Making Money With Youtube

Forget cable TV at school. Your dorm or fraternity likely pipes basic cable to your room, but you don’t want to be stuck in there, watching Gray’s Anatomy every Thursday night. No, you need to be out, enjoying your collegiate experience so take all that media with you. Or, hook something up to your TV that allows you to play back anything you want. That’s how the cool kids do it.

On the go

Your phone

There’s a good chance that your phone can also double as a quality media player. Perhaps all it needs is a large Micro SD card for a bit more storage. But even most feature phones support at least the popular media files while some smartphones can playback nearly everything. You often sacrifice battery life in exchange for the convenience, but it’s also cheaper. Just think of all the beer you could buy not spending $100 on a media player.

SanDisk Sansa Fuze +

There is so much to like about this PMP line. They’re relatively cheap, have expandable memory, FM radio, and supports nearly every media format man has ever created. On the downside, the screen is a tad small for videos, but it should work in a pinch. But one of it’s biggest draws is that it’s not an iDevice. Anything with an Apple logo tends to mysterious disappear during parties and events. They seem to scream “Steal me and sell me for book money!” The Sansa Fuze + doesn’t have that feature.

iPod touch

Word of advice: You can totally con your Mom into buying you a new iPod touch if you promise to have some quality Facetime with her once a week. You can also probably tell her that you need one for a certain app like, say, for your medical terminology class. But you need to guard said iPod touch with your life. Buy one of the sports arm bands and strap it to your inner thigh because people will try to steal it especially if they know it’s one of the fancy new camera models.

In your room

Your computer

The majority of TVs and computers these days have an HDMI jack, making connecting the two rather easy. Just head over to Monoprice and pick up a long cable. This is by far the easiest and least expensive way to playback all of your media on your TV. It isn’t, however, neccesarly the best. HD playback often suffers at the hands of the graphic processor and it’s not at all convenient without a remote or interface designed for a TV. But it works and that’s all that matters.

The WD TV

Geeks love the WD TV. It’s supported by a large development community and plays back everything. Content can either be feed via a network or USB drive. Best of all, it’s small, portable and can be found for under a $100 online.

The Boxee Box

You’re going to have to ask Santa for this one. It doesn’t come out until November, but when it does, it will no doubt be the defacto standard in media streamers. The Boxee software utilizes an Atom platform paired with an Webkit browser running an HTML5 interface to serve up one of the classiest UI’s ever. It connects with all the major and minor video sites from ABC, NBC, Revision3, YouTube, Netflix and all the rest and streams the content right to your TV bypasing all the annoying Internet noise. Oh, and it has a QWERTY remote. Until it drops, though, you can always download the software and put it on your PC that’s connected to your TV anyway.

See the rest of our Back To School 2010 coverage right here!

Frank Barry, professional services manager at Blackbaud and blogger at NetWits ThinkTank, helps non-profits use the Internet for digital communication, social media, and fundraising so they can focus on making an impact and achieving their missions. Find Frank on Twitter @franswaa.

Non-profit organizations are leading the way when it comes to creatively harnessing the power of social media. A report by The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth shows that the largest U.S. non-profit organizations continue to outpace Inc. 500 businesses and higher education institutions in their familiarity, use and monitoring of social media.

In fact, 93% of the top U.S. charities have a class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook page, 87% have a Twitter profile, and 65% have a blog. Why does this matter? Because the rapid growth and adoption of social media is helping non-profits in their quest for change — they truly are using social media for social good.

But what about the little guys? The social web can give smaller players a big voice if they know how to leverage it. Here are three inspiring success stories of small non-profits who met or exceeded their goals with the help of social media.

1. Create a Video, Start a Movement

Darius Weems and the Darius Goes West project will inspire you. Suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Darius and 11 of his best friends decided to head out on a cross country road trip from Atlanta to Los Angeles, where Darius hoped to have his wheelchair spiffed up by MTV’s Pimp my Ride. Though his wheelchair did not get pimped by MTV on that trip, there was a far better outcome that even Darius couldn’t have imagined.

The 25-day trip resulted in memories, experiences and 300 hours of video which were turned into a documentary that has impacted thousands of people around the world. That very same documentary has now raised over $2 million for DMD research.

According to the Darius Goes West team, “We had offers from distributors, but, in the end, we decided to self-distribute our film. By opting to self-distribute, we bear the responsibility for marketing, but we also have the power to devote $8 of every DVD sale to promising DMD research.”

It’s apparent that social media has played and continues to play a significant roll in helping to raise both awareness and money for DMD research through Darius and his friends. Here’s a snap shot of their social media footprint:

They’ve accrued close to 700,000 views on YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube, collected more than 14,000 Facebook fans, obtained roughly 2,000 Twitter followers, and raised almost $45,000 through Facebook Causes and FirstGiving.

2. Empower Your Supporters to be Free Agent Fundraisers

Well known cycling blogger Elden Nelson did something incredible a few months ago — he raise more than $135,000 in less than 10 days for LIVESTRONG and World Bicycle Relief using his blog, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and Friends Asking Friends.

It all started when Nelson sent Lance Armstrong’s racing team manager, Johan Bruyneel, an open cover letter as if he were applying for a job.

Nelson, who dreamed of becoming a pro cyclist, reached out to Bruyneel, with low expectations on its return. But through the power of social media, Bruyneel did see it, and he challenged Nelson via Twitter and his blogclass="blippr-nobr">blog to raise $50,000 for LIVESTRONG and $50,000 for World Bicycle Relief. Nelson took on that challenge and completed it in less than two days.

Without the ability to quickly connect and mobilize his network using social media, this wouldn’t have been possible in such a shot amount of time. Nelson tweeted numerous times as the story unfolded, as did Bruyneel, @livestrong, @livestrongceo and @lancearmstrong. Those three accounts combined have over 3.5 million Twitter followers. Add to that the numerous blog posts, Facebook status updates and YouTube videos, and you get a social media-fueled fundraising phenomenon like we’ve never seen.

3. Raise Funds by Creating a “Heartspace”

Mothers Day 2010 brought about quite a few online fundraising initiatives, but none were more impressive than the To Mama with Love campaign created by the passionate folks at Epic Change and a host of great volunteers. The goal was simple — raise money to support Mama Lucy in her efforts to educate children in Tanzania.

Mama Lucy is a change agent who saved her own income and used it to start a primary school in Tanzania, believing that education is the key to transforming a country gripped by poverty. Over the last six years, Mama Lucy has grown the school from one classroom with fewer than 10 students, to a school that now serves more than 300 children at eight grade levels.

The initiative was simple but powerful. Supporters were encouraged honor their own mothers by making a donation and then creating a virtual scrapbook or “heartspace” on the site, including photos, videos, notes, and artwork. They could then share their “heartspace” with their mother, friends and family via Twitter and Facebook, or via a customized e-card.

Using social media as the primary communication and engagement mechanism, Epic Change was able to raise close to $17,000 and provide a safe home for 17 children in Tanzania, while also encouraging more than 300 mothers along the way. They did all of this in about a week’s time with a staff of two.

So you see, social media has truly enabled non-profits both large and small to reach out and make some real change. Tell us about the social cause campaigns you’ve donated to in the past in the comments below.

More Social Good Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Easy Ways to Support a Cause Through Your Social Network/> - 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Social Good/> - 10 Ways to Start a Fund for Social Good Online/> - How Social Good Has Revolutionized Philanthropy/> - 5 iPhone Apps to Help Fight Poverty

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, AndrewJohnson

For more Social Good coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Goodclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Good channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

eric seiger

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Survey Finds Credit Card Issues Improving in Wake of Credit Card Reform But Some Perils Remain Even with the protections of the Credit Card Act of 2009 in full effect, a new Consumer Reports survey shows only a slightly lower level of ...

Why MSNBC &amp; FOX <b>news</b> want health care to fail

Well this is where I think we are all getting duped as the news corps left and right are paid by all areas of the medical fields with advertisements and are there news stations biggest cash cow. these clips being put together by both ...

Trent Reznor on Why Facebook &quot;Sucks&quot; / Music <b>News</b> // Drowned In Sound

The full interview will be up later this afternoon but for now here's a quick excerpt with his thoughts on Facebook...

eric seiger

Forget cable TV at school. Your dorm or fraternity likely pipes basic cable to your room, but you don’t want to be stuck in there, watching Gray’s Anatomy every Thursday night. No, you need to be out, enjoying your collegiate experience so take all that media with you. Or, hook something up to your TV that allows you to play back anything you want. That’s how the cool kids do it.

On the go

Your phone

There’s a good chance that your phone can also double as a quality media player. Perhaps all it needs is a large Micro SD card for a bit more storage. But even most feature phones support at least the popular media files while some smartphones can playback nearly everything. You often sacrifice battery life in exchange for the convenience, but it’s also cheaper. Just think of all the beer you could buy not spending $100 on a media player.

SanDisk Sansa Fuze +

There is so much to like about this PMP line. They’re relatively cheap, have expandable memory, FM radio, and supports nearly every media format man has ever created. On the downside, the screen is a tad small for videos, but it should work in a pinch. But one of it’s biggest draws is that it’s not an iDevice. Anything with an Apple logo tends to mysterious disappear during parties and events. They seem to scream “Steal me and sell me for book money!” The Sansa Fuze + doesn’t have that feature.

iPod touch

Word of advice: You can totally con your Mom into buying you a new iPod touch if you promise to have some quality Facetime with her once a week. You can also probably tell her that you need one for a certain app like, say, for your medical terminology class. But you need to guard said iPod touch with your life. Buy one of the sports arm bands and strap it to your inner thigh because people will try to steal it especially if they know it’s one of the fancy new camera models.

In your room

Your computer

The majority of TVs and computers these days have an HDMI jack, making connecting the two rather easy. Just head over to Monoprice and pick up a long cable. This is by far the easiest and least expensive way to playback all of your media on your TV. It isn’t, however, neccesarly the best. HD playback often suffers at the hands of the graphic processor and it’s not at all convenient without a remote or interface designed for a TV. But it works and that’s all that matters.

The WD TV

Geeks love the WD TV. It’s supported by a large development community and plays back everything. Content can either be feed via a network or USB drive. Best of all, it’s small, portable and can be found for under a $100 online.

The Boxee Box

You’re going to have to ask Santa for this one. It doesn’t come out until November, but when it does, it will no doubt be the defacto standard in media streamers. The Boxee software utilizes an Atom platform paired with an Webkit browser running an HTML5 interface to serve up one of the classiest UI’s ever. It connects with all the major and minor video sites from ABC, NBC, Revision3, YouTube, Netflix and all the rest and streams the content right to your TV bypasing all the annoying Internet noise. Oh, and it has a QWERTY remote. Until it drops, though, you can always download the software and put it on your PC that’s connected to your TV anyway.

See the rest of our Back To School 2010 coverage right here!

Frank Barry, professional services manager at Blackbaud and blogger at NetWits ThinkTank, helps non-profits use the Internet for digital communication, social media, and fundraising so they can focus on making an impact and achieving their missions. Find Frank on Twitter @franswaa.

Non-profit organizations are leading the way when it comes to creatively harnessing the power of social media. A report by The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth shows that the largest U.S. non-profit organizations continue to outpace Inc. 500 businesses and higher education institutions in their familiarity, use and monitoring of social media.

In fact, 93% of the top U.S. charities have a class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook page, 87% have a Twitter profile, and 65% have a blog. Why does this matter? Because the rapid growth and adoption of social media is helping non-profits in their quest for change — they truly are using social media for social good.

But what about the little guys? The social web can give smaller players a big voice if they know how to leverage it. Here are three inspiring success stories of small non-profits who met or exceeded their goals with the help of social media.

1. Create a Video, Start a Movement

Darius Weems and the Darius Goes West project will inspire you. Suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Darius and 11 of his best friends decided to head out on a cross country road trip from Atlanta to Los Angeles, where Darius hoped to have his wheelchair spiffed up by MTV’s Pimp my Ride. Though his wheelchair did not get pimped by MTV on that trip, there was a far better outcome that even Darius couldn’t have imagined.

The 25-day trip resulted in memories, experiences and 300 hours of video which were turned into a documentary that has impacted thousands of people around the world. That very same documentary has now raised over $2 million for DMD research.

According to the Darius Goes West team, “We had offers from distributors, but, in the end, we decided to self-distribute our film. By opting to self-distribute, we bear the responsibility for marketing, but we also have the power to devote $8 of every DVD sale to promising DMD research.”

It’s apparent that social media has played and continues to play a significant roll in helping to raise both awareness and money for DMD research through Darius and his friends. Here’s a snap shot of their social media footprint:

They’ve accrued close to 700,000 views on YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube, collected more than 14,000 Facebook fans, obtained roughly 2,000 Twitter followers, and raised almost $45,000 through Facebook Causes and FirstGiving.

2. Empower Your Supporters to be Free Agent Fundraisers

Well known cycling blogger Elden Nelson did something incredible a few months ago — he raise more than $135,000 in less than 10 days for LIVESTRONG and World Bicycle Relief using his blog, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and Friends Asking Friends.

It all started when Nelson sent Lance Armstrong’s racing team manager, Johan Bruyneel, an open cover letter as if he were applying for a job.

Nelson, who dreamed of becoming a pro cyclist, reached out to Bruyneel, with low expectations on its return. But through the power of social media, Bruyneel did see it, and he challenged Nelson via Twitter and his blogclass="blippr-nobr">blog to raise $50,000 for LIVESTRONG and $50,000 for World Bicycle Relief. Nelson took on that challenge and completed it in less than two days.

Without the ability to quickly connect and mobilize his network using social media, this wouldn’t have been possible in such a shot amount of time. Nelson tweeted numerous times as the story unfolded, as did Bruyneel, @livestrong, @livestrongceo and @lancearmstrong. Those three accounts combined have over 3.5 million Twitter followers. Add to that the numerous blog posts, Facebook status updates and YouTube videos, and you get a social media-fueled fundraising phenomenon like we’ve never seen.

3. Raise Funds by Creating a “Heartspace”

Mothers Day 2010 brought about quite a few online fundraising initiatives, but none were more impressive than the To Mama with Love campaign created by the passionate folks at Epic Change and a host of great volunteers. The goal was simple — raise money to support Mama Lucy in her efforts to educate children in Tanzania.

Mama Lucy is a change agent who saved her own income and used it to start a primary school in Tanzania, believing that education is the key to transforming a country gripped by poverty. Over the last six years, Mama Lucy has grown the school from one classroom with fewer than 10 students, to a school that now serves more than 300 children at eight grade levels.

The initiative was simple but powerful. Supporters were encouraged honor their own mothers by making a donation and then creating a virtual scrapbook or “heartspace” on the site, including photos, videos, notes, and artwork. They could then share their “heartspace” with their mother, friends and family via Twitter and Facebook, or via a customized e-card.

Using social media as the primary communication and engagement mechanism, Epic Change was able to raise close to $17,000 and provide a safe home for 17 children in Tanzania, while also encouraging more than 300 mothers along the way. They did all of this in about a week’s time with a staff of two.

So you see, social media has truly enabled non-profits both large and small to reach out and make some real change. Tell us about the social cause campaigns you’ve donated to in the past in the comments below.

More Social Good Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Easy Ways to Support a Cause Through Your Social Network/> - 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Social Good/> - 10 Ways to Start a Fund for Social Good Online/> - How Social Good Has Revolutionized Philanthropy/> - 5 iPhone Apps to Help Fight Poverty

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, AndrewJohnson

For more Social Good coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Goodclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Good channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

eric seiger

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Survey Finds Credit Card Issues Improving in Wake of Credit Card Reform But Some Perils Remain Even with the protections of the Credit Card Act of 2009 in full effect, a new Consumer Reports survey shows only a slightly lower level of ...

Why MSNBC &amp; FOX <b>news</b> want health care to fail

Well this is where I think we are all getting duped as the news corps left and right are paid by all areas of the medical fields with advertisements and are there news stations biggest cash cow. these clips being put together by both ...

Trent Reznor on Why Facebook &quot;Sucks&quot; / Music <b>News</b> // Drowned In Sound

The full interview will be up later this afternoon but for now here's a quick excerpt with his thoughts on Facebook...

eric seiger

eric seiger

eric seiger

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Survey Finds Credit Card Issues Improving in Wake of Credit Card Reform But Some Perils Remain Even with the protections of the Credit Card Act of 2009 in full effect, a new Consumer Reports survey shows only a slightly lower level of ...

Why MSNBC &amp; FOX <b>news</b> want health care to fail

Well this is where I think we are all getting duped as the news corps left and right are paid by all areas of the medical fields with advertisements and are there news stations biggest cash cow. these clips being put together by both ...

Trent Reznor on Why Facebook &quot;Sucks&quot; / Music <b>News</b> // Drowned In Sound

The full interview will be up later this afternoon but for now here's a quick excerpt with his thoughts on Facebook...

eric seiger

Forget cable TV at school. Your dorm or fraternity likely pipes basic cable to your room, but you don’t want to be stuck in there, watching Gray’s Anatomy every Thursday night. No, you need to be out, enjoying your collegiate experience so take all that media with you. Or, hook something up to your TV that allows you to play back anything you want. That’s how the cool kids do it.

On the go

Your phone

There’s a good chance that your phone can also double as a quality media player. Perhaps all it needs is a large Micro SD card for a bit more storage. But even most feature phones support at least the popular media files while some smartphones can playback nearly everything. You often sacrifice battery life in exchange for the convenience, but it’s also cheaper. Just think of all the beer you could buy not spending $100 on a media player.

SanDisk Sansa Fuze +

There is so much to like about this PMP line. They’re relatively cheap, have expandable memory, FM radio, and supports nearly every media format man has ever created. On the downside, the screen is a tad small for videos, but it should work in a pinch. But one of it’s biggest draws is that it’s not an iDevice. Anything with an Apple logo tends to mysterious disappear during parties and events. They seem to scream “Steal me and sell me for book money!” The Sansa Fuze + doesn’t have that feature.

iPod touch

Word of advice: You can totally con your Mom into buying you a new iPod touch if you promise to have some quality Facetime with her once a week. You can also probably tell her that you need one for a certain app like, say, for your medical terminology class. But you need to guard said iPod touch with your life. Buy one of the sports arm bands and strap it to your inner thigh because people will try to steal it especially if they know it’s one of the fancy new camera models.

In your room

Your computer

The majority of TVs and computers these days have an HDMI jack, making connecting the two rather easy. Just head over to Monoprice and pick up a long cable. This is by far the easiest and least expensive way to playback all of your media on your TV. It isn’t, however, neccesarly the best. HD playback often suffers at the hands of the graphic processor and it’s not at all convenient without a remote or interface designed for a TV. But it works and that’s all that matters.

The WD TV

Geeks love the WD TV. It’s supported by a large development community and plays back everything. Content can either be feed via a network or USB drive. Best of all, it’s small, portable and can be found for under a $100 online.

The Boxee Box

You’re going to have to ask Santa for this one. It doesn’t come out until November, but when it does, it will no doubt be the defacto standard in media streamers. The Boxee software utilizes an Atom platform paired with an Webkit browser running an HTML5 interface to serve up one of the classiest UI’s ever. It connects with all the major and minor video sites from ABC, NBC, Revision3, YouTube, Netflix and all the rest and streams the content right to your TV bypasing all the annoying Internet noise. Oh, and it has a QWERTY remote. Until it drops, though, you can always download the software and put it on your PC that’s connected to your TV anyway.

See the rest of our Back To School 2010 coverage right here!

Frank Barry, professional services manager at Blackbaud and blogger at NetWits ThinkTank, helps non-profits use the Internet for digital communication, social media, and fundraising so they can focus on making an impact and achieving their missions. Find Frank on Twitter @franswaa.

Non-profit organizations are leading the way when it comes to creatively harnessing the power of social media. A report by The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth shows that the largest U.S. non-profit organizations continue to outpace Inc. 500 businesses and higher education institutions in their familiarity, use and monitoring of social media.

In fact, 93% of the top U.S. charities have a class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook page, 87% have a Twitter profile, and 65% have a blog. Why does this matter? Because the rapid growth and adoption of social media is helping non-profits in their quest for change — they truly are using social media for social good.

But what about the little guys? The social web can give smaller players a big voice if they know how to leverage it. Here are three inspiring success stories of small non-profits who met or exceeded their goals with the help of social media.

1. Create a Video, Start a Movement

Darius Weems and the Darius Goes West project will inspire you. Suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Darius and 11 of his best friends decided to head out on a cross country road trip from Atlanta to Los Angeles, where Darius hoped to have his wheelchair spiffed up by MTV’s Pimp my Ride. Though his wheelchair did not get pimped by MTV on that trip, there was a far better outcome that even Darius couldn’t have imagined.

The 25-day trip resulted in memories, experiences and 300 hours of video which were turned into a documentary that has impacted thousands of people around the world. That very same documentary has now raised over $2 million for DMD research.

According to the Darius Goes West team, “We had offers from distributors, but, in the end, we decided to self-distribute our film. By opting to self-distribute, we bear the responsibility for marketing, but we also have the power to devote $8 of every DVD sale to promising DMD research.”

It’s apparent that social media has played and continues to play a significant roll in helping to raise both awareness and money for DMD research through Darius and his friends. Here’s a snap shot of their social media footprint:

They’ve accrued close to 700,000 views on YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube, collected more than 14,000 Facebook fans, obtained roughly 2,000 Twitter followers, and raised almost $45,000 through Facebook Causes and FirstGiving.

2. Empower Your Supporters to be Free Agent Fundraisers

Well known cycling blogger Elden Nelson did something incredible a few months ago — he raise more than $135,000 in less than 10 days for LIVESTRONG and World Bicycle Relief using his blog, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and Friends Asking Friends.

It all started when Nelson sent Lance Armstrong’s racing team manager, Johan Bruyneel, an open cover letter as if he were applying for a job.

Nelson, who dreamed of becoming a pro cyclist, reached out to Bruyneel, with low expectations on its return. But through the power of social media, Bruyneel did see it, and he challenged Nelson via Twitter and his blogclass="blippr-nobr">blog to raise $50,000 for LIVESTRONG and $50,000 for World Bicycle Relief. Nelson took on that challenge and completed it in less than two days.

Without the ability to quickly connect and mobilize his network using social media, this wouldn’t have been possible in such a shot amount of time. Nelson tweeted numerous times as the story unfolded, as did Bruyneel, @livestrong, @livestrongceo and @lancearmstrong. Those three accounts combined have over 3.5 million Twitter followers. Add to that the numerous blog posts, Facebook status updates and YouTube videos, and you get a social media-fueled fundraising phenomenon like we’ve never seen.

3. Raise Funds by Creating a “Heartspace”

Mothers Day 2010 brought about quite a few online fundraising initiatives, but none were more impressive than the To Mama with Love campaign created by the passionate folks at Epic Change and a host of great volunteers. The goal was simple — raise money to support Mama Lucy in her efforts to educate children in Tanzania.

Mama Lucy is a change agent who saved her own income and used it to start a primary school in Tanzania, believing that education is the key to transforming a country gripped by poverty. Over the last six years, Mama Lucy has grown the school from one classroom with fewer than 10 students, to a school that now serves more than 300 children at eight grade levels.

The initiative was simple but powerful. Supporters were encouraged honor their own mothers by making a donation and then creating a virtual scrapbook or “heartspace” on the site, including photos, videos, notes, and artwork. They could then share their “heartspace” with their mother, friends and family via Twitter and Facebook, or via a customized e-card.

Using social media as the primary communication and engagement mechanism, Epic Change was able to raise close to $17,000 and provide a safe home for 17 children in Tanzania, while also encouraging more than 300 mothers along the way. They did all of this in about a week’s time with a staff of two.

So you see, social media has truly enabled non-profits both large and small to reach out and make some real change. Tell us about the social cause campaigns you’ve donated to in the past in the comments below.

More Social Good Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Easy Ways to Support a Cause Through Your Social Network/> - 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Social Good/> - 10 Ways to Start a Fund for Social Good Online/> - How Social Good Has Revolutionized Philanthropy/> - 5 iPhone Apps to Help Fight Poverty

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, AndrewJohnson

For more Social Good coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Goodclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Good channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

eric seiger

eric seiger

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Survey Finds Credit Card Issues Improving in Wake of Credit Card Reform But Some Perils Remain Even with the protections of the Credit Card Act of 2009 in full effect, a new Consumer Reports survey shows only a slightly lower level of ...

Why MSNBC &amp; FOX <b>news</b> want health care to fail

Well this is where I think we are all getting duped as the news corps left and right are paid by all areas of the medical fields with advertisements and are there news stations biggest cash cow. these clips being put together by both ...

Trent Reznor on Why Facebook &quot;Sucks&quot; / Music <b>News</b> // Drowned In Sound

The full interview will be up later this afternoon but for now here's a quick excerpt with his thoughts on Facebook...

eric seiger

eric seiger

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Survey Finds Credit Card Issues Improving in Wake of Credit Card Reform But Some Perils Remain Even with the protections of the Credit Card Act of 2009 in full effect, a new Consumer Reports survey shows only a slightly lower level of ...

Why MSNBC &amp; FOX <b>news</b> want health care to fail

Well this is where I think we are all getting duped as the news corps left and right are paid by all areas of the medical fields with advertisements and are there news stations biggest cash cow. these clips being put together by both ...

Trent Reznor on Why Facebook &quot;Sucks&quot; / Music <b>News</b> // Drowned In Sound

The full interview will be up later this afternoon but for now here's a quick excerpt with his thoughts on Facebook...

eric seiger

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Survey Finds Credit Card Issues Improving in Wake of Credit Card Reform But Some Perils Remain Even with the protections of the Credit Card Act of 2009 in full effect, a new Consumer Reports survey shows only a slightly lower level of ...

Why MSNBC &amp; FOX <b>news</b> want health care to fail

Well this is where I think we are all getting duped as the news corps left and right are paid by all areas of the medical fields with advertisements and are there news stations biggest cash cow. these clips being put together by both ...

Trent Reznor on Why Facebook &quot;Sucks&quot; / Music <b>News</b> // Drowned In Sound

The full interview will be up later this afternoon but for now here's a quick excerpt with his thoughts on Facebook...

eric seiger

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Trent Reznor on Why Facebook &quot;Sucks&quot; / Music <b>News</b> // Drowned In Sound

The full interview will be up later this afternoon but for now here's a quick excerpt with his thoughts on Facebook...

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This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Survey Finds Credit Card Issues Improving in Wake of Credit Card Reform But Some Perils Remain Even with the protections of the Credit Card Act of 2009 in full effect, a new Consumer Reports survey shows only a slightly lower level of ...

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Well this is where I think we are all getting duped as the news corps left and right are paid by all areas of the medical fields with advertisements and are there news stations biggest cash cow. these clips being put together by both ...

Trent Reznor on Why Facebook &quot;Sucks&quot; / Music <b>News</b> // Drowned In Sound

The full interview will be up later this afternoon but for now here's a quick excerpt with his thoughts on Facebook...

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When you view the home page at YouTube.com there is a link called "browse" near the top. If you click the link it will take you to a page that displays the top video bloggers and their latest videos. Some of these videos rake in hundreds of thousands of hits in a matter of days and if it is an unknown author chances are that if you see them on the browse page their video has gone viral.

Some might claim that it takes time, a certain flair and a bit of style to rank on this page but most of the videos displayed there leave a lot to be desired in the form of information or entertainment. You may be wondering just how the authors on that page have thousands of subscribers and hundreds of thousands of views on each of their videos.

YouTube partnership programs include incentives to post often and to create engaging content. For every one thousand views a video receives YouTube will split the ad revenue 50/50 with the person that created and posted the video. Usually this is about $1.50 per one thousand views and the "vlogger" gets half of that. At $0.75 per one thousand views you can see why the author of the video wants to see hundreds of thousands of views. How do they do it and most of all how can you do it too?

It may seem like a dream job. Sitting comfortably at your desk cranking out as many four to five minute videos as you can in order to make as much money as you can from the YouTube partnership program. First of all you have to get at least a few thousand views before you can become eligible for the program. So the initial views you receive from your videos are basically for free and only YouTube makes money from the ad revenue generated from the traffic to your page. Once you have established the fact that your videos are getting traffic and can produce repeat traffic you might get an email from YouTube inviting you to become a partner in their ad revenue program.

The problem is that the system can be ea silly cheated. If you can establish a base subscriber list then you may have a few hundred views to your videos a month. This is a lot compared to the 200 views most people get to their videos over the course of months or even years. So one might ponder how a video of a cute kitten that is thirty seconds long can have half a million views in a week. Yes, people love cute kittens but are there really that many people viewing the video and then forwarding the link to that video to their friends? In some cases, yes. In other cases there seems to be something amiss about a person droning on about the way they make a bowel of cereal in the morning and that video having one to two million views.

In a world where content is king and frequent updates are the queen it doesn't seem likely that a semi-funny video would attain such high view counts. Simply refreshing the page over and over will increase a videos view count into the hundreds. Using software to do the job for you has been developed by people that want to reach YouTube stardom. There have been several reports that a few of the YouTube communities top vloggers have been cheating the system by using software that automatically sends several hundred views from several hundred proxy sites in an attempt to make the views look like they came from several different places though out the day. They also have commenting software that will post comments on their videos so that the view count and the comments seem about right. Usually the views will exceed the comments but some videos will have half a million views and only ten comments. This looks fishy so some of the big hitters on YouTube started rotating comments for the first few hundred views they get.

It is something that is easy to spot. If you post a comment and there is a glitch in the system you might see two or three of the same comments consecutively. In the case of the cheaters you will see ten or so comments that seem to repeat for the first few pages. This seems odd because if it were only one or two comments one might think that it was a system error or that the person that posted the comment had posted two or three times. Take a look at the top ten video authors under the browse link and when they post a new video almost immediately they will have the same ten or so comments about the video almost as soon as it is posted.

This seems strange because the people that subscribe to their favorite vlogger may not be waiting by their computer when the video is posted. Just waiting to see the video and then immediately post a comment or rate the video. Most people have a life and a job so in those cases it may be hours or even days before they see a newly posted video. Yet, the numbers, comments and ratings are there almost as soon as the video is posted.

Let's not forget the content. In most cases the content is mediocre at best. Some videos are about applying make up, going on vacation or just a slightly boring rant about what the vlogger thinks about during the day. Some videos that are posted are about other videos that have gone viral or have had so many views that they have landed on the top ten page on YouTube. In these cases it is more like a short news program about the videos that you can watch without having to check with the top vloggers first. There has been much debate about views, comments and ratings on YouTube. Usually a vlogger can cheat the system to get the ball rolling as it were and if they take it far enough they can land on the top videos page and start getting real views, comments and ratings. This compounds the work they have already performed by keeping their new post on the top page for as long as 48 hours. The higher the view count, the longer the video stays on the top page.

What does it all add up to? Money. Lots of money if all of your videos have view counts in the millions. The top vloggers know this and some can earn as much as $125,000-$250.000 a year from ad revenue. This money comes in all the time and the more videos that someone posts the more money they can make so it is in their best interest to have hundreds of videos posted and collecting ad revenue. The motivation and incentives are quite simple when you think about it. If your video looks popular then you have a higher chance of someone clicking on it and giving it even more views, comments and ratings.

Personally I have watched several videos that had extremely high ratings and thought to myself how is this possible when the content was not that great. Most comments might even say something like "I want my two minutes of life back".


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This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Survey Finds Credit Card Issues Improving in Wake of Credit Card Reform But Some Perils Remain Even with the protections of the Credit Card Act of 2009 in full effect, a new Consumer Reports survey shows only a slightly lower level of ...

Why MSNBC &amp; FOX <b>news</b> want health care to fail

Well this is where I think we are all getting duped as the news corps left and right are paid by all areas of the medical fields with advertisements and are there news stations biggest cash cow. these clips being put together by both ...

Trent Reznor on Why Facebook &quot;Sucks&quot; / Music <b>News</b> // Drowned In Sound

The full interview will be up later this afternoon but for now here's a quick excerpt with his thoughts on Facebook...

big seminar 14

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Survey Finds Credit Card Issues Improving in Wake of Credit Card Reform But Some Perils Remain Even with the protections of the Credit Card Act of 2009 in full effect, a new Consumer Reports survey shows only a slightly lower level of ...

Why MSNBC &amp; FOX <b>news</b> want health care to fail

Well this is where I think we are all getting duped as the news corps left and right are paid by all areas of the medical fields with advertisements and are there news stations biggest cash cow. these clips being put together by both ...

Trent Reznor on Why Facebook &quot;Sucks&quot; / Music <b>News</b> // Drowned In Sound

The full interview will be up later this afternoon but for now here's a quick excerpt with his thoughts on Facebook...

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