Disclaimer: Sears foot the bill for the adventure described in this post through IZEA, all of the opinions are (of course) mine and mine alone.

Why do you like the web? Why do you like Social Media? What keeps you coming back to our little backwater of the Internet? What keeps you plugging away at your blogs, your networks, your Twitter accounts and your unshakable sense of satisfaction with your digital life? For me, it’s stories like these.

I blog because I like it. I blog about startups and business and technology because over the years I’ve become really good at it, and heck if you can’t do what you’re good at on the Internet — where can you? I also blog because in the back of my mind I’m convinced that all this blog nonsense is going to help change the world.

Which was why when I was approached by Ted Murphy (of IZEA fame) to take a look at the second in a series of Social Media campaigns that big brands have been running through his company IZEA, I was more than a little excited. To keep this brief, Sears has enlisted 8 bloggers (Chris Pirillo, Jim Kukral, Tamar Weinburg, Aaron Brazell, Liz Strauss, Joseph Jeffe, and Chris Heuer ) to take $500 of their precious, corporate ad dollars and make a few wishes come true. I was selected as one of them.

It’s a part of their “Don’t Just Give A Gift, Grant A Wish” holiday campaign. You might have seen the commercials with LL Cool J and whatnot. The premise is that the holidays are about making wishes come true and that we all have the power to make someone else’s wish a reality. They are helping out by donating gifts to military families, and they are challenging other shoppers to take hold of this spirit of giving and make a wish come true for someone in their lives — whether it was themselves, their family or a charity in need.

That’s why a few days ago I found myself in Sears with a cart full of baby cloths and toys. I can tell you right now, I don’t have a little bundle of joy on the way (you can stop holding your breath now) but I do have a soft spot in my heart for Toys For Tots and I wanted to find a way to help them. It was amazing how much stuff you could buy with a little money. After filling my cart, I had enough left over to pick up a couple of toys for myself (a Flip Video Mino and Bioshock).

All of this was possible because Sears, a brand that has been playing the same game for over 100 years had the foresight to take a campaign that they would usually reserve for glossy, celebrity mouthpieces and make it personal. Whether I believe Sears has the greatest selection in the world (they don’t) or I believe their prices are second to none (they aren’t too shabby though), I can tell you unequivocally I believe that Sears “gets it.” They get the fact that in an bad economy, giving one loud mouth blogger like me the ability to play hero for someone close to him is a gift, and like most gifts it will eventually be repaid. The fact is, I have no particular loyalty to any department store but seeing the way Sears is using their ad dollars, they are a lot more likely to get a nod from me in the future.

Before I forget, I have a little gift for you — my readers — on top of giving me the gift cards, Sears also gave me the opportunity to put together a little thank you package for my readers. The three packages that I made are here –

Package 1 (Xbox Elite – For the gamers among you)

It contains –

Package 2 (The Bored Traveler – To help ease the pain of traveling)

It contains –

Package 3 (Homeward Bound – To help get your home theater in shape)

To be eligible to win, just follow these directions:

Readers can enter via blog comment, tweet or blog post.

Blog Comment:

A reader can leave a comment on your blog with the name of the wish package they would like to win.

Twitter Tweet:

A reader can simply tweet out the following message: “RT @sbspalding please grant my wish to win the #Sears (package name) – tweet to win your own wish http://urlbrief.com/174b78”

Blog Post:

A blogger can enter by writing a post about the contest and linking back to your post. Be sure to leave a comment with the URL to their post.

(Official Rules)