Supporting your Blog 'while staying saved

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Supporting your Blog(.while staying saved)
Wade Tonkin ChristianAffiliateMarketers.com
Christian Affiliate Marketing Association
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Is it okay to make money from your blog?
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• Paid Advertising (direct)
• CPM
• Blog Advertising Networks
• Google Adwords
• Affiliate Marketing
• Blog Tipping

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Direct Paid Ads

• Awesome way to support your ministry or blogging
  effort if you can get them
• Low traffic less likelihood of paid ads that
  are worth it.
• How do you determine value of advertising on your
  site
• If you have time to sell can be better option
  than blog network ads.
• OIO Publisher Ad Management System

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Blog Advertising Networks

• Great if you have little time or interest in
  selling ads
• You can set the price for the ads shown on your
  site
• You can approve ads before they are placed
• Drawback is that the network generally takes a
  cut that can range 20-40
• www.blogads.com is a good network to check out.

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CPM (cost per thousand banners)

• Veremedia.com
• Requires some traffic as payout depends on how
  many times ads are displayed.

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Google Adwords

• Get paid per click on ads that Google traffics
  for you based on contextual rules
• Can be a challenge controlling ads
• Real risk of inappropriate ads if your site deals
  with sensitive issues like sexuality
• If you have good traffic and can effectively
  guide the contextual matching can be a decent
  revenue driver.
• Set it and forget it
• Webmaster Welfare

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Blog Tipping

• Really informal - allows for blog readers to
  tip you to support your efforts.
• Buy Me a Beer (Coffee) plug for WordPress
• ScratchBack.com
• Solutions usually tie in to a Paypal account.

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Affiliate Marketing Overview

• Advertising arrangement involving payment for a
  specific completed action (sale made, customer
  acquired, lead form submitted)
• Some examples clothing company pays 15 of
  sales referred, dating site pays 3 per free
  profile created, services related company pays
  10 per lead form completed

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Why affiliate marketing is a great fit for
bloggers?

• Bloggers have trusted relationships with their
  readers.
• Merchants love bloggers they can bring a voice
  and an audience into the discussion.
• There is great potential for reaching users with
  affiliate offers and generating blog revenue
  through product reviews and recommendations
• Dont abuse this trust

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Some tips for effective referrals and reviews

• Only recommend products, services or merchants
  that you would use, or do use yourself.
• If you are going to write up a comprehensive
  review, Id focus on products that you have a
  positive leaning on. (you will always do better
  with a positive review than a negative one)
• If you can use some product images or logos in
  your review
• Come from the POV of what the product did that
  you liked ex/ Bible software that saved you
  time on sermon prep or writing, etc.

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Practical Affiliate Marketing Tips

• Getting started how do I find offers?
• Network programs vs. Private Programs
• How do I get my blog or my church blogs
  application approved?
• What if I get turned down?
• Should I only promote Christian companies,
  products, etc.
• Why I really like affiliate marketing with
  Christian companies

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Best Practices

• Build an opt-in email list - if you have
  substantial traffic and are committed to the idea
  of connecting with your audience, use a program
  like aWeber that can maintain a list and update.
  subscribers when you post.
• Think beyond banners most banners alone dont
  generate enough traffic to really get results.
• Youre a blogger blog!
• Use Video (www.onlinevideotoolkit.com)
• Be transparent its okay to mention in your
  review that buying the product discussed will
  support your ministry
• Be authentic

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.while staying Saved

• As Christians we can have a tendency to trust
  other believers more than others and this can
  lead to problems.
• Due to our numbers Christians are now looked at
  by many as a niche to be monetized.
• Clever (but sleazy) marketers are putting a
  Christian look on their site to prey on the
  Christian niche.

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Avoiding the pitfalls

• Some sites to avoid BigChurch.com , any dating
  site from Spark Networks, ChristianFaithFinancial.
  com or any other Payday loan site claiming to
  be Christian and Christian Work at Home
• Do some homework on a prospective merchant
  partner (look for a Statement of Faith, details
  on outreach ministries supported by the merchant,
  Google the site in question, check
  ChristianAffiliateMarketers.com)
• Ask questions the sleazy guys tend to be
  shallow and not able to address questions on the
  Faith related aspects of the offer.
• Your users are trusting you on your
  recommendations and were all accountable to
  God for the decisions that we make. Promoting a
  questionable company for a few dollars (or even a
  lot of dollars) just isnt worth it.

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Some programs we like
IBSDirect.com SinglesofFaith.com
ChristianCafe.com Books4Christians.com C28.com
QuickVerse.com Harvest Ministries MemoryCross.co
m MusicWizard.com Alpha Omega Publications Crossi
ngs Book Club AnswersinGenesis.com JesusBranded.co
m
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Affiliate Networks

• Commission Junction (www.cj.com)
• Shareasale (www.shareasale.com)
• AvantLink (www.avantlink.com)

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Lets get Practical (QA)
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• Request a free copy of the Christian Affiliate
  Program Directory at http//christianaffiliatemark
  etingassociation.com
• email wade_at_christianaffiliatemarketers.com
• twitter _at_camblog