Get paid to watch videos? Yeah, right. And I assume the TV is free too? Sounds way too good to be true. But I recently discovered a legitimate way to make up to $2,280 a year watching videos from your computer or smartphone in your spare time.

The cool part is that most of the videos are ones you’d be watching anyways. Videos include anything from highlights of The Tonight Show, to the Presidential debate, to current events, to popular cooking shows. Here’s how to start earning today.

How to Make Money Watching Videos:

The free site that makes it possible to earn money sitting on your couch watching videos is called Swagbucks and they’re currently giving out a free $5 Bonus if you sign-up. So if you’re skeptical, like I was, you got nothing to lose and an easy $5 to gain. To get started, all Swagbucks asks for is your name and email address.

Okay wait, back up the truck for a moment as you may be wondering exactly how Swagbucks works and if they’re legit. Well, they’re absolutely legitimate and they operate by paying you these things called “Swagbucks”, or SB’s, to do a bunch of easy tasks that you’re probably doing anyways.

These tasks can include anything from searching the Internet, shopping at popular retailers, taking a survey, to what we’re focusing on today, watching videos. You can then redeem your SB’s for gift cards to places like Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart, Target, PayPal Cash, and dozens more.

Okay, so now that we’re all on the same page, here are the steps I took make this free money hack work:

1. Sign-Up for Swagbucks

Did I mention that they’re currently handing out a crisp $5 bonus to new members. Click here to sign-up and claim your free $5. Takes all of 30 seconds to sign-up and claim your 5 bucks. As I mentioned earlier, all they will collect is your name and email address.

See Also: 22 Online Jobs for Teens That Pay REAL Money

2. Choose the Videos That Interest You

After claiming your $5 to sign-up, you’ll automatically be taken to the their “Watch” section which lists hundreds of videos available for viewing, all of which will earn you Swagbucks. Take a couple minutes to browse through the video section to get a feel for what they offer.

3. Keys/Hacks to Your Success

Like any hack, there are always ways to maximize your time and efforts.

• Look for Short Videos: Be sure to always look for video offers that contain 12 or less videos which allow you to earn at least 2 SB’s. Unless it’s a topic that really interests you, pass on anything with 20+ videos as the time it’ll take you to complete isn’t worth it. Personally, I always start with the “TV & Film Hot Topics” and “Digital Shorts” section as it’s usually entertaining and the videos are short. So if the video doesn’t interest you, no worries, it’ll be over quickly.
• “Health Tips” Videos: These always provide a lot of SB’s for a short time commitment. I like to run these in the background of my laptop while I do other things. Easy earners.
• “Sponsored” Videos: I like these as well as they run in the background and always provide 2-3 SB’s for about 8-12 minutes of videos. Some require you to constantly click to get the next video started which obviously requires more time on your part. Try to avoid those.

I’ll be sure to add new hacks to this section as I discover them.

4. Start Earning SB’s

Make it a healthy frugal habit to start a video in the background when you’re checking your email, or looking at your neighbor’s vacation pics on Facebook. By doing so, you’ll start accruing Swagbucks fairly quickly. Also, consider running them on an iPad or other tablet while you work at home or in the office. Or do what I did for the past month and let them run in the background all day long as you work. Just be sure to check the video stream periodically in order to keep the videos rolling.

Here’s the maximum you can earn per day watching videos via Swagbucks:

• Desktop viewing: 500 SB
• SwagButton viewing: 125 SB

This comes out to 625 SB’s every day which equates to $6.25 per day or $2,281.25 per year.

See Also: How to Score a Monthly $50 Amazon Gift Card with Swagbucks

So What Realistically Can You Earn?

Okay, so unless you live in your parent’s basement, and have unlimited time to watch videos, earning $2,281 per year is just not realistic.

So what realistically can you earn watching videos on Swagbucks? Well, I ran a little experiment the past 30 days to find out.

Every time I sat down at my desk to work I’d fire up some Swagbucks videos and kept them rolling all day long. For the most part, I didn’t do it on weekends and there were a few hours during the week when I was out of the office. But other than that, I stayed pretty darn consistent with it.

At the end of the 30-day period, including a bunch of Daily Goal bonuses, and a few Swag Codes, I had earned exactly 3,052 SB for doing basically nothing.

Once the 30-day experiment was up, I immediately redeemed my Swagbucks for $30 worth of Starbucks gift cards. Gotta love free coffee, right? Hey, don’t judge.

Click here to sign-up for Swagbucks, claim your FREE $5, and start watching videos.

Happy savings.

By Kyle James

Disclaimer: While all opinions in this article are my own, Swagbucks does pay me a referral fee if you sign-up. Money that’ll keep this blog rolling with more money-saving content.