Google Holiday Gift: USB Flash Drive & Gift Card to DonorsChoose.org
I just got my gift from Google for the Holidays, and I’m a little disappointed, but not so much surprised. I had read from another site that they were sending out some type of USB flash drive this year. Last year I received a sweet LCD Digital Frame that said “GOOGLE” across it. The package I received this year was a bit different. It’s contents were a 2.0 Gig USB Flash Drive that size of a Credit Card, and a $100 Gift Card to donate to any education program of my choice, through DonorsChoose.org. The $100 gift card to donate is a cool idea, but the USB flash drive seems kind of crappy to me. It’s awesome if you need to carry around a cool USB plug in your wallet and show off to your friends, but who doesn’t already have a USB, and I pretty much never use one. It’s also disappointing because a 2.0 Gig Flash Drive only runs $14.95 through TigerDirect.com! The digital picture frame last year was definitely much cooler.
With a last glimmer of hope, I plugged my Google USB flash drive into my computer to see if anything was enclosed in it. Unfortunately it was blank. How cool would it have been if there was a $100 Google Adwords coupon code or something. Why not entice your advertisers and affiliates to spend more, by offering something a little extra?
As for the DonorsChoose.org $100 gift card, I applaud Google for making the change for people to “have to” give donations to charity, (as I’m sure anyone working with Google is doing pretty well for themselves anyway). Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for donating and I personally make sure to do my part, but I really don’t like that this would seem to help Google so much in the end. Everyone who works with Google is always looking forward to what they will send out at the end of the year. Just search on last years LCD Digital Frames and you’ll see what I mean. Instead of sending something new and revolutionary out, many will probably be disappointed to see their gift, if a gift from Google to another charity… which will lead Google to a hefty tax deduction at the end of the year.
Anyway, it’s always cool to see what Google, Yahoo and other companies send out each year. I’m not sure if I received this gift as a Google Adwords advertiser or as a Google Adsense affiliate. As an advertiser, I only spent $11,724.24 this year on Google Adwords… and through promoting Google Adsense, I’ve earned $23,453.49 this year. If you haven’t received a gift from Google yet and are spending/earning anywhere near these numbers, hopefully something will arrive over the next few days! Nonetheless, thank you Google for sending out gifts again this year, as it seems more and more companies slack off each year and just send nothing!
Have you received your Google gift or any other packages so far this year? Also, what are some of the best gift’s you’ve received in the past from online companies?
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send it to me if you don't want it =P
Last year I got a xmas card but saw lots of people getting the cool digital frames. I was new so didn’t have much earnings at all. Hopefully I made enough this year to qualify for what google considers worth the extra postage lol. Although it would seem some of the “big boys” would get something more than a $15 usb drive, it’s still cool to get something. I think most publishers are used to kind of lame “gifts” for hitting specific goals…like a $500 gift card for pusing $100k in or something lol. But “free” is free I guess.
I haven’t gotten anything from google yet so still hoping for the usb heheh. Maybe Google is hurting this year with all the cutbacks they have been doing…oh wait, it’s US that are hurting from that silliness lol.
And yeah, the donate thing is kind of cool.
The Donation “Check” is kinda cool. I like it and its great if people can help other people by doing internetmarketing.
Otherwise, the USB Card is nothing really special and doesn’t compare to the digital image frame last year and the Google refrigerator they sent to some people I think 2 years ago.
Cool gifts I guess. Ya the 2Gig USB meh, not a big deal to me. I know some love the USB drives for things.
Hey I spent almost $500 – they better send me something! Or you could just thank me for buying the gifts for you, Zac! 🙂
Better than what I got for Christmas – 8 super affiliate blogs wasting our click with a story about a usb drive 😉
Yea man,
I wasn't that impressed either dude. Of course my fiance was like holy cow look at this thing Google sent you. I was like umm, look in the closet and you will see a digital picture frame and a cooler too. LOL.
It looks like you are being Googleized man. Let us know how your doing with MSN and Yahoo! I fight with Yahoo everyday but I just keyword stuff my pages for MSN and make them the same as the background color and they flow right thru 🙂
Last year's gift of a LCD digital frame sounds way cooler than the flash drive (i wouldn't mind either though 😉 ). But the charity coupon is a very good idea.
Still nothing for me yet. Was hoping it would come yesterday after seeing this but not even a card yet :(.
But after Zac posted how much he earned through them I checked my own for the year to get an idea if I would qualify and was surprised how much I made total. Not all that much compared lol but it does add up pretty fast if you aren't paying attention. Just not sure why there is never any left by the end of the month lol.
I think people that got the mini fridge were bigger adwords spenders but I may be wrong. I haven't spent much with adwords yet and I'm pretty sure not nearly enough to qualify for any kind of "mid season" gift lol.
I got my fridge about a year or so ago. They send it out once you hit 1 million leads/clicks as an advertiser through Adwords. I'll write a post on this later in the month.
ouch. Yeah going to be a while before I qualify for that lol.
Is there any way to get Google to send me a gift without spending or earning any money from them? lol
Send them a written letter asking for pictures, pamphlets, stickers, pens and company information. I'm sure they'll gladly send you something! 😛 Let me know what you get!
Google
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
I have spend several thousand on google .. but no gift 🙁
I need to make more money .. like you zac
yea we got the fridge too, that was pretty cool. the $100 donation is a really cool idea. i give them credit for that one
Heh, I wish I could just get a gift from Google. Not at that level yet though.
~Dave
Ah ya, nothing here yet, gonna be awhile before I hit anything near that I think! Maybe I'll just buy my own mini fridge and spray paint Google on it hehehe
Ron Killian
Still nothing here yet either :(. Been checking the mail every day excited to see if I made the cut though lol.
I got a new holiday greeting card from Google the other day. Just a card though, nothing else.
All I got this year from Google was the Christmas card. If I had to guess, Id say its because I dont use their Google Adwords program. I made a little more money through Google Adsense than you but still no usb flash drive. ValueClick gave me just a christmas card as well. The only company to send me something decent was MaxBounty, they sent me a nice gift basket of cookies, candys, and cheese lol.
The credit card usb is a cool one. I've heard some big time adwords spenders got a mini refrigerator…
Nice earnings man, well-done!
Very nice to hear that you got gifts from google. May I know, what sites you are running google adsense ads? Don't get offended please, just to get an idea about adsense earning potential. I'm also running adsense ads, but each clicks offers only pennies, some times hardly $0.5. I'm so fed up adsense monetization. It seems doesn't worth the effort to get few bucks in a week.
Don't buy or use any gift wrapping paper. If you take the newspaper, you can wrap gifts with that. Brown paper grocery bags make nice gift wrap as does old fashioned green bar computer printer paper.