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ESC!Webs Site of the Week Week of June 11, 2000 The Hunger Site, The Rainforest Site and Plant-A-Tree: Webreleaf.com Main Web Sites: http://www.therainforestsite.com Maybe I'm pounding these sites into the ground. Then again, maybe you don't know that I've had links to at least one of these sites on the ESC!Links page for over a year now. In either case you really should visit these sites EVERY DAY. Let me tell you why. Three Clicks Can Do So Much Good Let me begin by saying that you have no financial obligation to any of these sites. Your only obligation is to click a button on their site. Advertisers foot the bills. There is no information collected about you except to tell the site whether you've been there already in any given day. The model is much like those silly banner ads you see on various web pages. Sponsors pay X number of dollars to ensure that their banner is viewed by X number of people. The advertisers win and the web sites win, but the consumer hardly ever wins unless your idea of a prize is a slower loading page. In the case of each of these sites, however, you are presented with a home page which, along with information about the companies and the benefits of participating in the program -- which I highly encourage you to read by the way -- there is a big button which says "Click Here to Donate Free Food" or "Click Here to Donate Land" or "Click Here to Plant a Tree". You click the button and then are presented with a list of advertisers who helped pay for your donation (In the case of Webreleaf.com, you are not currently presented a list of advertisers, but advertisers DO support the site). Advertisers pay for each of the clicks, so you can see how the more visitors they get, the greater the donation. Obviously it benefits the advertisers if you click through on their ads as well because it lets them know they are reaching their target audience and it gets them to continue supporting the sites. Why Do It? The hardest part about giving is finding the time! These sites allow you to give a little back in as little as two minutes (I've timed it. I can click on each of the links and click the buttons for donations in under two minutes.) So why not do it? If I can earmark 2 cups of food for somebody who's starving by simply clicking a button, then why not? If I can help buy up Rainforest land to prevent it from being decimated by loggers with one click, then who's to say I shouldn't? I think more organizations should hop on this bandwagon. Imagine if the Red Cross, Salvation Army and others moved to an advertising based click through donation scheme. You could literally pick and choose your donations on a daily basis. Making the advertisers contribute to these causes in exchange for my reading their ad is not a bad thing either. If you have trouble remembering to click on the links, I welcome you to make the ESC!Links page your home page! That way every time you start your browser you are reminded to click through.
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