BILLBOARDS & ad revenue!

Did I mention Damian is on a BILLBOARD???

When we drove down to Arizona just before Thanksgiving to go to the Wylder Nation Foundation gala (full vlog here!), we made sure to devote some time to scouring the freeways. We weren't sure if we would see Damian on a billboard, but we just had to check! Why?

Ok, here's the story:

Several months ago, Brock's dad asked us if we would be okay with having a billboard promoting our Please Save Damian campaign. Um... of COURSE!!

I later found out that Brock's dad got together with a few others to create an image and contact a billboard company in another state about the cost of getting a single billboard. The owner told them that they did not allow fundraising campaigns to advertise on their billboards (I thought that was a little odd considering... aren't all billboard ads essentially asking people for money?)

But when one door closes, another one opens, and the second door happened to be another company that offered to not only show Damian on one of their billboards but... every digital billboard in the Phoenix area.

WOW wow wow wow wow WOW people are so good!!!!

Damian's sweet face has been popping up all over the Arizona freeways for several months now and the campaign has received donations and so many comments from people who have seen the billboard!! I just can't thank enough everyone who was involved in making this happen! SO SO SO COOL!!!!

Speaking of ads...

As you know, I've spent a lot of time since the very beginning of our campaign looking for ways to generate "passive funding" for our campaign. There are lots of ways to make passive income (money that generates with little human effort) and with our end goal of $3 million, every little bit counts.

For over a year now, I've been in Amazon's Influencer Program (so every time you click one of my links to an Amazon product, LIKE THIS, and then make any Amazon purchase, our campaign receives a commission from your entire cart - at no cost to you).

And as of last year, our YouTube channel also qualified for monetization (the campaign receives a small payment per every 1,000 views)!

I know a bunch of you have been so excited to hear what we have raised together, simply from watching our videos and clicking on links before doing your normal online shopping. Drumroll please!!!

Revenue Source	Amount Earned
Amazon Affiliate Links	$     3,252.75 (started mid-2022)
YouTube Views	$        908.25 (started early-2023)
Total (before taxes)	$     4,161.00

All together you have helped us raise over $4,000 (before taxes) for our campaign at NO COST to you!!! THANK YOU so much for watching and engaging with our content and tapping our Amazon links, because all the cents here and there are really adding up!!

One thing I've been working on this month is trying to figure out how to make additional passive funds from this blog. Ads on a blog are a major source of income for many influencers/small businesses and, importantly, doesn't cost any of us (me or you) money. I am excited to announce I finally did figure it out, and now each of my blog posts are going to include ads like this one:

I have little-to-no control over what the ad is of, and I think it actually changes if you refresh the page, but now, whenever you scroll through a blog post with an ad somewhere in it, I'll get a little commission to add to our campaign fund (I think it is a few cents per every 1,000 views or something - fingers crossed!)

Little by little, we are making a lot of progress. Every so often I get the sweetest messages from people who say they wish they could donate or do more. Well I hope this blog post explains how you already ARE! Literally reading this post helps now. Watching and sharing posts and videos actually, literally, monetarily helps! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

What's Next?

I almost can't believe January is coming to a close, can you?? I've been using this month to prepare and schedule out the rest of the year and I have some big and crazy fundraisers planned of course! One is definitely a step away (or even a short run *wink wink*) from my area of expertise, but it's been highly requested by so many of you and I've had a lot of people already ask if they can help make it happen. So more on that soon!!!

In the meantime, I'll be spending the last bit of January preparing to make February a "Rare Disease Month" to remember. Stay tuned, and much love to you all!!!

<3