Bloggers are very privileged to be able to share our creative output with so many people, and in some cases, to profit from that creative output. We’re able to do this because we’re not living in poverty. We can afford to run computers, electricity, pay internet bills, purchase domain names and hosting–something that many people can’t do, and will never do.

Blog Action Day 2008 presents an excellent opportunity to remember this, and to avoid taking the privileges we have for granted. That’s why I’m glad to take part this year, with this post.

Here’s a challenge: today, do at least ten things to help in the battle against poverty. Don’t worry–I’ve made it kind of easy for you. Below are 30 things you can do. Some take a few hours, others a few minutes, others only a few seconds. Some you’ll only able to begin today, others you’ll be able to begin and end. Best of all, (almost) none of them require you to leave the chair you’re sitting in right now.

If you like the idea of helping out but are strapped for time, why not just contribute $10 to a low-interest loan for an entrepreneur in the developing world?

I’ll be donating 5 cents to Kiva.org for every visitor to Skelliewag on October the 15th. That’s $1 per 20 visitors. I want this number to be as high as possible, so I appreciate any visitors you can send my way. Please remember that there are no advertisements or affiliate links on Skelliewag, so I don’t benefit from this. I’ll give you an update on how much we raised when October 15th is over.

30 easy ways…

1. Give social media votes to articles and news dealing with poverty.
2. Lend $1 to an entrepreneur in poverty for every new person who subscribes to your blog in a given time period. You can adjust this number to more or less, depending on how much you want to give and how many subscribers you already have.
3. Lend $5 to an entrepreneur in poverty for every one person who links to your blog in a given time period.
4. Invest 5% of online eBook or service sales from your blog into a Kiva.org loan.
5. Donate your blog or website’s October 15th earnings to a poverty-fighting charity.
6. Donate spare or old technology to a family living in poverty (an old computer, for example).
7. Donate $1 for every 1,000 page views or visitors to your blog or website in a given time period (i.e. one month).
8. Join or create a Facebook group dedicated to reducing poverty.
9. Use Twitter to share a good article on poverty (and reducing it).
10. Use Twitter to share one important fact about poverty.
11. Invite 5 friends to join Kiva.org and create a lending group.
12. Share Blog Action Day posts in Google Reader.
13. Send your favorite poverty-related website some SEO juice by linking with good anchor text.
14. Create and share a desktop wallpaper to remind people about the battle to solve poverty.
15. Donate your freelance skills (i.e. web development) to a poverty-fighting organization.
16. Create a Flickr photoset of images that tell a story about poverty.
17. Sell unneeded items on eBay or Craigslist and donate the proceeds to battle poverty.
18. Create a video to raise awareness about poverty and share it on YouTube.
19. Review a product on your blog or website and use an affiliate link. Lend your earnings to another entrepreneur somewhere else in the world.
20. Donate unused hosting space to a poverty-battling organization.
21. Email your local representative about your ideas on battling poverty in the area.
22. Use your blog or website to tell the story of someone who overcame poverty. If your site is about online business, for example, you might tell the story of an entrepreneur who lived in poverty during a period of their life.
23. Encourage your blog’s reader-base to donate or lend to battle poverty today.
24. Lend 50 cents through Kiva.org for every person who comments on your next blog post. Make sure to tell your readers that’s what you’re doing, as you’re bound to get more comments that way. If your readership is small, you might raise the amount to $1.
25. Give a poverty-battling organization some free advertising on your blog or website.
26. On October 15th, submit 15 articles on poverty to your favorite social media service.
27. Send a fantastic article on poverty to all your StumbleUpon friends.
28. Shout an excellent article on poverty to your fans and friends on Digg.
29. Have you heard about 1% for the Planet? This year, try 1% for Poverty with your blog or website’s earnings.
30. Participate in Blog Action Day! (if it’s still October the 15th, it’s not too late).