Friday 21 July 2017

Swagbucks - completing the first daily goal in the minimum amount of time

I keep getting people asking in our Facebook group how I reach the Swagbucks daily goal so quickly.
A few things before I tell you what I do: this is only about reaching first target so you get the streak bonus at the end of the month.

Second targets are different for each person and I don't always reach mine. Hell, sometimes I don't even reach the first because I don't even have time to do what I'm about to type.

Secondly, I am no expert - there are people in our group with far more experience than me and who are earning way more than me. I put in the minimum time I can to get the maximum return, sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don't.

OK, so, this is my daily routine at 8am:


  • Set phone apps running, do everything else on laptop.
  • I start with to do list and open every element except daily discover in different tabs.
  • This means daily crave starts running while you're doing everything else.
  • Do daily poll then close tab.
  • Check on daily crave and move on to the next video by clicking I like it.
  • Move to daily watch and click on sponsored video - hopefully you have it, run it and that covers off your discovery. Close tab
  • Check daily crave tab again and move that on.
  • Go to daily search and search something random (sometimes I have to do 3 or 4 searches to get it to tick off). Close that tab.
  • Go to daily deal and click on it.
  • Check on daily crave again and move that on
  • Go to attempt gold survey tab, find shortest one and give it a go. If they're all over 10 minutes, open up peanut labs and find the shortest one there - at least if you get dq you get 1sb.
  • Hopefully you get a survey.
  • While you've been doing this, you should have completed daily watch with the apps (I run SBTV first as it's the quickest) and daily crave should have finished. To do list done :) Usually, if you've managed a survey too, that's the first goal done too. If not, the rest of the apps and watch / ncraves should help you reach it quite quickly

Only problem arises is if you can't qualify for a survey.


  • If that happens, I just leave apps running, set ncrave running if available, set watch running in another tab and get on with my day. I work for myself, on my computer, so I tend to have Watch and ncraves running on a separate monitor or tab so i can keep an eye on them without much trouble, but as I work from home I'm often off in the garden, to the shop, doing housey stuff and Watch at the moment just runs itself with the occasional nudge if it gets stuck.
  • Try again for a survey when I sit down to lunch.
  • Often if I can't get a survey on my laptop / PC (I refuse to do surveys over 10 minutes long) then I can find one on my phone, either on the Answer app or the Swagbucks app.
  • If I can't get qualified for a survey at all, I've still got ncrave and Watch running to help meet that first goal, which is usually not too bad.

If I really want maximum bonuses at the end of the month and want to reach second goal every day, but it's not looking like i'll make it then I use Swagstakes .

So that's how I do it - I'm not saying it's the right way, the best way or the quickest way and if anyone can refine the process further I'm very open to them adding to this thread - the more we work together with little tips and hints, the better we all do.

My 'way' is designed for me to have as little interaction as possible. I don't have the time to be moving videos on after 30 seconds or apps after 4 seconds or anything that means I have to be focusing on and interacting with swagbucks. If you have the time to do that then that's your 'way' and it works for you :)

Hope this helps, please add anything you think is relevant or of course just tell us how you do it over on the Facebook group.

Thursday 13 July 2017

Applike - Make money while you sleep!

This is a guest post from Daniel Smith, who is one of our Facebook group members - to get an invitation to Applike and benefit from what he earns, you can contact him via Facebook or email him at gbcritic@gmail.com

WHAT IS IT?

Applike is an incentive programme to entice users to play smartphone games (Android only at present, sorry iPhone users!) by giving you points for installing and playing. In the app, you are presented with a range of games, such as below.



You open the app, then you select which game to install and play, and then you are rewarded for playing. The longer you play, the more you earn.

Some games/apps reward you more than others – basically you want the ones with 4 stars (A LOT OF MCOINS). 3 stars are good (PLENTY OF MCOINS), but those 2 stars and below are barely worth the effort. The games/apps on offer are updated quite regularly so there should be plenty of good ones to choose from at any given time.



After a certain length of time playing a game though, it becomes futile to continue doing so. Take a look at the picture below.



You can see that in 5 minutes and 5 seconds time I'll earn 418 mCoins (the AppLike currency) playing Final Fantasy . During the initial installing and playing games, these rewards will be quite frequent. However, take notice of Kings of Avalon – my next reward of just 168 mCoins will come in almost 6 hours of gameplay! It's a personal choice of when to stop playing a game, but a general rule of thumb is that once a game passes around 2 hours per reward you should move on to the next one. You can simply uninstall the old game if you wish to avoid clutter on your phone.

NOT A GAMER? NO WORRIES!

You don't need to be a avid games player to make this work for you however. With a couple of minutes of set-up, you can simply leave this running and it earns you a handy passive income! Simply follow these steps:

·         Turn off sleep: All phones “go to sleep” if left idle for any length of time. Given that we'll be leaving the phone running the game (and some phones will take this as being idle) while we're off doing other things, we need to turn off the sleep function as this will pause your earnings.

There are two ways of doing this.
   In your phone, go to Settings > Display > Screen Timeout. Some phones will have this under Settings > Lock Screen > Sleep. Here you will be presented with a range of time options. The one you want is Keep Screen Turned On or Never Go To Sleep or similar. Some phones do not have the Never option though, so you'll have to do the second option (NB When you are finished using the app, it's best to turn the sleep function back on, as the screen is probably the main drain on battery power in smartphones)
   Turn on Stay Awake. This will set your phone to keep its screen on when you are charging it. First you have to turn on Developer Options. You can find out how to do this at http://www.greenbot.com/article/2457986/android/how-to-enable-developer-options-on-your-android-phone-or-tablet.html . Don't be too put off by this, it's a relatively simple process and doesn't affect your phone in any way – it just gives you access to a whole range of new options. Once this is enabled, you should find Developer Options in your main settings menu. Click on it and find Stay Awake and turn it on.

·         Start earning: Having carried out these steps, you can then start AppLike, choose the game, then walk away. You can also let this run overnight while the phone is plugged in, and have a nice little pile of mCoins waiting for you when you wake up :)

WHAT ARE THE PAYOUT OPTIONS?

AppLike pays out by PayPal. It's about 31,000 mCoins for £2.50. To put this in perspective, a newly installed, 4 star game (A LOT OF MCOINS) will typically earn around 10,000 mCoins if left to run overnight. Remember though that these earnings will decrease markedly the more you play a single game.

HOW CAN I BOOST MY EARNINGS?

The referral scheme is quite generous. In addition to earning 250 mCoins per friend you refer, you will also earn 25% of all mCoins they earn too. As an incentive to sign up, the referral also earns 25% of all mCoins their referrer makes as well. So it pays to help each other out!

INTERESTED?

If you join using a link I will send you when you contact me, you'll receive a 5555 mCoin starting bonus to get you off and running. Happy gaming!

This is a guest post from Daniel Smith, who is one of our Facebook group members - to get an invitation to Applike and benefit from what he earns, you can contact him via Facebook or email him at gbcritic@gmail.com


Want to write a How To guide for this blog? Come and let us know in the Facebook Group!



Friday 7 July 2017

How I make £300 a month from survey sites and apps with minimal effort

This post was written in July 2017 - my routine has changed a little since then, look out for an updated post soon!

Over in our Facebook group people have been asking how I can possibly earn so much from apps when I claim I spend so little time on them (implying something? ;) ) so this post is to explain and hopefully help a few people out. It's a very quick and dirty post so there are no screengrabs or pretty pictures in it. It is quite long though, please read to the end before asking any questions x

Throughout the post there will be links to the various sites and apps highlighted in green, and in the main they will be referral links. There will also be links to other posts that might help you out.

OK, so...

I'm an early riser - my alarm goes off at 5am and the first thing I do is switch on the radio and get back into bed :)

Then I follow this quick routine (I've numbered things for ease of reference)

1) I start with my phone apps - first I check Attapoll for any surveys and check my balance and cashout if neccessary (less than a minute)

2) I then check VYPR for any steers that have come in overnight and any cashout (less than 2 minutes)

3) Next is Citizen.me (check your app store) where I do a couple of the non earning surveys and any paid ones - this cashes out automatically so I don't need to check that (2 minutes)

4) After that I check OnePanel (check your app store) and do any non paid and paid ones, and of course check if I can cashout (2 minutes max)


6) I check Tipps and leave a quick review for a local restaurant, just ticking boxes and giving stars, no typing involved (1 minute)

7) Lucky leftovers is next - I've set this up to send max texts to each competition so all I do is check if I have a cashout (30 seconds)

8) People.io (check your app store) usually has some quick questions to answer so i do those now (30 secs)

9) Panelapp (check your app store) just adds points for checking in so that's another 5 seconds

10) I check Shopprize  (no longer open to new users)to get my daily login bonus, see if I have any referrals and cashout if necessary (I don't scan receipts so 15 seconds max)

That's all my non Swagbucks phone apps done in less than ten minutes while I listen to the news

Then...

11) I set the Swagbucks SBTV app running videos. I have favourited all the ten second ones and run my favourites list. I leave my lovely warm bed and jump in the shower. By the time I get out I've made another 10sb on SBTV, maybe more if it's run bonus rounds too.

12) I then set EntertaiNow TV Swagbucks video app running, choose 'short clips' and leave it while I go and make coffee, breakfast and packed lunches. While I'm in the kitchen I fire up the laptop and...

13) I set Swagbucks ToolbarTV going on the website

14) I also look to see if there are any autorun Ncraves that can run while I make and eat breakfast

15) By the time breakfast is over, EntertainNow has run so I start Sportly (another Swagbucks app) while I do housey thing like load the washing machine, do the washing up, water the garden etc.

16) I check into the Facebook group and approve any posts, new members and answer any queries

17) By now it's 7 o clock and the rest of the house is leaving, so it's time for another coffee :)

18) I check in on Mintvine and Prolific to see if i have any cashouts on there. I do the daily poll  on Mintvine. If there are any short studies on there (under 10 mins) I might do one or two, but I don't do this every day.

19) Sportly has finished now so I load up Lifestyle TV and set that running on short clips

20) I check the Facebook group again and check whether there are any short Gold surveys on Swagbucks (on laptop). I also set another Ncrave going if there is one

21) I then mooch about in the Facebook group until 8am when Swagbucks starts again, hopefully I'll have run the Indy music swagbucks app too by then, but I don't always.

It's now 8am and active time on Swagbucks is a maximum of 15 minutes (if I've done a survey) Let's say another 10 mins each on Mintvine and Prolific if i've bothered to do studies on there.

22) So now I set SBTV Swagbucks app running again and start the process of running the apps again - I don't watch the videos, I don't babysit them. I just let them run until they've finished and then start the next one.

23) I spend a lot of time in the Facebook group helping people out, while also administrating my other groups (some of which I do for fun, some of which clients pay me for) and Facebook pages, and also writing blog posts for clients. I might occasionally do a quick Prolific survey if I think it's worth it, and I also try to complete my Swagbucks to do list.

I work for the rest of the morning. At lunchtime I check all my phone apps again.

Throughout the day Ncraves are running where possible and Watch is running on another tab in my browser. The Swagbucks apps are running on my phone or tablet. I don't have to do anything except move them on occasionally, which I can do in a second because I'm working online anyway.

To my routine I've added InstaGC, which I mainly run videos or throughout the day (more on this another time, but sign up and PM me on Facebook and I'll help you out).

And that's it! Unless someone posts a tasty Prolific study in the group and I can take a break, I don't do anything else other than mooch in the FB group, work for clients and the occasional foray out into the garden.

In the evening I have the usual household stuff to do - walk the dog, make dinner, clear up, make sure everyone has clothes for the next day, bath and bedtime etc. Then I can sit in front of the TV, all the while Watch has been running. Ncraves has finished by this time unless i'm really lucky :)

I watch TV with my partner, or do stuff in the garden. If I'm watching TV I might do the occasional survey on my phone, but that's it. If someone in the group mentions a decent Discover on Swagbucks I'll do that too, but I don't worry about Discover as long as I've reached my daily goal.

Weekends the before 8am routine is probably the same, then I just set apps and Watch running on Swagbucks and do normal family weekend stuff.

So, as you can see, although it seems like I spend all day doing this stuff, my actual active time is not a lot. I might do VYPR steers in front of the TV, but that's no different to playing Candy Crush or reading a book, which is what I would be doing if not doing this.

Some days I do nothing apart from the apps as I don't have the time or I get distracted by work. I'd say at least one week a month I do nothing on Swagbucks.  Yet throughout my apps and sites, in May I made over £300, August over £500. I'll update this post when I get a minute with the actual figures for each month but the total between Jan and September is well over £2500.

I hope this has helped some of you see how you could get into a routine and streamline the process, if it has, come and tell me in the group. If you have any specific questions, make a new post in the group rather than add to an existing one, so that I can be sure to see it.

I'm working on a post about getting referrals, (a quick one is here) as they're a good part of making money on some apps and sites, so make sure you're in the group if you want to know when I've finished it.