swagbucks 101: how i made $1,348 as a high school student

As a young teenager, I was bored at home and had nothing to do. I wanted to find something that would keep me entertained. Eventually, I pulled out my laptop and searched on Google, "How To Make Money Online." Then, I discovered Swagbucks. 

Photo Credit: warriorforum.com | Mr. Ken Russell

What is Swagbucks, you may ask? 

Well, Swagbucks is an online website that allows you to earn rewards for what you're already doing - searching the web, watching videos, playing games and more. It was actually the first website I used to make money online as a high school student. SB is a term coined for the amount of money you earn on Swagbucks. For example, 100 Swagbucks is equivalent to $1 US dollar. 300 Swagbucks? $3. 500 Swagbucks? $5. You get the drill. So, after learning the basics, I will tell you how I used Swagbucks to make money online.

First things first - Sign up!
I think the signing up process is pretty self explanatory. Enter your email address or you can use Facebook to create your account. If you use a referral link, you could earn some extra SB when you sign up. However, here's the catch that no one tells you: If you use someone's referral link, they will earn 10% of your earnings for life. What does this mean? I'll provide a picture here. 

Photo Credit: Swagbucks

You can choose to use my referral link if you like or you don't have to. It's all up to you. My job is to inform you of ways to make money online, not to scam you. That being said, click here if you would like to use my referral link :) 

1. Earn SB with Web Search

Photo Credit: Swagbucks

When I was using Swagbucks, I searched almost anything to earn SB. The SB prizes range from 6 SB to over 30 SB (at least for me). Even if I searched over 100 times, I only received rewards for actually searching 4 times. I know it sounds tedious, but as a high school student, what did I have to lose? If you win SB for searching the web, you would have to answer a Captcha code to prove that you're not a robot, of course. Here are some pictures below that I found on Google that shows users earning SB for searching the web. 

Photo Credit: Swagbucks

Photo Credit: easybeermoney

Photo Credit: mmo4teen

2. Earn SB with Swag Codes

Photo Credit: Swagbucks

You can also earn SB by entering in Swag Codes. Swag Codes are reward phrases that can be found online such as Swagbucks' Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. There's also a website that's dedicated all to swag codes! I check this website a lot for swag codes updates. Make sure to enter them in before they expire. Tip: Swagbucks gives out lots of swag codes when there's an event or holiday coming up - (Halloween, Christmas, New Years).

3. Do the Daily Poll! 

Photo Credit: Swagbucks 

You just answer a question that Swagbucks asks every day and you'll be sure to earn at least 1 SB a day. 

4. Do the Surveys. 
Surveys are very effective because you can more than 200 SB for one survey. You will have to see if you quality for the survey first then you will be able to answer the survey. Tip: the 36 SB surveys are usually quick and easy! The same goes for the 48 SB surveys. 72 SB surveys are a bit harder but if you answer everything truthfully and correct, then you could earn 72 SB too! The 180 SB surveys are rare. I always get disqualified for them. If you qualify and earn SB for doing them, then good for you because I was never able to (well, maybe at least once or twice but that was it). 

Photo Credit: Swagbucks

Peanut Lab Surveys ARE GREAT. THEY WORK THE BEST. Gold Surveys, (in my opinion suck because they never work for me). Each survey tells you how much you can earn and how long it will take you to finish it. Then it's up to you to decide whether or not you want to do them :) 

5. Earn Money for PLAYING GAMES. 
To be honest, I only play the free games. I also suck at games, so I rather not lose any money if I actually bet anything. 

Photo Credit: Swagbucks

These three games are free and you can play them every day to earn SB! You're honestly earning money to play games, come on. Testing it out wouldn't hurt. My favorite is the second one, even though I get frustrated a lot with it. All in all, these three games are really really fun to play! Tip: Make sure you enable Adobe Flash Player in order to play these games. 

6. Watch Videos Online & Earn Money. 
Frankly speaking, Swagbucks has definitely changed ever since I used it back in 2013. But watching videos online and on your phone helps you earn SB. 

Photo Credit: Swagbucks' Blog

Back then, you were able to earn at least 100 SB using the second app with the green play button. You were also able to earn 120 SB with the pink app with the star button. Sure, it took a while, but it was definitely worth it in my opinion. It took me at least half an hour for the first one and an hour for the second one. I don't know the exact times or calculations or any of that, but I'm just letting you know what I did from experience. 

First Row: second one (SBTV Mobile), third one (EntertaiNOW)

Second Row: first one (Lifestylz.tv), second one (Sport.ly) - I don't know what the other two are. 

But now, according to Swagbucks' blog, you can earn up to 36 SB a day for SBTV Mobile, 18 SB a day for EntertaiNOW, 18 SB per day for Lifestylz.tv and 18 SB per day for Sport.ly. (In my opinion, the SB rewards decreased a lot). 

Anyways, you can also earn SB by watching the videos from the actual website. You can let them play while you go do something else. Tip: Stay on the page. 

Photo Credit: Swagbucks

They have a variety of videos on Swagbucks. You can watch whatever one you like based on your own preference. 

YOU ALSO CAN EARN LOTS OF SB BY WATCHING THIS!
It's listed under Sponsored Videos but man! You can earn a lot of SB by doing just this one alone. 

One time, I didn't do anything else and I just decided to do this guy for a couple hours. (That sounds wrong, but you get the gist!) You click on him, you watch a sponsored video for 30 seconds to 2 minutes and then you earn 2 SB. That's it. IT'S SUPER QUICK. Imagine if it was 30 seconds per video. You earn 4 SB in one minute. 20 SB in 5 minutes. Either way, if you see this guy, be sure to watch the videos! 

7. Other Ways to Make SB

If you reach your daily goal, you can earn bonus SB. 

Photo Credit: Swagbucks

You can also earn SB by using coupons and online shopping. 

Photo Credit: Swagbucks

Photo Credit: Swagbucks

HOWEVER, I didn't talk about these two because I didn't do them myself. Feel free to explore and use coupons and online shop to earn more, but I felt like it was too much of a hassle which was why I opted out from doing them. 

My Thoughts on Swagbucks

I started Swagbucks in 2013. I used it for 3 years and I quit in 2015 because high school was ending and I was getting ready for college. Was it worth it? Personally, it was for me. I was young and I had an extra $1,348 in my pockets. I definitely wasn't complaining. However, it took me three years to get that amount of money. For others, I'm sure they can earn that in a year. But then again, I'm not complaining at all. I knew the tips and tricks to earn more and I utilized them to the best of my ability to earn SB. All in all, Swagbucks is a legit website where you can earn SB online. I hope that my review on Swagbucks helped you. 

Still don't believe me? Here's proof of my rewards.

Of course, I can't post all of my rewards. If you look at the bottom, there's twenty pages that consists of my rewards (that are all Amazon, by the way - I love Amazon). I posted two to show you when I used Swagbucks - 2013-2015. 

In addition to making money using Swagbucks, I donated money to the charities that I love and wanted to help them. 

I love Swagbucks. I really do. I'm proud to say that I've tried it out and it has helped me out a lot. I have tried to tell others about this platform before but they merely scoffed at the idea simply because they thought the name was foolish and silly. But it's okay. It was their loss because I invested in lots of time and energy and in return, it was all worth it. 

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns and I'll be happy to help you! If you would like to follow me on social media, click on any of the links below! ♡

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