Ideas

Yes. Brilliant. Must be done.

agreed.

Of course you can find sites like http://www.charityclickdonation.com/ but to have it on your own site would be great.

Thank you.

I hope this is one project that the good members of CH rally behind and make happen. My other ideas were a little more hard to implement than this one. I'm thinking we set it up just like Commission Junction.

yes its Good idea.

It sounds like you have a pretty solid concept interviewables, what is the next step for this in your opinion?

Do you have a design doc? feature list? need a business plan? Is it going to be a for-profit company that gives money back? Is it a NFP? Grant money funding, or investors?

I do not have a design doc but I am working on a feature list. What exactly does a design doc look like anyway? (I'm not a programmer or developer).

My initial thoughts are that this would be a for-profit company. I'm thinking we collect a percentage of each click and then donate the rest. However, I need to decide how much each click will cost and how much we keep. I'd like to keep all clicks the same cost and not have a bidding system.

Another issue to be hammered out is whehter or not to have the donations be in the name of the donors or from our company. For instance, MakeMoreMonies.com (fictious site I hope) decides they want to donate to the SaveTheBlackEyedPeas.org charity. They want to donate $100 and that translates into 200 clicks (fake numbers). We would collect $20 for us and then $80 would be given to that charity. Now, we could either donate the money in MakeMoreMonies.com's name or ours. If we did the latter then companies could get a tax break which I think would entice them to buy more clicks, however, it would mean a lot more work for us. Give me your opinions.

As for funding and investors. I would really like to bootstrap this idea. If possible, I would like to just use some cheap hosting somewhere as we get the bugs worked out before thinking about buying servers and bandwidth. This is not my expertise so if anyone out there would like to enlighten me I would appreciate it. For instance, how much bandwidth would be needed and how many visitors could we entertain before we had to get our own stuff. Things like that.

So, step one, I guess is to get some of these fine developers on CH to begin building scripts, databases, and a website and I will begin to work on some financial numbers, marketing angles, and the overall concept.

CAN WE DO IT?

I have just opened this up as a business here on CH so anyone who would like to further discuss it and help to get it started please be sure to join.

PSA ads been done.

Not even close Kevin.

tell us how Kevin...

The good reason Google isnt supporting this is click fraud.
People would continue clicking the button, because its for charity.

It would be better to continue showing relevant ads such as adsense, but to give site owners the option to donate instead of to earn - somewhere on the site a 'hidden' line will say - my advertisement profit goes to this cause and not in my own pockets.
Its complete fraud if you urge people to click because its for charity, I wouldnt sponsor this, these visitors arent worth anything to me.

I agree with Rob Maas

Robmaas said,"The good reason Google isnt supporting this is click fraud.
People would continue clicking the button, because its for charity."

Robmaas, this proves my concept. People would continue clicking because they want to give, so why not allow them to give by clicking and also leverage those clicks for the donors? Now, we would limit clicks per IP and site so that no one will be able to just click and click.

"It would be better to continue showing relevant ads such as adsense, but to give site owners the option to donate instead of to earn -.somewhere on the site a 'hidden' line will say - my advertisement profit goes to this cause and not in my own pockets."

It would be better to let Google do what it does best and for us to build a new charity system solely dedicated to that purpose.

Look at it this way, people who donate to charities are usually passionate about that charity. So, we leverage that passion by allowing them to display graphic ads that show they support that charity. It helps build their user base. On the other side, there are site owners who would donate to a cause, especially if they still received the benefit of traffic or brand recognition.

"Its complete fraud if you urge people to click because its for charity, I wouldnt sponsor this, these visitors arent worth anything to me."

Its complete fraud under Google's TOS but not at our site. We urge people to click for charity. However, those clicks will need to be limited because we want others to be able to do the same at another site.
I understand you may not put a charity ad on your site because you aren't passionate about anything. However, someone who's child died of Leukemia will have a different view and will willingly donate site space and clicks in order to spread the word about a charity that supports fighting cancer in children.

I understand that there are those site owners whose sole purpose is to make money by bringing people to their sites with PLR content just to have those visitors click on a Google ad that pays the site owner 25 cents. Those types of sites will not be our focus at all. However, there are millions more whose purpose is to educate and influence. These are the sites that will use our service.

Thanks for the comments.

What about having it so advertisers pick the charity, and set the amount they want to donate ( a lump sum, or monthly amount ) and they have their ad displayed just like google ads. Then when the user clicks the ad, money is donated to a charity ( and I assume your company takes a cut ), and the user is taken to the advertisers site.

Click fraud would be dealt with in the same way as google. You just ban people from the service if all they do is click on the ad over and over. Why would you ban them? Because it is using up the exposure of the advertiser. They want to be seen repeatedly over time, not just by one user clicking like mad.

I really think this is a fantastic and doable idea, I think it could be profitable for a company, charities, and advertisers alike. You are incorporating goodwill, branding, and a profitable revenue model together. Everyone has the potential to win.

Gosh, I'm surprised this hasn't been done before. Great luck to you.

daraddishman, that is exactly the idea except I'm thinking small banner ads instead of text ads. Maybe a combination of both.

To deal with click fraud I suggest using cookies to make sure an IP only gets 1 click in a certain time frame for a particular site. However, a user will still have the opportunity to visit our site and see the other sites donating to a specific charity and then click those ads.

Yes this will definitely help all involved. The charities get money and brand awareness, the sites hosting the clicks get traffic and recognition for doing something good, the donors get brand recognition and clicks, and our company makes money for providing the service.

No guarantee technology to prevent fraud.

No sponsor would want to pay for possibly ultra high clicking results. - by fraud.

If they set a budget, the max click results they willing to pay, they might as well just directly donate that amount.

Magickaito said "No guarantee technology to prevent fraud.

No sponsor would want to pay for possibly ultra high clicking results. - by fraud.

If they set a budget, the max click results they willing to pay, they might as well just directly donate that amount."

So your premise is that since there is no way to guarantee that there will not be any click fraud; and therefore there is the possibility that there could be click fraud resulting in ultra high click results-by fraud; and since they are donating money that may be fraudulently spent on fraud clicks then this idea won't work?

Someone better call Google and let them know to shut it down...

I go to several click-and-give sites to donate simply by clicking and viewing sponsor ads. Most allow one click per day. I tested their bullet-proof system and guess what. On the second click it simply tells me that I have already clicked once today. Now, If I were a devious charitable giver then maybe I could disguise my IP address and get a few more charity clicks in. Or, i could travel to all of my friend's homes and secretly log on to get a few more.

magickaito, I'm sorry, I understand now that you were commenting on my post about allowing unlimited clicks. I didn't mean to imply that we would allow one person to use all of a sponsor's click budget in one sitting. What I should have said is that we could allow unlimited clicks but only charge the sponsor for one click per IP per day or week or month etc.

What I was trying to explain is that, in opposition to Google's TOS which doesn't allow anyone to click for the sole purpose of helping a charity, ours would.

I think we need to sort of get away from Google adsense-like talk. I'm not proposing we build an adsense-like charity site. Adsense is for people who want to make money from clicks and drive traffic to sites that match certain keywords.

My thoughts for this site is to have a way for donors to leverage their charity dollars by providing a way for them to get some brand recognition for their charitable donations. I also want to allow webmasters and bloggers a way to get involved with helping these charities by donating somne space on their websites or blogs. My original intent was to target corporate donors who spend billions a year in giving but who don't get much recognition for it. With this system they can donate $100,000 for 100,000 clicks, get their brand in front of possibly millions, allow others to get involved with helping to give this money away, show their great corporate citizenship, and help us build our business.

How many people know how many millions of dollars Exxon has donated to help the environment? The average person doesn't have a clue. Now, Exxon also spends millions on campaigns to help them shake the bad corporate citizen tag they have gotten over the years. WHAT IF, Exxon comes to GivingClicks.com, pledges to donate 10 million dollars (Money they would give away anyway) to help clean up the oceans. They choose a couple of charities on the site or they submit one themselves. We put it on our network of sites that are also willing to help those charities by donating space. The users click the buttons to help clean up the oceans and are educated to the fact that Exxon has actually donated this money. This is what GivingClicks should be about.

Currently the AdSense program policy does allow publishers to
transfer their AdSense revenue directly to a third party.

Here is Google's reason why they don't do this. When the issue of clicks for charity showed up.
http://adsense.blogs...cks-for-charity.html

I know that if you are apart of the adsense API program there are partners all ready doing this. The rules brought up where that partners could do it so long as its clear to users that the API partners are making the payments and not Google.

PSA are ads for charity organizations many of them all ready have donate features and things like that to help charity's. I have been a member of adcouncil for a while now. Here is where you can find out more: http://www.adcouncil.org

Sure, anyone is able to give their money to charity. But its all in the dynamics of putting together a system that allows for the social aspect of giving. I can see clickathons in the future.

I am currently in discussion with a developer who can write the addon for firefox. Once I have a site up I will be able to see just how well this idea will do. Stand by for future updates.

*"does allow"
Correction: Does not allow

This idea is extremely thin, but very doable. I say thin with the reason that we as members are not inside of your head and only you understand what you are seeing completely. Sometimes without all of the idea being able to be conveyed in a manner that is immediately understood makes for some to be confused by what you are trying to create.
As a member of one of the oldest charities in the world ( IOOF.org ) I am very much in favor of giving.
I think you need to go ahead with your idea keep forging with your firefox addon and show everyone how this will work. Take the advice the best that can be and make something of it even if it means that you amek NOTHING from it.
The truest of statements is this:
" They who give the most will never be without"
this something that i have learned over and over again.
BEST OF LUCK

From what I understand I like the idea a lot. I look forward to learning more though as there are a few gaps that need filling in.

threeg5, let me try and put the idea in perspective for your benefit as well as others. We'll use IOOF.org as an example.

Let's say you and 100 other people who respect and support IOOF.org have a website or a blog. You will be able to go to GivingClicks.com and get a small piece of code that will allow you to display a small Graphic button on your site or blog that shows you support this charity and you would like your visitors to do the same. Every time that button is clicked (by a different user), IOOF.org gets a small donation. Now, spread out over 100 sites and 100s of visitors and clicks, IOOF.org will get a sizeable donation. The amount per click will be determined beforehand.

Who paid for the clicks? There is a company (Fictitious for now), that has supported IOOF.org for years. They donate thousands annually. The thing is, they donate and don't get much mileage for it. Its just a tax writeoff. They go to GivingClicks.com and learn that they can use the same money they have been giving every year to fund clicks. Now hundreds or thousands of people will know that they are good corporate citizens and that they support IOOF.org. Now there is a partnership between this company, the site owners, IOOF.org, and the visitors who click the buttons. Everyone wins.

Also, IOOF.org gets some mileage. They are getting an added bonus of advertising on these 100 sites. Brand recognition is extremely important for charities.

As an added bonus, GivingClicks.com gets to make a little money. For providing this service to the corporate donors, we will take a small fee per click. The more clicks we can get, the better it is for all.

Hope this sheds some more light on the idea.

interviewables like your idea a lot, n agree that it give mileage to the sponsor to an extend.

I have found a script that I can use to put this together. I'll keep in touch with the progress.

I like it!

Just make sure that revenues are donated directly to charities, to avoid the problem mentioned on the google blog.

Thanks for the tip Philiph.

I like this idea. Certainly you should think of way to minimize click fraud. One option is to advertise charities or charity-linked businesses, who would sign-up to your service. Distribution will be a tough cookie. You need to convince a substantial number of people to display your ads. I am sure there is a way to achieve this. Your revenues could be generated from sign-up and click fees. Think about it.

BizFunder, thanks for the comments.

Click-fraud is a serious concern and will be handled probably by cookies. I also have a few other ideas for handling this.

I honestly don't think distribution will be a problem since there are millions of pages on the web in support of one cause or another or a charity. People really want to help and, since this is free, it should go down easy.

Getting people to click shouldn't be too hard. Click-n-give sites are thriving these days.

Now, getting people to give the money for the clicks will definitely be harder. However, my marketing plan will focus on businesses that already give to charities. Businesses who give thousands or millions to charities every year but don't get any PROMOTIONAL MILEAGE from it. That's what GivingClicks.com is about. Allowing businesses to actually get a little something from their giving while helping to promote charities across thousands of sites, all while allowing site owners and visitors to feel as if they are a part of the giving. Its beautiful if you think about it.

Thanks for the comments.

I think the Google reasons for not doing this seem pretty sound:
http://adsense.blogs...cks-for-charity.html

But, there could be some wiggle room to make something happen. As long as you make your own ad service and be upfront with the way it works to company's buying in.

Something else to consider when thinking about click fraud. There should be many sponsors for each charity and so the clicks can easily be spread around to the different host sites. So, if a malicious giver decides they want to click ten times in one sitting, they will be clicking the same charity but the clicks will be charged to ten different sponsors.

this is neat... how reliable?

What do you mean by reliable?