Swagbucks

Let's see if Swagbucks is for you:

1. Do you frequently conduct Google {or Yahoo!, or...} searches?
2. Do you like free stuff?

If you said "yes" to those two questions, you definitely need to learn about Swagbucks!

What is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is a company that allows you to earn rewards every time you conduct an Internet search through them. Their "rewards" are known as "swagbucks," and when you earn enough of them, you can actually cash in your 'bucks for some cool, free stuff.

In all actuality, Swagbucks allows you do earn rewards for other things besides just Internet searches {answering the daily poll, answering a survey, and watching a specific video, for instance, are all just 3 more ways to earn points}, but the web surfing is something that I can {and do} do at work.

How Does it Work?

Basically, you just sign up for a free account at Swagbucks. Whenever you want to conduct a web search, go to http://search.swagbucks.com and type in your search term(s). While I won't earn reward points for every Internet search {they are rewarded randomly}, I like to at least give myself a shot of earning free things by using the SB search engine.

Rewards:

The rewards can be pretty cool, depending on how many points you've earned. I think the rewards that interest me the most are the gift cards, but there are rewards in virtually every category: books, movies, clothing, jewelry, electronics, school supplies... you get the picture. You do have to earn a fairly substantial amount of points to earn a nice reward, but isn't that to be expected?

I frequently cash in my swagbucks for an Amazon gift card. As I'm sure you know, Amazon has a variety of school supplies, games, and books that can be useful in the classroom. 

A $5 Amazon gift card currently costs 450 SB

So many of our students have their own Kindle or Nook -- why not give away a gift card as a classroom prize and let the student order a new book?

Other neat stuff you could earn for your classroom treasure box or class store:

Modeling Dough currently costs 279 SB

A Spongebob puzzle currently costs 429 SB

A $10 gift card to Fandango currently costs 1,175 SB

 You can also use Swagbucks to purchase supplies for your classroom or for individual students:

A set of 4 skinny dry-erase markers currently costs 349 SB.

A 26- or 39-week subscription to the Wall Street Journal currently costs 3,400 SB. This would be a good way to incorporate some more nonfiction reading.

I've noticed that Swagbucks runs sales on select items at random times. I've seen gift cards on sale before, but they're basically the only thing I keep my eye on at this point, so I'm not sure about the other items.

In any case, Swagbucks is an easy way to earn some things for your classroom without spending your own money.