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.

NOTE:  This finishes up a guest post series from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors.

The word “overhead” is not a favorite among those who run businesses of any kind.  Nobody likes the expenses of operating a business.  And nobody really talks about them much when it comes to promoting all of the “money-making” products and services online.

But, don’t kid yourself, there’s a lot of overhead.

That brings me to the fifth reason why I love affiliate marketing…

** You don’t need a big budget to make it work **

Do you have any idea how much money is spent running an internet business? There are monthly fees for…

• Autoresponders
• Hosting
• Management
• Advertising
• Scripts
• Much more

There are regular fees for…

• Licensing
• Outsourcing
• Support
• Customer Service
• Maintenance
• Development
• Recruting
• Much more

It’s not uncommon to spend tens of thousands (even hundreds of thousands) of dollars in operational costs — which is fine if you’ve been in business a while and are making the bucks. However, if you’re a newcomer, it can be taxing on your budget!

SIDEBAR:  I paid one girl over $30,000 last year just to oversee one small part of my business.    No one talks much about it, but there ARE a lot of expenses involved before you get to the  “bottom line” of profit.

BUT, with affiliate marketing, you don’t need a big budget to make it work! You can simply use a variety of free and low-cost marketing methods to generate clicks to your affiliate link.

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need a big budget to make it work.

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of Affiliate Payraise, teaching you a whopping 27 ways to increase your affiliate commissions! Tired of “tiny” commission checks?  Grab your copy today.

NOTE:  This continues a guest post series from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors.

I’m sure by now you are well aware that there are those who have reported HUGE amounts of money being made with their online businesses.  What you may not be aware of is the amount of work involved in generating those “sales” (not always net profit, mind you … this isn’t “spendable”
income in a lot of cases.)

That brings me to the fourth reason why I love affiliate marketing…

** You don’t need to manage an entire business **

While it can be quite lucrative, running an entire business with employees, inventory, partners, vendors, and other associates can be a time-sucking, frustrating ordeal.

Imagine…

• Processing refunds
• Putting out fires when partners SPAM
• Managing day-to-day operations
• Overseeing projects you’ve outsourced
• Recruiting new affiliates
• Training everyone to help you
• Paying taxes
• Taking care of the paper trail
• Doing all of the “stuff” that business owners do.

Didn’t you want to start an internet business to make more time for important things in life?

Why not make a lot of money WITHOUT making a lot of extra work for yourself?!

It can be a lot of extra work and stress. BUT, with affiliate marketing, you don’t need to manage an entire business! You are simply responsible for promoting your affiliate link… someone else handles all the rest.

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need to manage an entire business.

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of Affiliate Payraise, teaching you a whopping 27 ways to increase your affiliate commissions! Tired of “tiny” commission checks?  Grab your copy today.

NOTE:  This continues a guest post series from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors.

Some people have the ability to persuade others and talk them into just about anything.  Especially when it comes to influencing their buying decisions.  They know how to push the right hot buttons, say things the right way and generally get consumers into an emotional frenzy to the
point they are ready to click an order button.

There are two key words in that paragraph that really need to stand out in your mind:  “some people”.

Not everyone has this ability.  In fact, only a few do.

That brings me to the third reason why I love affiliate marketing…

** You don’t need to write a world class salesletter**

Have you ever tried to write a salesletter? There’s a reason why professional copywriters charge up to $10,000  (and sometimes even more) for a SINGLE salesletter. It takes a lot of experience and skill to write a top-gun salesletter, which is why most people have a hard time convincing people to buy if they do create their own products and website.

They simply don’t have the right salesletter in place to make it all work. Without good copy, it really doesn’t matter how spectacular the offer is, you’re simply not going to get many sales.

SIDEBAR:  The average conversion rate of site visitors who become buyers is reportedly less than 2%.  That  means 98 out of every 100 do NOT buy.  That’s why  sales are so incredibly bad for a poor site … you *might* get 2 sales out of every 300-400 visitors.

BUT, with affiliate marketing, you don’t need to write a salesletter! You simply direct people to someone else’s high-octane salesletter for THEM to convert your leads into commissionable sales.

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need to write a world class salesletter.

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of Affiliate Payraise, teaching you a whopping 27 ways to increase your affiliate commissions! Tired of “tiny” commission checks?  Grab your copy today.

NOTE:  This continues a guest post series by one of my favorite internet marketing mentors.

Pop quiz time.  What does “HTML” stand for?  Don’t know that one?  How about this – what does “FTP” stand for? OK, one more chance.  Do you know how to work with either?

That brings me to the second reason why I love affiliate marketing…

** You don’t need to build a website **

What scares people more than creating a product is building a website!

• What in the world is HTML?  Or FTP?
• How much does the software cost?  And hosting?
• How do I upload files?
• Why isn’t it formatted correctly?
• Why don’t my graphics look like the ones the pros have?

If you are a complete beginner, it can be very difficult (even using templates) to get an attractive website in place. And hiring a professional to do it fo ryou is out of the budget for most people.

But, with affiliate marketing, you don’t need to build a website.  You simply send visitors to someone else’s professionally designed site through your affiliate link.

SIDEBAR:  Just in case you’re interested, HTML stands      for “hypertext markup language” and is the coding used to build webpages.  FTP stands for “file transfer protocol” and is the process used for moving files from your computer to a website, or vice versa.

Really, in a manner of looking at it, you get to take advantage of the time and money invested by someone else to develop the site.  Think about it:  when you promote an affiliate link, it reflects firstly upon YOU.  You are the one who is advertising the link, recommending the product, sending people who have interacted with YOU to the website.

The professional site of someone else really represents you as the promoter, in the eye of those who have clicked through your link.

You get the benefits without the bother.

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need to build a website.

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of Affiliate Payraise, teaching you a whopping 27 ways to increase your affiliate commissions! Tired of “tiny” commission checks?  Grab your copy today.

NOTE:  The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors.

Do you find yourself “starting” to create your own product to sell online, but never “finishing” it?

One of the things I love about affiliate marketing is –

** You don’t need to create your own products **

Many people find the idea of creating their own products to be an overwhelming and even paralyzing task.

• I don’t have any good ideas!
• I’m not a writer!
• There’s too much competition!
• I don’t know how to set everything up!
• I can’t figure out where to start!
• It’s too hard!

These are just a few of the valid reasons many people give when it comes to not creating their own products to sell. I’m sure with a few minutes of brainstorming, we could come up with a list of many more.

With affiliate marketing, you don’t need your own products. You simply promote someone else’s already proven successful offer for a commission.

And, truth be told, even if you ARE a writer and you DO have lots of ideas and you CAN figure it all out…

** Nobody wants to create new products all the time **

As good as you may be, you don’t know everything!  Why try to create a product on every topic imaginable in your  market when you can earn just as much money by simply promoting someone else’s really good offer as one of your profit streams?

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need to create your own products.

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of Affiliate Payraise, teaching you a whopping 27 ways to increase your affiliate commissions! Tired of “tiny” commission checks?  Grab your copy today.

We are so proud to announce our winner in the big Because Mom Said So Blog Giveaway.

Please join us in congratulating Cheryl Nelson!

Cheryl, we are thrilled for you and can’t wait to see what you do with your new blog!

If you’ve peeked at Because Mom Said So today, you see that it is part way through it’s transformation.  All of the Blogger content has been imported into WordPress and merged with a great bunch of affiliate articles in our Mom Webs ‘WAHM’ Loaded Blog.

Next, April will be giving it fresh graphics that will make it Cheryl’s own   So stay tuned for Wednesday’s show when we’ll talk with Cheryl and share more about what she plans to do in the future.

Standard Podcast Play Now | Play in Popup

Carrie Lauth and April Jones join me today for a special episode of Profitable Mommy Blogging.

We’re having a Blog Giveaway – not, not your typical Blog Giveaway where you give something away from your blog… we’re actually giving away a BLOG!

Carrie has a mom blog that she no longer wishes to write on. It’s just not focused enough on her market. She approached me with the idea of giving the blog away here on the site. I loved the idea – but decided we needed to throw in a few added twists

The blog we’re giving away is Because Mom Said So. It’s four years old this Spring and has hundreds of pages of great mom content on it.

It is currently built in Blogger – and since we’re all proud WordPress Snobs, we’ve decided to flip this blog over into a WordPress site.

And not just any WordPress site either. We’re going to start with a Loaded Affiliate Blog from Mom Webs - with 50+ great articles designed to promote popular mom and WAHM affiliate programs.

Then, April Jones from Rock Star Blog Designs is going to customize the theme with a hot new look.

When we’re done, Because Mom Said So is going to be an awesome blog, ready for you to take over and rock it! (We’ll even be throwing in some special training… more on that in Part Two!)

How to Enter:

Leave a comment on this post telling us ‘I want that Blog!’ and tell us Why and What you’ll do with it. The deadline for your comment is Tuesday, April 28th, Noon EST.

Carrie, April and I will read through the entries and choose our favorites to move on to Part Two – which is when we’ll ask the community to vote on our winner.

Applications have been flooding in for our Mom’s Talk Network Blogging Internship and it’s time to wrap things up and get on to the next phase of selection.  If you’re interested in being part of the session that starts May 4th – act fast!  Applications will be closed on Saturday, April 18th at midnight.

Want to learn how to be a Profitable Mommy Blogger?

Our Mom’s Talk Network Blogging Internship will be opening up a new ten week training session starting Monday, May 4th.  If you are interested in learning more about it, please visit this page.

Do you want to be a Green Mommy Blogger?  My friend Linda has a really unique opportunity for the right person over at BioZing.

If you’ve been wanting to get going with an environmental blog and would like the chance to work with someone with extensive internet marketing experience, this would be a great project for you.

Unlike most internships, this one ends with you owning the project!

Check it out here.

This is a Guest Blog Post by Rajeev Edmonds of MintBlogger. Follow him @mintblogger

The blogger in you is continuously evolving while you write, connect and engage with your audience. It’s a learning curve that refines your skills, your persona and your approach towards dealing with things that you do in daily life. We learn from peers, from our readers and from the people around us.

Recently, I watched a stage play and found some interesting comparisons between stage actors and bloggers. If we closely observe the professional life of stage actors, we can pick lots of positive things that can help us in improving our blogging skills. Their approach, their team work and their way of dealing with public reaction can give you countless tips on dealing with such situations. Let’s see what we can learn from their daily routine and how we can avoid certain mistakes that may affect our productivity. [Read more...]