Posts Tagged ‘charity’
skydive coming up
It’s been over a year since i first mentioned the idea of doing a skydive on this blog. Once i commit to something i’ll usually follow it through at all costs and complete it at *some* stage, so i never doubted that i’d through myself out of a plane once i’d blogged about it.
photo credit: Andy H McDowall
Anyway, i’m happy to say the skydive is now booked and paid for and i’ve yet to get an exact, official, definite date, but it could be as early as next Sunday (27th) – 9 days away. I was always eager to get it over with before the weather started getting worse and before i settled back in to college.
This is the sort of thing which people will quiz me on but honestly i won’t even think about it until the night before. You can’t put yourself in to these situations mentally before hand as they’re too surreal for your mind to comprehend.
So until i’m up there and looking down, i won’t know how i’ll feel or what i’ll be thinking but i’ll be jumping regardless 
Anyway, more on this next week as D Day approaches….
Please note offer has now expired! No more free logos! If you want logos designed or sites built, contact me…
As many of you will know, i’ve intended doing a skydive for charity for a long time. Since August 2008. Because of weather and the fact i had to raise $1000 quickly, the skydive had to be shelved until summer this year. Well, it’s now summer ‘this summer’ and i’m determined to do this skydive before i got back to college in September.
That gives me about 3 months. The plan is to do the skydive in late July/ August when the weather should be decent and that will also give me time to raise the $1000 i need. (Well, i actually raised $200 last year through an online competition, but i still need at least $800 to go skydiving.)
No competitions this time around, but i’m offering YOU a golden opportunity, a free lunch, a ‘too good to be true’ deal.
Free Logos
I’ll design a logo for YOU for FREE, provided you retweet or blog about this post. If you think the logo is good enough, you can donate whatever you think it’s worth or whatever you can afford – but a donation is not necessary – retweeting or blogging about this is equally as valuable to me. Most of you will know what i’m capable of design-wise. My more recent logos are a taster of what you can expect. If you want a logo designed for peanuts or for free, this is your chance.
Retweet or blog about this post, contact me with a url proving you’ve done that and then let me know what you want – colour, font, tagline etc… or you can just give me a licence of freedom to go wild!
$99 sites
I toyed with the idea of building websites for free, but it’s simply far too risky for me and hugely time consuming. I will however do the following for just $99;
- design a logo
- install either wordpress / joomla on your server (i can host a site on my own server for a small fee)
- customize a free template to suit niche (insert logo, a few style tweaks here and there)
- fully SEO the site to the best of my ability
- add a contact form
- create a custom email address (e.g. myname@mysite.com)
- add your text & images to pages (but nothing ridiculous like 100 pages!)
This is aimed primarily at small businesses / sole traders as a sort of basic brochure site to get them online and give them a presence. Buy your own domain name, pay me $99 and i’ll take care of the rest. Contact me if you want to know more or need anything else – i’ll do my best to offer you as best a deal as i can.
Because this is so cheap, i can’t spend time on many revisions, tweaks, training or basically any additional work not included above. I’ll be happy to do all that, but it will cost extra! If you’re interested or know of anyone that may be interested, send them my way! Not only will they get a bargain, they’ll be helping me complete a once in a lifetime skydive and they’ll also be helping charity (ncbi ireland).
Everything will be done by me and only me – no outsourcing, no funny business. I design, tweak, install, SEO etc… everything. Have a look through my portfolio to see what i can do.
Reason behind it all
The reason i’m basically giving things away for peanuts is because i need to raise at least $800 to complete this skydive. I’m determined to hit that target sooner rather than later. Now that i’m off college, i find myself with more time on my hands, so i can afford to take on more work, help raise cash for this skydive and of course build my portfolio and get my name out there – that’s why i’m doing things on the cheap. If you’re worried about quality, don’t – every bit of work will be added to my portfolio and as a result, i’ll treat all logos and sites as my own. I won’t hand over a logo or site i’m not happy with.
I won’t be doing this all summer either, depending on demand i could stop this quickly if i get flooded with requests – although i do have time on my hands, i’m still extremely busy with my own projects. I will however honour all requests that come in before i call a halt to this. I do need to raise $800 and i’ll be happy to raise more than that provided i can afford the time… anything over $800 won’t be going towards the skydive though, instead i’ll be using the cash to help poverty stricken entrepreneurs pursue their dreams of starting a business through kiva.org.
What’s in this for me?
A skydive. It’s that simple. The time taken to do all of this will be huge. The competition last year gobbled up a huge amount of time and things will be worse this time around. I also want to add to my portfolio and force myself in to working harder, faster and under more pressure. If i can add to my portfolio, give people a good deal and complete a skydive… all for charity, it’s a whole flock of birds killed with the one stone 
But what started all of this was the charity skydive and so long as that’s done, i’m happy.
The Smallprint
Some terms of this offer:
- 3 logo requests per person – i may accept more but this is to stop abuse of the system and to stop me spending all my time with one person.
- 3 site requests per person – same story as above, to stop abuse.
- max of 3 logo revisions per logo - to protect my time.
- turnaround time for logos should be 1-2 days – depends on demand, but i’ll keep you updated daily.
- turnaround time for sites should be 2-5 days – depends on demand, but again i’ll keep you updated daily.
- hosting is not included with the $99 site offer, but i can host the site on my own server for a small charge.
- domain is not included with the $99 site offer, you just pay domain name cost but i can help organise that for you if necessary (free of charge).
- if offer is ended, i will update this post saying so – any requests after that do not have to be honoured (but they may be – just because i’m nice!)
- terms can be changed at any stage as i see fit.
- contact me if you want any more info
Having slacked off for the last couple of weeks, i’m very much back to my best this week.
ischocolatedangeroustodogs.com was created yesterday and I also did a lot of work on irishgolfer.ie yesterday. Today, i got home from college early and i’ve spent the past 5 hours or so working on charitybypass.com
It’s coming along very nicely indeed. Here’s a sneak preview of the homepage;
It’s a complicated set up, but the map is gonna play a key role in developing the site. I’ll be creating ‘hot spots’ where charity collectors can regularly be seen. Initally, i’ll be grabbing locations on forums, comments, my own experience etc… but eventually i hope to open it up so that users can add locations themselves.
The site will also have a video section and i’ll be writing about charity related stuff too. I’m going for an entertainment angle rather than a serious angle, but at the same time the site is no joke – i mean business with this site and i think it will be of use to people.
I’m happy with my progress today on the site. The layout and style is pretty much done and dusted and now it’s just a case of getting some content ready and getting rid of all the default joomla crap.
If this goes well, and i think it will, you’ll start to see me experimenting more with joomla. I like to think of it as an advanced version of wordpress. You’ve got more power, more control but you do need to know what you’re doing
WordPress is idiot proof compared to joomla… certainly from an end users point of view. The average webmaster with little or know coding knowledge will struggle to get to grips with joomla, whereas wordpress is that bit easier to use and less daunting.
Away from Charity Bypass and i’m expecting word back on a .ie domain name registration at some stage this week. If it comes through ok, there’ll be another project on the way very shortly and i’m looking forward to it too
The whole idea of burrying myself in all of these projects is to force myself in to learning hard and working hard. There’s a sharp learning curve involved in building any site – i’ll always do research before i go near domains or developing a site. Whether it’s about giving chocolate to dogs or trying to come up with a novelty idea like charity bypass, each and every one of those sites and ideas take time and must make it through my own mental filtering system. For every charitybypass.com, there’s probably 100 other ideas that i discard for whatever reason.
I’ve started working on what will be my most controversial site yet – charitybypass.com
photo credit: andy in nyc
I have plenty of potentially toxic and dangerous ideas, many much too risky for me to take on at this stage, but charity bypass is one i’m willing to get behind.
I first mentioned the idea way back in 2007 as part of my 18 random ideas post. I believed it would work then, i still think it will work now. That post was one of my most successful ever and whilst there’s been a lot of interest in some of the ideas, i’ve yet to see someone actually go out and create one.
Charity Bypass will act as a ‘heads up’ on where charity collections are taking place and what charity events are going on where plus it’ll out the scam artists out there.
It serves a useful purpose. It won’t be set up as a ‘charity avoidance’ or ‘lets kill charity’ site – it will simply make people aware of collections and charity stuff – it’s then up to people to decide whether they want to give to charity or not; it’s not up to me, nor anyone else (including charities) to tell people what to do with their hard earned cash.
This site will be a nightmare for me to manage, it will be seen as gamble by many in terms of how people react to it and it probably won’t yield any sort of revenue as nobody will want to be associated with it So it’s not the most sensible site to be creating, but then again it’s an idea, it’s a niche, and it’s something i’ve decided to go plough ahead with because i think it will work and i think i can make it work.
I know people will like it and like the concept which is ultimately why i’m creating it. I’m of the view that if i want to give to charity, i’ll do it of my own accord. Putting a bucket in your face or taking advantage of people’s goodwill is wrong, under all circumstances. It’s forcing people to make decisions they shouldn’t have to make in the first place.
Street collections, traffic light collections etc… show a lack of innovation on the charity’s behalf. Approaching people directly to get them to sign up to something or give money to YOUR case is aggressive marketing of your ‘product’. It’s an invasion of people’s space and time. Much like door to door salespeople or pop up ads, the vast majority of people don’t like them and avoid them where possible. If there’s a bit of creativity or ‘thinking outside the box’ involved then it’s a different story – you can’t knock someone for trying to be different and doing something creative for a good cause.
There you have it – another website in the making and this one is definitely gonna cause controversy. I’ve got a rough idea of how the site will function and what features it will have, but i’m still working on the plans. I hope to have it up and running within 2 weeks.
So far, i’ve raised $174 out of $1000 for my charity skydive. Whilst i’m sure that’s $174 more than what some of you thought i would get i think there’s room for improvement.
What i need now is just pure exposure to get traffic in and get eyes on the competition. So what i’m going to do is open up more FREE ways of gaining entry in to the competition and review the current rules so here are the updated contest rules (anyone already entered will have their entries adjusted accordingly);
- Comment on this post = 10 entries
- Blog about this competition = 30 entries
- Donate a cash amount above $1 = 100 entries
- Do all 3 = 200 entries
In total, there are over 35 prizes valued at over $2500 including;
4 x $50 Cash (Value = $200)
- $100 (2 x $50) sponsored by me.
- $50 sponsored by Collin Lahay.
- $50 sponsored by Walsho.
3 x Estibot Pro Yearly Memberships (Value = 449.85)
- Sponsored by Estibot.com
Revolution Theme (Value = $79.95)
- Sponsored by Brian Gardner
1 Year Button Ad on JonLee.ca (Value = $600)
- Sponsored by JonLee.ca
10 x 1 hour consultations with TUK (Value = $750)
- Sponsored by The University Kid
Paid Plug on The University Kid (Value $85)
- Sponsored by The University Kid
2 x 1 hour consultations from The Net Fool (Value = $150)
- Sponsored by TheNetFool.com
Other Stuff
- 5 x 1 copies of “Site Flip Guide” (courtesy of siteflipguide.com)
- 4 x 1 copies of “Work Smart, Get Rich” (courtesy of ebook-rich.com)
- 4 x 1 monthly buttons ads on smemon.com (courtesy of me)
- 1 review on smemon.com (courtesy of me)
To spice things up a bit, i’m going to be 100% transparent and draw up a full list of entrants and the amount of entries each person has. Basically a huge database in which you’ll be assigned your ‘lucky numbers’.
I’ll make that available to you guys on October 1st and then on October 2nd i’ll make a screencast of myself using random.org to choose the winners.
That ensures everything is 100% transparent and all of the prizes and winners are genuine – i can’t do much more than that. Some people have suggested that people who don’t know me may think winners could be rigged etc… to save me cash or gain friends and i hear that. So in response, i’m going to be as open as i can
For those of you who don’t know me, rest assured the prizes are legit, the winners will be legit and any ‘profits’ are all going to Charity, every single cent To cap it all off you’ll be helping to push me out of a plane at 10,000 feet – so what are you waiting for? Comment or blog or donate cash NOW 
