Swagbucks - the ubiquitous rewards site.

Swagbucks is almost some kind of a legend when it comes to sites that pay you to use them. At times, it's hard to know why, as things don't always work as they're meant to but, still, it goes on from year to year.

Swagbucks offers various ways to make money. The easiest is to use its apps which pay you to play videos on them. The good news is that, once you get the videos started, you don't have to do anything until they've all been played. You can earn 10 points a day with each app, meaning that, with 7 apps available, you can make 70 pts a day. Unfortunately, the apps can be demanding on your phone and, therefore freeze, so it can be wise to store them on your memory card, rather than in the phone's own internal memory. Also, to save money, make sure to connect your phone to your wi-fi, rather than burning up your mobile data allowance

The most direct way to earn on Swagbucks is via surveys, and the site offers you lots of them. Generally, they're not great. They don't pay too well and they frequently screen you out - sometimes right at the end of them. Having said that, there are plenty of them and you're told before you start how long they're expected to take and what the reward will be. In my experience, it's wise to be choosy and only tackle the short ones or the ones that reward better than averagely.

The exception to that are the surveys offered through Peanut Labs. Again, they're not well paid and don't tend to be riveting. However, you get 1 pt for being screened out of each one, which means it's worth opening them all simultaneously then get yourself quickly screened out of them to pile up those rejection points.

As with Branded Surveys, there are also Offers pages which feature various cashback deals you can sign up to in exchange for points. As with Branded Surveys, these are not worth bothering with, as they often don't credit and some of them look highly dubious anyway.

You can also make money with a thing called nCrave, which pays you to watch ads. As with the apps, you don't have to pay much attention to them but you will have to click on a button to move on to the next one. You can have them open in a separate window while you do your normal browsing.

A pleasing feature of Swagbucks is one in which you get paid to play video games. The games are incredibly easy - one of them involves simply dropping a T Rex off a cliff - and you're allowed to earn a maximum of 10 points a day by that route.

There's also a Watch page on the site, which rewards you for running videos. This is, however, very poorly rewarded, places heavy demands on your device and is simply not worth bothering with. It's hard to see why Swagbucks persists with it.

More worthwhile is the Adscend Media page which offers Smores.tv and EngageMe.tv, both of which also pay you to watch videos. These can be a decent money earner, although it does depend on how many adverts are available and this can vary from day to day and at different times of year. A note of warning, the previously mentioned Branded Surveys pays you more for watching Smores.tv and EngageMe.tv and, so, is a better option for this particular feature.

Swagbucks also has a Daily Poll, which pays you 1 point to click on it, and there's a daily Code which can be found from various online sources. Pasting that into the appropriate box will normally earn you 2-5 points, although there are occasional special days when numerous codes are released, enabling you to earn more.

A final way to earn is by searching the Internet, using Swagbucks' search engine. By doing this, you can get up to three search wins a day and pick up around 20 points. Occasionally, however, you'll get a bigger win and the biggest I've ever had is 100 points.

You'll notice that I keep mentioning points. That's because you're credited with points, not money. Generally, one point equates to 1 US cent and they're converted to actual money when you cash-out.

Swagbucks can be frustrating, as its features don't always work properly and the ones that you do like can disappear without trace but it's a consistent earner for me and, because of that, I'd say it's a must for those looking to make money from survey and rewards sites. If you want to sign up, you can do so by using this referral link. At the time of writing, Swagbucks will give both you and I a 500 point bonus for signing up through that link, so it's worth a consider.

Payment method: Paypal, a whole multiplicity of gift cards, plus pre-paid Mastercard vouchers. Minimum payout: $5/£5. Time for payouts to be processed: Usually within a week. My earnings in the last week: £6.65. My rating: 7/10. JOIN SWAGBUCKS.