
Browsarity (YC W10) Allows You To Donate Affiliate Fees To Charity - whyleym
http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/05/browsarity-affiliate-fees-charity/
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erickerr
While I did make and launch <http://browseforacause.com> a few months ago
(which this may or may not have been inspired from), I welcome this launching
- any innovation to donate more money to charity can really only be a good
thing.

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pg
Thanks for the kind words. I can tell you they didn't find out about
browseforacause till after they'd started working on browsarity. They started
out doing something else with affiliate links and it morphed into this.

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DanBlake
The problem with all these programs is that its arguable if this generates any
value for the company's paying the affiliate fees. Usually a company is not
happy with the idea of paying for a customer they already (would have) had.

However, sites like skimlinks seem to be growing (and staying in business)
which I think surprised alot of people.

Lets all not forget that these programs mainly survive around 2 affiliate
programs- eBay and Amazon. Getting canned from either would be disaster.

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qeorge
I think you're dead on about eBay and Amazon being the main sources of income,
but we should give them a chance to address this. You have to figure they
thought of this on day 1.

Specifically, I think this is not moot: " _arguable if this generates any
value"_

Making the association that buying from Amazon == donating to charity is worth
money to them.

Also, at least with eBay, the big money in affiliate revenue is signing up new
users. You get paid about ~1.5% of the transaction price vs. $25 every time a
new user places a bid (they don't even have to win). So at worst these
companies are paying the big bonus once, and they're still making a profit on
every sale.

tl;dr: there is a value add here, unlike than cookie dropping.

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jfarmer
How is this different than Eric Kerr's Browse for a Cause?

<http://browseforacause.com/>

(Unless Eric is involved, of course.)

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eventmad
for starters its viral.. it tracks not only how much you brought in, but how
much everyone you've invited brought in, and how much everyone they've invited
brought in etc.

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jfarmer
I mean, ok, but that's not going to make or break the product.

You said that was for starters -- what else?

Also, what type of corporate entity is Browsarity? Is it actually a 501(c)(3)?

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pg
Actually true virality does tend to make or break the things that have it.

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jfarmer
I meant this, specifically: "it tracks not only how much you brought in, but
how much everyone you've invited brought in, and how much everyone they've
invited brought in etc."

Obviously if their viral loop works that will make the product. I'm saying the
above will have no impact on whether their product is viral or not (speaking
from experience). I'd even be willing to bet on an A/B test against their
viral coefficient.

I read the original comment to say, "We are different because we show you the
number of dollars your whole social network brings in." That's cool. I like
numbers. But that feature isn't rocket fuel.

Instead I should have taken it to mean, "We're not that different in
principle, but we're focused on making charitable giving viral, like Causes
for the web at large."

So mea culpa.

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javery
The countdown to their affiliate accounts being shutdown starts now.

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pg
Not necessarily. I don't know if you noticed this detail, but they graphically
distinguish their affiliate links (with a red underline). This means their
affiliate links do exactly what merchants hope affiliate links will do: draw
customers to them. The red link says "click on this and if you buy something
we'll donate money to your favorite charity."

Imagine how pleased merchants would be if an existing affiliate site decided
to promote their affiliate links with red underlines and to donate 90% of the
money to charity. The visitor's _choice_ of charity no less.

~~~
mos1
14\. You will not offer any person or entity any consideration or incentive
(including any money, rebate, discount, points, donation to charity or other
organization, or other benefit) for using Special Links (e.g., by implementing
any “rewards” or loyalty program that incentivizes persons or entities to
visit the Amazon Site via your Special Links).

~~~
danicgross
the line about charities was added four days ago! here's what it looked like
before: <http://grab.by/2Ai5>

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icey
While I think this is a really cool idea; I wonder what the investment
strategy could possibly be for funding a company like this. I have a really
hard time envisioning how you go from this to any kind of exit short of
acquhire.

(I'm genuinely curious, for anyone who feels like speculating.)

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mgrouchy
This is very similar to what a local startup here in Ottawa is doing.
<http://dogoodhq.com/> , they replace your normal advertisements with calls to
actions, green initiatives and campaigns from charitable organizations. They
also have been nominated for a web award at SXSW for technical achievement I
believe.

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ryanb
I'm quite surprised that this idea got YC funding. They must have a great
team.

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chrischen
Hey I started something like this in high school: shopwisely.org. Glad to know
I wasn't crazy (people said I was crazy for doing it).

Some things I learned: nonprofits don't like to raise money for no reason, and
don't like to raise money to receive 2 months later.

The service will have to be super passive because people are lazy and will
often forgo an extra step in before purchasing.

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jrockway
It's a browser plugin, right? Click install, money trickles into the charity.
I would probably use this if the plugin runs on my OS of choice. Why _not_
give a bit of free money to charity?

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chrischen
By the way, shopwisely.org gives 100% of commissions, and is a bookmarklet
which works in ie, firefox, chrome, and safari.

But once you get the users on your side you'll have to get the merchants on
your side by convincing them it will help business. Also the affiliate
communities frown on "stealing" tracking cookies. They hate what UPromise
does, even though I've argued it's not wrong at all.

I stopped doing it because I stopped believing in the "world changingness" of
the whole idea. a) nonprofits don't like to raise money for the sake of
raising money, and it usually took months before the money could be sent out.
So they couldn't plan how to use the money raised. b)the idea isn't really
better than direct donation except we're introducing a new middleman, and
making it less transparent because the merchant now pays charities with money
they get from the end consumer.

> Why not give a bit of free money to charity?

I want to mention that it's not really free money. In the end the consumer
pays because the merchant pays.

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lzell
Allows _you_ to donate affiliate fees to charity?! Bullshit. Should read:
Forces businesses to donate part of their profit margin to charity and
browsarity.

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mikeryan
"Forces businesses to donate part of their profit margin to charity and
browsarity."

No one is being forced to do anything. If Amazon or Ebay doesn't like the
service they can disable the account, change TOS etc.

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axod
They're being forced to do it, until they notice and decide to stamp it out
(If they do notice).

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jrockway
By similar logic, I'm forcing you to read this comment.

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axod
Apples vs Kettles.

What about this:

You have an agreement with a shop owner, that you can buy stuff from him
wholesale at a discount.

You then hang around in the shop (Maybe in disguise) waiting for customers who
are about to buy stuff.

Instead of letting them get on and buy stuff, you accost them, and suggest
they let you act as a middle man, and you'll buy it wholesale from the shop
keeper, and donate the difference to charity, after you take your cut.

Sounds shady doesn't it. And the shopkeeper is being forced to do it until he
finds out about the scam.

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hockeybias
Nice!

