Points=Money

There is a website that I have been a member of for a little while. It is called Swagbucks. You can earn points just for searching using their search engine (normally about 10-20 points a day) and at 450 points you can earn an Amazon gift card. There are also random extra points awarded regularly. It normally takes me about a month but with hardly any effort and I have a free gift card!

I think I have earned $20-25 in Amazon gift cards over the past 6 months with hardly any effort. There are also other prizes to choose from. This may not seem much but it is still free cash and fun for mad money or a gift fund.

A few pointers:
• You receive 30 points just for signing up here.
• Every Friday (as in today) is MegaSwagbucks Day which means you could earn a lot more points for searching than other days. I earned 40 points today in one search.
• Normally the easiest way to get points is to search either from their website or the toolbar which you can install. I find that normally within a few minutes of searching (often hitting the back arrow to get back to the search results page), I will earn 10-20 points. This seems to be about all most days on the searching, so I would not waste your time trying for much longer. You can even use your normal search engine after that; I often do.
• If you install the toolbar, it often has extra freebie codes that pop-up at the top.
• They often have extra codes for points that are given out in scavenger hunt style.
• Other ways to earn points: use their main page to shop, go to the no obligation offers (and be sure to click skip through the offers) and at the end you are awarded with a random number of points each day, follow them for extra codes on flicker or facebook, subscribe to their newsletter (I think once a month comes out with a new code), read their blog (I subscribe to it via google reader), get referrals (yes, if you do sign up through me, I do get a few perks).

Overall, it may seem yet another scheme, but I am mentioning it here because I have had so much fun getting the gift cards with very little work (one of the easiest and most fun "extra income" ideas) I love the fact that I am saving up for something specific on Amazon without having to take the money out of our normal budget!