Earlier in explaining Reader Appreciation Day I questioned the effectiveness of giveaways for fostering community. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about it , until I found these people.
Holy cow – 800 bloggers giving it away!
The mix of items is really random – there’s odd schwag, books, and even hard cash. My favorites are the charity giveaway from Give It Away blog (684) and the StarWars cookbooks from the Married to the Empire Blog (743). Perfect for making Wookie cookies!
The sheer number of bloggers participating in this giveaway carnival is staggering, and I wonder how much all the schwag really adds to participation. How many readers enter contests and move on and how many really stick and find sites that keep them coming back? Give It Away stood out for me. Amy has some great tips on giving effectively and an important perspective on charitable giving namely looking at tax rebates an opportunity to do good.
Bringing it Home – What charities do you like?
Dave Bochner thinks I should give away the Afikomen to find out. Since it’s Passover, a holiday with themese of charity, I’m going to take a cue from Give It Away instead. You can enter by either leave a note in the comments sharing your favorite charity with us and how it is meaningful to you, Subscribing to my RSS feed and shooting me an email at avi[AT]avisamkaplan[DOT]com to let me know your have and share your charity, linking to or blogging about MeshugAvi, or all three. In a week on May 2nd I’ll draw the winner and donate $10 to their charity of choice. You can also enter by.
Also, if you find anything hilarious in the giveaway carnival, share it with us. There’s no way to check out all these sites and if the Wookie cookies are any indication I’m sure there’s more hidden in there. Just remember that most of these contests close this weekend.
