I've mentioned SwagBucks in the past. If you haven't heard of it, SwagBucks is a search engine that rewards you with points for doing searches. These points can be redeemed for prizes and gift cards. The maximum cash exchange value for the points seems to be about $0.10 each.

With doing an average of 4-5 searches each day (searches I'd normally be doing any way), I earn enough points for a $5 Amazon.com gift card each month. For me personally, using SwagBucks equates to about $60 of free Amazon.com stuff per year. For no additional effort/work (aside from initially signing up!) that amount is worth it to me. :)

If you sign up this week through my link, and enter the code TAMMYSCODE (case sensitive) you'll start off your SwagBucks account with 6 points. (45 points will get you a $5 gift card for Amazon.com)

If you've heard people talking about how they've made hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars through SwagBucks, making it sound easy -- well, it IS easy to earn lots more than $60/year... IF you can get other people to sign up through your referral link. :)

When someone signs up through your referral link, you'll get points whenever they do, until they reach 100. So if you know enough people who are willing to sign up, you can increase your earnings by a hundred-fold (or more) without doing a thing. It is legitimate, it does work. BUT. If you're not willing to email all your friends about it and you don't have a more widely-read blog, you won't be earning hundreds of dollars in your first month.

SwagBucks also has special promotions where you can find codes and enter them for a free point. But, do keep in mind that these SwagBucks are only worth about 10 cents each. If you spend 10 minutes searching for a code that's worth 1 point, is your time really only worth $0.60 per hour? My time is much more valuable, so for that reason I stick to using SwagBucks only for searches I'd already be doing, when I'm already on the computer. That means it's not taking extra time and the free gift cards are truly "free" to me. :)

The points are somewhat randomly awarded. Between my younger brother and me, we have figured out that SwagBucks are usually awarded within the first 1-4 searches done per day. If your IP changes you can earn extra points. (For example, if you do 1-4 searches at work and get SwagBucks, you can do a few searches at home and get more SwagBucks, whereas if you just did all of those searches at home, you wouldn't get more points.)

So. I know this is a long post, but whenever I promote anything that will benefit me in the end (even if you'll benefit too), I feel I need to be very clear. :) You can decide whether SwagBucks is something you want to do or not, but hopefully I've presented a true picture of how it will really work for the average user. :)

One more note: On the Amazon.com gift cards, they are very convenient to use. You can apply as many cards as you'd like to an order. The cards can cover shipping and tax. Any amount not used will still be credited on your account. (For example, if I placed a $36 order (including tax) and apply eight $5 cards, Amazon will put the remaining $4 as credit on my account.)