I think it’s time to address a recent addiction of mine (and Panda’s).  About two months ago, he got wind of this site called Swagbucks, which I had actually signed up for two months before that.  Basically it’s a search engine (powered by Google and Ask) that rewards you for using it by giving you points, or Swag Bucks.  The exact algorithm for deciding who gets Swag Bucks when is unknown, but it seems to correlate with popular searches and IP addresses.  You pretty much just go about your searching throughout the day and get really happy when you see this:

And then you rejoice!  When you collect enough of this currency, you go to the Swag Store and redeem a prize.  So far I’ve opted for the $5 Paypal each time, since I figure cash can be used any way and there’s nothing in the store that I really want.  Right now that’s available for 70 Swag Bucks, which takes me about 2.5-3 weeks to earn.  So in these two months I’ve earned $15 worth!  Not bad, eh?

Plus, pretty consistently throughout the week, there are Swag Codes given out, which are worth anywhere from 1 to 5 Swag Bucks.  Codes might be found on the widget (which I have up on my contact page), the toolbar (which you need to download), on the blog, through their Twitter feed, or on affiliate sites.  Just about every day there is a new one put out there somewhere, so it’s a bit of a scavenger hunt to discover them.  Sometimes they’re unique and regenerated for each user, while other times they are a common one that everyone can use.  They’re all set to expire within a few hours of being put up and you’re not supposed to post active codes and apparently that can get you banned, as does unnaturally excessive searching.

I felt so rich when I got this!

To make things more interesting, there are also themed days, like Twitter contests on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Megabuck Fridays (where it’s easier to get multiple Swag Bucks).  Every now and then, a predictive poll is put out, where all those in Swag Nation (also known as Swaggernauts) guess the result of something, like the Heismann Trophy winner or the gas price in the new year (both of which we got right).  For getting those polls right, Swaggernauts are rewarded with a code worth multiple Swag Bucks, but only for a limited time!  The gas price one was out for only an hour, but was worth 5 Swag Bucks.  That’s big money in Swagland!

Panda and I have both been pretty into it, telling each other when we get a Swag Buck, which then fuels the desire of the other one to get one too.  In that way we’ve had a lot of fun sharing and competing.  It keeps things interesting and challenging!  I probably wouldn’t have gotten into it had it not been for him and now we keep each other going.  I’m glad that we have these little bonding moments throughout the week and I know that my account would have sat there inactive for many more months had it not been for him!  So if you’re into free things, you should go try it out as well.  Enjoy!  🙂

[edit jan.14.2010] So I started to notice I was getting Swag Bucks really quickly and to my surprise, I got two new referrals! I get a Swag Buck for each one they earn from searching, up to 100. Then one of my old referrals finally began to use his! This is really exciting. If you’re interested, message me so I can invite you to my group where we tell each other when Swag Codes are out so you don’t miss them as easily.