Sustainable blogging, from and for Africa

Just in time for Blog Action Day 2008, we've redesigned the ourwwworld team blogs to have our say about poverty, and to start using our blogs to raise money for a poverty-related cause.

The ourwwworld team is a small global group of people who are learning to blog together. More than half of our team is blogging from East Africa, where poverty is rampant and the costs of blogging are very high. The ourwwworld team blogs are monetized with the double intention of raising money for Life in Africa - the cause that binds our team together - and sharing revenues with the bloggers to offset their costs. Ideally, we'll develop a way that can make it financially feasible for more people who are affected by poverty to participate actively in the online world, and possibly even some extra income.

As we begin on this blogging journey, the ourwwworld team revenue sharing plan is as follows:

Team revenues will be earned through adsense, the sale of electronic books related to sustainable living, and other jointly promoted income generating mechanisms to be introduced at a later date. All team funds raised though the end of December 2008 will be subject to the following split:

• 20% to the blogger who raised the funds
• 20% for the bloggers' monthly cash prize fund
• 20% for ourwwworld site administration & promotion
• 20% to Life in Africa USA for overhead and admin support
• 20% to Life in Africa USA for disbursal to community projects in Africa

(Donations made directly to Life in Africa and/or craft sales made through ourwwworld team blogs shall not be subject to the split above.)

In order to make this revenue sharing model meaningful, the ourwwworld team blogs will need broad exposure to audiences that will read, click, purchase and resonate with the social message that each of the blogs has to offer. This blog will explore promotional and cross-promotional techniques that others in the blogosphere are using to develop their audience, and post regular round-ups of content created by the team. Cash prize contests designed to encourage team members to cross-promote each other will be announced at the ourwwworld blog monthly. The first round of ourwwworld team promotion contests will be announced on 1 November 2008.

Until then, the focus is on content! Ourwwworld bloggers must make at least 4 new posts between 16 and 31 October in order to participate in the November contests.