Chris Abraham » survivors

Lee Hopkins on Email Marketing in Digital PR

Chris Abraham — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:40:31 +0000

When I realized that I could download the OPML file from the Power 150 site and then hack it around into a contact list of over 900 of the top advertising, marketing, PR, and SEO bloggers on the planet, I did so.

Ever since, I have been scheduling calls with all of the folks I have been admiring on a daily basis. Two days ago I spent an hour on the horn with Lee Hopkins, “one of Australia’s leading thinkers on communication strategy in an online environment,” who is, in fact, one of the World’s leading thinkers on communication strategy in an online environment. We had a great chat — and amazing talk!

At the end, Lee asked me if he could blog the conversation and I jumped at the opportunity and late last night Lee published Is email marketing still relevant in a 2.0 world? which is not only the most complete description of what we at Abraham Harrison LLC do on a daily basis but it is said in a better, more comprehensive, way than I could even conceive of doing myself. Here it is, in full. Be sure to visit (and subscribe to) Better Communication Results, Lee Hopkin’s blog.

Is email marketing still relevant in a 2.0 world?
G’day – thanks for returning!

I just finished a fantastic conversation with Chris Abraham, the President and COO of AbrahamHarrison.
If you’ve been around the internet for a while, especially in the ‘marcoms’ (marketing communications) space, you would certainly have heard of Chris; if not of the man himself then certainly of one of his marketing and outreach programs.
Chris is one of those select few online marketers who’s text doesn’t read like a traditional online direct mail piece – you know, with LOTS OF CAPITALS and heaps of bold text and yellow highlighting and italics and
bullet
points
a-
plenty
and testimonials by the kazillion…
I could point you to a zillion of those sites – which is not to say that the style of marketing they use is not successful; it is, otherwise they wouldn’t keep doing it. But you know as soon as you see the huge, bold, bright red and often in CAPS headline what to expect for the rest of the (very) long toilet roll of a page.
Chris takes a much softer approach, always has done, and it seems to work for him and his style of copywriting.
Video, the radio star and plain ol’ bandwagon idjuts
With the advent of Web2.0/Social Media there were many ill-informed and just plain ‘bandwagon’ pundits who hailed the death of traditional communication tools such as email, web1.0 sites and – gasp – newspaper, magazine, radio and television.
Much as television didn’t kill radio as force it to rethink its place and find its niche, so too with Social Media. Every new technology platform or societal change brings with it a change in how all that came before it must view themselves and continue to offer relevancy.
Radio didn’t die, newspapers haven’t been killed off, I can still pick up plenty of magazines that appeal to all demographics and both genders from my local newsagent, and email hasn’t disappeared off the radar (if my bulging inbox every morning is anything to go by).
So it was fantastic to finally chat with someone who, like me, believes that email is STILL a fundamental part of the marketing toolkit.
In talking with Chris today, he was genuinely flattered that a fellow copywriter would find his material engaging; I thought it was brilliant reading and his deployment strategies for his clients brilliantly executed.
You see, Chris, like me, believes that email won’t go away, but WILL have to change in order to survive in the new communication landscape. Our shared view is that it will have to evolve in a couple of ways:
Shorter emails will be the best way of getting people’s attention
Long-form emails are best saved for newsletters; trying to ‘sell’ via email will become even harder to excel at.
If you’ve ever received one of Chris’ emails, you will be stunned by several things:
They are short – only 2-3 paragraphs
They link off to a SMNR (Social Media News Release) that gives a far more in-depth level of information (and all the material you might need to help you spread the word or get involved)
If you email Chris or anyone of his team back you WILL get a response, usually within 24 hours (Chris says they try to get back within the hour, but time zones can sometime defeat them)
The emails ‘read’ like they were written by a human being, not by a ‘PR’ flack or a ex-journalist hack; they aren’t full of ‘me, me, me’ stuff telling you how wonderful I (the company) am, but neither do they ‘strip-tease tantalise’ you so that when you do click on the link you end up feeling cheated
You get the very real feeling that there’s someone real at the end of the email.
Here’s an example (taken from my post about the Fresh Air Fund):
Hello again, Lee
On Sunday I asked if you would kindly help me spread the word about 200 inner-city children I have yet to place with host families in August. I apologize for following up so soon, but time is of the essence and you know how funny email can be. To make things simple, everything is collected into an online resource page http://freshair.smnr.us
This appeal comes straight from the top, so please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
Yours sincerely,
Sara
–
Sara Wilson
Fresh Air Fund
sara@freshair.org
www.freshair.org
Sara is a real person, not a ‘fake’ character. I sent her an email yesterday, wondering if her ears were burning, because Chris and I were talking about her:
G’day Sara,
Just finished the phone call with Chris — oh boy! Were your ears burning? They should have been!!!
Kindests,
Lee
From: Sara Wilson [mailto:swilson@abrahamharrison.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 24 February 2009 2:02 AM
To: Lee@leehopkins.com
Subject: Re: Fellow Power 150 blogger
Hello Lee,
Just a quick note to re-confirm that Chris will be calling you at 10 am, your time, tomorrow (Tuesday).
No need to reply unless something has come up on your end, otherwise he will speak to you in about 7.5 hours!
Best,
Sara
In reply, Sara said,
Lee,
And I thought it was just hot where I was last night …
It’s very kind of you to mention it, thanks. Chris is a great guy to work for, and generous with compliments, but it’s always nice to know that someone appreciates you, isn’t it?
Cheers,
Sara
Controversy
Because Chris and his team start any campaign with an email-based blogger outreach, some of the ‘holier than thou’ social media purists occasionally give him ‘stick’, or snicker behind his back and call him a ‘spammer’. Not true – the team are very hot on ensuring only a good taste remains in the mouth of any blogger they contact, and of only offering bloggers something of actual value to the blogger.
Which is a behaviour totally unlike the hapless, clueless and insulting PR flacks who regularly show up on The Bad Pitch Blog and who attempt to fill my inbox with material about electronics, or sanitary napkins, or (ahem) extension kits, or pharmaceuticals shipped from Canada. Thank goodness I have SpamArrest to filter them out before they hit my inbox!
Chris and his team have painstakingly built up a list of nearly 35,000 bloggers across several different demographics and topic areas of interest. Visiting their blogs, they harvest their email address. They then politely email them once to offer them something of interest – if the blogger likes it, they very often blog about it; it they don’t then they don’t. What is fascinating is the response rate Chris gets for his clients.
Word of mouth and gossip-sharing amongst internet marketers has the average rate of sales of anything (be it a blog post or an ebook or a ‘course you cannot live without’) as around 0.01-0.05% from an initial mailing, with the follow-up mailings increasing that to, perhaps, 1.0-2.0%…
Chris and his team regularly get a takeup in the order of 5%, which is phenomenal. In addition, once you start developing an email relationship with anyone in their team (as I have with Sara Wilson) then all future mailings will receive much more attention than would otherwise be the case. A case in point is my own, later, post on the illegal cluster bombing being carried out in South Ossetia and The Survivor Corps run by activist and author of the very powerful book, I Will Not Be Broken, Jerry White. It is only because Sara had taken the time to develop a relationship with me over previous months that I read and responded to the material from Jerry White. Without that relationship I would never have bothered with a topic outside of my normal areas of interest.
It is the classic ‘relationship marketing’ that Social Media Marketing pundits claim to aim for but rarely achieve.
Goodness, if I could have a dollar for every new ‘expert’ that’s popped up in the Social Media space I would retire a very rich trillionaire (and at the same time wondering how you could be a trillionaire and not be very rich – I guess if you were living in Zimbabwe you wouldn’t be…).
You wouldn’t believe the number of ‘leading social networking and social media marketing experts’ who have suddenly come out of the woodwork and set up communities in places like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, etc. Curiously, I’ve never heard of these folks before. Most of them don’t even have blogs, or if they do those blogs have only been around for less than a year. Curious, hey?
But Chris, on the other hand, has been around for a long time, has figured out what works and what doesn’t, and as evidence offers the following case studies:
Energy Bill 2007 Case Study
Financial Services Reputation Defense Case Study
Firebrand TV Case Study
Fresh Air Fund Case Study
International Medical Corps Case Study
Movie Producer Reputation Defense Case Study
Snapple Antioxidant Water Case Study
Survivor Corps Book Promotion Case Study
If you want to see the sort of posts that are associated with Chris’ kind of blogger PR pitch outreach, here are some examples:
Thank You Operation Survivor Bloggers
Thank You All Who Supported International Medical Corps!
Thank You Again Survivor Corps Bloggers
Thank You International Medical Corps Bloggers
Thank You Fresh Air Fund Holiday Bloggers
Thank You Fresh Air Fund Bloggers
Thank You Fresh Air Fund Camp Counselor Bloggers!
The Powerful SEO Benefits of Blogger PR Outreach
Happy Thanksgiving from Abraham Harrison
Here are some examples of client SMNRs from Chris and his team that I especially like:
http://anamigo.smnr.us
http://freshair.smnr.us
http://banclusterbombs.smnr.us
http://freshairfundcounselors.smnr.us
http://survivorcorps.smnr.us
http://iwillnotbebroken.smnr.us
http://internationalmedicalcorps.smnr.us
So what???
The whole point of this post is NOT to fawn at the feet of someone who clearly knows what he is doing.
The whole point IS to let you know that you don’t need to throw out your baby with the bathwater:
Don’t jump on the Social Media bandwagon without educated advice
Don’t take advice from a pimply 17 year old fresh out of high school
Don’t take advice from a less-pimply 23 year old fresh out of university
Don’t ditch all of your understanding of how ‘people’ and networks work
Don’t take advice from someone who doesn’t even blog themselves, or Twitter, or Facebook… (see my post about Social Media Gurus)
Don’t take advice from someone who has been blogging less than 24 months
Instead:
Download Todd Defren’s absolutely superb ‘Brink’ guide to Social Media and Richard Meyer’s great presentation, ‘Social Media : What you’re afraid to admit you didn’t know’ (he also has a great pharma and biotech-focused pdf presentation). Download and read Trevor Cook’s and my ‘Social Media Report’.
Talk to someone who actually knows what they are doing – in Australia that means folks like Stephen Collins, Laurel Papworth, Trevor Cook, Darren Rowse, Gavin Heaton and, humbly, yours truly. If WE can’t help you, we can certainly put you in touch with someone who can. Unlike the USA, where there seems to be a spirit of “You’ll prize my rolodex out of my frozen dead fingers!”, there is no fierce spirit of competition here in Australia – we have ‘co-opertition’ wherein we all help each other out if the ‘fit’ seems better for the client.
Stick to reading the seasoned ‘pros’ of the online marketing and/or business communication space: you cannot go wrong if you start at folks like any of the above, or Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, Mitch Joel, Joe Jaffe , Laura Fitton and Chris Abraham himself; see who they link to. Follow your nose from them – all the way along the path you will be reading ‘the good oil’ as we say here in Australia
Examine Chris’ examples above and see for yourself how simple but effective your online marketing can be if you do it with the right intention – of helping out the blogger, not flogging stuff for your client. Get the relationship right and you will flog stuff for your client anyway, trust me!
Technorati Tags: chris abraham, laura fitton, joe jaffe, mitch joel, darren rowse, chris brogan, neville hobson, shel holtz, gavin heaton, trevor cook, laurel papworth, stephen collins, richard meyer, todd defren, sara wilson, fresh air fund, abrahamharrison, bad pitch blog, social media, blogger relations, social marketing, email marketing, email, spam, spam arrest, spamarrest, business communication
Currently listening to ‘Next’ by The Necks from the album ‘Next’. Superb jazz funk from one of Australia’s great cult bands.

The Powerful SEO Benefits of Blogger PR Outreach

Chris Abraham — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:06:05 +0000

When I sell Abraham Harrison‘s blogger outreach and blogger PR services I tend to focus on the initial promotional and profile benefits associated with having hundreds of highly targeted organic earned media blog posts show up almost overnight on behalf of our clients. If you would like to know what this sort of campaign looks like, check out our case studies.

That’s not it, there’s more. As I have mentioned before, unlike SEM, these blog posts, reviews, and mentions are permenant and not ephemeral.

Finally, there is the issue of the powerful and amazing SEO benefits associated with having over 100 bloggers choose to write about your brand, product, campaign, or service.

Unlike pay-for-play services like Review Me, PayPerPost, or IZEA, the blog posts written by the bloggers we reach out to are not pay per post, they are earned media. When my team and I reach out to our A-Z list bloggers along dozens of verticals targets, it is up to each blogger to choose to accept our message and decide that what we’re offering is worthwhile to post or Twitter.

There is real power associated with this sort of thing. Like any journalistic or consumer-generated promotional pitching, results are not guaranteed; however, we have done this for over two yearsd and our penetration, success, and results have improved over time.

If you want to see the sort of posts that are associated with this kind of blogger PR pitch outreach, here are some examples:

I am always to allow these things to be as transparent as possible. What’s more, linking back to all of the fine blog posts that bloggers have shoehorned into their busy days is sort of a link love thank you.

And, to be honest, Google thinks were the bees knees because the content that our messaging drives real content. In all cases, we’re at the mercy of the blogger — if we’re not smart, generous, engaging, charming, positive, responsive, and even supportive, we’ll get tarred and feathered, and so will out client.

We’re better than that.

With each blogger outreach that results in a hundred or more organic earned media, highly-textual, brand-centric, keyword-dense and diverse, and often times almost completely based on the Social Media News Releases (SMNRs) we create for the client, the level of powerful Google, Live.com, Technorati, Ask.com, and Yahoo! love is not only formidable, but, over time, and much sooner than you think, both our social media new releases as well as our blogged content can challenge our clients for top-spot, which is OK because we’re not their competitor.

Here are some examples of client SMNRs we especially like, feel free to check them out:

I have almost ten-years of SEO experience and have always done things the right way, and Social Media and Blogger PR is the right way. None of us coerce any of our bloggers into blogging, we’re just able to figure out how to appeal, how to give, how to engage, how to message, and how to ask for what we want from our long tail list of upwards of 500 A-list blogger and 30,000 B-Z list bloggers.

Anyway, if you’re interested in learning more or getting on a call with my Director, Dan, my CEO, Mark, and/or me, pop me an email and we’ll sort it out.

(Via Marketing Conversation)

The current crop of advertisement methods is too ephemeral

Chris Abraham — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:21:46 +0000

I tell anyone who will listen to me that the current crop of advertisement methods is too short-lived. The moment you spend the money and your ad runs, that is the moment it is either gone to the grave or becomes a patient existing on life support. Either you’re smart and willing to keep it alive, in conversation, online on YouTube for the spots, or on a blog somewhere for the print work — or you feel compelled to keep on throwing money at it ad infinitum, because contextual ads, banner ads, etc, only last as long as you write checks.

If you want to see some examples of powerfully successful blogger outreaches, check out International Medical Corps (IMC) 2008, Survivor Corps Operation Survivor 2008, and Fresh Air Fund Summer 2008, Jerry White’s I Will Not Be Broken book promotion. In many cases, these campaigns are close to a year old, yet they still still live in hundreds and hundreds of blogs and feed Google’s index until all of these blogs are taken down. It is really amazing how effective this sort of “advertising” promotion works. What’s better, when the campaign is over and the client “turns off” our tap, the content continues living and isn’t just shut off like it is with banners, buttons, and contextual advertising. Very interesting, very cool, and powerfully effective.

Remember how much fun Communication Arts is to page through? — CA is intoxicating! Well, every ad you make can be as interesting, as long as you’re willing to come out of your art department and share your process, share your experience, share your steps. Keeping those ephemera alive through narrative, sharing, conversation, and story, is what social media is, it is what customer service is, it is surely what branding should be.

Anyway, There is a lot of opportunity in this time of chaos, of this time of transition. The same sort of transition (and opportunity) happened when PCs came online, replacing the IBM Selectric II; when the Internet changed E-Commerce, threatening to eviscerate bricks and mortar stores, and it is happening now, more than ever, with advertising, marketing, and PR.

I call it white knuckle syndrome: holding on to the handholds you have, frozen on the face of the cliff, because you don’t know where the handholds of the future are. This chaos is pretty amazing to watch as the economy pitches and GM bails on Super Bowl.

Advertising knows it needs to jump off the locomotive before it pitches into the gorge (the bridge is out!) but reaching out to the proffered hand of the guy in the helicopter seems pretty risky too. But, as the current handholds become chalky and you start to feel them crumble under your weight, you’ll need to find somewhere else to go, and quick!

To me, Chris Brogan said it best the other day on Twitter, “customer service is the new PR.*” Looking at what @comcastcares has been able to do, customer service is the new PR, the new marketing, and the new advertising.

So, as those handholds start to get chalk and begin to crumble, it is important to at least set your eyes on a new handhold — or maybe a helping hand — before your original handhold turns to powder.

And for you who have yet to do the reading, please check out Cluetrain Manifesto and Naked Conversation.

On the Bob Garfield Chaos Scenario for Advertising

Chris Abraham — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:35:52 +0000

According to Jonathan Trenn, over at Marketing Conversation — Bob Garfield’s “Chaos Scenario” may start locally — the world of advertising is in a place of chaos — spanning the dead zone between traditional advertising methods and new media advertising.

Bob Garfield’s “Chaos Scenario” may start locally
If you haven’t read Bob Garfield’s presentations of how advertising will evolve over the next few years (Part 1 and Part 2), then you should. He calls this the “Chaos Scenario”…a perfect metaphor for what he describes. In it, he argues that traditional advertising is dying out as media usage and consumer behavior are changing. Much of the change has its roots in the rise of the internet as a marketing vehicle. But, Garfield points out, new methods and practices have yet to fully pan out. And many companies haven;t come to grips with this new and show no signs of doing it any time soon. This is going to cause (my interpretation) chaos as traditional media outlets struggle to get advertisers while these advertisers struggle to figure out how to advertise effectively with their limited knowledge.
For the most part, I agree with his thesis. Most major traditional marketing-oriented mediums are becoming less effective as promotional vehicles. Media usage is more dispersed, more personal, and thus, more controlled by the end user. And many times those end users today are choosing to ignore or avoid the advertising messages that are send their way. Whether it ends up being as dire as Garfield suggests, I have no idea, but changes are coming and neither the advertising mediums nor the advertisers themselves are ready for it.
And I think local is where we’ll see it first. I see this happening one the local level over the next three years. Goldman Sachs is predicting that traditional local advertising vehicles – local TV, newspapers and radio stations – are going to get hit particularly hard during this recession. I’m going to agree, and the key world there is “particularly”. That’s because local advertising is hurting anyway as advertisers have already been pulling back because it doesn’t work like it used to. Add to that further cuts in ad spend and you could get a serious amount of casualties on the local media market.
In the above graphs, we can see that newspaper get hit the hardest. Readership is down in the first place. That’s permanent. People have stopped buying newspapers for whatever reason – a lack of interest in news, having news available online, and getting quick news capsules in other mediums. A poor economy has little or no effect on newspaper buying. We won’t be seeing a rebound once the economy bounce back.
The collapse of players in the local ad market will reduce the options for advertisers. Yet the demand will probably still meet the supply. So we’ll see further erosion. Craigslist, satellite radio, and cable TV will make this so.
One of the alternatives will be local online advertising. But I don’t see many local advertisers ready for this. I still see most local companies that are likely to advertise having little more than brochureware websites. I see very little use of local Google Adsense coming from traditional businesses. And, again, the websites are neither optimized for online search nor are they set up with the correct landing pages for potential ads. Local businesses SHOULD be developing internet strategies, but the decision makers in them don’t go to our conferences, they don’t read our blogs, they’re not on Twitter. Nor are they probably on Facebook or MySpace. They’re far from it.
So while they’ll be temporarily holding back ad dollars during tough economic times, they’ll be likely losing some of their traditional advertising choices. And they won’t be ready or equipped to start marketing on new media – because they’ve chosen to not take the time to learn it. The end result? Chaos.

I tell anyone who will listen to me that the current crop of advertisement methods is too ephemeral. The moment you spend the money and your ad runs is the moment it is either gone to the grave — unless you’re smart and willing to keep it alive, in conversation, online on YouTube for the spots or on a blog somewhere for the print work — or you will feel compelled to keep on throwing money at it ad infinitum, because contextual ads, banner ads, etc, only last as long as you write checks.

What my specialty is is online conversation marketing, online public relations, and online earned media. When you earn peoples’ attention and when they choose to speak about you, your clients, and your services, then you have a gift that keeps on giving — this is content that lasts well past the campaign and into the future. This is both the sort of thing that Google loves — it is SEO catnip — and it is just the sort of content that flows, both upstream to A-list bloggers and to mainstream media and down to your readers, aggregators, and to other bloggers and other blogs. If you want to see some examples of powerfully successful blogger outreaches, check out International Medical Corps (IMC) 2008, Survivor Corps Operation Survivor 2008, and Fresh Air Fund Summer 2008, Jerry White’s I Will Not Be Broken book promotion. In many cases, these campaigns are close to a year old, yet they still still live in hundreds and hundreds of blogs and feed Google’s index until all of these blogs are taken down. It is really amazing how effective this sort of “advertising” promotion works. What’s better, when the campaign is over and the client “turns off” our tap, the content continues living and isn’t just shut off like it is with banners, buttons, and contextual advertising. Very interesting, very cool, and powerfully effective.

I know there is so much money — huge buckets of hot cash — in TV commercials (and you’re still all stoked from your experience — and profit — from the presidential campaign) but you need to diversify! You need to start spreading your weight over a number of holds: left and right foot, left and right hand — and hopefully a belay man and some crampons and a few anchors and camming devices… as much as you can do.

This is a time of chaos, and your mistakes will all be gentle and you will be admired for doing cool stuff, so it is a perfect time to make the leap. Right now, SEO, SEM, affiliate and marketing firms, PR firms, and social media consultants are doing ad buys, are learning advertising, are becoming severely profitable.

They drink your milkshake.

But it is not too late. It is a time of chaos, it is a time to take risks. Learn from what has happened to your cousins, PR and main stream media. Evolve or perish. Yes, these will be interesting times for Madison Avenue and around the world.

And for you who have yet to do the reading, please check out Cluetrain Manifesto and Naked Conversation.

Oh, and no, I have not read Bob Garfield’s original presentations of how advertising will evolve over the next few years (Part 1 and Part 2); however, I plan to — and I plan to say more after I do. I merely intended to cross-post Trenn’s article from Marketing Conversation — I just didn’t realize I had such a strong opinion on the issue until I started writing my standard introduction and analysis paragraph.

* I can’t find the quote that Chris Brogan made, however, I can find my quoting of him on Twitter — maybe someone can help me find his original Tweet.

I Enjoy the Variety of Work I Do for Abraham Harrison

Chris Abraham — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:07:19 +0000

A couple weeks ago, over Veteran’s Day, we at Abraham Harrison did an outreach for Survivor Corps called Returning Troops in support of Operation Survivor. We received over 170 earned banner placements and blog posts (I posted 162 of them yesterday). We were in a rush before the outreach (you know how it is) so I ended up dusting off my copy of Photoshop and creating 14 banners in support of the campaign. What do you think? How did I do? I had fun.

Thank You Operation Survivor Bloggers Encore

Chris Abraham — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:37:41 +0000

While I have already thanked all of the wonderful, generous bloggers who have blogged about Operation Survivor since Labor Day, there has been a countinued outpouring of support. As a result, I have added all of the new posts, banners, Twitters in addition to the initial posts — as of 25 November, this is everyone.

5 Minutes Around the World via 5 Minutes for Mom.
Banner via A Disgruntled Republican.
Survivor Corps Program-Help! via Swimming Against the Red Tide.
Survivor Corps: Founds Operation Survivor Project to Assist U.S. Military Combat Veterans in Transitioning to Civilian Life via A DC Observer.
Survivor Corps. Rise Above. Give Back via All 4 My Gals.
Banner via American and Proud.
Support ‘Survivor Corps’ this Veterans Day via American Thinker.
Support ‘Survivor Corps’ this Veterans Day via Americanthinker.
Returning Troops…a Noble Cause via Dodgeblogium.
Indigenist News Items for: 11-14-2008 via Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo.
They don’t go away when Veterans Day ends via Around the Island.
Survivor Corps via Assoluta Tranquillita.
Survivor Corps via Jake’s Life.
Banner via Bearing Drift.
Vast Write Wing via Be Logical.
Survivor Corps Operation Survivor: A Worthwhile Cause to Consider via Mount Virtus.
Someone alerted me to the good work that Survivor Corps via Big Bark.
Standing up for Max Cleland on Veteran’s Day via Big Bark.
Twittered via How to Change the World.
Do Not Abandon Our Vets via understanding the effects of unresolved abandonment issues.
Help Our Troops This Veterans Day via Locust Fork Blog.
Soldiers Angels Web Surfing via MySpace: Kathie’s Soldiers Angels Account.
Banner via Blog Mommas.
An Appeal via Don Surber’s blog.
Survivor Corps: Help a veteran break the cycle of violence via Hormone-Colored Days.
Support the Survivor Corps via Burbsblogs.
Veterans Day via Bodhi Baby.
Supporting Our Troops via Booker Rising.
Operation Survivor via Britannica.
As Per Request via Budget Nomad – US Ex – Pat on the Move.
Per a Request via Budget Nomad – US Ex – Pat on the Move.
Help veterans through Survivor Corps via South by Southwest.
Remembrance Day via Around the World in beautiful Shoes.
Veteran’s Day via Danny Fisher.
Survivor Corps via Charming Just Charming.
Veterans Day via Chip’s Quips.
Please Help Me Support Our Troops on Veteran’s Day via Chris Abraham.
I Will Not Be Broken via For the Heck of It.
Ray via Notes from the Cookie Jar.
Survivor Corps Helps Injured Vets Cope via Connecticut Bob.
Help Our Troops This Veteran’s Day via Culture11.
Supporting Our Troops: Operation Survivor via Culture Kitchen.
Supporting Our Troops: Operation Survivor via The Daily Gotham.
Donate to help our Troops via Make it Happen.
Survivor Corp-Returning Troops via What’s Delmer Look Like?.
Banner via Popcorn and Sushi.
Banner via Supercozy WorldHome.
Supporting Returning Troops via Donklephant.
Operation Survivor-Survivor Corps and TroopTube via Where the Hell Am I?.
In Their Boots via Holly’s Fight for Justice.
In Their Boots via Holly’s Fight to Stop Violence.
Banner via Gapers Block.
Banner via Gary Presley.
Operation Survivor via The Political Junkie.
Veterans Day via On the Fringe.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and Their Families via GoMekong.com.
Support Our Troops NOW via MamaBugs…Homeschooling Where the Air Force Sends Us!.
Soldiers Angels Web Surfing via Hooah Wife & Friends.
Breaking the Cycle of Violence via Another Opinion.
New Book from the founder of Survivor Corps via The IAVA Blog.
Some Odds and Ends of the Election via The Liberal Life of a Navy Wife .
cross-post via Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog.
Banner via Iraq The Model.
In Honor of Veterans’ Day via James Kotecki.
Survivorcorps.org via Jelly Mom.
Banner via Into the Woods, Living Deliberately.
Survivor Corps via A Leg Up.
Standing up for Max Cleland on Veteran’s Day via Informed Comment.
Helping Veterans (a day late) via Just Enjoy Him: Ramblings of a Mid-Life Mom.
Soldiers Angels Web Surfing via Mail Call! Supporting the Troops.
Survivor Corps via Kung Fu Monkey.
Banner via Kim Stagliano.
Survivor Corps via Knee Deep in the Hooah.
Banner via Kentucky Progress.
Courage via Last One Speaks.
Banner via Leucadia Blog.
Iraq snapshot (The Common Ills) via Like Maria Said Paz.
Banner via Lisa’s Cookbook.
For a Good Cause via The Local Crank.
Banner via LooneyBin4Sure.
Tis the season to help our troops via Manatee’s Military Moms.
Thoughts of a conservative mind: A worthwhile charity via A different kind of Conservative Blog.
Banner via Married to the Army.
Veterans Day via State of Ohio Blogger Alliance.
Veteran’s Day via Weapons of Mass Discussion.
Operation Survivor via Big Blueberry Eyes.
Survivor Corps offers peer support to injured vets via Media Dis&Dat.
Survivor Corps via Tanker Bothers – Soldiers in the War on Terror.
Survivor Corps via Tanker Brothers.
Miss Beths Victory Dance via Miss Beth’s Victory Dance.
Survivor Corps via Miss Cellania Blog.
side bar Banner via Mommy Bytes.
Survivor Corps. Help for Surviving Troops via Mommy Does it All.
Operation Survivor via My American-Iraq Life.
Banner via Myrtus.
Mine removal personal ambition for Missouri State instructor via News-Release.com.
Survivor Corps: Support for returning heroes via News Blaze.
Veterans Deserve Your Help via New Zeal.
Supporting Returning Troops via Northloop Neighborhood.
Read Terrance D.C. via Oh Boy it Never Ends.
Banner via only red head in taiwan.
Banner via On the Upside.
Banner via Papamoka Straight Talk.
Banner via Pardon Me For Asking.
Survivors of War via Ponderings on a Faith Journey.
posted link on blogroll via Political Grind.
Survivor Corps: Operation Survivor via Political Reps.
A Day To Honor Those Who Have Served Their Country via Political Vindication.
Banner via Praise and Coffee.
Banner via Preemptive Karma.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and their Families! via Progressive Independent.
cross post via Quick Quotes Online.
In Banner Rotation via Redline.
Veteran’s deserve not just a word, but also a hand: Operation Survivor via Rich Kirkpatrick.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and their Families! via Right Michigan.
Banner via Rightwingchamp.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel is an Idiot via Ruth’s Report.
Katrina vanden Heuvel is an idiot via Ruth’s Report.
Survivor Corps via Sanbans Lymphorama.
Helping the Walking Wounded on November 11 via Serge the concierge.
Banner via Seven Wheelchairs.
palin, survivor corps, heroes and more via Sex and Politics and Creeds and Attitudes.
Links, Awards and Other Good Blogishness via She Lives.
Peace, be still. It’s Armistice Day. via Short Woman.
Sick of It via SICKOFITRADLZ.
posted Banner and review of I will not be broken via Writing in FaithWriting in Faith: Previews and Reviews.
Banner via Socialism.
Survivor Corps – Electronic Media News Releases via Soldiers Angels Network.
Survivor Corps via Soldiers Angels New York.
Survivor Corps via Soldiers’ Angels New York.
Need a little Inspiration? via My Life As A Military Spouse.
Banner via Stepping Right Up!.
Survivor Corps via Straight, Not Narrow.
Veterans Day via The Adventures of Super Mommy & Spitup Boy.
Support ‘Survivor Corps’ this Veterans Day – American Thinker via Survivor.
Operation Survivor – excerpt from website via Arthriticyoungthing.
posted Banner via Screw Politically Correct B.S..
Banner via The Political Jungle.
Survivor Corps via Tao of Katie.
Help veterans through Survivor Corps via The Reaction.
The bridge, the sacrifice, more via The Common Ills.
Banner via The Inside Dope.
A Belated Veterans (Day) Post via The Moderate Voice.
A Belated Veterans (Day) Post via Funny Blog.
Veterans and PTSD via Where There’s a Will There’s a Way.
Tuesday, November 11. 2008. via This French Life.
we posted? via This Fucking War.
Survivor Corps Website via Untreatable Online.
cross post via News Updated Frequently.
Survivor Corps via Unveal Blues.
Banner via VDog and Little Man.
Banner via Virginia Left Wing.
cross post via Today on Vot3r.
Banner via mikesmercurialmaddness.
As Long as We’re Bailing Out CEOs… via World-O-Crap.
Wake Up Americans via Wake Up America.
Survivor Corps via Wake Up America.
Xyence via The Xyience Diet Resource.
Please Help the Veterans via Yaw and Mog.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and their Families! via Young Philly Politics.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Vets and Their Families! via Zimbio.
Mojo Mom says thank you to military families via Mojo Mom.

I daresay we’ll be get more so there might very well be another thank you email. Again, both Abraham Harrison and Survivor Corps thank you very much for all of your continued generosity and support!

Thank You Operation Survivor Bloggers!

Chris Abraham — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:10:01 +0000

Veteran’s Day this year is especially poignant since it has been 5 years since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. Thank you to everyone who helped Survivor Corps get the message out about Operation Survivor and all the amazing work that Survivor Corps does for vets, for returning troops, and for their families. Here’s a list of all of your fine work:

Please Help Me Support Our Troops on Veteran’s Day via Chris Abraham.
banner via On the Upside.
Veterans and PTSD via Where There’s a Will There’s a Way.
Support Our Troops NOW via MamaBugs…Homeschooling Where the Air Force Sends Us!.
Peace be still. It?s Armistice Day. via Short Woman.
Do Not Abandon Our Vets via understanding the effects of unresolved abandonment issues.
Helping the Walking Wounded on November 11 via Serge the concierge.
Support ‘Survivor Corps’ this Veterans Day via Americanthinker.
Veterans Day via Bodhi Baby.
Veterans Day via The Adventures of Super Mommy & Spitup Boy.
Operation Survivor via Britannica.
Veteran’s Day via Danny Fisher.
Donate to help our Troops via Make it Happen.
Remembrance Day via Around the World in beautiful Shoes.
Operation Survivor via Big Blueberry Eyes.
In Their Boots via Holly’s Fight for Justice.
In Their Boots via Holly’s Fight to Stop Violence.
Veterans Day via Chip’s Quips.
Help Our Troops This Veterans Day via Locust Fork Blog.
Banner via Socialism.
In Banner Rotation via Redline.
Veteran’s Day via Weapons of Mass Discussion.
Help Our Troops This Veteran’s Day via Culture11.
side bar banner via Mommy Bytes.
Veteran’s deserve not just a word but also a hand: Operation Survivor via Rich Kirkpatrick.
Survivor Corps: Help a veteran break the cycle of violence via Hormone-Colored Days.
Veterans Day via On the Fringe.
The bridge the sacrifice more via The Common Ills.
Someone alerted me to the good work that Survivor Corps via Big Bark.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and Their Families via GoMekong.com.
Support ‘Survivor Corps’ this Veterans Day – American Thinker via Survivor.
Helping Veterans (a day late) via Just Enjoy Him: Ramblings of a Mid-Life Mom.
Survivor Corps: Operation Survivor via Political Reps.
Survivor Corps Website via Untreatable Online.
Survivor Corps Operation Survivor: A Worthwhile Cause to Consider via Mount Virtus.
Veterans Day via State of Ohio Blogger Alliance.
A Day To Honor Those Who Have Served Their Country via Political Vindication.
Courage via Last One Speaks.
banner via A Disgruntled Republican.
An Appeal via Don Surber’s blog.
Mojo Mom says thank you to military families via Mojo Mom.
Survivor Corps via Miss Cellania Blog.
For a Good Cause via The Local Crank.
Operation Survivor-Survivor Corps and TroopTube via Where the Hell Am I?.
In Honor of Veterans’ Day via James Kotecki.
banner” via Into the Woods Living Deliberately.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Vets and Their Families! via Zimbio.
Please Help the Veterans via Yaw and Mog.
posted banner and review of I will not be broken” via Writing in FaithWriting in Faith: Previews and Reviews.
banner’ via Pardon Me For Asking.
Veterans Deserve Your Help via New Zeal.
I Will Not Be Broken via For the Heck of It.
Per a Request via Budget Nomad – US Ex – Pat on the Move.
banner’ via Blog Mommas.
banner via Myrtus.
banner via Married to the Army.
Survivor Corps. Rise Above. Give Back via All 4 My Gals.
Re: Vast Write Wing – November 2008 via Be Logical.
Survivor Corps. Help for Surviving Troops via Mommy Does it All.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and their Families! via Right Michigan.
Indigenist News Items for: 11-14-2008 via Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo.
banner via Gary Presley.
banner via Seven Wheelchairs.
Operation Survivor via The Political Junkie.
Need a little Inspiration? via My Life As A Military Spouse.
Banner via Preemptive Karma.
Operation Survivor – excerpt from website via Arthriticyoungthing.
banner via Rightwingchamp.
Survivor Corp-Returning Troops via What’s Delmer Look Like?.
posted banner via Screw Politically Correct B.S..
palin survivor corps heroes and more via Sex and Politics and Creeds and Attitudes.
banner via Bearing Drift.
banner via Kentucky Progress.
Supporting Returning Troops via Donklephant.
banner via Gapers Block.
Katrina vanden Heuvel is an idiot via Ruth’s Report.
Supporting Our Troops via Book Errising.
Survivor Corps – Electronic Media News Releases via Soldiers Angels Network.
A Belated Veterans (Day) Post via The Moderate Voice.
posted link on blogroll via Political Grind.
They don’t go away when Veterans Day ends via Around the Island.
Survivor Corps offers peer support to injured vets via Media Dis&Dat.
Survivor Corps via A Leg Up.
Supporting Our Troops: Operation Survivor via The Daily Gotham.
Survivor Corps: Founds Operation Survivor Project to Assist U.S. Military Combat Veterans in Transitioning to Civilian Life via A DC Observer.
banner via Iraq The Model.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and their Families! via Young Philly Politics.
banner via The Inside Dope.
Survivors of War via Ponderings on a Faith Journey.
Survivor Corps via Charming Just Charming.
Survivor Corps via Knee Deep in the Hooah.
Tis the season to help our troops via Manatee’s Military Moms.
A Belated Veterans (Day) Post via Funny Blog.
Support ‘Survivor Corps’ this Veterans Day via American Thinker.
Supporting Returning Troops via Northloop Neighborhood.
As Per Request via Budget Nomad – US Ex – Pat on the Move.
Some Odds and Ends of the Election via The Liberal Life of a Navy Wife .
Returning Troops…A Noble Cause via Dodgeblogium.
Survivor Corps Website via Untreatable Online.
Standing up for Max Cleland on Veteran’s Day via Informed Comment.
Standing up for Max Cleland on Veteran’s Day via Big Bark.
Read Terrance D.C. via Oh Boy it Never Ends.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel is an Idiot via Ruth’s Report.
Iraq snapshot (The Common Ills) via Like Maria Said Paz.
Tuesday November 11. 2008. via This French Life.
Survivor Corps Program-Help! via Swimming Against the Red Tide.
Survivor Corps via Kung Fu Monkey.
banner via Leucadia Blog.
banner via Bearing Drift.

You have done an amazing thing for the vets and also for the mission of Survivor Corps domestically and around the world. Thank you for your posts and for your banner placement. Never hesitate to contact me personally or my team at Abraham Harrison. Also, always please feel free to contact the entire Survivor Corps team.

Please Help Me Support Our Troops on Veteran’s Day

Chris Abraham — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:47:08 +0000

Today is Veteran’s Day, a day that pays homage to every man and woman who has served in the United States Armed Forces, in times of war and peace. Please consider donating any amount today to help our returning troops. If you donate now your funds will be matched dollar for dollar!

I have personally pledged to raise $1,000 of the $10,000 that Survivor Corps is raising this week to help returning soldiers in remembrance of Veteran’s Day, today — please help me make my goal. Honestly, a couple-bucks is cool — feel free to donate whatever you want. There is always the “Other” tab. If we have lots of small donations, it all adds up! Please join me over on Facebook Cause in support of my pledge.

Our soldiers need our help now. Which is why, this Veterans Day, I’m asking you to honor their service with a modest gift to Survivor Corps’ program for U.S. Armed Forces veterans, Operation Survivor.

Survivor Corps is aiming to raise $10,000 over the next week, with your help. We currently have just over 600 members in the cause. If each member donated just $20, we would have well over $12,000. In addition, Survivor Corps is currently running a matching-gift program so your donation will be doubled for the returning troops! Please join Survivor Corps on Facebook Causes to help them reach their goal of $10,000!

Right now, about 620,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injuries (TBI), major depression, or a combination of the three. Many returning veterans are facing family, employment, and other community reintegration issues. Using our ten years of experience helping survivors of violent conflict find a way back to peace, within their own bodies and minds, and in their communities, Survivor Corps founded Operation Survivor to provide the same kind of life-changing services to American veterans.

NEWS FACTS
Within the United States there are over one and a half million service members that have served in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over thirty thousand have been physically wounded, but many more have experienced less visible, psychological wounds. Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder have emerged as signature injuries of these conflicts, with recent reports suggesting an increase in rates of suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, homelessness, and domestic violence among returning service members and veterans.

These traumatic affects of conflict, left unaddressed, could have far-reaching negative consequences for the individuals affected, their families, and our country. Survivor Corps’ work in some of the most conflict affected countries in the world has shown community reintegration to be the key factor in those that overcome their traumatic experiences, and those that are consumed by them.

1.6 million servicemembers have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001
300,000 have reported symptoms of PTSD and major depression. (RAND)
Over 5,391 service members haveben killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 (hostile and non-hostile)4,447 killed in Iraq, 944 killed in Afghanistan (iCasualties, 06 AUG 08)
Over 30,000 injured
Over 1,000 lost limbs
Walter Reed Amputee Center serves 100 veterans daily

The main issues for returning soldier since WWI have been:

Major depressive disorder
Alcohol abuse
Domestic violence
Suicide
Homelessness
Unemployment

All of these issues repeat after each war, and are symptoms of the much greater problem facing Veterans: How to reintegrate into families and communities upon return. We’ve seen these issues in our overseas networks, US citizens have seen these symptoms after past conflicts, and we are seeing these same symptoms again today..

PTSD:

53% of soldiers with PSTD receive treatment. (RAND)

SUICIDE:

Since 2002 suicide attempts have risen from 350 to approximately 2,100 in 2007. (VA)
The Army is committing $1.4 billion this year to add to the quality of life of a soldier including an informal peer support program through distribution of ACE of hearts playing cards.
ACE cards: Ask your buddy, Care for your buddy, Escort your buddy.

SUBSTANCE ABUSE:
According to the Department of Defense heavy drinking occurred in 18.5% of those individuals from the U.S. Armed Forces surveyed.

41% of veterans who drank reported problems at work
24.7% of veterans who drank reported problems at home
31.2% of veterans who drank reported depression

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE:
A study conducted by the National Institute of Health showed returning veterans listed alcohol as the second most frequent cause of spouse violence.

UNEMPLOYMENT:

11.2% of returning young male veterans are unemployed (US Dept. of Labor)

HOMELESSNESS:

40% of homeless men are veterans. (National Coalition for the Homeless)
200,000 veterans are homeless. (NCH)
Already 600 returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have sought transitional housing services from the VA. (NCH)
Women are 2 to 4 times more likely to become homeless. (NCH)
After Vietnam, it generally took 9 to 12 years for veterans’ to become homeless…Returning veterans from Iraq are seeking housing services only months after returning. (NCH)

OPERATION SURVIVOR

Ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are creating a generation of veterans in the United States from all branches of the armed services and all 50 states who are struggling to overcome physical and psychosocial injuries. Most combat veterans convalescing in military hospitals across the country will survive physically, but getting on with their lives after returning home to their families and communities is proving a significant challenge for hundreds of thousands. Among the 1.6 million who have served since 2001, suicide is on the rise, as is unemployment and incidents of substance abuse and domestic violence.

The successful reintegration of returning service members is an issue that will have a long-lasting impact on American society, and may become the single defining struggle facing this new generation of veterans. Survivor Corps and its partners are determined to avoid the mistakes made when veterans returned from Vietnam, which resulted in tens of thousands of post-war suicides and over 200,000 men and women living on the streets.

To head off this tragic outcome, Survivor Corps will build peer support programs at the community level that will bring service members and veterans together for mutual support and encourage both individual responsibility and collective action to help others in need.

Survivor Corps is offering an alternative “treatment” that can be made readily available in all communities, regardless of proximity to traditional military or govern¬ment centers of support. Our approach is nimble enough to address the needs of individual survivors, while still broad enough to build a coalition of survivors and service providers working to effect long-term positive change.

This new program will help the recovery and reintegration of hundreds of thousands of returning U.S. service members at a critical time for them and their country.

links for 2008-11-06

Chris Abraham — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:27:19 +0000

Landmine survivor shares personal journey
(tags: ping.fm neigh_north)
Landmine survivor shares personal journey
(tags: ping.fm neigh_north)
brightkite.com
Discover the hidden communities behind the places that you visit. Brightkite lets you make the connection and start a conversation.
(tags: ping.fm place location mobile iphone sms photos social lbs placestream placestreaming placecast placecasting)
Survivor Corps – Survivor Corps Blog
(tags: ping.fm)
The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia
CSPAN Junkie
“luntz” video results – YouTube – Broadcast Yourself.
No description available.
(tags: ping.fm)
NEW WACOM BAMBOO Graphic Tablet Drawing Writing MTE450 – eBay (item 110297106967 end time Nov-06-08 00:02:38 PST)
Integrate your website with Google Checkout
(tags: webdev web shopping services programming google finance development api checkout ecommerce)
Official Google Docs Blog: Embed your forms
Incompatible Browser | Facebook
Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.
(tags: ping.fm)

A Hopeful Look Forward By Jerry White

Chris Abraham — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:05:51 +0000

I just received this moving tribute from Jerry White of Survivor Corps to what the election of Barack Obama means — the end of the American Civil War — and a bold move towards “breaking through historic barriers of discrimination and promoting true inclusion, participation and equality around the world.”

A Hopeful Look Forward By Jerry White
Here at Survivor Corps we often talk about dates–before-and-after moments that change our lives forever. No matter if you are a Democrat or Republican, I think we can all agree the life of our nation is changed by the historic election of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America.
I read Thomas Friedman’s article “Finishing Our Work” this morning in The New York Times, he writes, “And so it came to pass that on Nov. 4, 2008, shortly after 11pm Eastern time, the American Civil War ended…that is why we awake this morning to a different country. The struggle for equal rights is far from over, but we start afresh now from a whole new baseline.” Friedman’s words struck a chord that harmonizes with our perspective at Survivor Corps as a global network helping people recover from war. It takes decades.
This election rings true to the founding principles of Survivor Corps, breaking barriers and promoting inclusion, participation and equality. Whether we are drafting legislation to protect the rights of 650 million people with disabilities or bringing survivors together to rebuild communities destroyed by war, landmines and hatred, we are creating the hope and change in the world that we all wish to see. This morning the Survivor Corps staff took a moment to reflect on this historic day; and we discussed how this election would impact our daily work with survivors in the United States and abroad.
US Army Captain (Retired) Scott Quilty pointed out Senator Obama’s longstanding campaign pledge to bring home combat troops from Iraq within 16 months, and what that may mean for service members reintegrating into families, work, school and communities upon return. ”At Survivor Corps we’re working with government, businesses and veteran service organizations to develop a strategy for homecoming and reintegration, and with this potential ‘reverse surge’ of returning service members, it seems that the urgency of that work just increased,” stated Quilty.
Tirza Leibowitz, an Israeli who serves as our Director of Rights Advocacy, spoke of the new expectations we need to set for the three major treaties we are working on: the ban of landmines and cluster bombs and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. “Now we will be able to advocate for the United States to sign onto these multilateral treaties, when before the political environment made that an impossible dream.”
Robert Mugisha, a Rwandan who works as our Africa Program Associate, spoke of his previous experience lobbying the President and Vice President Elect, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, on issues related to survivors in Darfur to Congo. Mugisha added, “There is a strong possibility we will now have leaders in the White House who have pro-African foreign policies. This could really change how the United States interacts with the entire world.”
Yes, hope is rising in tandem with survivor expectations. Survivor Corps is more dedicated than ever to breaking through historic barriers of discrimination and promoting true inclusion, participation and equality around the world. We join you in this time of hope and survivorship as we create history, break cycles of violence and build a peaceful future for survivors worldwide.

Visit Survivor Corps at http://www.survivorcorps.org