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To make a long story short, I decided that since I have a day-job (I'm a chemical engineering PhD graduate student who does Alzheimer's disease research if you didn't know) and do not depend on income from blogging as my sole-source of making a living, any income made from this blog would have more significance to me at a personal life values level if I knew that a portion were being given back to the following places:
- 1) The readers - Obviously, without you here to read my articles and interact with my ideas, there would be no blog in the first place (let alone blog income). As such, it is only fitting that you receive a portion of any blog income.
- 2) Charitable organizations - If you've read my blog before, you know that I'm a big believer in donating a portion of my money to charity. Each year, I donate between 5-10% of my income to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as part of the Bike for MS fundraiser that I do. Beyond the good that is done by donating your money, getting used to contributing to charity is also a good practice to emulate the actions of affluent individuals (T. Harv Eker discusses this in his book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind).
Because of these considerations, I've decided that each month going forward, I'm going to give away 10% of my net blogging income to My Personal Finance Journey readers (5%) and to charity (5%). Listed below is how the process will work:
- After each calendar month passes, I'll tally up my net blog income and determine what Dollar value correlates to 10%.
- I'll post the giveaway (similar to this post you're reading now), and you'll have 3 weeks to enter.
- Once the giveaway is over, a grand prize winner will be announced, and that winner will then select what charity they'd like to have 5% of my blog income sent to. Pretty cool idea, right?! I'm excited just thinking about it! I hope you are too.
So, that's the overall flow of things. Let's get in to the specific details for this month's (October) giveaway.
Details of October 2011 10% Blog Income Giveaway
- $205 total blog income to give away - $105 to My Personal Finance Journey readers and $100 to the charity selected by the giveaway grand prize winner.
- $105 in prizes available to two readers is broken down in the following way -
- 1) Grand Prize = $75 Amazon Gift Card or $75 cash via PayPal (since I just found out that international readers cannot buy much on Amazon).
- 2) 2nd place prize = $30 Amazon Gift Card or $30 cash via PayPal.
- This month's giveaway is also to celebrate the launch of the monthly free My Personal Finance Journey Intelligent Financiers Newsletter. The purpose of the newsletter will be to give out exclusive personal finance, intelligent investing, and frugal living tips beyond what's shown on the main site and conduct newsletter-subscriber only giveaways.
How to Enter the Giveaway - Deadline to Enter is Midnight, October 31st, 2011
I decided to give the new RaffleCopter giveaway management tool a try to handle sign-up facilitation for this giveaway, so simply go through the steps listed in the widget below to enter the running for the prizes. Since this month marks the launch of the new My Personal Finance Journey Newsletter, I'd like to get as many people signed up as possible, so spread the word!
There is no limit to the amount of points you can earn. If you refer 10 subscribers – your name will have accumulated 50 points! You can also retweet the giveaway once per day. In the event of a tie, I will be using a random number generator to select the winner.
Important instructions: After you complete an entry method, make sure to click and fill out the "I Did This" button in the widget so that I have a record of your points.
Remember, the deadline for entries will end at midnight on October 31st, 2011 (3 weeks from today). Good luck to you all! Please contact me if you have any questions. After the deadline for entries passes, the winners will be contacted via email.
