Swagbucks is a search engine, like Google or Ask.com. When you do searches you will randomly win Swagbucks. Each win is worth anywhere from 5 - 20+ Swagbucks. You'll see the win announced in a big box above the search results. If you do searches (who doesn't?), this is a painless way to earn a reward for doing what you are already doing. The winner's box looks like this:

Swagbucks is a fancy name for points. The points can be redeemed for gifts. The most popular reward, by far, is a $5 Amazon gift card for 450 Swagbucks, but there are many other gift card choices. There is a Swagbucks store which lists all the gift cards, and physical prizes like electronics and apparel.

Join Swagbucks here.

Earning Swagbucks

Search wins are random. Nothing special triggers a win.  The more searches you do, the more often you'll see the winner box at the top of the page. There are two ways to do searches.

• Go to the Swagbucks page, and use their search box at the top of the homepage. Make sure you are logged into your Swagbucks account. Wins are automatically credited to your account. This method gets old.
•  The second (better) way is to download the Swagbucks toolbar so it is always on your screen. The download is safe and quick. Readers who have the toolbar are constantly reminded to do their searches through Swagbucks. You also get 1 free Swagbuck per day simply for having the toolbar. (Once in awhile, Swagbucks checks to see if you are still alive and paying attention, by requiring you to enter a 3 letter captcha code to get the win, but usually wins credit to your account without you doing anything.) The toolbar looks like this:

Fridays are billed as MegaFriday, and wins are bigger and easier on Fridays.

There are many other ways to earn Swagbucks.

• Shop through Swagbuck links. You can find the Shopping link by clicking on "More" gray tab top of screen, then on "Even More", then on "Shop & Earn" lower right.
  
• Read the Swagbucks Blog. You'll find it linked on the left side lower column of the homepage.
  
• The Swag Guy (TSG) sends folks on code hunts and uses Facebook to do extra things that earn codes. Codes are short lived, many times good for 1 hour.  http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-works  http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-tips  http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-faq  http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=gn-s1-more  http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=gn-s1-dds    Enter the codes on the Swagbucks main page in the GIMME box:
  
• SwagbucksTV is a great earning tool.  It's in the toolbar with the green arrow: Watch SBTV or on the left column under EARN.  The meter on the top of the page fills to 90% and the next video will give you a banner that you have won 3 SB.  You can win 25 times a day for 75 SB.
   
•  Earn a daily Swagbuck for clicking on the NOSO Link and skip all the offers on your way through the ads until you get your Swagbuck
   
• The Daily Poll question is good for a free Swagbuck if you answer it.
   
• Trusted Surveys will give you a Swagbuck for clicking daily.
   
• Refer others to Swagbucks including family members living in the same house. When a referred person wins, you also get the points, up to 1,000 per referral.
   
• Besides searching, there are surveys to do, special offers, like a car insurance quote can net you 100-300 SB depending on the company, videos to watch and best of all sometime during the day, TSG (The Swag Guy) puts out codes worth 4-30+ points that people have to find. 

Toolbar codes change every 15 seconds or so to prevent them from being copied onto other sites and blogs. You refresh the toolbar code, copy and paste it with no spaces before or after it.  If you use the same code and keep trying but it doesn't work, it expired.  Chances are it will expire before you get it all typed out. Copy and paste instead.

Redeeming:

Go to the Swagbucks homepage and click on "The SwagStore" top of the left column.
Look in the left column for lots of categories, especially Gift Cards.

For 450 SB, you can redeem $5 to Amazon, a Gift Certificate (GC).  After you redeem it, SB will get it to you in 10-14 days.  The GC can then be banked in your Amazon account and used to buy things there.  For 700 SB, you can get $5 to PayPal and there are lots more things for sale at the Swag Store.

Giftcards:
Order 1 at a time, and click through about 4 screens until you get the message that your order is complete. Click the link in the verification email.

You can order 2 gifts cards per day, 5 of each denomination per month. That makes five-$5, five-$25 and five-$50 Amazon Gift Cards available each month

After you click to order it, you'll be sent an email verifying the order. Be sure to click on the link in the VERIFY e-mail or you won't get it.

It's 10-14 days before you get them and they notify you that you have GC in your account.

Click on VIEW ACCOUNT, MY GIFT CARDS and they will be under My Available Gift Cards

Copy and paste the special number into your Amazon account and you're good to go. The money will stay in your Amazon account forever, until you spend it. You'll see it deducted at checkout.

In summary

• Join Swagbucks here. Create an account; takes one minute. You may get some free Swagbucks for signing up.
• Download the toolbar. Choose the one for your browser, like Internet Explorer or FireFox.
• Start searching.
• Refer your friends. Click on the gray tab "Promote" at the very top of the Swagbucks homepage, then on "Promote Banners". Your special referral link will be in the blue box next to the picture of The Swag Guy. Copy and paste it into emails, Facebook page, your blog, etc. When your referral earns points, you get points.
• Enjoy the gift cards!