The Project for Awesome HQ is currently being flooded with people working their butts off to promote videos that promote charities. So Come Join Us Now!!!

There’s still time to make a video too! Just go to the How to Make a P4A Video Guide.  It’s very simple, trust me.

And here are a few videos I’ve spotted already:

News so far: Over 1,000 P4A videos have ALREADY been posted today.

We are currently the #5 Trending topic…it’s my goal to beat xmas we’re trending higher than CHRISTMAS PEOPLE! We can do anything…

Our goal of over 1,000,000 comments on YouTube videos this year is just beginning to come to reality…we need your help!

It’s here y’all, and it’s just around the corner. This year’s Project for Awesome promises to be bigger and better than ever. If you don’t know quite what I’m talking about, here’s the gist.

Every year on December 17th, members of the YouTube community have gathered together to promote charities in their videos and then promote those videos, ensuring that they get a lot of views.

There are a few reasons why we like to do this.

1. Raising money for charity is just good, and it’s fun and feels especially right around this time of the year (sorry for those of you who are taking your final exams…)
2. We love the idea that there is a sector of the economy that exists solely to make the world better. Not to make money or products or entertaining videos of adorable cats…but just FOR AWESOME.
3. We like to get YouTube together once a year to work on something together. It’s a great time for up-comming video makers to show their chops impress the folks who think their hot shots but really are just lucky they got here first.

The guidelines for making a video are simple. Just make a video that promotes a charity that you care about and believe in. It can be anything, it doesn’t even have to be a registered non-profit. It’s up to you to sell the organization and the work that their doing to the people watching your video, but it’s also important that you make the video entertaining. The more entertaining, the more people will watch, the more opportunity you have to promote that charity. We’ve got the 2009 P4A Thumbnail to include with your video, and / or the video logo available now.

As we did last year, John and Hank Green will each be putting up $1,000 of their own money to give away to the charities featured in their favorite videos this year.

During the day of December 17th, we will gather here for a 24 hour long live show in which we will be organizing the effort to promote Project for Awesome videos. You can sign up for the mailing list in the upper right hand corner if you want to stay informed throughout the day.

Well, I just finished my project for awesome video (and it’s only 3 AM!) I hope you’re finished as well :-).

I’ve already got 130 P4A submissions in my inbox, and they’re not even officially supposed to be coming in yet. Last year we had about 300, this year, we’re going to be in the thousands. It’s extremely exciting.

Just as a sample (and you can start commenting and rating these if you like) here are some that are already up. Just so you can be working before I get my act together tomorrow morning.

• DoctorNoise - Wigs for Kids
• Eckstea - Cancer Research Institute (worth sticking around for Nixon’s cover of Ice Ice Baby)
• TheFlawInThePlan’s Mother was diagnosed with breast cancer a month ago. Already the comments are exploding here!
• DohDahDohDah is supporting DownsEd, an organization that helped her parents after her sister, who has Down syndrome, was born.

Last year, YouTube was quite suprised when we took over the site…though I think it was a pleasant surprise. This year, they’ve actually decided to give us a hand. And they certainly did that!

With the front page feature, the Project for Awesome has reached an entirely new audience at YouTube. And while many of them seem to believe that I am gay, or on meth, many others agree with us, that it’s time for some awesome!

So here are some updates!

1. Sorry to I.E. users, this site was broken…it is now fixed. Yay.
2. The ever-clever Bill Martin has figured out how to make the thumbnail work for non-partners. Instructions can be found here.
3. The thumbnail screenshots are online on that same page as well.
4. We have confirmation of support from WhatTheBuck, TheHill88, LisaNova and more! Will you join their ranks?
5. Any questions! Stick it in the comments!
6. It is FREAKING COLD in Montana. Good thing the P4A is keeping me glued to this nice warm laptop

Hello, you’re probably coming here because you saw my recent video on youtube about the project for Awesome. You might be looking for resources, like the files to use as thumbnails (PSD: 4:3 or 16:9 - PNG 4:3 or 16:9 - GIF 4:3 or 16:9.) Or you might be coming to find out more about the project (last year it went on the front page of Digg and it’s since been written up in real traditional media.)

Or you might want to sign up for the project for awesome mailing list, so that you can be involved in the festivities of the 17th. So yeah, DO THAT NOW!

The Project for Awesome really is like a youtube-wide party. People are all over the place, commenting on videos, uploading, watching, hanging out, helping out and generally being mischeivious. I honestly can’t wait, and I hope you’ll be a part of it with us.

The 17th is two weeks away and we are just beginning preparations for the 2009 P4A. I have to laugh because, when I worked for mainstream non-profits, two weeks would be a ridiculously short time frame for a significant event. Now, on the other hand, I feel like I’m giving myself scads of time…two weeks away and I’ve got a solid idea for how this is all going to go down! I’ve never been more prepared for an online project in my life!

We’ve been bouncing ideas around all day (we being John Green, Hank Green and Alan Lastufka) about who we think we can get involved, how we want them to be involved, and what exactly the goals are going to be this year.

The result: I think that the 2008 Project for Awesome is going to be significantly more awesome than the 2007 Project for Awesome, and that’s saying something.

Above you can see one of the main changes. Instead of everyone having the exact same thumbnail for their youtube video, we’re going to keep the same layout, but with the name of the featured charity in the thumbnail. I think this will look really awesome once we start cluttering up the most discussed and top-rated pages. Plus, people will understand more quickly what the frik is going on. Last year there was a lot of confusion.

Additionally, we’re putting together this site, which will be a clearing house for information on the P4A. It’s part of the overall attempt to broaden the scope of the P4A. You might have noticed that the word Nerdfighter has yet to be seen on this page. Nerdfighters (being the people who watch my brother and I on youtube) are a huge part of what inspires me to do good work, and work hard on things like the Project for Awesome. But I want everyone to feel welcome and involved, even if they hate my videos.

There are going to be some other big changes to the format as well, but for now those will remain in my pocket (because the details have not been settled.) But rest assured, 2008 (already a great year in the history of awesome) is going out with a bang.