How about making money on your blog... for a good cause?

[petercasier]

OK, I am biased. I am an aidworker. I look often look at things from a different perspective. But still, consider this:

There are a lot of posts on Bloggeries about 'how to get more readers', and 'how to make money through your blog'.

For each of us, our blog gives us a soapbox, to speak to 'an audience'. The most successful amongst us, actually have a firm base of frequent visitors who return regularly to our blogs.
That creates quite a bit of opportunities. For a good cause.

I am a bit surprised how few people use that opportunity. And give something back to society. By rallying for one or the other social event, humanitarian project, etc...

I tried it out on my main blog, just recently. I was a bit frustrated as an aidworker, I was unable to do enough, so wanted to start a social movement through my blog. Do my bit.

1. Pay per comment
I have a few paid advertisements on my blog, and got a few hundred dollars in excess of the costs of domain hosting, flickr, etc.. So I wanted to use these funds for microfinancing projects on Kiva.
I could just have transferred the money to them, and be done with it. But I encouraged people to read the post about 'why' I believed in micro-financing, so asked them to leave a comment on the post (which would attract people to actually read the post..). For every comment, I would pay $1 to Kiva.
And a dozen left comments.

2. Spin off (1)
Because people got interested in Kiva, there are now 4 other readers that have joined our Kiva lender's group. Each has contributed to several micro-financing projects.

3. Spin off (2)
People at work got to know about it, and they are now organising several social events to raise money amongst family and friends.

4. Spin off (3)
Friends and family got to know about it. They are collecting money from their friends for Kiva. One friend suggested we re-used left-over funds from an expedition we did to the Antarctic, for this cause. And we did.

5. Spin off (4)
And.. other bloggers also picked up on the idea and started writing about micro-financing, using their blog as a platform.

Overall, in hardly 2 weeks, we collected nearly US$4,000 for different social projects...

So.. here is my suggestion to you: if I can do this, anyone can. Try it out on your blog, as we are coming closer to the 'season of giving', now might be the right time. Give something back to society. Time for a change.

(I hope I did not go onto a rambling.. Did I?)

Peter.

[NathanKP]

Sounds quite interesting. I know that Blogcatalog organizes a yearly blog drive for human rights or other social issues, but what you are doing sounds great. I don't make money off my blogs at all, though, so I don't have anything to contribute. Also with internet ventures, you can't always trust people who say that the money is going for a worthy cause, because you never know when they're just keeping it.

I'm sure you are completely honest, but so many people out there aren't.

[Shopping4Coupons]

Hi Peter, that's a great post and a great idea, I'm glad it has been successful for you. I would think that most people have $1 for a a comment. That's good that you can speak for the less fortunate and help them to be heard and helped.

[petercasier]

with internet ventures, you can't always trust people who say that the money is going for a worthy cause, because you never know when they're just keeping it.

Yeah, I know and fully agree...

This one, I made watertight though, as one can track the actual loans given through the project on Kiva...

P.

[WhoJayBe]

I think my girlfriend wanted to do something like this but wasn't sure exactly how to do so...

Wait, matter of fact, I think she mentioned Kiva to me a few months ago. Let me double check with her...

[sukosaki]

I have always wanted to do this, but wasn't sure how to make it 100% watertight, as you say. I just thought about running a fundraiser for a month and donating the money.

I like this idea, I just haven't had the time to take it to the next level. Good luck with that!

[petercasier]

Well, things seem to work, as today we got our first refund of $55 dollars. This is a refund from our first series of microfinance loans to Kiva.

If anyone still want to contribute, the offer is open until December 31: For each (unique) comment on this post, I contribute $1 to the kitty for a good cause.

The project scorecard, you can find here.

Peter