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I know you are all just DYING to know how I’m doing with my idea to pay for Christmas 2010 using Amazon Gift Cards earned through Swagbucks. Well, I’m happy to report that I now have $30 in gift cards saved up! Wahoo!!

Here are the details:

Before I told you all about Swagbucks, I had accumulated about 148 SBs on my own over the course of a year or so. I never cashed them in, because I didn’t really know how.

Then, I read a post on another blog about how you can’t just request a ton of gift cards all at once, so you need to redeem as you go. I found out that you can redeem your Swagbucks for 2 gift cards per day, AND they don’t always arrive on that day. Amazon posts gift cards around the 16th and 30th of the month (I think). Well, I started redeeming on February 2nd, so I still haven’t received my codes, but I know that I will!! THEN, I’ll enter my codes on Amazon and they will be deposited into my account and be ready for me to spend at Christmastime. SO cool!!

Since I told you all about Swagbucks, 20 of you have signed up, and you have earned me 164 Swagbucks just by searching the internet!! You know what is more interesting? Of those 20 who have signed up, 10 of you have NOT used Swagbucks as your search engine, so you haven’t earned any Swagbucks. So, really, 10 of you have earned me 164 SBs!! That’s pretty cool! Thank you so much!! That is the equivalent of over $15 in Amazon Gift Cards!

If you want to pay for Christmas 2010 using Swagbucks, this is what I would recommend.

• Sign up for a Swagbucks account. It is totally free! AND, if you use my link, you can help ME earn Swagbucks! If you don’t want to help me out, then just find some wonderful blogger that you love and sign up under her SB account. I don’t care!! This is free money people, and I just want you to get in on it.
• Next, be sure to download the Swagbucks Tool Bar so that your search box is always directing you through Swagbucks. If you sign up but never use SB, then you are not earning yourself any bucks. It looks a little wonky and it takes some getting used to, but when you see your little counter go up and up, you won’t care anymore. This is what my toolbar looks like on Firefox:

It’s not so freakish, is it? I just enter my search term into the upper right corner, just like I normally would while searching, and it brings up a normal looking screen with my search results in it. The difference is that I might have earned a Swagbuck!! Wahoo!

You can see where it tells me how many I have earned. Looks like I’m close to the next gift card! AND, sometimes you can earn bonus Swagbucks by clicking on the white envelope in the red square, reading the message, finding the code, and then cutting and pasting it into your “Gimme” box. To get to that box, click on the # of swagbucks you have in your “Kelleigh, you have 38 SB” bar. (Click on 38.) It will bring up your account screen where you can enter the code. I love grabbing extra bucks! There are other hidden messages, too, so keep your eyes open!

• Now, start searching. Let’s face it: you probably already know the web address of your favorite digiscrap store and can type it up really fast. However, if you SEARCH for it instead, you could earn a Swagbuck!
• Finally, tell others! I’m pretty sure that you only get bucks from the people you personally refer, and for only a certain amount of time, but it is SO worth it! Post on your blog and tell others about your goal to pay for Christmas (or a KitchenAid Stand Mixer or a new vacuum cleaner), and invite them to sign up for a Swagbucks account with you as their referrer! You can grab your referral code from your Swagbucks account by clicking on “Promote” at the top of your account screen. Super easy. Grab a button and put it on your blog. Sneak over to your inlaw’s house and sign them up under you (NOT that I have done that . . . yet).

Don’t you think this Swagbucks thing is COOL?! Oh, and I’m so happy that Target is an Amazon affiliate store! Hee, hee!

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