Christian bloggers are often choosier about the ads that get displayed around their content so monetizing a Christian blog can be challenging.

This year I converted one of my oldest websites into a WordPress blog. Women By Grace has long been a resource for Christian women and is now growing as a community blog. I looked around hoping to find some new revenue sources and was pleased to discover a Christian Ad Network and quick to sign up and give them a try.

First Impressions

Getting set up wasn’t hard.  I added my site, grabbed the ad code and installed it on my site.

For some reason the ads were nevere visible to me on my PC, not in Firefox or in Internet Explorer.  But when I viewed the site on my Mac, I could see them fine.  Never could figure out why.

I ended up being confused about ad sales as I started to see tiny profits right away.  Six cents here, three cents there.  I had set up ads for higher values than that.  I wrote the support address to ask about it and was told that it was PPC and because I hadn’t declared a PPC price, it was defaulting at a penny.  Still confused because I hadn’t signed up for the PPC option at all from what I could tell from their system.

I did get one bulk ad buy, earning me $35.00.  That seemed promising – but it was an isolated instance.  In the next two months, no other ads were bought.

Last Impressions

For the last two weeks my site has been loading slow – agonizingly slow.  I could see that it was the ad network slowing things down but hoped it would clear up soon.  It didn’t.  I finally decided to drop out and removed the ad units from the site.

I would have loved for it to work out and I’m sad that it hasn’t.

Hopefully another option will show up one of these days.

I am still cross blogging with Edie from Millionaire Moms, and she asked me about my favorite topic!  Twitter!

Considering that we BOTH love Twitter, would you mind sharing your top 10 reasons you love it?  Also, I’d be interested in hearing ways that you’ve learned to use it effectively as well as how you keep its use from becoming a “time waster” in your work day.

Well, Edie that’s a tough one… there are like a million zillion reasons I love twitter…. but I will try to norrow them down to just ten

• It has helped me in my writing career. I had no idea that writers and publishers and agents use twitter the way they do, but I quickly discovered that they LOVE it. I mean, it makes sense–we spend all day at our computers writing away, and when we want a quick reprieve from the depths of our manuscript we have twitter right at our fingertips.
• I use it when I am bored at mommy stuff. Seriously. How often have you been at some goofy jump-a-thon birthday party bored out of your mind? I just whip out my trusty iPhone and log into my Tweetie App. (That’s THE bet iPhone App hands down for twitter, none of the others even come close.) Then I can laugh and talk to thousands of people instead of stabbing a plastic sprok in my arm for fun.
• The networking friends I have made through twitter is in-sane. It’s just so cool. I have mommy blogging friends, mommy writer friends, battlestar galactica friends–and they ALL make me smile each day with their tweets.
• People can’t be long winded. You can’t annoy me with a five page email in 140 characters, so if someone has something important to say, then they have no choice but to say it quick.
• My parents keep up to date on my life. I actually tie twitter into my facebook. (Lots of people say don’t do this, but I do it because I don’t have the time to keep up with both social networks.) My dad checks in and he gets to read my tweets throughout the day, and look at all the pictures I upload of the goings on of our every day life! He LOVES this, and so do I!
• The links are so up to date. I used to keep up with Digg and Redditt for the latest in big news stories, but they are so far behind twitter’s trending topics now, that they are almost obsolete. I think that’s cool that we get news the very second something happens. Makes me feel all informed!
• I can say whatever I want whenever I want. You have to be careful with this one, because sometimes you say something in twitterville, and then wish instantly you could take it back. Sure, there’s the delete key, but once someone has retweeted your stuff, it lives on in twitter forever and ever. But, for the most part when I am feeling something. I just say it.
• You get out of twitter what you put into it. My husband once asked me to build his business twitter account, and I tried-I really did. I got him a ton of followers in just a few days, but then he started complaining that his followers were just spammy and boring. Not like my real followers. That’s just it. Every single person I have followed, I have personally checked out, and I know exactly what their twitter stream is about. I don’t have to deal with a lot of spam in my twitter stream, because when I see something I don’t like-I just unfollow the person.
• People who follow me are for the most part interested in what I have to say. Sure, you have your twitter gamers out there just trying to build up their numbers, but most of the time-when I tweet about a funny ninja coat rack or a new blog post-my followers are genuinely interested. That makes twitter totally worth the time.
• You can tweet from the bath tub. I love that you can tweet from anywhere. And sometimes, I just put my phone in a baggie and take a bath while I get my social network on! It’s fabulous, you are making connections, meeting new people, sharing genuine interest in things, and getting clean all at the same time.

And, Edie also asked me how I kept it from being distracting.

Well, unfortunately I don’t have an answer for that. I don’t do a very good job there. I can get distracted for hours at a time in a heated twitdebate. So, I guess that would be my question for Edie!

How do YOU keep twitter from being a disctraction? Or, just social networking in general? We know it’s important to grow our business, but how much is too much?

Over to you, Edie

To those of you wondering: Yes, I put that twitter bird in that bathtub, and yes it took me longer than actually writing this post.

I am still chatting with Edie over at Millionaire Moms Media. If you’d like to see her part of the conversation, head over there and check it out!

Wow, Edie! That’s a great story. I think it’s neat how your blog helped you reach out to others in the same situation as yours. This crazy internet! I can’t believe the lasting friendships I’ve made with it!

She asked me:

Would you mind sharing how you got your start in blogging?  Also, can you share why someone who isn’t “new” to blogging chose to be an intern for Moms Talk Network? (We have that in common!)  What do you hope to gain out of your experience as an intern?

[Read more...]

This week I am going to have a cross blog conversation with the fabulous Edie from Millionaire Moms Media. She’s a really cool mom with lots and lots to say about profitable mommy blogging so she makes a perfect p

erson to do this with.

What is a cross blog conversation, you ask?

Well, it’s where we ask each other questions back and forth on our own blogs and the person over at the other site answers them on theirs. It should be interesting to see, because I’ve never done anything like this before… and I am going to start!

So, Edie-My question for you is this:

I noticed you have a mix of both pleasure and business on your blog. Occaosinally you mention a proud mommy moment, but mostly you talk about the things that matter to those momies out there wanting to make cash with their blogs. How do you decide your balance for those sorts of posts? Do you have a system, or do you just sort of go for it?

(If you guys have any questions for Edie, please let me know! We will be talking to her for a few days!)

A business card might get you an introduction.  A media kit might get you a job.  Here are some things you should have in your media kit.

Tell them about the genius behind your site

• Include a short bio;
• What you write about – in a nutshell;
• A professional looking picture; and
• Contact info – are you available for phone or Skype calls?

Tell them who knows about you

• Include your blog stats per month;
• Demographics/Info about your readers that could include gender, age range, # of children, education, employment, income, location, ethnicity;
• How influential your audience is [do they blog, twitter, use facebook?];
• Your numbers [Twitter followers, Google Rank, Alexa Rank, Technorati authority, newsletter info, blog key words];
• Affiliations, Forums, Groups you’re a part of; and
• Don’t forget to include offline influence – we do talk in real life also.

[Read more...]

It’s time to Buzz a Mom!  This week we are talking to Dr. Daisy Sutherland, aka Dr. Mommy.

My name is Dr. Daisy Sutherland, aka Dr. Mommy, and I am a Doctor of Chiropractic by profession, a mom to 5 beautiful children which I home school, and married to my soul mate…Health/Wellness and Nutrition have always been a big part of my life and sharing my knowledge with the public is very important to me.

I am a Parenting Coach and my mission is to help parents teach their families to lead happier and healthier lives.   My ultimate goal is to help individuals take control of their bodies and health and make informed decisions regarding their health.

I was flat out amazed at how many sites she runs!  She has tips to stay healthy, helping you help your family, a content writing and managing site, a Reserved Only course teaching respect, responsibility, and renewal, an estore, and she stays active on Twitter.

So I had to ask her, “Do you have a VA?”
I do and couldn’t imagine not having one.

Which of your sites is your favorite?
I love all my sites, but if I had to pick just one, I would have to say Dr. Mommy Chronicles. [Read more...]

I was thinking about the song “Show Me” from My Fair Lady.  Just in case you aren’t familiar with the song here’s the clip.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWtjLCvNelg&feature=related

With that in mind here are some blogging analogies I thought of.  

Have you ever read a blog where they constantly write how sorry they are that they haven’t written in a while?  I will soon remove that blog from my feed reader.  I’d rather they just pop in now and then with a short post instead of often telling me they are sorry.  If you’re truly sorry you don’t keep repeating the action.

Show me. [Read more...]