HomeBasedChristians.com

Tips for Christian Affiliate Marketers

Maureen Kellis — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:41:28 +0000

If you have an online business or perhaps just beginning online with a blog, there are some things to keep in mind when you become an affiliate marketer. Affiliate marketing is simple to incorporate into your online site but you must do it in a professional manner. No one enjoys visiting a site that is full of buttons, and blinking ads on the sidebar. It is very distracting and takes away from the actual site itself. The same pertains to Christian affiliate marketers, limit the amount of ads on your sidebar to make your site enticing and inviting.
Be creative in how you promote a Christian affiliate product. The art of affiliate marketing is to be creative and the more creative the more commission you will earn. Instead of adding all different buttons and banners to your site, use the actual text links that the company you are promoting makes accessible to you. Incorporate the text links within your articles, newsletters, reports, ebooks or anything else you may use to promote your business.
You can also cloak the text links so as to not make them obvious when you are promoting. What does that mean exactly? The text link the company provides to you is usually very long and not something people will remember easily. You can create a shorter version of the link to make it easier to promote on social networks or share with friends. There are several companies available that will shorten long links, one that is free is tinyurl.com. You add your long text link and it will shorten it for you. That is one suggestion but there are others.
The main purpose to keep in mind when promoting Christian affiliate products is to not bombard your audience with a lot of links or banners. Your audience trusts you and enjoys reading your articles or visiting your site, be creative in your marketing efforts without being intrusive.

Tips for Christian Affiliate Marketers originally appeared on HomeBasedChristians.com on August 24, 2010.

How to Start Promoting Christian Affiliate Products If you have an online business promoting products to your...
What is Christian Affiliate Marketing Before I begin to explain what Christian Affiliate Marketing, it...
How to Find Christian Affiliate Programs Affiliate programs are an excellent way to increase the revenues...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Maintaining Honesty When Promoting a Christian Affiliate Product

Maureen Kellis — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:13:52 +0000

When you are promoting products that are not your own, it is extremely important to maintain honesty. If you are promoting a Christian affiliate product the same rule applies. You must understand that if you have an online business or website that has a following, those individuals have developed some trust in you. Do not damage that trust by promoting items you would not use yourself.
It?s very easy to place banner ads on your site because you have seen many do it. However, to maintain an honest integrity of your site and you as an individual do not fall into that trap. The trap of promoting anything and everything in hopes to make some extra money. When you have found something to promote on your site, ask yourself if you would purchase it yourself. If you answered, ?yes? to that question, then you can feel good about promoting and making extra money promoting the product.
Do your research before you begin promoting a product. Be certain that it is something that you as a Christian can honestly and truthfully promote on your site, blog, or newsletter. It?s sad to say, but many times companies will label themselves as Christian to attract the faith based population but truthfully are not Christians themselves. There are many values to take into consideration when you decide to take the leap into affiliate marketing. Some will consider it an adventure and a way to make extra money. You must take into consideration the people you are influencing.
Your readers trust you and visit your site for a reason. Maintaining your honesty when promoting a product is very important and will benefit you in the end. Do your research. Find products that will fit your site or your target market and promote them in an honest fashion and you will not feel guilty in the end.

Maintaining Honesty When Promoting a Christian Affiliate Product originally appeared on HomeBasedChristians.com on August 12, 2010.

How to Start Promoting Christian Affiliate Products If you have an online business promoting products to your...
What is Christian Affiliate Marketing Before I begin to explain what Christian Affiliate Marketing, it...
Tips for Christian Affiliate Marketers If you have an online business or perhaps just beginning...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How to Start Promoting Christian Affiliate Products

Maureen Kellis — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:31:51 +0000

If you have an online business promoting products to your target audience is not difficult. However, if you do not have an e-commerce shop online and basically have a site or blog, you can still promote products in creative ways.
Promoting Christian affiliate products is not difficult if your target audience pertains to faith based people. Some tips to keep in mind when promoting products that are not your own are:
Avoid adding a large amount of button ads to your site
Consider writing a post about the item and add the affiliate link within the post
Promote items that you yourself would considering purchasing
There are many creative ways to promote affiliate products and the same applies to christian products. Perhaps you enjoyed a particular book or your children enjoy a particular movie or toy; considering writing a post about the product and how you enjoy it or your children enjoy it. Within the post you can add an affiliate link to the particular item you are writing about. If you make it enticing enough your audience may be drawn to clicking the link out of curiosity and purchase the item.
The affiliate links to Christian products are not limited to promotion on your site in the form of blog posts either. Consider promoting the products within your newsletter, or E-book or if you are involved in social networking you can share the link in that form as well. Your goal is to promote the product and earn affiliate commissions on that particular product. It is also very important not to SPAM your target audience. Many will be turned off by blatant promotion of products. Be certain not to add too many links to your posts or articles so as not to lose the focus of the article itself.
Promoting affiliate products is not difficult. Just remember to be creative and honest about your promotions and you will be successful.

How to Start Promoting Christian Affiliate Products originally appeared on HomeBasedChristians.com on August 6, 2010.

What is Christian Affiliate Marketing Before I begin to explain what Christian Affiliate Marketing, it...
Maintaining Honesty When Promoting a Christian Affiliate Product When you are promoting products that are not your own,...
Tips for Christian Affiliate Marketers If you have an online business or perhaps just beginning...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How to Find Christian Affiliate Programs

Maureen Kellis — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 07:58:33 +0000

Affiliate programs are an excellent way to increase the revenues in your business. Affiliate marketing is available for all target markets. One must be creative in finding the programs but they are available. Some companies are not aware of the advantages that affiliate programs have for their company. If you happen to come across a company that has a product you would to promote in your online business, you may consider approaching the company and asking if they have an affiliate program available.
Christian affiliate programs are available but may not be easy to find. The first thing to do is go to the search engines such as Yahoo and Google and input ?Christian affiliate programs?. Some may be listed and that is a great starting point. Check each program available and see if they have the items you may be interested in promoting. You may have to get creative when searching for Christian affiliate programs. Some may not promote in search engines which will make it a bit more difficult to find, but don?t lose hope there are ways to find them if they are available. Another way to find such programs is searching the individual companies. You may enjoy reading books from a particular author, many books are listed on Amazon and they will be listed by author or category such as Faith. Amazon is a great place to search for items to promote, and are not limited to books either.
Another way to find Christian affiliate programs or a company that may feature faith based items that you are interested in promoting is to search for the items themselves. For instance, if you?d like to promoted faith based jewelry, search for ?faith based jewelry?. The companies that carry such items will be listed, then you can search each company and locate the affiliate programs in that manner. Finding Christian affiliate programs may seem difficult but with a little creativity and some work, you will find the program that suits you the best.

How to Find Christian Affiliate Programs originally appeared on HomeBasedChristians.com on July 31, 2010.

What is Christian Affiliate Marketing Before I begin to explain what Christian Affiliate Marketing, it...
Maintaining Honesty When Promoting a Christian Affiliate Product When you are promoting products that are not your own,...
How to Start Promoting Christian Affiliate Products If you have an online business promoting products to your...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

What is Christian Affiliate Marketing

Maureen Kellis — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:18:52 +0000

Before I begin to explain what Christian Affiliate Marketing, it is important to understand what the meaning of affiliate marketing is. Affiliate marketing is a great way to make an income, some will incorporate affiliate marketing into their existing business but for some affiliate marketing is their business. The premise behind affiliate marketing is to advertise another business on your website. However it is not simply limited to your website. You can incorporate links into your website, reports, E-books, webinars, articles and the list can continue and you can be as creative as you?d like.
Affiliate marketing involves promoting another business, product, site and the person who is promoting it is called the affiliate or the associate and is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber or purchase for their efforts. Affiliate marketing is available for any type of business. If you are interested in promoting health products, there are several different products available for your target market. The same applies to Christian Affiliate Marketing. Instead of promoting a particular health product, the Christian Affiliate Marketer will find products that will be more pleasing to their target market. The products can range from books, to other sites such as t-shirts or jewelry.
Affiliate marketing is not difficult and can actually be exciting. As a Christian Affiliate Marketer it is exciting to share christian products with your audience. As a business owner, it is difficult to develop a multitude of products but with affiliate marketing it is possible. The business owner can offer several different products that will be appealing to their particular target audience and not worry about spending days producing the products. One of the major advantages of affiliate marketing is the fact that the associate can simply place an advertisement or text link on their site and promote. The promotion will lead to sales which then leads to income. The associate does not have to produce the product or send the product, all the associate has to do is promote.

What is Christian Affiliate Marketing originally appeared on HomeBasedChristians.com on July 25, 2010.

How to Start Promoting Christian Affiliate Products If you have an online business promoting products to your...
Maintaining Honesty When Promoting a Christian Affiliate Product When you are promoting products that are not your own,...
Tips for Christian Affiliate Marketers If you have an online business or perhaps just beginning...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Guaranteed Ways To Get Your Blog Comments Removed

Maureen Kellis — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:57:56 +0000

Today’s topic is near and dear to my heart , as I just spent a chunk of precious time deleting and marking as spam 223 comments from over the weekend. First I’ll discuss general blog etiquette, and then I’ll tell you what you’ll need to do to get your comment posted along with a link back to your site.

Since this blog is about developing a home business, and given that most of the spam I received was linking to other business sites, I’ll direct my comments as such, but keep in mind that what I am saying here also applies to personal blogs as well. Although “blogs” started as personal journals, they are absolutely essential for your business. Please keep in mind that they are a social expression and people react emotionally, regardless of the topic. Good business bloggers are trying to develop a rapport with their visitors. We are looking for feedback. And community. And of course, in the long term, sales.

When you take time to responsibly comment on other people’s blog, good things happen. You’ll find people visit your blog and leave comments in return.

The keywords being “responsibly comment.” Blogging can be very rewarding as you become involved in an exchange of ideas and build relationships with customers and prospective customers. An informative and intersting blog can bring you word of mouth traffic. It is unfortunate that many bloggers become wary due to the massive amount of comment spam going on.

Here are some pointers for staying on the good side of the blogmasters. I am happy to give you some link love and use do follow tags, however you must provide interesting feedback and follow the guidelines below or your comment will get deleted.

Please, don’t slap your affiliate links and/or site links in the comments. Even if your product/site is relevant, my blog is not your sales venue. There is a handy dandy place for you to leave your site link right on the comment form.

Please be relevant and stick to the topic. Don’t try to slip in some spam. If you have something to raise that’s relevant but not exactly on the same topic, a better way may be for you to blog about it and posting a trackback instead.

As my momma always said, if you don’t have anything nice to say, figure out a nice way to say it! I do welcome a difference of opinion, but you’ll have to do it respectfully. Also, my blog is not the place to debate different religious points of view. It’s about running a business from a Christian perspective. If you are looking to debate religion there are many appropriate blogs where you can do so.

To keep your comment from sounding “spammy,” say something intelligent that contributes to the conversation. If you agree or disagree, tell me why. If you’ve had experience with the topic, share it. We love to hear it. Ranting and complaining is not cool.

If I sound negative, I don’t mean to. As I said before, I’d like to give link love. These using these guidelines when leaving your comments is the fastest way to get you there.

Looking forward to connecting with you online,

Maureen :-)

P.S. One of my mastermind mentors, is blogging expert and entrepreneur Lynette Chandler. She has some free info to help new bloggers start their blog right from the beginning. Grab yours at BlogEnergizer.com

Guaranteed Ways To Get Your Blog Comments Removed originally appeared on HomeBasedChristians.com on May 18, 2009.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Peel Away Ads

Maureen Kellis — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:22:01 +0000

Is there anything more annoying online than pop up ads? I’m sure there is, and I know there are many opinions. I will admit that I, like many, were intrigued at first. Pop up ads were a novel idea and very effective years ago. But with overuse, overexposure, and pop-up blockers, pop up ads have gone the way of banner ads. So is there another alternative for the website owner who wants to advertise? Let’s consider the peel away ad.

Peel away ads are relatively new but they are catching on like wildfire. These ads resolve the problem of pop ups in an interesting and intriguing way. People actually want to discover what these ads are hiding.

With traditional pop up ads, you have to click on them to make them go away. They can appear in the middle of reading an article or looking at a web page. Some pop up ads scroll across the page from one side to the other. The bottom line here is that the ads have become annoying and bothersome. And I’m assuming you do not want to irritate your readers;-).

Peel away ads were designed to deal with the frustration of pop up ads. Websites use ads to bring in money. Advertising is a necessary evil if the website wants to create a bit of passive income, but using a peel away ad is less intrusive to your website visitors. They are good for affiliate programs; events, products and services you want to promote; and can even be used to get people to sign up for your mailing list.

Here’s How Peel Away Ads Work:

Peel away ads look just like a page of a book. The corner of the ad is bent down as if you were marking a page in a book. A portion of the can be seen so that the person gets an idea of what the ad is talking about. If you are not sure what I’m talking about, you can check out the ad at the top right of my website. See how it peels back?

When someone rolls their icon over the peeled page, it will peel a bit more. The person can continue reading the ad or choose to ignore it. In the second case, moving the icon away from the peeled page causes the page to return to its original state. No extra screen has to be clicked on and closed. The ad rolls back up and doesn’t get in the way.

Is It Easy To Use?

In a word…yes. In fact I was surprised at how easy it was. There are a few software programs you can check out.

Purchase the peel away ad software. To find out more, go to the website at peelawayads.com. The software is easy to install. Peel away ads can be used in any corner of the web page. It is advised that ads stay above the halfway point of the page for best results. Choose the right or left upper corner for the peel away ads. You can test out which corner is best.

With the software, animate all of your websites. Because people want to see what is on the next page, so to speak, the click rate for your ads will increase. Purchase the software once and no further payments are required. Add the script to your page and get started.

If you run an affiliate program, you may want to include peel away ads in the marketing materials you provide to your affiliates. If you are an affiliate marketer, you can always contact the site owner and suggest this service.

Maureen :-)

Peel Away Ads originally appeared on HomeBasedChristians.com on May 11, 2009.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

5 Ways To Blog Without A Lot Of Work

Maureen Kellis — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:22:44 +0000

On today’s Marketing Monday, let’s welcome one of my mentors from MomMasterminds. Lynette Chandler is the owner of TechBasedMarketing.com and consider to be a blogging expert. Here she shares with us some great tips for easier blogging. Enjoy!

5 Ways To Blog Without A Lot Of Work

1.Assemble a team.

Gather a few people with complimentary businesses to come together and contribute to the blog. Have everyone involved promote the blog as a condition of participation. This helps everyone involved because now, you get to reach each other’s customer group in a non invasive manner. Everyone gets a chance to be seen and read. Use your RSS feeds! Take it one step further by displaying the group’s RSS feed on each others’ websites to capture a wider audience.

2.Hire a team of bloggers.

Newspapers have contributors, blogs can too. If you already hire writers for your articles, this works the same way. Many of the most successful blogs are already doing this. The combination of group promotion effort, regular updates and pinging can help bring in traffic quickly. One thing to note here is blogs are a somewhat social tool. Some very popular niche blogs are not all that visible in the search engines, yet they get a lot of traffic because people recommend them and they become a sort of buzz hub. Search engines do not always pick up on this but they do eventually. This is why group blogging can be very powerful because you’re leveraging the power of not one (your) influence group but several people’s influence group. If you do pay your bloggers, you can always offset this cost by displaying Adsense ads. Many popular blogs earn a good amount in Adsense, that they make a nice profit even after paying their bloggers team. After a while it becomes a passive income stream.

3.Recycle your content.

Have you got articles you’ve written a long time ago? What about material that you’ve never put online? A newspaper interview, printed article, maybe an audio segment. You can blog these. Break up the articles into small manageable blog entries. One of the reasons people like blogs so much is they are bite-sized pieces of information that give people what they want to know quickly. If the article is long, create a series of entries for example, a long article about finding the right home insurance can be broken up into home insurance week on your blog. You’ll also have one whole week’s worth of blog entries covered.

4.Include audio.

For some of us, it’s much easier to speak than to write. So, mix up your blog. Carry a small portable MP3 recorder or blog by phone. This is awfully convenient especially as moms, we’re running in and out of the house all day, ferrying our kids where they need to go. Maybe you’re stuck in traffic, or waiting for the kids to get out piano class or school. An idea or thought strikes and you think “Oh I need to share that on my blog” so, pick up your phone (assuming you have a cell phone – and many of us do), dial a number, say what’s on your mind, save it and you’re done. Your blog is published. If you’re using Blogger, you can do this for free through AudioBlog. It involves calling a long distance number, but most cell phone plans don’t charge extra for long distance anyway so you’re not incurring any extra cost.

If you’re using another blog publishing tool like WordPress, Movable Type or TypePad, then you’ll need a service like AudioBlogger.com. This one is a paid service but it’s only $4.95 a month and it gives you more options like a nice flash player, statistics and even video that make it worth while.

5.Automate your blog.

One of the best things about using a more sophisticated blog publishing tool like WordPress is forward blog entry. This allows you to blog ahead of time. For example if you have several things you’d like to share or speak out about, you can set the blog not to post that entry until a date and time of your choosing. It works much like an autoresponder or scheduled mailing feature you find in mailing list managers.

Let’s face it. There will be times we have a ton to say and times we have little or nothing to share. Instead of having multiple entries one day and nothing over the next few days, by using forward entry you can blog everyday of the week. Or rather you blog once and the blog publishing tool does the job automatically the rest of the week. You can even forward blog for weeks and months ahead of time.

Note: Blogger users unfortunately cannot do this because Blogger publishes all entries regardless what you date it immediately.

Affectionately nicknamed Tech Diva by her peers, Lynette Chandler regularly dispenses blogging and RSS help to countless business owners. Visit Lynette’s BlogEnergizer to learn more about blogging and get a copy of her video free.

5 Ways To Blog Without A Lot Of Work originally appeared on HomeBasedChristians.com on February 9, 2009.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Coaching Business Pt2

Maureen Kellis — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 07:54:36 +0000

This is the second part of a three part series.

You have decided that you want to become an online coach. This is a great business for you to get into. Coaching online is a business with room for unlimited growth. As you begin your online coaching business, there are a few things that you need to be aware of.

These are the basic steps that all coaches need to take to make their online coaching business successful:

Decide on your niche. Your passion and expertise will guide you. But before you go into any business, especially coaching, it is important to know that there is a demand for your services. Use a keyword tool to analyze how many times people are searching for the type of coaching that you will be giving.

Create your own website. You will need to have your own web site and develop an online presence. This will be the site where you will direct potential clients and post information that your clients can have access to. If you have the skills you can do this yourself or you can outsource it.

Communications and Materials. There are many different ways to coach online and keep your clients and potential clients in the loop. You can use weekly email newsletters to update your clients. Web casts can give your clients a live “how to” and pep talk. You can also use e-books and articles to coach your clients.

Advertising and Marketing. After you have set up your web site and decided how you will coach your online clients, it is time to get your first clients. You can begin promoting your online business through well-placed ads on web sites and through using forums to tell people about your new online coaching venture. You can choose to take your first couple of online clients pro-bono. You can offer your services in exchange for testimonials once your coaching is done. This will help to build your credibility as an online coach.

Beginning your online coaching business is a new and exciting experience. By following the basic steps to start your online coaching business, you will set your business on the road to success. This template for online coaching can be used with any type of online coaching. With a little change and variety in the ways that you use each step, you can make these easy steps work for you.

Coaching Business Pt2 originally appeared on HomeBasedChristians.com on February 1, 2009.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Bob The Teacher’s Wild Half-Time Sale

Maureen Kellis — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 02:36:50 +0000

I first met Bob Jenkins aka “Bob the Teacher” several years back on WAHM.com. He is now considered to be an expert in internet marketing and social networking. Bob has created effective, action-oriented training courses that have been used by business owners around the world to increase their profits, shorten their learning curve, and exceed their goals. One reason is Bob’s gift for teaching and his ability to deliver the information visually through mind maps and videos.

On Sunday, you’ll be able to get the best lessons from his best training during the second annual Halftime Sale…Here’s just a few of the courses you’ll be able to learn from:

* Squidoo Secrets 2
* Teleseminar Formula
* Discover Freemind (mindmapping)
* Discover Autoresponders (Aweber)
* Discover Social Networking (Twitter)
* Discover Product Creation (make free reports)
* IM Success Live Workshop (Ellicott City)

One thing I do take seriously is internet marketing. If you want the chance to get some fantastic material at a ridiculous price go to Bob The Teacher’s Wild Half-Time Sale now and see how it works. The pass to get in is free and the wacky sale starts on Sunday.

Have a great weekend!

Maureen :-)

Bob The Teacher’s Wild Half-Time Sale originally appeared on HomeBasedChristians.com on January 30, 2009.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.