Tis the season to encourage your favourite bloggers.
Tim Challies has written a great post titled How to Encourage a Blogger this Christmas. I’m hoping that this link to his post will be an encouragement to him becuase I know how encouraging it is when others link to me. 🙂
I just bought two pairs of shoes for only $5 and you can too.
Soles4Souls is an international charity which is dedicated to providing free footwear to people in desperate need.
Today marks the launch of a new fundraising website, 50000shoes.com and they’re challenging bloggers and social media users to raise funds for 50,000 pairs of new shoes in 50 days.
The challenge begins today, Monday the 10th of November 2008 and will end on the final day of 2008.
Soles4Souls Founder and CEO, Wayne Elsey says that by tapping into existing networks they hope to achieve a critical mass and see their goal reached.
“We have been utilizing the basic Web-based marketing tools such as e-mail blasts, social networking and YouTube videos. However, this website, 50000shoes.com, is the natural evolution of our viral marketing plan. A strong grass-roots effort, combined with an effective web-based social marketing platform, will allow Soles4Souls to form online community in a creative manner while being effective with raising funds and helping those in need.”
Donating is easy and takes just a click and a couple of minutes. It requires no shipping, no wrapping and no trips to the post office. The donation is small with $5.00 buying two pairs of new shoes. Anyone can click and give. I’m not asking you to do something I wouldn’t do myself. I’ve just donated and I’m asking that you do the same by visiting 50000shoes.com.
After 50,000 pairs have been donated, one person from the US (with a guest of their choosing) will be selected at random to deliver the shoes they purchased to someone in need on one of Soles4Souls’ trips to Mexico!
Nashville based Soles4Souls facilitates the donations of both new and used shoes, which are used to aid the hurting worldwide. Since its inception, Soles4Souls has distributed more than 3.5 million pairs (or one pair every 23 seconds) to people in 61 countries, including Honduras, Romania, Thailand, and the Sudan.
In an age where everything can be taken down and used as evidence against you, where anything you do could appear on YouTube or become the topic of a blog post, where the funny photos of you at a party can be out there for the whole world to see on Facebook, Seth Godin has written a great post about trust titled Off the record.
Have you ever been burned by friends when you’ve told them something in confidence? Have private words with someone you trusted come back to bite you?
When it comes to the blogosphere it doesn’t get much bigger than Darren Rowse and ProBlogger. If you’re not already reading ProBlogger it’s probably about time you started. you’ll gain some incredible insights into growing your blog and even making some serious dollars from your blog.
Do you wish that you had access to the kind of readership that ProBlogger reaches? This weekend you have the opportunity to pitch your blog to Darren’s readers as he runs another social experiment and invites you to participate.
In the post Tell us about Your Blog in 140 Characters or Less, Darren encourages you to … well … tell him about your blog in 140 characters or less.
Over 500 bloggers have already taken advantage of the offer and by the time you read this post there may well be hundreds more. So why are you waiting. Go tell the world why they should be reading your blog.
By the way, if you’re here for the first time after following the link from ProBlogger – welcome. I hope you’ll take the time to look around and find out a little more about me and my blog. Check out my About page if you want a quick idea of who I am. You’ll find a couple of options for getting free updates to RodneyOlsen.net at the top of my right hand sidebar. If you’ve got a few days you might also like to spend some time trawling through several years of archives.
I’ve got four books to give away to readers of RodneyOlsen.net. They’re all in brand new condition and have never been read.
So you have a great idea for a business…: Now what? by Justin Herald. So, you’ve got a great idea for a business, and you’ve plucked up the courage to take the plunge. But unless you prepare yourself properly for the journey you’re about to embark on your great idea may lead to some unpleasant surprises.
On the Side of the Angels by John Smith. Rev Dr John Smith is the founding Director of Concern Australia and the founding President of God’s Squad Christian Motorcycle Club of 34 years. An elder of the radical discipleship movement, he is a defender of the poor, an ethics consultant to corporate Australia, a prominent social commentator and a blues lover.
Alien Intrusion by Gary Bates. Are there really alien civilizations in our vast universe? In Alien Intrusion, Gary Bates gives a thorough treatment of this fascinating subject. What is behind the numerous sightings from around the world? Does the U.S. Government have evidence of alien craft? Can we hope to mkae contact in our lifetime?
Waking the Dead by John Eldridge. Eldredge, who helped to redefine the Christian men’s movement with Wild at Heart, broadens his scope to offer this more general spirituality title on being “fully alive.” Such a state of total animation is achieved only when Christians can integrate all four “streams” of their lives: discipleship, counseling, healing and warfare.
If you want one of the books all you need to do is leave a comment below this post telling me which book you’d prefer. If you’re the first to ask for that particular book it’s yours.