TromboneAl
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2006
- Messages
- 12,880
Summary: In essence this web site pays you a very small amount to use their search engine and view ads. It's probably not worth your time, but it can be fun to try the dangerous game of beating the web site at its own game.
So what's an ad-phobic guy like me doing looking at ads? Well, I learned about this at heyitsfree.com, and was curious, so I joined it.
Mainly, if you use their toolbar and/or web site to perform your searches, they pay you. For you psych majors, they put you on a VR20 schedule (variable reinforcement averaging one reward for every 20 or so searches). That is, every 20 or so searches (with daily limits) you are rewarded with 10 "Swagbucks."
Their trick #1 is that although the search engine uses Google and Ask, it may put sponsored links at the top of the searches. Actually, when I compare it with Google, it's about the same:
Swagbucks search of "recliners"
Google search of "recliners"
Sometimes the things at the top don't seem relevant to the search. In any case, I prefer google.
Trick #2 is that 1 swagbuck is worth about a penny. The mathematically challenged will be excited to see that they won $10, even though it's really only 10 cents.
Trick #3 is that their Swag Store has overpriced stuff. It's always smarter, I've read, to use your swagbucks to get an amazon card, and then buy what you want on amazon.
You can also win 1-2 swagbucks (once per day) by paging through a list of five special offers (like this):
(on the home page click special offers/no obligation offers and skip through them).
There are other ways of getting swagbucks that I won't bother going into.
There are ways to beat them at their game. For example, you can get paid 4 swagbucks to watch a 15-second promo video for some product or movie (see special offers, wall 2). But if you open five browser windows, turn off the sound, and play the video in each of the windows simultaneously, you can get 20 swagbucks (that is, 20 cents). There is a limit of 20 swagbucks with this procedure, and you can only do it once per day.
Also, you could write a macro to use their search engine while you are not at your computer. However, sometimes, when you win some swagbucks, you need to enter a code to prove that you not a bot. I'm not sure if there's a time limit on entering the code. If you get caught, you'll be banned for life, and it will go on your permanent record.
You could write a macro that will do about 8 quick searches (displaying the results), run it a few times per day, and enter codes if necessary.
What I've done is spend a few minutes using their search engine each day, plus a trick or two as described above. After 10 days of this, I earned 450 swagbucks and traded them in for a $5 Amazon gift card. I'm not sure I'll continue this, now that I've gotten one card. It can be fun to get points, but it seems silly to view some offers and get 2 cents. My time's worth more than that. Isn't it?
So what's an ad-phobic guy like me doing looking at ads? Well, I learned about this at heyitsfree.com, and was curious, so I joined it.
Mainly, if you use their toolbar and/or web site to perform your searches, they pay you. For you psych majors, they put you on a VR20 schedule (variable reinforcement averaging one reward for every 20 or so searches). That is, every 20 or so searches (with daily limits) you are rewarded with 10 "Swagbucks."
Their trick #1 is that although the search engine uses Google and Ask, it may put sponsored links at the top of the searches. Actually, when I compare it with Google, it's about the same:
Swagbucks search of "recliners"
Google search of "recliners"
Sometimes the things at the top don't seem relevant to the search. In any case, I prefer google.
Trick #2 is that 1 swagbuck is worth about a penny. The mathematically challenged will be excited to see that they won $10, even though it's really only 10 cents.
Trick #3 is that their Swag Store has overpriced stuff. It's always smarter, I've read, to use your swagbucks to get an amazon card, and then buy what you want on amazon.
You can also win 1-2 swagbucks (once per day) by paging through a list of five special offers (like this):
(on the home page click special offers/no obligation offers and skip through them).
There are other ways of getting swagbucks that I won't bother going into.
There are ways to beat them at their game. For example, you can get paid 4 swagbucks to watch a 15-second promo video for some product or movie (see special offers, wall 2). But if you open five browser windows, turn off the sound, and play the video in each of the windows simultaneously, you can get 20 swagbucks (that is, 20 cents). There is a limit of 20 swagbucks with this procedure, and you can only do it once per day.
Also, you could write a macro to use their search engine while you are not at your computer. However, sometimes, when you win some swagbucks, you need to enter a code to prove that you not a bot. I'm not sure if there's a time limit on entering the code. If you get caught, you'll be banned for life, and it will go on your permanent record.
You could write a macro that will do about 8 quick searches (displaying the results), run it a few times per day, and enter codes if necessary.
What I've done is spend a few minutes using their search engine each day, plus a trick or two as described above. After 10 days of this, I earned 450 swagbucks and traded them in for a $5 Amazon gift card. I'm not sure I'll continue this, now that I've gotten one card. It can be fun to get points, but it seems silly to view some offers and get 2 cents. My time's worth more than that. Isn't it?
At least I think I was...
