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This month I have been inundated with emails from companies sharing their pink promotions. Most of these requests are thinly disguised ads for products. Companies, we know you are using social media to try to get the word out about your products. It's the way of the world, but I ignore most of them, and I'll tell you why. There are two criteria for my doing it: I have to believe in the thing they are selling, and they have to give me something.
This is America, and I'm a capitalist.
A company can't advertise in a newspaper or magazine for free, even if they are going to donate money to cancer awareness, so why do they think they should be able to do it on a blog? I almost feel like they are trying to take advantage of my having cancer, or feel I'm unprofessional and will just post anything. I guarantee you I've worked as hard on this blog as anybody who puts out a print publication does, albeit with less overhead. I should be compensated if they think I have enough readers to make it worth their while.
(True Religion jeans, are you listening? I love the jeans but I'm not selling them on my site without being offered a couple pair of my own - even if they have pink crystals on them and you'll donate 20k to Komen. FYI: I wear size 26. Contact me for my address, and only then I'll include your widget.)
Even a link back can be an incentive for me - yes, I can be bought, as long as I believe.
Anyway, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare contacted me. They are setting up a site called well, then where people share their health and well-being tips, and they asked me to participate in exchange for an HD Flip Mino video camera. I checked out the site, and decided that it was a valuable thing to do. It's hard to argue against real people sharing tips for healthier living, and it may well end up being the YouTube for healthcare. So, I decided to do it, even though I didn't really need the compensation (and I prefer seeing myself in standard definition, or better yet, with my contacts off).
It's an interesting project, and I would have participated anyway had I known about it.
(But, I'm not giving the camera back.)
I will be hanging out in the "Live with Cancer" section. See my first video here, and I'd love it if you could comment and share your cancer surprise, or like it on facebook or share with any other social networking you belong to. If you can't hear it well, I apologize. I have heard that some people are having trouble with the sound (although I can hear it perfectly), so turn up your speakers, and I'll figure it out for the next one.
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A Decade
3 years ago
I would have to say that getting cancer was my biggest cancer surprise, but other than that I was also surprised at just how much the human spirit and body can endure.
ReplyDeleteI learned really fast that cancer is not for the vain! You lose your breasts, your hair, you lose weight, you gain weight, your skin changes colors, your nails fall out, you have scratches or bruises that take weeks to heal! Aside from that, I too learned how tough I am and looking back, cannot actually believe that I lived through all the hell I went thru! Best of luck to you!
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