My 2 favorite sites to earn gift cards for free!

So for today I thought I would give you a list of websites that I use to earn free (well, kind of) stuff online. Some are totally free, you just get "points" by searching the web or opening e-mails. Some are cashback sites for your online purchases. Some are survey sites where you can earn cash for taking surveys. I have used all of these at one point and time, and I haven't had trouble with any of these. Just keep in mind that you will want a separate e-mail address for the extra e-mails.

1. Swagbucks. Love, love, love this site. It's free to sign up for. Swagbucks is very simple, here’s how it works:

• Create a Swagbucks account (it’s free and you’ll earn some Swagbucks just for joining!
• Use the Swagbucks search engine to search the Web and earn Swagbucks
• Not every search in the search engine will earn you swagbucks, but many will. It's totally random.
• Redeem Swagbucks for cool prizes, i.e. gift cards, Paypal cash, and more!

You can also earn Swagbucks by finding Swag codes, referring friends, trading in cell phones and video games, and more. I usually just use the search engine for my daily needs of searching for deals :-) Those swagbucks can add up fast – I have gotten so many great prizes in the past year since I joined. I have redeemed my earned Swagbucks for Amazon.com e-gift cards (I plan on paying for some Christmas presents with these this year!), and my favorite, $10 Starbucks gift cards so I can splurge on my trips to Sioux Falls/home.

2. Mypoints. (This link puts in my e-mail address, just delete and enter in yours if you want to sign up. I'm not sure why mine is in there. I think it's saved on my computer so maybe it won't show up in yours...) This is a site I also love. Set up a completely separate e-mail address for this one as you will get lots of mail. Here is a breakdown of this site. Sign up for free. There are 2 main parts to MyPoints:

a) Before you do any online shopping, go to MyPoints and click on the "Shop" tab. See if the store you're going to buy from is listed. If it is, click on it and a new tab will open for that store. Now you are earning "points per dollar" on whatever you buy online. The number of points per dollar depends on the store. For instance, right now you can get up to 8 points per dollar on your order. So if you order $75 dollars worth of items, you'll get 600 points in your account. You can redeem your points for gift cards to a huge variety of stores! (click on the "rewards" tab) The amount of points you earn at stores varies for different store, and even on different days. Sometimes stores will have specials where you can earn bonus points as well. Just explore!

b) The second part is opening e-mails. You'll get a few e-mails every day from MyPoints. By just opening the e-mail and clicking on the deal/store in the e-mail you'll often earn points. For example, you'll get a "mypoints bonus mail" for Bath and Body Works. Open the e-mail and click thru the e-mail to go to the Bath and Body Works website. You'll earn 5 points just for clicking thru the e-mail. Plus, if you want to order something from Bath and Body Works you'll earn more points still. I usually earn about 20 points/day by just opening and clicking thru the e-mails. Even if you choose not to do any online shopping to earn points, you can still read the e-mails and take a few surveys on the site to earn gift cards for free!

So, you're probably wondering how many points it takes to get a gift card? They vary in amounts, but right now a $10 Panera Gift Card is 1500 points. Yum. Soup Bread Bowls here I come!