks also has an app that you can download so it’s mobile friendly too.
If you’re looking for easy ways to make money online then I think Swagbucks is definitely worth a look.
I don’t think you’ll be disappointed as long as you don’t set your expectations too high with the amount of money you’re going to earn.
However, with an hour or two a day, I see no reason why you can’t earn up to around $200 extra a month using Swagbucks – you might even have a little fun too on the way!
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Good
- Swagbucks is a legitimate website you can trust
- It offers a variety of ways to make cash unlike a lot of other similar sites
- The points system is easy and offers a multitude of ways to cash out
- It has a user friendly mobile app which improves accessibility
- It’s free
- You get a sign up bonus
Bad
- You’re not going to earn masses of money
- You won’t qualify for every survey
- You have to wait sometimes for the best paying surveys
Ugly
- I’ll be fair to Swagbucks, I haven’t found anything that ugly about it.
Swagbucks Affiliate
Another bonus about using Swagbucks is you can earn points by referring other people to the site. Simply sign up and head over to your account to start earning a small commission when referring your friends.
Joining Swagbucks
Joining Swagbucks is completely free and is a very easy and user friendly set up process.
Just sign up with your email, wait for the confirmation email, confirm and you’re away.
You even get a free $5 to start you off.
? Top Tip
If you want to get the most out of survey and reward sites, the key is to join as many as possible as they don’t always give you the best opportunities every day.
Other sites that are worth checking are:-
Survey Junkie – Up to $75 per survey and 5⭐ Rating on TrustPilot
Vindale Research – Up to $50 per survey