I don't know about you, but I love getting things free, especially teacher resources and Christmas gifts for others. One of my favorite ways to earn gift cards is by using SwagBucks. Today, I received the resource book Sounds Like Fun: Phonemic Awareness for free through Amazon gift cards I had received through SwagBucks. I generally save the gift cards for Christmas presents, but I splurged this time on something for me. :)

If you've never heard of SwagBucks, let me give you a little idea of how easy it is to use. It is completely free and you are under no obligation once you sign up. It is completely legitimate. I have been participating for nearly a year and a half and have earned over $115 in Amazon gift cards and $5 in PayPal cash just by making SwagBucks my homepage, installing their toolbar for searches and referring friends to sign-up. It's that simple. Clearly, it doesn't make me rich, but if I'm getting free money to do something I'm already doing then I'm totally in!

There are many ways to earn SwagBucks. You can participate by searching the web, watching videos, shopping, completing surveys, referring friends, redeeming coupons, answering daily polls, etc. You can do as little or as much as you want.

If you are interested, here are a few steps to get you started.

1. Sign up
2. Then, install the SwagBucks toolbar. (This is optional, but helps me tremendously and I highly recommend it.)
3. Start searching! You don't always get SwagBucks every time you search, but keep searching. I even search for things I already have bookmarked, like email, Facebook, Google Reader, etc. 
4. Once you have earned enough SwagBucks you can redeem them for prizes or gift cards. I choose gift cards because it's the most economical for my wants/needs, but you have lots of options. 

This is just a basic idea of how to get started. You can check out the FAQ on the SwagBucks web site if you have any questions. 


If you are interested in signing up, I have included my referral link below and would love for you to sign up if you'd like. However, if you would rather go directly to the SwagBucks site, I certainly understand. Either way, you should definitely try it out.

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Marlana