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While Steemit is a great, decentralized platform where we can all share our ideas relatively censorship free, I think we would be lying to ourselves if we tried to deny that the allure of a few easy dollars brought us here in the first place. I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting a little extra spending money and over the years I have tried a number of online options to make a quick buck. There a ton of sites out there and I can't vouch for all of them but I wanted to share one of my other trusted ways to earn a little bit more online.

Swagbucks

So what is Swagbucks? I figure the best way to start is with the about us section from their website-

 Swagbucks.com is the web's most popular rewards program that gives you free gift cards and cash for the everyday things you already do online. Earn points when you shop at your favorite retailers, watch entertaining videos, search the web, answer surveys and find great deals. Redeem points for gift cards to your favorite retailers like Amazon and Walmart or get cash back from Paypal. Swagbucks has already paid out over $197,100,114 in cash and free gift cards. Put cash back in your wallet.

That pretty much sums it up, you can take surveys, refer friends, watch videos, and complete various other tasks to earn their currency called "swagbucks". One hundred swagbucks is equivalent to 1 US dollar and you can redeem them for any number of giftcards, including paypal or visa if you prefer having a more universal gift card (as opposed to Home Depot, Amazon, Walmart, etc..). The folks over at reddit have put together a very helpful guide for anyone new to the site on some of the optimal ways to earn.

Personally, I prefer to put in the least amount of effort possible which is why I stick mainly to the mobile apps. Sure, there are surveys that pay a lot more but it seems like they take a lot of time and you don't always qualify for them. I also stay away from anything that requires you to sign up with any third party site, too much hassle for me. The apps though, they are pretty simple and straight forward. Simply download them, start watching videos, and start earning.

The Apps

There are currently 7 apps that you can use to earn, all available in the google play store or whatever place you apple people use to get apps. I would recommend using an old smart phone if you have one so that your primary phone isn't busy running videos all day. Unless you have unlimited data I would definitely recommend using wifi as well, it would defeat the purpose of making a few extra bucks if all that money just went to pay your enormous cellphone bill.

After you sign up for a swagbucks account you can download and log into any of the apps. Once logged in, you'll want want to find the shortest video you can and add it to your favorites list. Generally any of the comedy videos or the home and garden section feature videos that are in the 10-15 second range. Add the video to your favorite list by tapping the video and holding it for a few seconds. Go back to the menu, open your favorite list and tap the video to play it. The video will now play on an endless loop, with commercials playing in between. Feel free to walk away from your phone and do something else while you start racking up some swagbucks. 

Right now each of the 7 apps lets you earn a base of 10 swagbucks per app and then bonus earnings after that. The image on the left shows the normal earning screen, the image on the right the bonus earning screen. Generally once you hit the bonus rounds you'll have to watch more videos to earn the same amount of swagbucks.

I do recommend checking back in every now and again on your phone to make sure that the videos are still playing. Sometimes you will get a stubborn ad that requires you to click an X to close it, or you'll hit the max earnings for an app and have to close it to start earning on another one. 

So how much do you make?

This is not a get rich quick endeavor, nor a get rich slow plan either. Basically you won't get rich doing this but you can earn some extra beer money. On average, using just the mobile apps that sit in a desk drawer while I am at work I make 100-200 swagbucks a day. They do give you bonus swagbucks for hitting your daily earning goal as well. You earning goal is an ever moving target based on the average of how much you generally make in a day.

I wanted to recommend this site because it is one that I actually use and have had success with. You can redeem your swagbucks for gift cards as low as 1 dollar, amazon gift cards starting at 3 dollars. They will also offer a discount on 25 dollar gift cards once per month (minus paypal) where you can get a 25 dollar card for 2200 hundred swagbucks instead of the usual 2500. I can't vouch for how this works outside of the US as I am firmly planted in the states, but it looks like they are currently available in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, India, Germany, and Canada. Here is a screenshot of some of my redeemed gift cards going back a number of years-

So that's about it, it is a low effort way to put an old phone use to make a few extra bucks. You can head over to Swagbucks to sign up and check it out for yourself if you are interested. If you have any questions related to my article or the site I would be happy to share whatever knowledge I have to help you get started. If anyone has experience with any similar sites feel free to recommend them in the comments. As I stated in the first paragraph I am never opposed to earning a little extra cash :)