What This Is
I'm trying an experiment where, any money I can get my greedy little paws on, I'm going to put at least ten percent of it back into the world where it's needed.
A lot of rich people say that the more they give, the more they get. So I will freely admit that this really is about greed on my part, but if I'm helping at the same time, I'm hoping to feel less guilty about it.
I guess you could say I'm trying to create a charmed life, as Victoria Moran advises, but without being able to afford her books right now, it's hard to say if I'm going about it right.
I'm also curious to see if it's really true. This is going to be an interesting way for me to track what happens.
Seriously, I legitimately want to help a lot of charities, but never have any money to do so. So, lately, I haven't been able to afford to do my share, and I feel very suckworthy about that.
The only way I know of to earn money (other than my day job, which is draining all the life from me at the same time as my life drains all the money from it) is to write, so here I am.
Most, if not all, of the sponsored-post blog companies require about a three-to-one ratio of regular writing to sponsored writing. Therefore, I will have a category of posts in this blog called "Freeposting," consisting of some crossposts from golfwidow.net and some items I may write exclusively for this blog. The purpose of freeposting will be to maintain the three-to-one ratio and keep the quality of my content as active and readable as possible.
The balance of the posts in this blog will endorse a variety of sponsors, with a twist:
Rather than taking the total payments for these writing assignments for myself, which only did me the disservices of a) making me feel very greedy and selfish and b) eventually drying up the assignments, I am planning on donating at least ten percent (more when I can afford it) of the profits from anything made on this page to charity.
The sponsored posts will fall into four categories, billed to their requestors as follows.
- For Profit - Businesses: Companies such as Pay per Post, that collect advertising opportunities from other businesses and set writing assignments to members, that are paid based on their own set rates per post assignment. I will be donating 10% of my earnings from each of these posts to charity.
- For Profit - Independent: Anyone else who wants me to write an endorsement for your product or service. I may request a sample (or a coupon) of the product or service in order to familiarize myself sufficiently with your business to be able to write about it. My personal rates can be found here, or on that link on the side that says "Rates." I will be donating 10% of my earnings from each of these posts to charity.
- Not-for-Profit - Familiar: Organizations that are sufficiently well-known that you have easily-researchable and verifiable information as to where your proceeds go. For these organizations, I will write posts at no charge.
- Not-for-Profit - Unfamiliar: Small organizations, either regional, not nationally or globally known, or perhaps just getting started. I have to put my writing and name behind something I know nothing about, and also I have to do research about you, but I still want to help. For these organizations, I will write posts at a 10% discount of my personal standard rates, thus making your charity the beneficiary of the proceeds from what I would normally earn from you if you were a for-profit organization.
I'm going to have an additional non-sponsored "Personal" category, which will be an accounting of events, thoughts, and opinions as they occur to me day to day, based on the posts I write here and the charities I donate to. The posts in this category will, with luck, help me check the hypothesis that, the more you give, the more you really do get.
What this is NOT
A review site.
I'm getting compensation for these articles — make no mistake about that — so if it's not a company I can write something honest and positive (or at least neutral) about, I'm going to need a lot of incentive to take the assignment and put my name and my words behind it.
This means that I'm not going to be picking things at random and slamming them for no pay, and it also means I'll be turning down assignments from companies I've already had bad experiences with, unless they can resolve whatever they did to piss me off initially.
Frankly, if an organization I hate does do a good job fixing what pissed me off, I'm going to wax even more poetically about them, just to let readers know how much they care. So that's not a bad thing, right?
Anyway, if you disagree with any of the opinions I post here, remember ...
- They are opinions
- They are solicited and compensated opinions (even charitable organizations are compensating me — just because I am giving my pay back to them in full, as it were, doesn't mean I'm not being compensated by them)
- If you have authenticated evidence that any information I've referenced in one of these posts is inaccurate, help me to set the record straight. See below.
What else this is not is a charity for me. I don't want donations. I want work. If you want to help me out financially, hire me to write something. If you want to donate something to a charity, find a worthy cause and get your give on. I am not a worthy cause; I'm a starving artiste. Assuming that "fat lady who writes" is the new "starving artiste."
How to Get Me to Write Something Here
Go grab the rates PDF, look it over, decide what sort of post you want me to write, then email me at golfwidow @ gmail • com (you know how to fix that so it's a real email address) to tell me a little bit about what you need.
A little background about your product or organization is fine, and helpful, but you don't have to write a bunch of copy for me. In fact, I actually insist on being allowed to write in my own style, which is intended, first and foremost, to entertain. If that doesn't fit your needs, you might want to find another forum for your advertising.
I only accept Paypal as payment. Let them do all the accounting. You have a life and so do I.
For your protection, because my real life puts demands on my time, I will attempt to forestall backlogs by not accepting an assignment from you until I know for sure I've got the time to devote to doing a good job for you. That way, you won't be paying until after I let you know I'm good to get started, and I only begin writing a post after I've received the full agreed payment for it.
You get final approval of what I've written before I publish it here. Especially since, once it's here, I won't take it down.
If what I've written does not meet your needs, it will not be posted. That simple. On the one hand, you won't have to worry about disagreeing about disputing anything I publish about your organization; on the other hand, you won't be able to say, "I've changed my mind and I don't like what you originally published anymore."
If you don't like what I write, we have two options:
- We can work out a rewrite to your satisfaction, at no additional charge to you. This will be posted once it meets your approval.
- We can dissolve the individual agreement, and nothing will be posted, but you will not receive a full refund because I already did the work. You get back 90% of what you've paid me. As you can see, it's in my best interest to do a good job for you before we publish what we agree upon, because I am still going to have to give 10% of what I earn to charity, even if I don't earn the full payment.
If I write a post about your product or service, and find out after the fact (not from hearsay, but firsthand, for myself) that you're ripping people off or breaking the law or otherwise being a pootyhead, be advised that the original post will remain as written, per our agreement, but it will be amended with a big bunch of extremely snarky words that I will write specially for the occasion, sharing my information with anyone who happens to surf in. You already know the power of the web. Help me to use it for good.
Also, if you read about a product or service here, and it's one with which you've had a bad experience, and you can provide authenticated evidence, we'll bring the bad guys down. (Your word that "THEY SUCK!" is not authenticated evidence. Help a sista out.)
About Care2.com
You know how, sometimes, you really want to donate money, but no one is more broke than you? As in, take all the money in the world and throw it away and you're broker than that?
Been there, done that. Can't afford the t-shirt.
Care2.com's sponsors will donate money to good causes in exchange for your clicking of the links. They're all sorted neatly on the menu over there. You don't have to pay a cent to help out. Pick the ones that mean something to you, or click them all. Up to you.
If you know of any other organizations that do donations in exchange for clicks (in other words, ways to donate without paying), please let me know so I can post them. Because sometimes, this is the only way I can afford to help, too.