As I have been trolling through a lot of the websites in the coupon blogosphere, I have come across quite a few mentions of Swagbucks. About a month ago, my curiously got the best of me and I decided to research what all of the hoopla was about.

What are Swagbucks?

Swagbucks are virtual “bucks” that you can earn by doing different things on the web. It's basically a rewards based system. As you accumulate Swagbucks, you can trade them in for lots of really cool things.

How does it work?

There are lots of ways you can earn Swagbucks. Here are a few: completing surveys, voting in daily polls, downloading and searching with the Swagbucks toolbar, searching the web, referrals, watching videos and more.

Swagbucks.com also has built in promotion tools that may make it easier for you to earn Swagbucks. There is a built-in Facebook Connect feature which allows you to brag to your Facebook friends about your Swagbucks activities as well as invite your existing friends to join Swagbucks.

There are also customized banners that you can use to advertise your Swagbucks referral link. You can add these banners to your webpages, blogs or you can put the link on your social pages like Facebook and Twitter.

What free stuff can you get?

Once you start accumulating Swagbucks, you can redeem them for all kinds of things in the Swagbucks store. There are tons of things to choose from including apparel and accessories, electronics, jewelry, kitchen items and my favorite, gift cards. I like to redeem my Swagbucks for gift cards that I can use while I’m shopping on the web.

You can also redeem your points in the Swagstakes. With Swagstakes, you can use a very low number of points (for example 3) and enter a Swagstakes to win a prize that normally would cost you a higher number (for example 2000 Swagbucks). It’s a great option if you are feeling lucky.

The process of signing up is pretty simple. You just visit Swagbucks.com, register for an account. Once you have registered, click on the "More" tab and you will get all of the information you need to get started.