Find Money Online

Today I’d like to share some comments I’ve received from some of our “friends indeed” – those who have had their hearts touched by the stories they’ve read on our My-Friend-In-Need donation site, and been moved to send a financial contribution. There must be some truth to the old adage about it being better to give than to receive, because I actually hear from almost as many people who donate money as those who receive money online.

I wanted to let you know what a wonderful work you are doing with you’re My-Friend-In-Need.com web site. I read about the family who was struggling to equip their disabled daughter with a new wheelchair, and I was so moved that I sent them $500 through PayPal. I know many people might think that was foolish of me, that maybe the whole story was a lie and I threw my money away. But I don’t look at it that way. To me, I helped someone meet a need that might otherwise not have been met. What goes around comes around… if they were lying about it, that’s there problem, but someday if I need help, the benefits of what I did will come back to me.

This seems to be a common sentiment; that there is no way we can know for sure if someone is telling the truth or just trying to get money for some undisclosed reason, but that it doesn’t really matter either way. That giving, being kind, helping someone, is its own reward. That thought is also the focus of this next letter:

When I found your website, my first thought was that someone would have to be crazy to give money to a person who was probably making up a bunch of lies to con good people out of money. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if I want to help someone, I can’t worry about if I’m being cheated, that’s their problem, and somehow, someday they will get what they deserve for their dishonesty. What matters is that I did my part and tried to help someone – that’s what really matters.

 I hope that these e-mails are and encouraging to you as they are to me. I am continually amazed by the kindness and generosity that I get to see as a result of this web site.

Every now and then I run across a news item that is relevant to what we are doing here at My-Friend-In-Need. The following is a reprint of an article that was syndicated earlier this year. I hope you enjoy it!

Desperate For Money? Try Asking!

The economy stinks, you’ve lost your job, and you can’t make your house payment. Maybe it’s not quite so dire: you need a new pair of glasses or some dental work, and your insurance plan won’t cover it. Or perhaps you’re a college student and you want to finish up your degree without accumulating quite so large a mountain of debt. It could be these or one of a thousand other situations, but one thing is clear: you need more money than you can put your hands on right now, and you have no idea how to get it. Has it ever occurred to you to just ask?

We’ve all heard the old adage, “ask and you shall receive.” What if it’s true? What if we could get our needs met, our wishes fulfilled, merely by asking? Recent history has shown that some people can! Documented examples of “cyber-begging,” as it’s become known, can be traced as far back as 1998, but it first became widely known during the summer of 2002 when Karyn Bosnak, a twenty-something woman from Brooklyn, New York, started her own web site. She wanted to raise $20,000 to pay off her credit card debts, and she did it! Within 20 weeks, her website had received over two million hits and her debt was paid off.

Since then, there have been other notable examples of successful cyber-begging: a woman in 2003 who paid for her breast implants with donations she raised online; a family from Aberdeen, Maryland who in November 2008 raised almost $11,000 online and saved their house from foreclosure. So, how do they do it? And will it work for you?

There are two basic approaches to asking for money online: you can set up your own web site with your own domain name, or you can create a page on a site that is dedicated to providing space for people to do this. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods.

Setting up your own dedicated web site may appear to be the best, most successful approach to asking for money online. You aren’t competing with anyone else’s hard-luck story (that may well be more compelling than yours). Furthermore, all the “famous” successful sites have revolved around one person/family and their specific need for money. On the other hand, publicizing and driving traffic to your own personal cyber-begging site is easier said than done. The Internet is no longer a world where “if you build it, they will come.” So, unless you get an extremely lucky break and your situation gets picked up by the media or something else happens to send your story “viral,” you could easily spend the time, money, and effort to set up your site with no return.

Alternatively, you can tell your story on a web site that’s designed to allow people to set up their own page to describe their situation and ask for money. For someone who doesn’t have much experience administering web sites, this may be the best way to go. There are usually features you can select (such as presenting your link in a different color, or in bold, or closer to the top of the list), that will make your page stand out a bit in the crowd. Also, if you can create a compelling, well-written story with an eye-catching title, you may also persuade more site visitors to donate to you, rather than to your fellow “beggars.” Finally, this is a low-cost, low-commitment approach. Most sites allow you to advertise for a small monthly charge, and you can cancel your listing with no further obligation. You don’t need to secure your own domain name, arrange for personal web hosting, or design your own site.

Finally, no matter which approach you try, make sure you take advantage of any opportunities you have to bring traffic to your site through free publicity. If you have a Facebook or Myspace page, add a link to your site there. Do you regularly visit or post on a message board for one of your hobbies or interests? Check the terms of service to see if you are allowed to add a link to your site in your signature. Many grocery stores, libraries, or other public places in your area may have bulletin boards – see if you would be allowed to post a short summary of your situation and include the URL of your site. You may even want to invest in business cards (you can sometimes order them online for free or for a small shipping charge) or flyers – take these with you when you visit your local mall, park or other place where people congregate and pass them out or place them on car windshields. Anything you can do to make more people aware of your site will boost your traffic and make you more likely to succeed.

So, is asking for money online an option for you? You may never know until you try!

Today I’d like to share some tips that will  help you write a donation request page that is more interesting, easier to read, and may end up getting better results for you. Please don’t take this negatively or as a criticism of any of the pages that have been submitted so far! I just want to point out a few things that may not be apparent to you, especially when you are stressed-out and worried about money.

First, go ahead and write out your story, using a pen and paper, or word processing software – anywhere other than the little data entry box you have on the screen you use to create your donation site. This will allow you to organize your thoughts, and make all of the points you’d like to mention. Consider this a rough draft, and make sure you include anything you consider relevant.

Now, go back through what you’ve written, keeping in mind the following:

• Choose a title that summarizes your appeal. Keep it brief, but make it a descriptive sentence that communicates why you need money.
• Make good use of “white space.” It is difficult to read a narrative that is formatted as one long section of text. Try to use short sentences and break your essay up into double-spaced paragraphs in order to make your letter easier on the eyes.
• Make your message as short as possible. Be sure to include any significant details, but if your story starts to get too long, do your best to trim out any unnecessary background information or extra elements. It’s sad but true: our attention span has grown noticeably shorter in this era of half-hour sitcoms and 5-minute YouTube videos. If your description is longer than three or four paragraphs, your readers may begin to lose interest, and your response rate will suffer.

If you follow these tips as closely as you can when you put together the text for your donation page, I can assure you that your request will be read by more people, and you will have a better chance of securing the financial help you desire.

A few weeks after we launched the My-Friend-In-Need web site, one of my journalist friends put out a very nice press release for us. At the moment, it’s still available online, and you can download a PDF version of it. I’m expecting that it will disappear at some point, though, so I’m going to reprint it here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jan 03, 2009 — What does a very successful technology consultant do when her business tanks in the current economy? Well, this one created My-Friend-In-Need.com, a web site designed to link folks with financial needs with generous people who would like to help.

So, what makes My-Friend-In-Need different from the abundance of other cyber-begging web sites already out there? “Ugh – I don’t even like to call it ‘cyber-begging,’ says Christine, the creator and administrator of the site, who will only be identified by her first name to defer to her strong desire to remain as anonymous as possible. “And the things that make it the most different,” she continues, “are the level of respect everyone is given and the professionalism of the site itself.”

She has a valid point. A Google search on the terms “cyber-begging” or “donate money online” turn up web sites that look like they came from (and perhaps should return to) the dark ages of the Internet. Pages crammed with text in all colors, sizes, and fonts, that scroll down forever and proclaim, “Get out of debt!” “No Payback!” and (dubiously), “As Seen on Oprah Winfrey!”

My-Friend-In-Need takes a much more compassionate, soft-hearted approach. First of all, both seekers and benefactors are referred to as “friends.”  The site’s tagline states “…because a friend in need is a friend indeed,” and goes on to further explain that a friend that stands by you in times of trouble is a true friend. People in need of help are encouraged to provide as many details as they are comfortable sharing (all the while being reminded not to share any identifying information). And it’s suggested that potential donors may feel they are less strangers and more friends with their beneficiaries once they look through the stories and find one that touches their hearts.

And, as would be expected from someone with a web design background, My-Friend-In-Need.com has a clean, professional look that’s attractive and easy to use. “I was really going for a departure from the cluttered, disorganized, and almost ‘sleazy’ sites that I found out there,” states Christine. “Even though I realize it takes a step of faith to expose your financial problems, not to mention donate money, to strangers on the Internet, I’m hoping that having a site that’s more polished and up-to-date will help to reassure people that they aren’t getting ripped off.”

Finally, a fact that the site doesn’t blatantly publicize but hides near the end of the “About Us” page: even though there is a fee for listing your request on the site, My-Friend-In-Need.com is not trying to make a profit for itself. Once the monthly costs of site hosting are covered, surplus listing fees are anonymously donated back to its “friends in need.” And doesn’t that make My-Friend-In-Need a friend, indeed?

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About My-Friend-In-Need.com: A new approach to asking for or donating money online — My-Friend-In-Need.com is professional, compassionate, and trustworthy. The site seeks to match up people experiencing financial misfortune with those who have the means and a heart to help.

It is wonderful when I hear from people who have used the My-Friend-In-Need site, both to give donations and to receive money. I love that I can have a part in touching the lives of those who visit and trust me with their hardships. About 2-3 times each week, one of our friends contacts me to let me know how the My-Friend-In-Need web site is making a difference in their life, and now that we’ve added a blog to the site, I can share some of their stories with you.

Please know, if you ever have anything you would like to tell me about, I will never post any part of your testimonial without your permission, and I am very careful to protect your privacy.

The first letter I will share with you is from a woman who used our site for several months to try to get out from under crushing debt. I’ll let her words speak for themselves:

Thanks to your website, I’ve learned what it really means to have “friends indeed.” When I posted my donation page, my husband and I were literally drowning in debt from student loans and medical expenses. I was working two jobs, and my husband was doing all he could, but since he has a very long commute each day, there was no way he could take on anything to try to earn more money.

Thanks to the donations we received from “friends” on your site, I was able to quit my second job and devote the time to my husband and daughter that they deserve. Although we still have a ways to go before we are completely debt-free, we are no longer losing sleep and ruining our relationship with worry. I sincerely think that your web site saved my health and my marriage. Thank you, thank you, for creating this wonderful place!

I’ll post one more e-mail for now, but trust me, I have a pile of them building up, and I will share as many of them with you as I can.

Like I said when I made my donation page, our family is not really any different from any other typical American family. We had our house and cars paid off, and we weren’t struggling with mountains of credit card debt, but we had a couple of pressing needs that we just couldn’t see any way of taking care of.

First of all, our house is what you would call a “character home”. We love it, but it’s over 120 years old, and needed some serious work. Between needing a new roof, and some work to take care of a seriously leaky basement, we were looking at a bill over $20,000. Then, one of our cars also picked that time to give up the ghost, and with a Mom and Dad that both work, and 5 kids that need to be driven to various things they participate in, we really couldn’t live with just one car.

Anyway, the money we received from your web site really made a difference in our lives. Between the donations we received and a bit of help from our church and family, we were able to replace our car with a good used vehicle AND pay for almost all of the repairs on our house. The contractor is being kind enough to allow us to pay off what’s left over the next few months at a very low interest rate, and we will soon be debt-free again. We can’t tell you how grateful we are that we stumbled across your web site… it has truly been a blessing.

Wow, isn’t that great? And I love it that both of these letters make a very important point: once they created their donation pages, neither one of these folks just sat back and waited for the money to roll in. They kept working at their problem from several different angles, and I like to think they were rewarded for their hard work and persistence.

Until next time, I wish you all the best!

I am pleased to be able to add a blog to the My-Friend-In-Need site, so that I can keep you posted on the wonderful things I see happening!

The My-Friend-In-Need Donation Site went live just a few short months ago, and I have heard from a number of people, both givers and receivers, about how their experience here has affected their lives.

Every now and then, I will add a Testimonials post so that I can share these with you. It is truly heartwarming to hear about the kindness and generousity that still exists out there, no matter how bad things may seem at the moment.

I will also use this blog to keep you updated on relevant news items, articles, and press releases. So much is going on in the ecomomy and the world as a whole, it’s sometimes easy to miss items that you may otherwise like to hear about.

Finally, I’ll be sharing some helpful advice and tips on how to make the most of your Donations page here on the My-Friend-In-Need site. Although many people have enjoyed much success simply by creating their Donation site and availing themselves of contributions from the traffic this site naturally generates, there are extra things you can do to boost your results and make your efforts even more rewarding.

So bookmark this site and check back often. I’m sure you will enjoy hearing about our progress.