Saturday, July 21, 2012

How to Make Money Play Games Online

Playing Free Games For Cash, Gift Cards, and Prizes

How I get paid to play games online in my free time.

And, as a homeschooling mom who works at home, I don't have a lot of free time. The sites I use and recommend have to be fast to do and easy to walk away from if I need. I also don't like spammy sites, don't "do" offers, and I won't pay for a chance to win in a tournament or anything like that. I do like a payout threshold I can reach in a reasonable amount of time. This criteria leaves me with a short list of fun free gamesites that offer rewards.

Here they are if you'd like to move your casual gaming time over to something that rewards you, too:

Playing Games for Cash, Gift Cards, or Prizes

Swagbucks' Game Page
Swagbucks started as a rewarding search site. They keep expanding the ways members can earn their generous amounts of swagbucks, and now have a game page. The games are the usual sorts of casual games - arcade, word games, and so on.

I've used the site for years, earning and redeeming thousands of swagbucks for Amazon gift cards. At 450 swagbucks for a $5 Amazon gift card it never takes me long to reach a payout. We buy so much from Amazon, that's always been as good as cash to me. Recently, however, I noticed they've added the ability to cash out through Paypal as well. Just go to the Redeem page, and type Paypal into the "find an item or category" search box to see the Paypal options.

Most of my earnings with swagbucks have come from using the search function. Playing their games is new to me. I had winning swagbuck pop ups in just a couple of games of Word Chain, however. That moved this site to the top of my paid to play list.

My best tip: Where the option is offered, submit your scores. Try different games to see which ones suit you best. Swagbucks are awarded randomly as you play around on the gamesite.

Playing Quick Survey Games For Chances To Win Cash

Instant Cash Sweepstakes

There are no wrong answers to most of the questions, and this one takes just a couple of minutes to do. Answer the few quick surveys and you could win cash, from a few cents to $$, entries in the daily sweepstakes of $50, and "coins" to spend in a separate $2 drawing that happens every few hours. You can cash out for paypal at $2.

They've recently changed some things on the site. Wins are smaller but more frequent. I typically play twice a day for just a few minutes each time, and am now usually winning something daily, sometimes both times I play. This is adding up faster for me than the way things were before.

They've also added a trust system, which gives you benefits such as win multipliers. You increase your trust score, and thus your bonuses, by answering the occasional demographics questions in ways that match your profile. (So keeping your profile updated is important.)

Refer your friends and you win what they win.

U.S. residents only.

Play Trivia and Other Games for Prizes

Screenshot of Game Show Network.com
Game Show Network

Some of the Game Show Network website's games pay in oodles, which can be traded for prizes.

They offer trivia games, casual arcade type games, and others that are played in conjunction with the game shows showing on the network at the time. That last category will require you to have the television network to know the answers, but the first two types of games do not.

When I started playing, the interactive games with the network rewarded cash and oodles, while the others gave oodles. Oodles could be traded for gift cards to Amazon, Walmart, and other stores.

Of the sites listed here, I've done second best with this one. My first year using the site I loved it, cashing out for lots of great gift cards for Amazon and winning some cash prizes. The prize program has changed a few times since. Gift cards are more difficult to grab, in my experience. The prize page tab is on the front page if you want to check that out to help you decide whether this site is worth your time.

Also, be aware that there are a lot of free games to play on the site, and not all of them earn oodles by playing. There are cash competitions associated with WorldWinner, as well, that have nothing to do with oodles. I never bothered with those. To see the ways earn oodles, after you've signed up click the My GSN tab on the front page and check out the To-Doodles link.

GSN's oodles program is limited to the U.S. and Canada.

My best tip: increase your earnings by using your favorite paying search engine to look up the answers for the trivia games.


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