I joined Swagbucks last October after reading about it for months. With no one signed up under me, I have cashed out for $110 in
Amazon gift cards. Each time I get a gift card, I add it to my Amazon balance until there is something that I want-so far, it has helped with Christmas and 2 birthday presents!
Just use Swagbucks to search for info or if you are going to the Dis boards, search "Dis boards" and click the link from the search. Roughly $5 every two weeks for very little effort. After a month, I did download the tool bar, sometimes, there are Swag codes on the toolbar and it is easier to open new windows and use the toolbar for searches. There is also a one Swagbuck reward each day for the toolbar use and one for taking the daily poll.
There are also surveys and merchants to sign up with similar to Mypoints-have only done a few surveys and watched a few commercials. Since the surveys, I am earning $15-$20/month instead of $10. Not a lot, but something.
Swagbucks gets income from the sites/advertisers that you click through, just like Mypoints etc, not really a pyramid scheme. A true pyramid scheme is when person one is paid by money paid by persons two and three, not by advertisers. People do ask you to sign up under them as they get a referral fee in the amount of a matching 1000 points (a little over $10) for the points that you earn. This is much more than the 250/450 points that Mypoints give, but not a cause for alarm.
HTH