Within a few hours of writing how My HPF were no longer accepting US users I received a number of e-mails from people (well 3 to be precise) asking if I knew of any alternatives. Thanks to a handy comment I do now, SwagBucks. Before writing about it I though I’d have a look inside and see what they had to offer. The short version is that it all looks very nice, there may be some minor issues, but generally it seems just the job.
Minor Issues With SwagBucks
First of all this is very much geared towards US users. Whilst this isn’t an issue if you live with the good old US of A it is if you live anywhere else. SwagBucks do allow foreign signups (from the UK and Canada at least) but the prize pool is very much centred around US stores.
The second issue for people who are coming from My HomePages Friends will be in the way that you earn. Rather than paying you a fixed amount per search SwagBucks do a lucky lottery for each search you do. If you’re a winner then you win a number of SwagBucks that can then be redeemed for swag. There is a huge amount of swag on offer ranging from vintage collectibles to gift vouchers for many of the most popular US stores (Amazon, iTunes, even American Airlines!). Whilst you can’t earn cash directly, by offering gift vouchers it’s the next best thing.
The Good Bits About SwagBucks
Perhaps most importantly for anybody who thinks “scam” every time anything like this appears, SwagBucks are very much real. Professional website, professionally written browser search bars for all the most popular browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera). They also use genuine search results from Google and Ask, this will be a definite bonus for those people who didn’t like the fact that My HomePages Friends use Yahoo!
So you are getting top quality search results from a reliable source, what about the earning potential? There is a “recent winners” feature on the website that shows how often people are winning with SwagBucks. From this it seems that bucks are given out on a fairly regular basis, in fact within a day of using it I’d won twice! Woo hoo! Only 1 buck each time but good enough to confirm that the system works. For a slack Sunday when I was hardly online I consider that a good enough result. I’d need longer to see the real potential with this, my goal is to see how long it takes to snag a $5 Amazon Gift Voucher – that should give me a better idea of how it compares to MyHPF. In terms of getting your prize most are redeemed within 3-7 days of claiming. That’s a whole lot better than the months it takes to get your money from My HomePages Friends.
Will I be Using SwagBucks?
Yes. There are a couple of things in life that I HATE paying money for – Xbox Live Points and Nintendo Wii Points to name 2. I’m a huge gamer and love lots of the old school stuff that is available through these consoles with points – I just hate buying games that I’ve originally bought in the past. Luckily for me SwagBucks have a 1600 points xbox card for 400 SwagBucks and a 2000 points Wii card for 405 SwagBucks. I’ll be swapping out the search bar on 2 of the family PC’s at least until I snag one of them – just don’t tell the wife!
As well as this as you’d expect SwagBucks do operate a referral program, you basically win 1 point for each point that your referral wins up to a maximum of 100 per referral. Whilst I’m not a big fan of caps like this the 1-1 ratio is very genrous so I’ll not complain too much. Besides if you can keep a steady flow of new SwagBucks members heading over their way you should be able to do very well out of it – especially if you attract mostly US traffic.
SwagBucks is totally free to join through a simple 2 minute submit and confirm process. Once signed up you can start earning straight away. If you are in the US/UK or Canada and looking for a “paid to search” system then SwagBucks is well worth a go!
4 Responses to “SwagBucks – An Alternative To My HomePages Friends”
BlogAngry
March 23, 2009
Great post, and pretty cool site also.
|Jorge
May 19, 2009
Dude I am not sure if it works, giving it a try. Here’s my referral code, help me out will ya?
|Paul B
May 19, 2009
Don’t get ya, what part doesn’t work? You just create an account and then use their service when searching either through their website or the various toolbars. If you get lucky you earn points which can then be redeemed for stuff?
|TriNi
August 21, 2010
I love Swagbucks, it’s like an easy and rewarding way to do what you’re already doing online anyway, which is searching with Google. I hardly ever do any surveys etc and I’m still able to cash out regularly on the site. It’s awesome! Would definitely recommend it to others!
|TriNi´s last ..Sites Like Swagbucks- iRazoo- Zoombucks and Blingo! Get Paid To Search Online!