Earn gift cards by doing web searches

Does your search engine pay you? Swagbucks does.

Late-breaking update! Sign up with code brownthumb (case sensitive) for 5 free Swagbucks. Code expires 9/18/09.

Swagbucks is a cool site that pays you for doing web searches. You randomly earn points (called “bucks”) by searching with them instead of Google. They import results from Google and Ask.com, so there’s no difference in your results.

To get started, go to their site (www.swagbucks.com) or add their toolbar to your browser. Fellow blogger FishMama even made it her computer’s home page so everybody in her house would remember to use it. You can earn extra bucks by connecting with them on Facebook or Twitter, too.

Trade in your bucks for gift cards—the best bargain is a $5 Amazon gift card for 45 bucks. If you do a lot of searches, you could earn an Amazon card a week this way! You can also earn gift cards for Starbucks, Target, iTunes, PayPal, and many others.

I stick to Google for image searches, but Swagbucks works just fine for everything else. And with Christmas right around the corner, gift cards will come in handy for stocking stuffers and office gifts. Give it a try today and they’ll give you 5 bucks free!