Taking Back The Season: A Manifesto
We are the shoppers, and we’ve had enough.
This season, our dollars will make a difference.
We’ve had enough of hearing that your cologne will make her have sex with us, when someone dies of AIDS-related illness every 12 seconds.
We’ve had enough of watching you spend millions of dollars to persuade us that your lip gloss will make us more beautiful, while millions of people in this country eat less than one meal a day.
We’ve had enough of feeling the environment collapse while you cover your useless and disposable products with 7 layers of non-biodegradable packaging.
We’ve had enough of listening to you try to convince our children that the holiday season is about who got the best officially-licensed gifts.
This season, we will teach our children to think about what really matters
This season, we will do our part to keep John Lennon’s dream of peace
This season, we will help people across the world to Livestrong
This season, we will clean our souls as well as our hair
What You Can Do
When IttyBiz made the front page of Digg, we had been using Amazon advertising for about 6 weeks. On the day we made the front page, we received 23,000 visitors and received 5 times the Amazon income on that single day than we had in the six previous weeks. This was without asking anybody to do a thing.
We’re going to try and replicate that success, and we’d like to do it for charity.
Here’s what you can do:
From now until Christmas, IttyBiz will be donating all of our proceeds to charity. (For information on why we are not mentioning our charity of choice by name, please click here.) If you click on any of IttyBiz’s links to Amazon products, or on the link at the bottom of this post that leads to the Amazon homepage, money from anything you buy will help those in need. Even if you click on the link for the Berenstein Bears book for your nephew and end up buying a blender for your mom, a portion of every single sale goes to a good cause.
The best part? The cost of your item will not change. Your $20 item still costs $20 - but now a portion of that money will go to help those in need.
You were probably going to buy something that they sell anyway - you may as well do it through the link and have a decent portion of the cost go to a great cause.
Each day, in addition to our regular posts, we’ll highlight a new gift item that gives an acceptable portion of it’s proceeds to charity. Click here to subscribe for updates. If you don’t use a feed reader, you can have updates emailed to you by scrolling to the top of this page and inputting your email address. I’ll never see your address - it’s fully automated - so I promise I won’t spam you. I couldn’t, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t, because I’m sure you’re very nice.
Here’s the main link you can use to get to the Amazon homepage. Please bookmark it for your future purchases.
Amazon’s Home Page - Do your shopping here.
If you are a member of any social networking or home business groups and you liked this post, it would mean a lot to us if you could vote for it. We might be able to make a really big difference this season, and we’d love it if you would join us. Please, let your friends know. So many people buy from Amazon every single day. Your costs won’t change, and you can be a part of something great.
***
Overwhelmed? Freaking out? Borderline hysterical? Click here to get your own small business marketing plan. It’s not scary, I promise.
Next Post: What Tiger Woods Can Teach You About Marketing
This is a very cool thing naomi. We will help out.
=)
Thank you, Shane. You’re the coolest.
rock on naomi. this christmas I’m going to consume my way to positive social change.
Aside from shop shop shopping, and digg digg digging what can we do?
Hi Reid…
Well, for those who are so inclined, there’s blog blog blogging. You can also email everyone with an internet connection or a credit card. (email email emailing just doesn’t have the same ring, you know?)
I appreciate the support. You rule.
Great initiative Naomi!
I’m not likely to buy from Amazon indeed (waaay too much S&H to the Netherlands), but I’ll support you with social media votes and other ways I can find.
All the best with this!
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt(For information on why we chose this charity, please click here.) If you click on any of IttyBiz’s links to Amazon products, or on the link at the bottom of this post that leads to the Amazon homepage, money from anything you buy will … [...]
That’s very, very big of you, N&J. You have our support and we’ll help out where we can.
Great initiative, Naomi!
In fact I do order from Amazon every now and then (although it’s pretty slow, because I live in Finland), so I’ll consider buying something through you guys.
And blog blog blog will take place this week, of course :)
Great idea Naomi … I will forward this on to all of my internet shopping friends.
Great idea!
Dugg, and best wishes in this endevor.
Terrific! What a great idea and a good way to spread holiday cheer. :)
Great post, Naomi! I’ll definitely be back to click your links when I start my Amazon shopping.
Dugg. :-)
I told you rock right? Well I’ll say it again: You freakin’ rock! :)
I need to buy some books, in fact ‘the anti 9-5′ book that’s in your sidebar, so I’ll do that right now :)
Jon
[...] the first product link for the IttyBiz charity drive. Don’t have a clue what I’m talking about? Click here. Remember, even if you don’t buy this product, anything you buy through Amazon from this link [...]
[...] Want to know what IttyBiz is doing for charity this season? (Oh, you SO want to know.) Click here for details. [...]
How is this going? I am anxious to hear an update when you have one :).
[...] available through Amazon, and my blogging friend Naomi of IttyBiz had a great idea, they will be giving all their proceeds to charity, so if you’re thinking of buying a book (Fire Them Up! for example), well just head over to [...]
Star Money Articles for the Week of November 26
Here are some recent interesting posts from the MoneyBlogNetwork and beyond: MightyBargainHunter wonders if retailers will take it on the chin. Five Cent Nickel got a credit from the Dish Network. Blueprint for Financial Prosperity gives thoughts on a …
[...] over at IttyBiz. All of the proceeds that blog generates will be donated to charity. Why? Because We’re the Shoppers and We’ve Had Enough. Go read the whole post: Naomi’s manifesto about taking back the season. Here’s a [...]
[...] from IttyBiz is “Taking Back The Season” and collecting money for good [...]
[...] soul-crushing delays, I give you the next gift link in IttyBiz’s charity drive. Don’t know what I’m talking about? The proceeds IttyBiz receives from you buying this item (or [...]
Thanks for blog blog blogging, everybody.
@ Margie - I can’t really tell how it’s going yet because my Amazon Associates seems to be a few days behind. The fingers are crossed, though. :)
[...] landed the blog a small windfall from Amazon. Now, Itty Biz want to perform an act of kindness and give something back to people who could really use the help this time of [...]
[...] post is part of IttyBiz’s charity drive for the charity that shall remain nameless. The proceeds IttyBiz receives from you buying this item [...]
[...] buying something for the holidays through Amazon.com, please consider clicking through their site. This post will explain the whole deal much better than I can — bottom line, buy your Amazon stuff through them and 100% of their [...]
Finally! I linked to this post on Solomother. Sorry it took a while.
Check out Babylune’s Generous December Group Writing Project and link to that, too.
[...] post is part of IttyBiz’s charity drive for the charity that shall remain nameless. The proceeds IttyBiz receives from you buying this item [...]
[...] season, we will do our part. I love Naomi’s Taking Back the Season Manifesto. Want to change the world while buying your Christmas gifts this [...]
[...] landed the blog a small windfall from Amazon. Now, Itty Biz want to perform an act of kindness and give something back to people who could really use the help this time of [...]
[...] upon a time, IttyBiz started a holiday charity campaign called Taking Back The Season. Hard core readers will remember that I promised to donate all of my Amazon Associate earnings to [...]