How to Get Your Friends to Join Swagbucks
They’ll Be Itching to Join
In the past year, I’ve earned just under $100 in Swagbucks rewards from referring friends. If I had put in more time and effort, I think that figure could be closer to $500. But $100 is still a decent chunk of change.
You can see my referral earnings here (don’t worry friends: your names are mostly blacked out).
I’m regularly asked, “How do you get people to join? I can’t anyone to sign up.”
There’s an art to the referral.
It’s more of a show don’t tell sort of thing.
Don’t tell people to join, show them the benefit: your earnings.
When I’ve told people about Swagbucks and why they should join, people get confused or overwhelmed. Or skeptical. Sometimes all three.
Personally, I find it easy to earn on these rewards sites apps. (Which is probably why I belong to a couple dozen.) I haven’t earned fortunes, but usually clear an extra thousand dollars or so each year. (Which translates into around $85 a month or $2.80 a day.
One thousand dollars, for many, is a life-changing sum.
So when I share Swagbucks with friends, it’s because I legitimately know it can improve their life. Everyone I know plays games and searches the web. And shops online, at least occasionally, and if they’re not claiming the cashback they are literally throwing away cash.
Yeah, I want the referral commissions. You get 300 SB ($3) when a referral signs up and earns at least 300 SB in their first 30 days. And then you get 10% of their lifetime earnings after as a commission.
But earnings aside, I want them to grab the cash that’s there for activities they’re already doing.
Here are 5 strategies to get friends to join Swagbucks
1. Show Off Your Rewards on Facebook and Instagram
Share pictures of your earnings: a screen grab of the Amazon gift card you cashed out. A picture of the earbuds you used your earnings on.
With the picture, share a few sentences that’ll make your readers curious. Here are some examples:
- I did it! Just cashed out a free $100 Amazon gift card on Swagbucks. Love this rewards app. This is the 8th free gift card I’ve got so far this year.
- Date night: dinner + a movie. Thank you, Swagbucks! I used my earnings for surveys and scanning Kroger receipts to pay for dinner at Bob’s Restaurant and the movie theater.
- I just cashed out ________ in a gift card for ___________ from Swagbucks. This is my ______ time cashing out this year.
Posting a picture of your prize or you enjoying your prize plus a sentence or two is powerful. People will ask you what Swagbucks is and that’s when you can share your referral link.
You can find your referral link by going to swagbucks.com/invite. Scroll down to “Copy your referral link” and you’ll see it there.
2. Show Off Your Better Shopping Rebates
I like to share the cash back earnings Swagbucks offers. The 1% to 20% cash back rebates I can get from shopping online at featured stores. (There are over 10,000 eligible retailers.)
A lot of friends tell me, “I already use Honey” or some other cash back browser extension. And that’s great. I do too. I use half a dozen different shopping extensions.
But I don’t use Swagbucks instead of other cash-back apps and credit cards. I use Swagbucks in addition to these other cash back apps and shopping extensions.
I take screen grabs like this where Swagbucks is a better cashback deal than other sites and then share it on Instagram and Facebook. The comparison is easy to grasp.
And it gives a great visual of what cash back shopping is.
I’ll add a sentence like, “Score! Double cash back using Swagbucks vs Anthropologie. Glad that I have both extensions. I’ve made $101 on Rakuten this year and $808 on Swagbucks.”
Or sometimes I’ll take a different approach and share a post like this:
“Just scored $100 worth of goodies for $57.12 at Anthropologie! Stacking sales, coupons, and cash back rebates, I saved 43% off.”
- $100 Full price
- – $30 Sale
- $ 70
- – $10.50 Coupon code
- $59.50
- – $1.19 Swagbucks cash back rebate.
- – $1.19 Credit card cash back reward (2%)
- $57.12
Then let the questions come in. If prompted, I’ll explain how easy it is to manage multiple deal sites because you just add the extension (giving you deal alerts) to your browser. You can easily just select the best deal.
Most of the time, Swagbucks is the best offer (or is tied for the best offer). But I like having all the apps so I don’t worry about missing a better deal. It takes less than a minute to sign up for a cash back shopping app.
3. Keep Sharing Your Rewards
Don’t just share one post of a Swagbucks reward you cashed out. Share them all. (Unless you’re cashing out 20x a day because that really would be a bit too spammy.)
I have even shared small rewards I cashed out. I once cashed out a $1 Amazon gift card reward. Mainly out of surprise and disbelief that a $1 gift card would even exist. I just wanted to see how it worked and then if there was anything I could actually buy for $1.
“Look! I just completed an 11-minute survey on Swagbucks and cashed out this $1 gift card to Amazon. Who knew Amazon had $1 gift cards ?!?”
Sharing that $1 Amazon reward was a definite conversation starter. People had questions.
And I think it encouraged people to try because reaching $1 in earnings feels easy and attainable. It’s a prize people can earn within a few minutes of learning about Swagbucks. A prize they can cash out before they lose interest or get bored.
4. “I bought you something nice.”
When I give people presents for birthdays or just-because-days, I let them know the money came from Swagbucks.
“You didn’t have to get me anything” is a common protest. And I reply something like, “It was free! I just used my Swagbucks for it.”
You can imagine the questions that follow. And this isn’t me being manipulative. This is how actual conversations have flowed, and the end result has been curiosity about joining Swagbucks. I’ve gotten people to join Swagbucks not by telling them “You need to join” but by sharing how I use Swagbucks when it comes up.
5. Celebrate Rewarding Moments
Share your rewarding moment! Let Swagbucks know how you use Swagbucks and what you do with your Swagbucks earnings.
Nominate a friend or yourself on Twitter, Facebook, or via email. Create a video and share it, making sure to tag Swagbucks in your submission. The email is goodpeople@swagbucks.com.
If you submit via Twitter or Facebook, send an email with a link to the content.
If you are selected to be a featured member, you’ll earn a 1000 SB reward ($10) and your rewarding moment will be published.
The published blog post is easily sharable – via email, text, and social. Share it with your friends and family. “Yay! I was selected to be featured as a member for Swagbucks’ Rewarding Moments”.
Here are 3 tips to help your Swagbucks referrals be successful at earning rewards
If you refer friends, you want them to be successful at using Swagbucks so they’ll earn rewards, and you can get your 10% commission for life.
Here are a few tips.
1. Forward the Best “Discover” Deals
When you complete an easy offer in Discover, share it with your friend. When I come across offers that are free and quick to complete, I’ll text or DM that offer to friends I have using Swagbucks. “Hey this one is a quick $2.50. Took me 3 minutes.” I’ll share the offer page URL, or the name of the offer, or use the Share & Earn feature when it’s available to get a shareable link.
2. Rewards FYI
A friendly, helpful FYI can go a long way. If they’ve only earned a couple of dollars, DM or text them “Btw, did you know you can cash out a $3 gift card on Amazon?”
In your referral dash, you can see how much your friend has earned for different activities. (You see your cut, and know that it’s 10% of whatever they earned.) I wouldn’t tell them, “I can see you’ve earned $3.00” completing Discover category activities – too creepy – but you can use this information to give the ma friendly heads up about some of the smaller gift card prizes.
You can also casually but helpfully share the 12% off gift cards available. Every month you can redeem your first $25 gift card for 12% off face value. (So a $25 Amazon gift card would cost $22.) Not every gift card has this discount, but many do and it is an attractive deal. Sharing this with your friends is helpful. Especially if their earnings are just a little shy of $25.
3. Send Them These Step-By-Step Guides
There are many blog articles written with step-by-step tips and screen grabs on how to earn rewards on Swagbucks.
These articles have been especially helpful for new members. Or even more established members who are just feeling a little bit stuck.
Get Started: What To Do Today
You can get started today even if you aren’t ready to cash out. Here are some steps you can go through today to effectively share Swagbucks with your friends and family.
- Share a screen grab of your lifetime earnings. “Yes! Nearly at 130K Swagbucks points. I’ve earned $1,300 this year taking surveys and playing games on my phone while binge-watching Friends. How you doin’?”
- Share a picture of a reward. “Phew! Crisis averted. Replaced Henry’s lost lovey. Cashed out an Amazon gift card from Swagbucks and the package is here today.” Or “Putting the finishing touches on this quilt. 15 yards of fabric at $10.50 a yard, plus batting and more. Used all of my Swagbucks earnings for the materials though, so they were “free” to buy.”
- Ask a question. “Is anyone else using Swagbucks? I want to earn enough to pay for holiday gifts.” If you identify friends who are using Swagbucks, you can ask them for tips on earning more – which is a win. And you may find friends who used to be members, but no longer. If they’ve been inactive for a while, you can still refer them to Swagbucks and get the $3 referral bonus.
- Check your referral dashboard. You may already have referrals. You should be able to tell your friend by the first name or username in the dash. Now, you can text or DM them with helpful tips. (“Hey, I noticed you’re doing Swagbucks! Btw, I went through and did all of the offers in this article the other and was able to cash out $50…”
Don’t be discouraged if people don’t reply to your social posts. Sometimes a post catches everyone’s interest, sometimes there’s radio silence. Even if there are no bites immediately when you share, you’re planting a seed and introducing them to the idea. (Or your friends are busy and not consistently on social and seeing your posts. But eventually one of your posts will show up in their feed and they’ll be interested.)
And when it comes down to it, all of your friends are already doing Swagbucks-style activities like surveys, reading newsletters, playing games, or randomly scrolling through their phones. If they can get paid for it, it’s a big win for them. And a $3 win +10% for life win for you, too.