$75,000 USD in the bag with two days to go – help us hit $100,000 USD!

By Shayne Tilley | February 11, 2009 | News & Trends

About 24 hours ago we launched what we thought was the best way we could support victims of the Victorian Bushfires. We put our best book deal ever on the table and decided to donate every single dime we earned to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal. We set what we thought was an aggressive target of US$50,000 USD and partnered with Darren Rowse from problogger.com, a man who we have great respect for, to set about spreading the word…

Within minutes the twittervese kicked in and proved that I may have been wrong about twitter — the response was phenomenal. 24 hours later we became one of the most rewteeted users on Twitter, appeared as a trend on RetweetRadar ,and more importantly smashed through our USD $50K target — but the jobs not done yet!

With $75,000 USD raised in the first 24 hours alone and two days to go we are now aiming for 100,000 USD.

To all the people so far who put their hand in their pockets you have our thanks, for those considering it, you’ve got 2 days left, so grab yourself a bargain, and help make a real difference to someone in need.

And whilst we may not have had any luck with Slashdot or Digg, to the twitterers and bloggers who have stood up when it’s needed – our hat tips to you all…

Forgive me if we’ve missed someone– please let us know if we have…

Together we can make a difference, so in the next two days, let’s dig deep and turn that $70,000 USD into something even greater! Visit sale.sitepoint.com for more information.

Written By:

Shayne Tilley

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{ 43 comments }

ShayneTilley February 13, 2009 at 4:47 pm: Hi All — just a quick update, the sale has officially ended. For all those that participated thank you.
We want to be able to verify every cent goes the Red Cross Appeal, so we’ve employed the auditing services of PriceWaterhouseCoopers to make sure every dollar is accounted for.
Rest assured we’ll announce the official total as soon as PWC have confirmed it.
ShayneTilley February 13, 2009 at 2:36 pm: sorry to hear that stabcosoft. Our support team have been inundated with emails and are working through them as fast as they can, so they will get back to you. But if you can’t wait, I understand.
stabcosoft February 13, 2009 at 2:31 pm: Hmmm, it would be nice if SitePoint actually delivered the PDF’s …
Barring that, perhaps SitePoint Customer Service could acknowledge my inquiries.
Now, I’ve had to file a claim with PayPal.
Sorry guys. Your hearts were in the right place but your follow-through left something to be desired.
That’s the last order I make through SitePoint.
Bummer.
ShayneTilley February 13, 2009 at 9:49 am: I’ve just updated a bunch of links to some of the find bloggers who’ve helped spread the word. If you spot one I’ve miss — let me know.
ShayneTilley February 13, 2009 at 9:29 am: Thanks everyone for all your support and kind words. We’re so proud at the success of this initiative, but more important, I’m pleased to announce that as of this morning the total raised so far is over USD $180,000.
Side note, I wanted to mention that our customer support team are working through a very long list of tickets. No one will be forgotten and we’re working through them as fast as we can. If you’ve made a purchase and are having trouble we will get back to you.
Curtis Bennett February 13, 2009 at 8:57 am: This is a great way to assist the Red Cross with the Victoria bush fires recovery effort. Not enough companies step up like this in times of need. As an added bonus, I had been trying to decide between a few of your books, but thanks to this deal, I didn’t have to worry I’d get the wrong one – I just bought them all! Two more reasons why SitePoint is my favourite web dev site!
xlmedia February 13, 2009 at 8:23 am: Thanks for putting this on and making it easy for us to contribute.
jemjabella February 13, 2009 at 6:54 am: I’ve blogged it in the hope that the few of my users with their own bank balance will be able to buy and spread the word to push you over the 100,000USD mark. Best of luck!
mark February 13, 2009 at 5:45 am: My parents live in wa , always a concern when things like this happen, glad to contribute i have many sitepoint books , bought the pdfs will read them oneday. Fantastic to see a business like yours willing to dig deep and help in times of crisis. I hope you get the recognition you deserve.Our thoughts are with the people of Victora.
Mark
United Kingdom
Anonymous February 13, 2009 at 1:33 am: Thanks sp for letting us help. I’m proud to be a part of the cause from here in Nigeria
Ron Ferguson February 13, 2009 at 1:21 am: I think this is a great effort that SitePoint has going! Congrats on the success and best wishes for even more! Thanks for helping the victims. :)
irfan February 13, 2009 at 12:59 am: kudos to this nice idea. I will order also 5 books in order to contribute your fundraising effort. However i could not find any information about the 5th book i am planning to include : “Flipping Websites for Profit”
I’ve emailed to sale@sitepoint.com yesterday but could not get a reply.
Could you please provide a URL to this books information ?
Seether13 February 13, 2009 at 12:17 am: Well done Sitepoint, i am happy to have been able to help my little bit. Excellent initiative
Jack F February 13, 2009 at 12:13 am: I posted it on my blog :P
http://jackfranklin.co.uk/single.php?contentid=107
Hubert February 12, 2009 at 11:13 pm: Hello Sitepoint. Your books are a reference and I hope this great initiative from you will help the victims from the terrible fires in Australia. All the best from France.
Talula25 February 12, 2009 at 10:10 pm: Couldn’t pass up an opportunity to help the Vic Bushfire Appeal.
Thanks Sitepoint for coming up with such a brilliant idea
:)
Talula February 12, 2009 at 10:07 pm: Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to help out with the Vic Bushfire relief.
Thanks Sitepoint for coming up with such a brilliant idea.
:)
Schikowski February 12, 2009 at 9:52 pm: For me, a company is worth to be taken seriously only if they are involved in some kind of charitable work. This is just beautiful.
paolo February 12, 2009 at 7:55 pm: This is a great initiative. I’m french and I would love to see à french editor doing such a thing for our recent southwest storm.
I’ve poste a link to your page on my modest blog.
May your friends, relatives, neighbours and all affected people overcome this terrible disaster
mniessen February 12, 2009 at 5:48 pm: I didn’t plan to buy more Sitepoint books right know, but I didn’t think twice. Whether I’ll have time to read them is another story, but that doesn’t matter anyway. Like many people, I was just glad I could help with a few dollars. That’s a wonderful thing Sitepoint is doing there, literally giving away thousands of books. Let’s hope there’s no need for another one of those deals anytime soon, though!
Our thoughts are with the people affected by this disaster and who lost their homes, friends, family members, loved ones…
rajimpress February 12, 2009 at 3:44 pm: I’ve learned and earned a lot because of Sitepoint. Why should I hesitate to spend just 30$ for a great deal when it all goes as austrialia bush fire relief fund? I’ve picked up freelancing and project management books. :)
You are doing a great job SitePoint Team! All the best from all Indians.
mongrel_1 February 12, 2009 at 1:26 pm: You guys are the absolute best!!
mongrel_1
ShayneTilley February 12, 2009 at 11:02 am: Wow — woke up this morning to some great news. So far we’ve raised over USD $125K/ AUD $195K with plenty of time left to grab a bargain. For everyone that already has – from the bottom of my heart – thank you.
David February 12, 2009 at 10:57 am: I gave my support by buying the deals and I dont regret it as Im getting both knowledge and supporting the cause.
On other side, quite sad I didnt see Simply SQL there :(
Keep it up, guys!
{RainmakeR} February 12, 2009 at 10:52 am: This is great news, and a great idea – I just grabbed my 5 books, they look to be excellent quality as usual from SitePoint.
Nigel Lew February 12, 2009 at 10:39 am: Great initiative! I have not been on sitepoint lately, so I popped in to make sure folks were ok. I am more than happy to help out. I will get right on it.
Nigel
Jo from Australia February 12, 2009 at 10:19 am: Bravo to you for doing this. We donated money ourselves and made the offer/challenge to our 200 clients to donate money and we’d put a banner on their website saying they had for free.
I didn’t need 5 eBooks, but I bought them anyway. Good luck reaching your goal!
banago February 12, 2009 at 8:59 am: Really Great Achievement – This is how humans should behave. I cannot find the words to express my joy!
Europe February 12, 2009 at 8:23 am: thanks for letting us help!
artemis February 12, 2009 at 6:41 am: SP you Rock!
PacificOctane February 12, 2009 at 4:13 am: Well done Shayne and SitePoint. I was more than happy to make the purchase for this effort to start my day in the right way. We’re working on a project for this as well and hope to have it online by Monday. Again mate, well done and talk to you later.
James Wester
Anonymous February 12, 2009 at 4:03 am: Agreed. Books are just a bonus (and an excellent one!). Wonderful decision and great example by Sitepoint.
chicagocubsfan February 12, 2009 at 3:38 am: That is AMAZING. Great to hear.
placenamehere February 12, 2009 at 3:37 am: This is wonderful news for a great cause. The books I received were just a bonus.
Valerie Shipbaugh February 12, 2009 at 2:49 am: Nice work! You will make it to 100k in no time!
Anonymously February 12, 2009 at 2:21 am: WOW… :-)
($75,000/$29.95 per unit) = 2,504 units sold
(2,504 units sold/24 hours) = 104.33 units per hour
streetjammer123 February 12, 2009 at 1:22 am: I have put an ad in my website about this might get 10+ conversions :)
No money with me to buy the books , anyway good luck sitepoint and hope Australia recover soon from this disaster
streetjammer123 February 12, 2009 at 1:20 am: The picture with the CFA guy feeding a koala in this page is magnificent!
Idea15 Web Design February 12, 2009 at 1:16 am: This campaign has been “pay it forward” in action – we all become better web professionals and people get the help they need, no strings attached.
streetjammer123 February 12, 2009 at 12:59 am: Nice Job SitePoint Team !!
Lets Help victims of the Victorian Bushfires
Chetan Bhawani February 12, 2009 at 12:31 am: Thats a great job from the SitePoint team in helping out!
Devon Hillard February 12, 2009 at 12:26 am: That’s great news! I wish you guys the best of luck! Digital Sanctuary is my blog, so thank you for the mention.
I just added information and link to your fundraising to the pages at 10MinuteMail, which gets much more traffic than my little blog. I sincerely hope that it helps!
Regards,
Devon
Michael February 11, 2009 at 11:34 pm: Great deal! Very good help strategy! Exellent content, too!
Terrible situation in Australia. All the best from Germany and may there be no more people killed.