Swagbucks

Clearly I'm obsessed with Starbucks and even if you don't know me, you know it because I'm just that obsessed. I've been waiting patiently to write this particular post...two months to be exact! Two months ago I googled "Free Starbucks Gift Card" and found the following ehow site where #1 is:
"The easiest way to get free Starbucks gift cards is to use SwagBucks. This is a search engine that rewards users with credits. Once a user has 130 credits, a $10 Starbucks gift card can be redeemed. If you use the site enough, you can earn 2-3 gift cards a month."

2-3 gift cards a month, eh? Yeah. But before I get into that, here's my personal SwagStory: Aside from the free Starbucks gift card, I wanted to experiment with this concept so I could pass along the info to you, my fellow bloggers on a budget. So basically, I wanted to go about this as a very average user. There are some Silly for Swag people out there who go nuts over this stuff, with all the little hints and hunts (more on that in a bit). All in all, my effort in this endeavor was somewhere between bare minimum to mild interest.

Like ehow describes, it works as such: Sign up for an account. Download the SwagBucks Toolbar (and it 'installs itself' into the top of your browser). Then, instead of Google, you use the SwagBucks search engine, and every once in awhile ('once in awhile' being the operative phrase here), "SwagBucks" will pop up and drop into your account (as long as you're signed in). Usually it's just a dollar, but they say you can stumble upon $5, $10, etc. There are many other ways to get SwagBucks too: there's SwagHunts where you have to put together clues to get a code that you type into the main SB site. You can shop and earn SwagBucks. You can donate money to causes and earn SwagBucks. Basically anything short of prostitution will get you a SwagBuck (and even then I'm sure there are people out there...)

So you'd think these things would pile up, and you would, indeed, get yourself all kinds of gift cards for absolutely free. Well, as I said, it took me two months...two months to earn a $10 Starbucks gift card (aka: 130 SwagBucks). When I first started searching, I was earning about 3-4 SB a day. They tend to give you one in the morning, afternoon, and evening. With the holidays in there, though, I wasn't at work (um, where I may or may not be on the internet often?) so my SwagBuckery was at a lull. I also don't get all insane about it and look for the special codes or take part in the SwagHunts every time.

I'm a Google maniac and look stuff up like 387356283 times a day (um, not at work?). This is another reason why, initially, I thought this SwagBucks thing was gold, Jerry, GOLD! But I'll tell you...the SwagBuck search engine is pretty slim pickin's. "Who was that guy in the Goodwill commercial?" "Was Jeff's hat on Today's Special tan colored?" "Why is the music in Cadillac commercials so hip and awesome?" These are things you can NOT look up via SwagBucks' search engine. So usually what I'd do every day is look up the same very basic things: Facebook, Yahoo Mail, Blogger, Flickr, You Tube, etc any time I needed to get to those sites (as opposed to a. using my bookmarks or b. just typing the site into my browser).

So now that I've earned my $10 Starbucks gift card, will I continue this whole exSwagaganza? On the one hand, free is free, and typing in a word or two every few hours is really no skin off my back. If I don't really care too much about the whole thing, I'll keep on earning these guys and eventually get a gift card here and there. On the other hand, the whole thing is like an annoying itch that won't go away. That toolbar is always looming up there reminding me to Get My SwagBucks and I know it'll be forever till I get a measly $10 gift card*. Like putting pennies in a jar to try and get that bright purple bike sitting in the local shop window.

To make a long story even longer, my conclusion in all this is that I must be at a point in my life where I feel that getting free things should be easier...and that's not good! I should probably go back to earning my Starbucks coffee the old fashioned way...working...um, where I may or may not be on the internet often.



*a $10 gift card to Starbucks is the absolute opposite of measly and something I would love to have all day every day!

[Ed. note: I finally received my Starbucks $10 gift card in the mail yesterday! (2/17) So it really only took about five weeks...not so bad! Yay Starbucks and yay Swagbucks!]