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Just curious...does it make sense for  these places to give you a link?

you're talking about the fishing lure site right?

Does it make sense for UNICEF (as an example) to link to a fishing lure site? Do they have a page that shows "donors" with a link to the donor sites? ie. does their current setup allow them to link back to you

If they are not, for a "children's charity" (for example) site to suddenly have a link to a fishing site may not be great

and who do you talk to? if Joe Blow Charity Guy is calling and the extend of his invlovment with Cahrity X is to spend 5 hours a week calling around trying to help them raise money on their behalf, he may not have a friggin clue what a link is. Have you tried to speak to "management" or someone else?

some charities just want money and that's it. if that's the case forget them- there are plenty of good chrarities you can help out and you can work together with

Yes, they are usually always themed sites that are perfectly in-line with ours.

In fact, there's this one that will add a link to their website, ONLY if I sponsor their quarterly newsletter for a full year. Costing me at least a few hundred bucks.

My boss already told me that he wanted to donate $100 to their cause anyways, and I tried negotiating with them, and all they said they'd give me is a business card size ad in their newsletter...... just one time tho.

I might be sounding snobbish, but I've already played that print advertising game, and it doesn't pay off. Like peeing in the wind. So, from my perspective, I'm literally giving away $100 for nothing. But from their perspective, I'm reaching all their members who are 'hard core fishermen'.

Anyways, the whole 'link' thing is to help my rankings, plain and simple. Because I already know that my natural search pays off WAY more than ANY paid advertising, and I have a $26,000 black hole in the bank account to prove it.

Your right Nic, and believe me, I do get the warm fuzzy's when I give away. But as I said, I'm facing a saturated market thats almost all moved to China, and we're slowly losing business.

Just giving stuff away with no measurable return is literally bringing our death sentence closer every day.

Now, if we didn't have the business issues, then it wouldn't be a problem. Prizes for everybody!

Thus, I'm saying that I'm already facing a huge uphill battle, and all hear is 'GimmeGimmeGimme', and as soon as I ask for a little NO COST help in return, all of a sudden it's 'WHOA!!!! Hold on a minute there!'

Granted, not every organization is like this. Most of 'em are real helpful, and are willing to put in some work to actually show me some return.

But the so called 'better' ones wanna pull the you're-suppose-to-give-now-cough-it-up, card. I might be sounding kinda snobbish, but in all honesty, if I were in their shoes, I wouldn't see any problem with this. A link is nothing to them, and their PR efforts never revolve around web activities anyways.

Uhg... head.... hurting....

two aspects
1.

But the other evening the missus was in the bath when some Asian sounding voice wanted her. I said "No, she's stark naked and all wet and soapy

Laurie, you know how to distract a guy!!

2.
Stitch, What I do is provide a discount coupon that they can include in their fund raising activities. I have a school who contacts me every year for permission to include the discount coupon with a discount code.

This has two benefits - 1. they are being seen as providing some great discount and for me increased exposure - more than worth the 20% discount I give them.

So for charities etc - it might not help pay rent, but if they are doing fund raisers, its up to them to think creatively and include it.

MrStitch wrote:

This is more for those folks that have product sites -

I get requests left and right to donate to this cause, that cause, and have heard about every sales-pitch/sob-story you can think of.

Granted, I like giving stuff away. It makes me feel good giving back to the community. However, I happen to represent a manufacturing business who's very slowly losing business every year because jobs are all being sent over to China.

In order to combat the loss, I was hired to build the company 'presence', and so far I've been fairly successful by doing the cheapest and easiest routes possible. Despite the work, the sales have more or less leveled out.

Now, I'm still getting all these requests for donations to every cause, but to be successful in business, I need to see some return.

Am I being a jerk for asking for a link from their website? Sometimes it's not a big issue, but I've had organizations tell me flat out 'no'. Like WTF?!?!?

They want free stuff, but they're not willing to help ME out. And a link costs NOTHING. Nada! Zip! It's just stupid.

So, am I the jerk? Should I start turning down organizations for not giving me a link?

No way are you being a jerk; you know the saying..."don't throw pearls to swine". If they can't do a simple thing like give you their link, then maybe you should be demonstrating your kindness to more grateful people. And there are a lot of good people out there, yes I do believe that.
warmest regards,
Snezana

snezana wrote:

waveshoppe wrote:

Aloha MrStitch,
When you say charity I assume you are talking about 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporations and not the beggars. Like others said before me there are many of them, but I will share how we do it, hopefully it helps.

I picked 2 charities and told them up front that we would be willing to donate as long as they acknowledge us as a supporter. So the first recipient is The San Diego Center for the Blind, they receive between 12k and 15k a year from us. In return we get to be in all of their publications and press releases as well as use of some of their resources.

Recipient 2 is Muscular Dystrophy Association and we give them about 5k a year, but it is a two fold donation. A portion comes from donating 10% of the gross sales for our firefighter shirt. We are donating the money on behalf of Miramar Firefighters, mainly because they are Federal and cant accept money directly. In return they gave us an unsolicited link from the Miramar Home Page. That was pretty nice of them, but we are just happy to be in a position to help and dont care much about the link aspect.

Sounds to me like you have the funds anyway; whereas, if you read Mr Stich's story, it says he is LOSING money. So that is the big difference.

Well I hate to hear of any decent business that’s experiencing a decline in sales. But in regards to giving to charity, you have 2 basic choices. You either don’t give to charity, or you have a plan that you follow. If your seeking to donate you research prospects and then go for the most bang for the buck, if your being solicited, you pick and choose, again go for the most bang for the buck. Frankly I have never been approached for a donation without them offering something in return.

How do you determine the most bang for the buck? Well think about this, you have the choice of donating 20 shirts to a Blackhawk crew in Iraq and they give you a picture, or donating 20 shirts to a marching band and they put their logo on their bus?