ZoomBucks Review: Better Than Swagbucks?

ZoomBucks is a site that operates on the GPT (Also known as Get Paid To) model. Another popular site that uses this model is Swagbucks, (by the way, you can read my review of SB here) where users are required to do different things like play online games, answer paid surveys, shop, complete free trials, watch videos etc, to earn money.

In other words, ZoomBucks allows you to earn money by doing things that you otherwise normally do in your daily life.

Who is Behind this Site?

ZoomBucks was founded by Vikas Tailor in 2010 and is based in Canada. It’s a web-based rewards program, also known as online loyalty program, which rewards members for performing many different types of tasks. All these tasks are designed with a view to advertise a particular product or service from a client company or their advertisers.

This is also how the site manages to pay its members for doing what seem like very simple tasks.

As it is the norm here at SurveySatrap, I checked out the Better Business Bureaus’ site to learn more about this site. But, as is the case with many sites, this site is not a member of the BBB either.

Although I always like to see sites having BBB membership, it not a deal breaker. There are thousands of legitimate corporations that don’t care about a BBB membership.

As far as the company behind the site goes, there is not much information out there. I did spend quite sometime researching its background, but other than what I have already said, I couldn’t find any other piece of useful information about the company.

Earning Money with ZoomBucks

Let’s be clear about something here before we get into how you can make money on ZB – This is not your typical survey site. The site is not attached to a market research firm.

They may call some of their offers “paid surveys”, but these are not actual studies conducted by research firms. These so called “surveys” are usually ads designed to get eyeballs in front of their advertisers products and services.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, but I just wanted to make sure you know this before you join the site.

With that out of the way, lets see what this site has to offer.

Registration is as easy as with most other similar sites. You enter your details, confirm your email and you are in. Once you confirm your account and login, you can find all kinds of ways to earn points in your dashboard.

I like the member dashboard as it is user friendly and easy to navigate. Everything is organized. For example, if you want to earn by playing games, you can do so by clicking the “Play Games” button on the left side of your dashboard. The same goes with surveys, search, shopping, and so on.

There is one pretty cool feature in here that put a smile on my face when I first came across it – its called ZB University! It’s basically a tutorial section with videos and how-tos that will help you navigate the site easier and increase your odds of earning more points. So, if you do decide to join the site, be sure to check out the ZB University.

There exist many ways for you to earn “Zoom Bucks”, the site’s parlance for reward points.

1. Complete Your Profile
   This ought to be your first priority. Doing so also nets you 200 points on the spot.
2. Toolbar
   This concept is quite similar to the one used by Swagbucks. By simply installing the ZoomBucks toolbar you stand to earn 150 points. This way, you don’t even need to sign-in to earn points.
3. Search
   Again, the idea is similar to SB’. You can earn points by routing all your searches through the site’s search engine. There is no limit to the number of times you can do this per day.
4. ZDaily
   This gives you some points (a random figure) every day. Just sign-in to your account once daily and under the “Win ZBucks’ option, click on ZBucks to see if you’ve been awarded some points. Winning once per day at the very least is possible in this way.
5. Visiting Offer Wall
   As can be gathered by the name, this is the wall where you can learn of all the different ways of earning more points. By simply visiting the page named “Offer Wall”, you are assured of winning at least a single point per day.
6. Special Offers
   The site has in place many special offers for you to opt for in order to win many points. Some examples of such special offers are shopping at online stores of big brands or registering for trials offers and many more.
7. Answer Surveys
   Among the more entertaining ways to earn Z Bucks is by answering available surveys. A minimum of 8 surveys are made available to you every day to help you get additional points.
8. Paid to Read Emails
   Although the frequency of paid emails to read is not as much as in sites like InboxDollars, a dedicated paid email website; ZB does sent out paid emails every now and then. You can earn points by clicking on a link within that email. In short, I would surely not miss out on this earning avenue.
9. Front Page Videos
   Mostly restricted to 30-120 second durations, you can earn around 2-3 points by watching each of these advertisement videos.
10. Referral
    Referrals, to me, is among the best ways to earn money on GPT websites without spending a lot of time completing trial offers. Almost all GPT sites reward you with points for every referral. You also stand to earn a percent of what your referral earns till the time he/she keeps the account active. Fortunately, the site also rewards you with 10% of all your referral points for the entire lifetime.
11. Codes
    There is also the option of earning some points by using what are known as “ZoomBucks Codes”, which are nothing but promotional codes that one can find on the web as well as on the site itself. There are also many blogs out there that provide these codes to their readers.

Prizes & Rewards

Once you have accumulated enough points, you can redeem them either for cash payments or any other prize like gift certificates. Needless to say, your prizes get bigger with the number of points you manage to earn.

You are allowed to exchange points for gift cards or cash. A $5 deposit to your PayPal account is the lowest prize you can get. However, you need to have 650 points to do so.

There is also the option to exchange points for many different gift cards including the Amazon gift certificate. These start at $10 for every 1000 points.

Zoombucks vs. Swagbucks

Concluding from the time I’ve spend on Zoombucks, I can safely say that it’s quite similar to SB in many respects and both are almost on an equal footing.

However, where Swagbucks soars ahead is in the age department, it’s more aggressive self-promotion tactics, and the many mentions it receives from mainstream media networks like MSN Money, NBC News etc.

While Swagbucks boasts of a more complete search feature, Zoombucks turns the tables if one considers surveys or the points they reward per survey.

You can say both sites call it evens when it comes to payments, although ZB enjoys a slight edge owing to a better customer support system.

I’ve also heard most members say that the site pays quite fast. However, I would still prefer to put both sites on the same level; with both of them being legitimate GPT sites.

Pros

• Members from all countries accepted – This site is among those few sites in this category that accept members from world over. However, it’s also a fact that members from countries like Canada, the USA and the UK have a better chance at making money owing to the fact that most advertisers have their offers tailored for them.
• No limit to direct referrals – Many GPT sites tend to limit the number of referrals you can make to them, which puts a lid on how much you can earn through them. This site, however, has no such restrictions in place.
• They really do pay – Reading about GPT scams has become routine these days. There are so many instances that I can recount where people completed trial offers for many weeks on end only to be left in the lurch when it was payment time. However, ZoomBucks is anything but a scam. This can be verified from the many reviews of the site on various blogs and forums and also the from the payment proofs put up by people who got paid.
• A Low minimum payout figure – ZB requires you to have a minimum payout of at least $5, which is quite decent.

Cons

• Lack of international offers – As mentioned above, although the site allows international members to sign-up, they don’t have enough offers for people outside Canada, the UK and the USA.
• No fixed time frame for payouts – Rather unfortunately, I couldn’t find any bit about the time one has to wait to realize his/her payments or prizes. But from what I gathered from a few blogs and forums, it takes anywhere between a couple of days to even two weeks for the payment to arrive. Now this is not at all bad especially when compared to some of the other GPT websites. I’m hopeful that this waiting time would reduce as the site itself matures and works on the feedback it gets from members.

Final Words

Zoombucks has been around for only a fraction of the time of its more established competitors like Swagbucks. However, in that short period of existence, the company has created a reputation for itself as a legit and trustworthy loyalty program that pays its members without missing a beat.

So, in case you are harboring second thoughts on whether or not to join Zoombucks, based on my research and evidence provided in this review, I would urge you to go ahead and become a part of it, but don’t expect to quit your day job soon!