One of the best things I ever did to promote the cause marketing program at my nonprofit is start my blog Selfishgiving.com. It’s something you should do too. Besides, blogging is a great way to learn about cause marketing as you write about it. And thanks to Headway Themes it’s both easy and fun.

When John Haydon rebuilt my blog earlier this year and told me he would be using a Headway Theme, I really didn’t know what to expect. A theme? You mean like what I used to write in high school? John assured me that my blog would still be on a WordPress platform, and I would write and publish my posts the same way as I did before. But he added, “Joe, you’re going to love Headway.”

And John was right. Here’s why.

I could change the look of my blog without knowing any code. Shortly after John finished setting up my blog I got into my tinkering mode and wanted to make all sorts of little changes without calling John every time. It was easy. I jumped on the visual editor and was able to adjust and fix things on my own like the width of my right sidebar and the appearance of my navigation bar. Let me emphasize: I’m not tech savvy. I have trouble figuring out the remotes for my TV. If I figured out the visual editor on Headway just think what you’ll be able to do.

SEO rocks on Headway Themes. Here’s the God’s honest truth. Before I installed Headway Themes on my blog I could NEVER crack the first page of Google for the search term “cause marketing.” After I installed it, there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t been on the first page. And on few days I even cracked the top three. That alone has made Headway a good investment.

You have a problem. They have an answer. Despite being based out of red-state Kansas the team at Headway is even friendly to a r-dropping Massachusetts democrat like me. That’s patience and dedication. I haven’t had many glitches with Headway, but when I do their forums are very helpful, and the principals of the company, Grant and Clay Griffiths, are very responsive.

I’ve written before that there really is no excuse for more people not blogging about cause marketing. Free platforms can be a good start for some, but a premium theme like Headway is easy to edit, comes optimized for SEO and has a friendly and helpful community to help solve any problems. Your blog will stand out and you’ll make faster progress.

They don’t call it Headway for nothing.

I’m glad John Haydon introduced me to Danny Brown, because he’s given me a great idea on how to extend my retail point-of-sale programs to Facebook where I can get “likes” for my nonprofit and my retail partners.

Danny’s starting point is getting offline retail coupons online to Facebook.

Grab the artwork from your existing flyer (or make one unique to Facebook) and then transfer that to a tab on your page’s navigation menu. Currently this is created using the FBML application (and some HTML coding), though soon you’ll have to change to iFrame.

Call your tab something simple like Coupons or Discounts to grab attention. Then, to encourage folks to Like your page, only make the coupon or discount available to people after they like you. If you’re unsure how to do this, my friend John Haydon has a great guide on using Facebook HTML as well as hiding offers until people click your Like button.

This got me thinking on the coupons we use in most of our pinup programs and how they may have value beyond a simple redemption. For example:

• Instead of a coupon like the ones you see here, partners could encourage consumers to visit their Facebook page for the coupon in exchange for a “like.” Unlike an offline coupon or a web page, the retailer gains a new subscriber to their page. Yes, they have to work to keep that new fan, but the connection is a valuable one.
• If a retailer was feeling generous they could encourage shoppers to visit the cause’s page to get the discount and the nonprofit would get the like. The cause could have a coupon tab with all the discounts from their partners–deals you could only get after you like the page!
• Getting people from an offline coupon to a Facebook page needn’t be difficult. A QR code takes them there instantly and delivers the coupon! The QR code in my next pinup program would do the trick.

John Haydon told me that he plans to post on Danny’s post as well. I’ll be sure to update this page with a link if he does. John will certainly have some great info on how nonprofits can create and leverage a Facebook discount tab.

If you’re a cause marketer or fundraiser that’s been waiting to check-in to location-based services, now may be the time as the biggest and most popular social networking site, Facebook, has just rolled out Places.

All you need to get started with Places is a Facebook account, which like 500,000 million people out there you probably already have, and an iPhone.

I like Aaron Strout’s point that Place was made for the masses, not the early-adopter geeks who jumped on to Foursquare, Gowally and Whrrl. So it’s very easy to use.

However, there are some things you should know.

Watch this video from Facebook. “Why Check-in”

Safety-first. Do you want the whole world to know where you are? It’s a good question because on Facebook there is no opt-in to Places. All your “friends” will know where you are, unless you tell Facebook otherwise.

Check out Beth Kanter’s post on privacy concerns and, if you’re in the Witness Protection Program, how to disable Places.

For a squeamish tale on the downside of Places read How to Almost Sabotage a Dinner Party with Facebook Places.

Places will be a good thing. For both businesses and nonprofits. Check out this post from Duct Tape Marketing on why Places is kind of big deal.

Claim your nonprofit. Whenever someone check-ins to a location or adds a new one to Facebook places, it creates a page for that business or nonprofit that can then be claimed. Not just anyone can claim a page. You have to submit the right paperwork to Facebook for approval. Here are some details.

Follow the guru. I’ve written a lot on location-based services, but the person to follow and learn from on Facebook Places is John Haydon. He’s the expert on how nonprofits can best leverage Facebook for fun and profit. His site is sure to have the latest and greatest info on Places.

What questions do you have about Facebook Places? How do you plan to use it for fundraising?

Cause marketing news, advice and commentary just got better (looking). Welcome to the new and improved Selfishgiving.com!

Late last year I started thinking of refreshing my blog with a new look that I could extend to all my other social media platforms and offline activities. A lot had happened since the last redesign two years earlier!

At first I only thought about changing the look of my blog, but John Haydon was writing some great posts on how Headway Themes could enhance your blog. That’s when I came into contact with Grant Griffiths, who kindly gave up a couple hours of his time to talk about my business goals for Selfish Giving and how Headway Themes might help.

After talking to Grant and John, I was sold on the benefits of Headway Themes.

The next step was to find a designer who could take Selfish Giving in a new direction. Grant brought a talented woman to my attention, Mikhaela Craig. Mikhaela came up with some great designs, and while I ultimately chose a look that had a lot of similarities to my previous design, it was for no lack of options.

Mikhaela also came up with the Selfish Giving crest you see to the right. I love it. It’s something I can use on business cards, slides and proposals that isn’t clunky like a wide banner image.

In addition to my blog, Mikhaela also redesigned my Twitter page, email newsletter, Six Figure Cause Marketing landing page (which I’m still tweaking) and Posterous blog.

I highly recommend Mikhaela if you have an upcoming design project. She’s professional, twitterific (and active on Twitter too!), dedicated and very, very patient.

With my new Headway Theme and design in hand, it was time for John Haydon to put the two together. John did a great job, and you’ll never know how much work it was for him to get the devil’s tale on “Selfish” to hang just right!

The best thing about John is that he treats my blog like his own. He makes tweaks to it when I haven’t asked him to or expect it (like the Wibiya navigation bar at the bottom of my blog, which I think is just great). He’s making my blog better like he tries to do with his own every day.

You don’t need to be too familiar with my blog or tweets to know that John and I are good friends. We live just a couple miles from each other outside Boston and our kids play together.

But in this instance John treated me so much better than a friend. He treated me like a client. Now that’s a true friend.