Participating in Online Swaps

Everyone needs a hobby... something special and personal to think about and look forward to. If sending and receiving surprises in the mail sounds like something you'd enjoy, participating in online swaps might be a great hobby for you!

Swapping was popularized by bloggers, who organized craft swaps or "secret Santa" swaps for their regular readers. Swaps have become so popular that a site, called Swap-Bot, was set up to allow people all over the Internet to participate.

Here's how a swap works. One person comes up with an idea or a theme for a swap. For instance, yarn swaps are popular among knitters, and used book swaps are popular among readers. The organizer of the swap recruits others to participate, asking them to sign up for the swap by a certain deadline. Then, the organizer assigns each participant a partner. Each participant is then responsible for mailing something special to her partner... a cool or unusual skein of yarn, for instance, if it is a yarn swap. Often, bloggers who participate in swaps post on their blogs about the treasures they receive in the mail.

Swap-Bot makes the whole swapping thing super-organized. Participants first sign up for Swap-Bot, and create a profile. They can then search or browse for swaps to participate in. Just about anything and everything is being swapped on Swap-Bot, from crafts to children's toys to stickers to jewelry to random surprises. Swapping partners then get to rate each other... not on whether they liked the things they received in the mail, but whether they actually received something and whether their partner followed the rules of the swap. If a person thinks their partner sent something especially wonderful, the person can also give their partner a "heart."

The reason for these ratings is to make sure that each participant is living up to his or her end of the bargain. Many swaps require that all participants have good ratings. This way, all participants will be sure to receive something.

If swapping sounds like something you'd be interested, here are some tips on getting started.

Sign up on Swap-Bot, and create a profile.

When you first sign up, you'll be a "newbie"... a person who does not have any experience on the site. You'll find that many swaps don't allow "newbies." This is because newbies have no ratings at all yet, so it is impossible for organizers to guess at whether a newbie will follow through in a swap.

However, when you click on the tab marked "Find a Swap," you can search under "categories" for "newbies." You'll get a list of all of the current swaps that are open to newbies. Participate in a few of these, get rated, and you'll be welcome in almost all of the rest of the swaps on the site!

It is a good idea to answer all of the profile questions about your interests, likes and dislikes. This way, when you participate in a swap, your partner can check your profile for ideas about what to send. For instance, lets say you're participating in a sock swap. If your profile mentions that you love cats, your partner may look for a pair of socks with cats on them!

When you sign up for a swap, read the description and guidelines carefully. You'll see that there is a deadline for when to sign up, and another deadline for when you must send your items. Shortly after the sign-up deadline passes, you can log onto the site and find out who your assigned partners are. Often the person you are sending something to will be different from the person who sends something to you.

Be creative when swapping! Try to put lots of thought into what you send. This is the best way to earn hearts.

Most importantly, be sure that you follow through and really do send what you've promised to send... and get it sent in by the deadline! Otherwise, you'll get a bad rating. Besides, if you "flake" and don't follow through, its not fair to your partner.

You might hear the term "angeling" around the Swap-Bot site. Angeling means that, if a participant never received anything in the mail from their swapping partner, someone else will send that person something instead. However, angeling isn't an official part of Swap-Bot. Its something extra that some participants do out of kindness. In other words, you can't depend on an "angel" to take over and send something to your partner if you flake out and don't send anything. So, be sure not to flake!

Swapping is a lot of fun, and makes visiting your mailbox one of the best parts of the day!