WIN $100,000 From Amazon! Plus More Donut Holes!

GOOD MONDAY MORNING SWAGGERNAUTS!

What do you want to do this morning, roll over and bury yourself in the covers, eat a pan of lasagna, or sing with the birds? I wish I was the later type.. I'm definately more a Garfield personality on Mondays :P

First things First! If you haven't already signed up for a Swag Bucks account, there's no time like the present! Just go to the swidget on the right there, press the Sign Up button on the bottom right. Fill out a short form, confirm your email, and get 30 swagbucks to get you rolling! Then come back here and start with my second blog post, "Beginner Tips for Swagsurfing!", for tips on how to get started.

I just remembered a Super contest Amazon.com is having. You can enter once a week between now and December 19th. All you have to do is put an item on your wishlist from any site other than Amazon, and you are entered to win $100,000.

There are a couple of ways to do this. The easiest, the one I use, is to install Amazons wishlist toolbar. (Since you can hide toolbars that you aren't actively using, I only pop it up when I need it!)

This is easiest because no matter WHERE you are on the net, you can click Add To Wish List, a pop up will open, and you can add it to your Amazon Universal Wish List. Otherwise, without the toolbar, you can only add items from sites that have Amazon.com wishlist buttons on their item pages. 

You can find a link to the Universal Wish List Button here. I liked this feature even before the contest.. it makes shopping around Amazon much faster being able to just click that button and POW the item I want is on my wishlist without having to surf away. (Of course there is always the wishlist box on the right side of the screen whenever you are shopping Amazon too. I just prefer my Universal Wish List toolbar lol!)

This morning I went to Overstock.com and browsed childrens DVDs. Found one I liked, clicked my Add To Wish List button, confirmed that I wanted to add the item to my wish list. At the bottom of the pop up is a yellow button to go enter on Amazon. You click that, it takes you to the Amazon contest rules page, and you click Enter the Sweepstakes.  Super Easy to enter to win! Go back every Monday to enter for the week.

While we are on the topic of giveaways, I want to mention a site that I have just FALLEN IN LOVE with. It's run by swaggernauts like us, who do work every day hunting down free item giveaways and contests, then are wonderful enough to share it with the rest of us. It's a facebook group called Swaggers Who Love Freebies. I go there once or twice a day. Every post is a link to free stuff, or contests, and it's AMAZING what these folks find! In the two weeks since I've been a member, I have signed up for all sorts of goodies. Just last week I received a package with a Nice thermal lunch box for my husband (his was Falling Apart!), a calendar, several pens, one of which is the expensive fat grippy kind I need for my carpal tunnel. A Space camp dvd and poster for my son, a free album download from amazon (that will also be sending some Silly Bands for my stepdaughter, bands with bells no less!), and a code for a free 8x10 collage from Walgreens Photo. (It turned out NICE!)

I want to thank Carol Santora, Katie Smith, and all the regular swaggers on that site who post free stuff Every Day! I can't tell you how EXCITED free stuff gets me, with basically NO budget for anything other than the bills. A lot of folks are using the freebies they get for stocking stuffers.

I just noticed that today they have a post for a free DVD giveaway! HOW IRONIC AND NEAT! It's the very same DVD I found on Overstock that I added to my universal wishlist this morning to be entered into the $100,000 giveaway! That's a $20 item, for free. HOW COOL IS THAT?

Ok, enough of the contest and giveaways. Lets have some donut holes!

I'm referring to the gaps in information from my previous posts. Let's go through a few questions and answers, and remember, if you have a question I haven't addressed yet, PLEASE comment, friend me on SwagBucks (JennySweets) and write me there, or friend me on facebook and PM me. I'm here to help! :D

1: Can Amazon.com cards be used to buy ANYTHING on Amazon? For the most part, yes. However I have discovered that some of the vendors that sell through Amazon do not accept Amazon gift card credits as payment. I personally haven't had a problem with this yet, but it has been mentioned on the Swagbucks Facebook page.  Some will accept them for the item, but not for shipping. So far everything I've ordered through Amazon, or through a vendor listed on Amazon, has been no problem. Some vendors (like the one that sold me the mp3 adapter cable you see on the right sidebar) even had free shipping! So for the most part, the gift cards are good for anything. But not 100% of the time.

2: What does it mean when people post things like "11 for facebook" on the Swagbucks Facebook page?  When people get a win, sometimes they post what they searched for. Other swaggernauts may decide to try their luck with the same search. Sometimes they win too. Sometimes, they win More than the original poster. It's not a guarentee of a win but it works for me about 1/4 of the time.

3:  Ok, but why is Everyone posting their search wins right now? That's all I see! If you go to the Swagbucks Facebook page and its post after post after post of search wins, that means "the gates have opened". You can win randomly all day, any time of day. However, there are several moments throughout the day where the "Swag Gates" are opened, and it's Very likely you will get a win. When that happens, a flood of search win posts will appear on the forum wall. Good time to go search!

4: I went to the Swagbucks Facebook page and all I see are miles and miles of Thanks, TSG!  What the heck is a TSG, and why are people saying Thanks? TSG is short for The Swag Guy, or The Swag Gal. People are saying thank you because there is an active code somewhere, and they come to post gratitude that they found it and got their swagbucks. (Sometimes I wish we could just do one thanks thread, but hey, at least its a great way to tell when there's a code!) If you see that and can't find the code yourself, you can ask for some clues. It's against the rules to post codes anywhere, so don't even bother asking "What's the code?"  but there's no rules against giving hints!

5: People are posting that there is a code in the toolbar. Where? I see nothing! In the middle of your swagbucks toolbar is "From TSG [0]"  (or another number, will address that in the next question.) If folks are saying check the toolbar, and you see a 0 there, fret not my friend! Just click From TSG, then click the blue word Messages. That will take you to the latest post from TSG with a clue where to find the code, or the code itself.

6: My From TSG button just went from [0] to [15], and they are all old, expired codes. What the heck? I don't know why this happens, but sometimes all the messages that have been released by TSG to the toolbar will pop up at once. It's a glitch of some sort. If you want to know if there is a real, new message, just click the blue Messages to see the latest post.

7: Can I use discount codes when doing special offers, or Shop & Earn? Generally, no. The whole point of the special offers, and Shop & Earn, is for the company offering the swagbucks to make money. They pay SwagBucks (or the special offers company) for the purchases, or click throughs, or what have you. So if you are buying through them, but use a discount code, they are paying out without getting the profit in return. Just makes sense. However, sometimes you can use codes for free shipping with the special offers. The best way to know before hand if that is going to work is to ask on the Swagbucks Facebook page. Ask if anyone has tried it, and if so, they will give you an answer. If you try in the morning and no one knows, try again in the afternoon or evening. There are swaggernauts who lurk all day, but there is also a distinct Morning, Afternoon, and Evening crowd that changes out, each with different bits of information for you.

OK! That's it for this mornings post. My son is getting super antsy, he is starting to view the laptop as his enemy :P Time to go play!

Again, Please, for serious *chuckle* , ask me questions! Lots of questions! I need to know what you want to know, so I can make this blog Useful! And remember to vote in the polls on the right sidebar!

AS ALWAYS-  HAPPY SWAGSURFING!