A blogathon, as you may be able to tell from the name, is similar to a marathon, except instead of running, everybody is blogging! Participants in Blogathon 2006 raise money for charity by blogging for 24-hours in a row, all at the same time, beginning on July 29, 2006.

Each blogger gets people to “sponsor” his or her blog. The sponsors pledge to donate a certain dollar amount to the blogger’s chosen charity, either a flat donation, or an amount per hour.

This year, First Book is a “Suggested Charity” for Blogathon 2006, which means that hopefully we’ll have lots of bloggers raising money for us!

Registration just started, and so far four bloggers have signed up to raise money for First Book. We are especially pleased that Melissa from Escribition emailed us to let us know about Blogathon. If you want to help, you can sponsor Melissa or take a look at the list of bloggers to see who else is raising money for First Book (keep in mind that more bloggers will be signing up in the next few weeks). If you are a blogger yourself, sign up to blog for 24 hours on July 29-30.

If you sponsor a blogger who is raising money for First Book, at the end of the Blogathon you will be directed to First Book’s website to make your donation — the bloggers and Blogathon will never see your credit card info, so everything is totally secure. Don’t forget that donations to First Book are tax-deductible if you’re in the United States.