How To Create Your Own Charity Mall
The concept of charity malls has been around for quite a few years now. The idea is fairly straightforward; a group signs up with a charity mall provider and they are given links to the mall which they can post on their web sites. Next they promote these links to their supporters and the group then earns a percentage of all of the revenues earned from the sale of items from their charity mall.
A major advantage of charity malls their ease of set for a group. Charity mall providers act as a middleman and take a percentage of any sales transactions that are made. Groups must recognize they can just as easily register for their own affiliate programs and set up their own charity mall, thereby eliminating the middle man.
The second advantage a group has by building their own charity mall is that they have the power to choose which merchants they want to promote instead of relying solely on the ones provied by the chraity mall provider . This has two benefits; 1. Groups can choose merchants and products which are complimentary to their group. For example a marching band could promote products from a sheet music merchant. 2. Groups can focus on promoting specific products that they know their supporters enjoy and purchase regularly. Groups can set up their own charity mall by signing up with a third party affiliate provider like Commission Junction (www.cj.com). Signing up with Commission Junction is completely free and they provide access to hundreds of merchants. CJ also provides promotional tools, tracking of sales and payments. Many online stores now have established affiliate programs because of the wide market reach they can gain. Groups can now link to popular merchants such as Travelocity, amazon and eBay.
The next step is to select the merchants you think your supporters would be interested in and apply to be an affilaite in their program. If your supporters make regular purchases from one of your merchants your charity mall can become very lucrative. The merchant will provide customized links and banners for your group to post on their web site.
The final step is to post the links and banners supplied by the merchant in an attractive way so that supporters will be enticed to make purchases through your site.
A charity mall is a silent fundraiser that runs in the background, so your group can focus on what they do best, excelling in practice and in competition.
| Ayana Forward is the Author of "Raise Money, Without Selling". A step-by-step guide to fundraising with free samples |
