Lee, thank you for promoting the NYC event and raising the bar on the dialog. I never thought our search marketing blog would be a place to discuss cancer but the coincidence a search marketers' Lymphoma benifit taking place during an SMX event we're covering was just too much serendipity.
Hey Anthony, I did check out that site but it doesn't work (neither the organizations or the SEM list links work) and I don't think it's active.
I suppose there's an opportunity then....
Carrie Hill
· 2 years ago
I think this is a great idea - I'm not sure I have the resources (i.e. TIME!) to take it on personally but I'd love to help out in any way I can.
I also couldn't get the website in Anthony's comment to work.
~Carrie
Scott Clark
· 2 years ago
In response to your question, my firm provides the web work marketing for WaldenPlay, an Earthday Endeavor for kids and students. I do almost everything for the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour - a non-profit, volunteer organization which gives upcoming musicians a chance, and have long provided design, hosting and sem services to the Habitat for Humanity , Renovationstation, and misc others. It gets hard once word gets out, and I have to say no plenty of times.
I wrote a post that came from my work with non-profits that others might find interesting. So many waste so much time and energy on their websites... so this was my effort to help on that. Building nonprofit websites in 2007
Lee Odden
· 2 years ago
Hey Scott, thanks for th heads up on your work. I changed it to an anchor text link as long urls can mess with the blog layout. :)
Dave Origano
· 2 years ago
Hey Lee,
I handle a lot of clients and it's been quite a trend lately to give a part of the profits to a charity or to setup a foundation - at least amongst my European clients.
So this trend of SEO companies sharing their services for free with non-profit organisations is completely in line with the more general trend.
Great discovery though ;)
-Dave
Matt Keegan
· 2 years ago
I like the idea that people remember to help organizations that do not have the means to pay for marketing campaigns. Even if we cannot offer full scale support, stumbling and bookmarking nonprofit pages is a good start. Offering free links on select pages is another small, but important gesture.
Scott Clark
· 2 years ago
It's so easy for people to lose focus of what's important when doing this type of thing.
What's overlooked is the amount of waste that non-profits have when it comes to web endeavors. In my experience, there were plenty of "volunteers" wanting to build sites who had zero talent and were just building it for their own portfolio. The results are unmaintainable and often discarded from neglect.
Such a situation recently happend to me, where a small organization was overwhelmed by a wannabe web marketer and his sledghammer-to-kill-an-ant approach. All they needed was a themed Wordpress blog and a couple of plug ins, with a few lessons on naming posts and building links. It is serving them well and everyone can use it. I'm doubting the volunteer had ever heard of CMS. The organization had wasted DOZENS of frustrating hours working on it and everyone had totally lost focus of their goals.
So in some ways, high level advice and a little hard love would have made things much easier for them. They just didn't know any better.
Carrie Hill
· 2 years ago
Scott - great point.
I helped our local Traditional Archer's society build a wordpress website. Someone had quoted thousands of dollars for a dynamic website that just wasn't necessary. Now the board members can go in and put whatever they like in there. Granted, getting the info to put IN the blog has proven harder than actually getting the dang thing built -but it's there and available for anyone who has an interest.
Sometimes it really can be that simple!
Matt McGowan
· 2 years ago
You should also check out CraigsListFoundation.org - a good friend of mine started with Craig's support. If interested let me know and I will make intro - Matt
James Omdahl
· 2 years ago
Glad to hear about everyone's efforts helping out non-profits. It certainly feels good to help, and often it won't take much time to get some of these organizations to where they want to be (some of them just want to rank for their organization’s name on Google!).
I've recently gotten involved with PTE-China.org, and AIDS charity working in China, helping them out with some of their SEM activities. It's not only nice to help, but it has given me a glimpse into another world of SEM. The experience has been a win-win for sure.
And if anyone wants to check out PTE (Prevention Through Education), please do...and any link love to their site would be more than appreciated. :)
Lee Odden
· 2 years ago
Great example Carrie!
Hey Matt, thanks for the heads up on that. I'll email you.
Thanks for the heads up on PTE James. An excellent example of SEM for a good cause.
steve
· 2 years ago
Lee awesome post, As know I am volunteering for the Food for Everyone Foundation basically I am the marketing department. A marketing expert I am not. It is great to hear so many people are donating time. The PR aspect of volunteering also can not be overlooked. We always need a hand with marketing so any of you out there wanting to help change the world "One garden at a time" please contact me. Steve @(see url please) TY for the plug Lee
Jonathan Trenn
· 2 years ago
I think this is a great idea. But there are often several problems.
I live in the Washington DC area where we have a lot of non-profits and associations. From what I see, many of them have at best brochureware sites that they haven't really updated since 1999. The management can be overly conservative and afraid of anything that's technology based.
What's often needed is bascially a Internet/Web 101 or maybe 201. It's a shame because so much good can be done.
The firm I'm with, Abraham & Harrison reaches out to them and there have been some bites. But often the mentality is to have someone's nephew create/update the site...and then it is horrible for SEO.
Scott Clark
· 2 years ago
Jonathan - yes!
In at least one case [large, multi-state nonprof] there was a starvation environment. Once you walked in the door they would strip you, African plains-style, of your every scrap of energy without listening to the advice that would have mattered.
I realized soon that it was going to be impossible to even pick the LOW hanging fruit. I couldn't get them to stop talking about animations, fancy design work and snazzy crap - and this was a BIG non-profit. They had a website with only 100 uniques per day, and 80% were short visits. It was a mess, and I had to run for my life. They still call me today with "email" and "computer" questions.
All Comments
http://www.semcares.com/
Anthony
I suppose there's an opportunity then....
I also couldn't get the website in Anthony's comment to work.
~Carrie
I wrote a post that came from my work with non-profits that others might find interesting. So many waste so much time and energy on their websites... so this was my effort to help on that.
Building nonprofit websites in 2007
I handle a lot of clients and it's been quite a trend lately to give a part of the profits to a charity or to setup a foundation - at least amongst my European clients.
So this trend of SEO companies sharing their services for free with non-profit organisations is completely in line with the more general trend.
Great discovery though ;)
-Dave
What's overlooked is the amount of waste that non-profits have when it comes to web endeavors. In my experience, there were plenty of "volunteers" wanting to build sites who had zero talent and were just building it for their own portfolio. The results are unmaintainable and often discarded from neglect.
Such a situation recently happend to me, where a small organization was overwhelmed by a wannabe web marketer and his sledghammer-to-kill-an-ant approach. All they needed was a themed Wordpress blog and a couple of plug ins, with a few lessons on naming posts and building links. It is serving them well and everyone can use it. I'm doubting the volunteer had ever heard of CMS. The organization had wasted DOZENS of frustrating hours working on it and everyone had totally lost focus of their goals.
So in some ways, high level advice and a little hard love would have made things much easier for them. They just didn't know any better.
I helped our local Traditional Archer's society build a wordpress website. Someone had quoted thousands of dollars for a dynamic website that just wasn't necessary. Now the board members can go in and put whatever they like in there. Granted, getting the info to put IN the blog has proven harder than actually getting the dang thing built -but it's there and available for anyone who has an interest.
Sometimes it really can be that simple!
I've recently gotten involved with PTE-China.org, and AIDS charity working in China, helping them out with some of their SEM activities. It's not only nice to help, but it has given me a glimpse into another world of SEM. The experience has been a win-win for sure.
And if anyone wants to check out PTE (Prevention Through Education), please do...and any link love to their site would be more than appreciated. :)
Hey Matt, thanks for the heads up on that. I'll email you.
Thanks for the heads up on PTE James. An excellent example of SEM for a good cause.
It is great to hear so many people are donating time. The PR aspect of volunteering also can not be overlooked. We always need a hand with marketing so any of you out there wanting to help change the world "One garden at a time" please contact me. Steve @(see url please) TY for the plug Lee
I live in the Washington DC area where we have a lot of non-profits and associations. From what I see, many of them have at best brochureware sites that they haven't really updated since 1999. The management can be overly conservative and afraid of anything that's technology based.
What's often needed is bascially a Internet/Web 101 or maybe 201. It's a shame because so much good can be done.
The firm I'm with, Abraham & Harrison reaches out to them and there have been some bites. But often the mentality is to have someone's nephew create/update the site...and then it is horrible for SEO.
In at least one case [large, multi-state nonprof] there was a starvation environment. Once you walked in the door they would strip you, African plains-style, of your every scrap of energy without listening to the advice that would have mattered.
I realized soon that it was going to be impossible to even pick the LOW hanging fruit. I couldn't get them to stop talking about animations, fancy design work and snazzy crap - and this was a BIG non-profit. They had a website with only 100 uniques per day, and 80% were short visits. It was a mess, and I had to run for my life. They still call me today with "email" and "computer" questions.