I like most things free, and so Free Money ranks right up there under Free Four-legged Furriness and just barely edging out Free Lettuce Wraps. Oh! the non-free things you can do with free money! Special date nights, spur-of-the-moment book purchases, kitchen avoidance [i.e. dinner out], or even just that neato condiment gun that you know you can't possibly justify in your household budget [Sadly, no, I have not yet used my free moneys for such a glorious purchase... yet. Just kidding. Kinda. No, really. Seriously. I think. Hey, don't judge my desires for whimsical awesomeness! No worries, I generally refrain.] Since the money is free, it completely frees me from feeling guilty about using it in a semi-irresponsible fashion [definition of irresponsible: If the answer to "Can we justify this in our month's budget?" is "Duh, of course not."]. Free money = awesome.
Just this year alone, not even 3.5 months so far, I've earned over $100 in Amazon gift cards and $75 straight to my Paypal account from one particular Magic Well of Free Money. I know that may not sound like much, but it's $175 I wouldn't have had otherwise, so I'm pleased. At this pretty dependable rate, by the time Christmas rolls around [the time of year when we inevitably discover that our budgeted gift money is sadly not enough to buy Super Awesome Gifts for all the fine peoples in the world], I should have accumulated a small pile of Hooray Money, even taking into account the guilt-free Heres and Theres [as outlined above] that may pop up along the way.
So with all of these rambly sentences out of the way, I suppose I should get to the important part of this whole post: How does one find the tiny pot of legitimate currency at the end of the gigantic rainbow known as the interwebs? Answer: Swagbucks. [And yes, that is a shameless (almost) referral link.]
I'm not generally one to do the whole referral thing for, really, anything, but this one time I shall make an exception simply because... well, Swagbucks has actually been worth it for me*. And if someone by chance happens upon this post and happens to like what they read and happens to also want Free Moneys, then by golly why not sign up under my name and reward my strange writings with $10?
Ok. So Swagbucks. In a nutshell, they reward various activities that you do on the web like searching, watching ads, signing up for free offers, or shopping online with points that you can cash in for gift cards [Amazon, Wal-Mart, Paypal, etc.]. They also give away points for playing games, finding Swagbuck codes, meeting daily point goals, and a bunch of other random things. The beauty of it is that most of the "earning" that I do just requires idle activity [oxymoron?], things that don't necessarily require being in your browser's focus or your constant attention.
Why I love Swagbucks so much is that it works in perfectly with my job as a transcriptionist. I sit at my computer all day typing horrendously structured sentences from ESL doctors [i.e. "The patient's both eyes is diagnosed as cataracts subsequently to caregiver." (Say hwhaat?)], and all I have to do to earn a little extra cash on the side is keep another browser open with SBTV playing in the background or search a few of my medical terms using Swagbucks' search engine. Easy peas [yes, peas].
There's a learning curve to it all, obviously. When I first started, I made about 20 points a day. Nowadays, I generally make at least 120. [Each point is about 1 cent.] Many people who use Swagbucks would still consider 120 a bad day, as they can often get well above that depending, but I'm happy with it at the moment. Just as a warning, it may start off a bit slow until you find out the most efficient point-earning method for yourself.
I could get super detailed about how to get the most money for the least amount of effort, but I will spare you. If you want more details, feel free to ask away. Instead, here's a brief bullet-pointed (!) list outlining a couple of helpful tips:
- Use a dummy email address, maybe one that you use for junk mail or, better yet, even one designated solely for Swagbucks.
- There are often points to earn by allowing Facebook apps for various companies/products and so a dummy Facebook account is advisable. The name on the account doesn't matter as long as you use the same email address you used for your Swagbucks account [another reason to use a junk email as mentioned above].
- Speaking of Facebook, the Swagbucks' Facebook page is pretty helpful for knowing when codes are out, what special offers or surveys are crediting, or just when people are getting wins by searching [which is a good indication that you could potentially get a nice search win].
- Try not to get caught up in making as many points as you can because, let's be realistic, it is just a few cents here and a few cents there [here a cent, there a cent, everywhere a cent cent!]. Some people let that one video that didn't give them their 2 cents ruin their entire mood/day/life. Not worth it, folks. You'll eventually learn what guarantees points, what will hopefully get points, and what to avoid due to it being a poor use of time and/or good mood.
- It's definitely worth getting the daily point goals each day [consecutively is best!] as there are 1-week, 2-week, 3-week, and monthly completion goals that, at the most, guarantees an extra $5 each month.
Anywho, this is long enough. I get carried away typing. My apologies.
Go get some.
*My meager earnings may or may not show how low my standards are for something being "worth it." :/ To each his own!
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| He's doing the free money dance. Elephants do it best. |
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