I have a bunch of friends and family with birthdays this month and I’ve been racking my brain about the perfect present for each person. I pride myself on being able to find the exact right item for each unique person in my life.

Over the years, I have received heaping helpings of positive feedback about my ability to select what seems like the perfect gift. The joy these gifts have brought the recipients gives me much satisfaction, but it also places an enormous amount of pressure on me. Your brother can send you a birthday email and an Amazon gift certificate, but if my loved ones or close friends received that from me, they would assume I was slipping or way too busy or just didn’t care about them.

It’s not about how much I spend or don’t spend; it’s really about taking the time to select something that is thoughtful. It’s not about what I want or like, but what the other person would like to receive and presenting that in a creative way.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the subject of giving and generosity – especially with the holiday season approaching so quickly. In the September/October issue, due out next week, our Business columnist Jay Conrad Levinson writes about guerrilla generosity in the context of holiday promotions. His theory is that giving (whether it’s freebies in the form of gifts or information) comes back to generous affiliates ten-fold.

I have recently been on the receiving end of some affiliate generosity. It’s not an easy place for me to be. I’m much more comfortable as the giver. However, a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that the folks at Commission Junction would not give me a press pass to its upcoming CJU conference in Santa Barbara. Several affiliates contacted me to let me know they had been in touch with their CJ reps and asked about my situation. Most felt it was simply an oversight on CJ’s part and wanted to try and help straighten out the problem. Others offered me their extras passes to attend. I was touched.

Also, while in Chicago attending Andy Rodriguez’s Affiliate Manager Certification Seminar, I witnessed so many acts of kindness and sharing among affiliates and affiliate managers. It was amazing and eye opening.

Early on in covering this industry I noticed how secretive and closemouthed many people were in revealing anything - even the most basic information like their URLs – forget specific details regarding traffic, conversions and commissions.

But after attending this seminar and hearing the kinds of details and experiences that were shared among peers, I realized that this community is very much about sharing and giving back. They just don’t like to tell the press the specifics about their business. Duh!

During the Affiliate Manager Certification seminar there were several affiliates that volunteered to help mentor other affiliates in return for just one favor – that someday that affiliate helps another affiliate. Sort of a pay it forward concept.

There were many attendees of that seminar that volunteered to help me in a variety of ways: to understand some of the new concepts in the industry; to get a better handle on exactly how affiliate theft is perpetrated; to walk me through specific situations and problems that arise in the industry; to allow me to lean on them as a resource or sounding board for industry issues and more. These are wonderful and generous gifts.

And there are so many more examples of how generous this community continues to be. If you know of a case of generosity that involves online marketers, let me know. lisap@revenuetoday.com.