Daily goals

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Several months ago Swagbucks introduced daily goals, a way to earn bonus swag bucks for your daily earnings. What started as a special promotion became a regular part of the website.

The daily goal: In a box on the right side of the main page is a daily goal meter. It will tell you how close you are to the daily goal. The daily goal has been as low as 40 or 50, and as high as 130, to the best of my recollection. Almost all Swagbucks earned during the day (which starts at 2 a.m. Central Time) count toward the goal. Hit the daily goal and you’ll be eligible for the daily goal bonus, awarded during the first five days of the following month. (The bonus is typically 10 percent of the goal, but occasionally it’s a buck or two higher or lower.)

The monthly goal: Most months there are monthly goals that are based upon how many consecutive days you are able to hit the daily goal. (There was an exception in October 2012 that did not require the total days to be consecutive.)

If you hit the goal for 7 consecutive days, any 7 days, you’ll get 25 Swagbucks next month, in addition to the daily goal bucks you earned during each of those 7 days. (We’ll assume that the daily bonuses average out to 7 Swagbucks per day.) If you hit the goal 7 days in a row, you’ll earn 49 bucks for those 7 days, plus 25 for the monthly bonus. You’ll receive 74 Swagbucks within the first five days of the next month.

If you hit the daily goal 14 days in a row, you’ll get a monthly bonus of 100 Swagbucks. Hit the daily goal any 14 days in a row during the month and you’ll receive approximately 198 Swagbucks for your effort.

Hit the daily goal for 21 consecutive days nets a monthly bonus of 200 Swagbucks, in addition to your daily bonus earnings. That will result in a monthly bonus of approximately 347 Swagbucks.

And finally, if you hit the daily goal for every day of the month, you’ll receive a monthly bonus of 300 in addition to your daily bonus earnings. You’ll receive more than 500 Swagbucks when the bonuses are paid out. That’s more than enough for a $5 Amazon gift card.

Strategy: There’s obviously a benefit to hitting the daily goal, but it can be difficult to hit every day of the month, and if you miss the daily goal on the 15th day of the month, there’s no way you can get more than 100 bonus bucks for the month.

I try to hit at least 14 days in a row, but 21 is my preferred streak. I don’t know if you can earn 25 Swagbucks for two 7-day streaks in the same month, but even if you can earn two 7-day bonuses, that’s 50 Swagbucks. Put together 14 consecutive days and you’ll get 100 Swagbucks.

I figure that I need a break from the daily bonuses now and then, so I don’t kill myself to hit the daily goal every day of the month. If I can hit the goal 21 days in a row I’ll earn plenty of Swagbucks during the streak, and I can count on a bonus of approximately 350 to jumpstart my earnings during the next month. (Bonus Swagbucks do not apply to the daily goal on the day they are applied.)

Keep in mind that if the daily goal is 50 Swagbucks, you can still earn 75 or more during the day, but sometimes you might want to take a break for the rest of the day once you have hit the goal. If I have Saturday evening plans, I’ll make sure I hit the goal early on Saturday so that I don’t have to spend 10 minutes scrounging for Swagbucks at the end of the night. (Weekend/holiday goals tend to be lower than the weekday goals.)

Because the goals are 90, 100 or 110 on some days, if you stop at 50 Swagbucks on a Saturday, the higher days will help you maintain a 75 Swagbucks/day average. 

Tips: Make sure to start earning Swagbucks in the morning with a search win, especially on days when you’ll need to earn 90 or more. If you want to hit the goal, but will be away from a computer much of the day, make some time in the morning or evening to qualify/complete a survey that will boost your total toward the daily goal. I often hit goals of 90 or higher without completing a survey, for the record. But some days I look for a survey because I know I won’t be on the computer much of the day.

If the goal is 90 or higher you may want to take some time to search out offers that pay 25 or 30 Swagbucks by registering for an e-mail newsletter or adding a Facebook application. One of those offers can reduce a 100-point goal by 25 or 30 points in a hurry, allowing you to follow the basic 75-point template in order to reach the day’s goal.

While most offers credit immediately or within seconds, some take minutes, hours or days to credit. When you complete an offer that doesn’t credit on the same day, that’s frustrating, but there’s not much you can do about it other than make sure you find offers that do pay you on the same day and put you over the goal.

Bottom line: The daily goals can help you keep up with the overall goal of averaging 75 Swagbucks a day, and that should make it easier to ensure you receive at least $25 in payouts every month. Yes, some days it will take extra effort and work to reach the daily goal and keep your streak going, but it's a minor nuisance, typically. And which would you rather do, play Wheel of Fortune on Facebook or ensure that you'll have $25 or more in credit coming to you at the end of the month?