Nov 29 2009
I Want to Raise $10,000 for a Good Cause and I Need Your Help
One of the things on my life list is to raise $10,000 for a good cause and I have been thinking a lot about this goal recently. I’m in Indonesia at the moment working with a fantastic organisation and I would love to be able to throw some funds their way. I could do some crazy bike ride and look for sponsors, or canvas friends and family, or something along those lines but I’m not sure that’s the way. It seems like ebooks go over well and I think I have a few things to write about so maybe writing a short ebook is a good plan.
My idea bis to sell the book for $10 each. Well, not really sell it but give it away to people who make a minimum donation to a charity. I would set up an account through Just Giving or another similar online donation site and when I receive a donation above the specified amount, I will send out the book. My hope would be that if people are impressed either by the book or the cause they might give a bit more than the minimum, but that’s not something I would count on. So at $10 a book I would have to get 1,000 people to give the minimum donation to reach my goal. It seems like a huge number but not an impossible one, especially since I don’t really have a time limit in mind.
I think there are a lot of ebooks out there for sale and there are some for free so I’m not sure where mine would fit into the equation. I’m sort of in the early planning stages right now and I’m wondering if you guys think this is a good idea. People seem really interested in the type of lifestyle I’m living by earning money online so, while I don’t claim to be an expert, I do think that some people would be interested in knowing how I’ve managed to get where I am. Maybe a book that’s partly a guide on how I make money and part a motivational type book would go over well? Or something else?
Do you think this would be something people would be interested in enough to give $10 or more to charity? What sort of things would you like to see me write about? What would compel you to donate $10 to a good cause in exchange for an ebook?Would this be something you think the blogging community would pick up on and help me promote? Would you?
Any ideas and suggestions would be welcome!
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I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go. 
I think its a great idea. I would help and getting something back would just be an added bonus. I threw around the idea for something similar when I was looking into doing a trip around the US to see all the MLB Stadiums. I wanted it to be a trip I got more out of than just seeing the games. I say go for it.
Firstly, I like the idea, and I think it could certainly work. Picking the right ebook subject will be interesting. Maybe something that appeals to the charitable/volunteer type people? Since they’re the most likely people to be looking at your sales pitch? If you take your audience of nomads with charitable hearts, it’s a very practical topic to want info on how volunteering can also help the nomad. We clearly see how it helps the recipients, but does any aspect of volunteering help folks stay out in the world longer? Another way to phrase that would be, “Can I volunteer in order to see more of the world which enables me to travel longer and volunteer more, and so on.” Is there such a thing as a sustainable travel/volunteer model?
Take a look at folks that have done, “pay what you think it’s worth” models. Software, music, video games, etc have had pretty surprising results this way. It might fit nicely in this case.
I’m interested to see how this idea unfolds. Count me in for helping out. Unless this totally changes direction and becomes a picture book of sad clowns wrestling or some such. Then I’m out
hi kristy - just left a comment on your life list post, but shawn’s comment above made me think of one other thing. in my fundraising campaign this year i had about $175 left to go to my first goal ($3,000) and i kind of felt like i had tapped out my donors, but then i used an idea that came from another one of my teammates - “give 5, take 5, send 5.” you ask pepole to give just $5, take 5 minutes of their time, and forward the email to 5 people. remarkably, i got much bigger donations from that email than in any previous push - i raised over $600 in less than 24 hours after i sent it, and not one person gave just $5. my first donation was the whole $175 i had left to go, then two $100 donations right after. so i’d agree that the “pay what you think its worth” type of “pitches” or the ones that ask for very little are often the ones that will end up bringing in the most! good luck!
I think this market is becoming very saturated.
In the last two weeks I have run into two different people from my work and social circle who have mentioned lifestyle design aspirations, the various travel blogs and voiced their intent to create an income based travel blog about travel blogging. Hell, I was thinking of doing one myself.
I think if you focus on one area though you could do better. For instance, “How to live in Indonesia on 12,000 USD a year”. You could then give specific and unique advice on local laws, real estate, visas and customs.
That’s my suggestion, but you’re the pro!
I agree with Malia’s sentiment. Set the suggested amount low, and people will be more likely to supersede it. The reality is there is often a bit of ego involved in giving to charity, and if you play into that psychology as Malia did, you can reap greater rewards.
I think you have a lot to share. I’d be more interested in learning about how to find trustworthy volunteer programs, and how much of your transport/living, etc they cover in exchange for your “manpower” abroad.
To be honest, the idea of volunteering abroad is a little scary to me - the loss of control I suppose. Help me get over that fear!
You could easily compile existing blog posts about making money online and being a digital nomad, and then sell that. It’d save you the time of having to write something from scratch, and it’s a very common tactic amongst all bloggers (Darren at ProBlogger did it successfully this year, and Christine at Almost Fearless is doing it now).
This sounds to me like a really great idea, Kirsty. I’ve been following your blog for several months now and would certainly be interested in an ebook about how you earn money on line and travel etc. I’d pay $10 for that, and it being for charity makes it even better in my eyes. I wait with bated breath!
Actually I am sure most of your readers here will not hesitate to donate out a $10 : )) Oh well, I am definitely for it, heh, and it comes with a free ebook! Why not!
There are many people who wouldn’t mind donating but don’t do it just because they are too lazy. An ebook to make the effort worthwile is a gread idea.
This is really inspiring Kirsty. Let me know if my coding-services can be of use
Do it mostly about the experience and the stuff you need to be a digital nomad, like the logistics equipment ,etc. Have only one chapter about how to make money where you briefly talk about it and point people in the right direction. Then approach some of the MMO gurus for a donation for a mention in that chapter. I’m sure they donate for the advertising
Kirsty that sounds like a great idea. People are much more willing to buy something when they know the money is going to charity. I can’t count how many $3 boxes of chocolates I’ve bought to support one charity or another. The trick will be to get word out about it on your blog, other blogs, twitter and other mediums. Good luck!
I read too much e-book, looks not good as i think.
when people read e-book, but they never do action on, it was so bad, even they finish the e-book, they have no idea what to do.
Of course, guide book is nice idea for newbi, but not too much theory on it.
Nice post
I think a guide to volunteering overseas would be useful. There are already too many “making money online” guides.
You could touch on the topic of supporting yourself while volunteering, but I would concentrate on the volunteering aspect.
I second the volunteering overseas idea
good luck
Another vote for a volunteering overseas ebook.
Good idea. You could also offer a package with the ebook and a ready made website for those interested in getting started and want a shortcut past the technical threshold. Either a simple site or blog without content for e.g. $100 or a custom site with 10-20 pages of content for maybe $500. You could use your “stuck in” layout as base for both versions.
Thanks load sfor all the feedback and encouragement. I’m with a few of you in thinking a book on international volunteering would be a great way to go, especially since I will be raising funds for that type of organisation. I have a bunch of ideas and think I can crank out a 30 page ebook of a pretty high quality. I will keep you posted!
I would definitely buy .. er, I mean donate money to get the books as long as the book is not the same as most e-books out there: 100% fluff, 0% information.
You could probably write on a number of topics that your readers would be interested in. I’d certainly be willing to make a donation to hear your thoughts on international volunteering, practical tips from your travels (e.g. packing lists, budgeting, accessing money abroad, etc.) or web site stuff (seo, link building, advertising, etc.). Good luck!
Having completed a charity bike ride a couple of years back (which you kindly donated me an unwanted hydration pack) I found when raising money or charity, lots of people still need an incentive.
The people who sponsored me gained nothing from giving me their hard earned cash, apart from the thought of me slogging it out on a bike over 1000 miles (in reality it wasn’t the hard graft I made it out to be).
Not everyone expects to gain something, thats why it’s called charity. But I found younger people didn’t really care to donate there hard earned cash, without being bribed with a promise of a cheap cambodian t-shirt.
Certainly people I didn’t already know needed pursuading to donate more than £1.
I get a lot of email from women who would love to find good short-term volunteer programs but don’t know how to go about it, how to judge whether the outfit is legit, what kind of training they need, what they should put forward about themselves to get the job and so on. My audience - solo women travelers - would certainly be interested in such a book and I’d be happy to promote it on my site.
I just found (subscribed to) your blog and read this post about your idea for an e-book. I’ll keep my comment short:
I’d make a donation to get it. Having lived in Indonesia for a couple of years, I have a soft spot for the country and the people and would love to help you do something good! Go for it!
And of course I want the book to learn what you know!
[…] I posted last week about wanting to raise $10,000 for a good cause and was bombarded with lots of encouraging comments with idea for the type of ebook I could offer. I’ve decided to follow the advice of several people and write an ebook on international volunteering. It makes sense since all of the revenues from the book will be donated to Hands On, an organisation that does disaster relief work all over the world with the help of volunteers. Plus it’s an area I have some experience in, am passionate about and the idea that I could help motivate people to volunteer is a pretty exciting one. […]
I’m not sure if you’ve checked out this site at all, but you could leverage your strength of writing and internet marketing through Squidoo.com.
If you build a page for them the proceeds could go directly to a charity of your choice or you could keep a portion of the earnings and donate them directly.
It may not be $10,000 immediately and may take a while to trickle income, but it’s a thought.
I’d definitely be up for it, especially on how you make money. You’ve got some great insights into that for sure. You could use a widget like this one http://www.chipin.com/ –which also has facebook compatibility, so connect with all of your fans.
I have raising $10,000 for a good cause on my list as well, so I’m keen to see how you do and help if I can.
Tim
[…] The whole idea for this ebook came about because I want to raise $10,000 for a good cause. The plan was to sell it for about $10 with 100% of the proceeds going to Hands On Disaster Response. Since that idea was born, the ebook has grown into something a lot longer and more involved than I had originally intended and it has eaten up a lot of my time at the expense of working on my websites. I have also just decided to head to Haiti to work with the organisation there and dropped an assload of money on plane tickets to get me there. With all that in mind, I’m thinking of going 50/50 with half of the revenue going to Hands On and half to the “Get Kirsty to Haiti Fund”, at least for the foreseeable future. I’m also thinking of upping the price to $14 based on the awesomeness of it. […]