I just had an interesting conversation with a guy who was looking to get into affiliate marketing in a financial lead generation opportunity. We were talking extensively about some of the sites in the financial lead generation space who target Christians with specially designed landing pages to appeal to and generate trust in Christians merely because of an apparent shared belief.

He indicated that he didn’t feel comfortable taking a similar approach - selling his Christianity as a reason people should consider him as a business partner. He threw some Scripture my way throwing some Paul at me from 2 Corinthians:

Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.

This created an interesting question about all “Christian” businesses and what we should be thinking about in doing our every day business. Are we profiting from “peddling the Word?”

I think the issue is intent and execution.

If our belief is hollow and we have no interest in ministering to our audience or the lost through what we do, I think we are definitely in trouble. If our focus in doing business with a Christian focus is on doing ministry, and in supporting that ministry through the commerce that we do, I think we are fine as long as we keep our focus where it belongs.

I take a look at sites like Abbey Press - where the proceeds of the sales benefit a monastery. Or to SinglesofFaith - where proceeds of a dating ministry with heavy emphasis on Faith development and service go to support inner-city outreach that members are invited to participate in. I think of C28 and JesusBranded that design clothing and accessories with Christian inspiration that put Scripture out there to inspire sharing among youth and young adults. I think of Alpha Omega and Sonlight who help Christian parents educate their kids with a focus on God’s Word.

I see no problem with these companies because I think that their heart and their execution are in the right place.

I look at companies like ChristianFaithFinancial, BigChurch and the variety of Christian BizOpp offers, etc and think that these folks have something big to worry about. The bottom line is this: As Christians, we have a tendancy to trust our own. Any jackass can throw up a site with “Christian” in the URL, and slap up a couple of crosses or an icthus and a badly chosen Bible verse on it and reel in the suckers. Trust me…it happens all the time.

As Christians in online business, we need to make sure that we live up to any claims we make and do the ministry work with all of our hearts, souls and strength.

As Christian consumers, we need to carefully analyze sites that market to us based on our “shared” Faith.

Try this sometime. If you go to a site that seems fishy in it’s faith basis - ask them what they believe, or ask them to point you at their “statement of faith” and you will know instantly what they are up to.

What do you think?

I was having a chat with a new affiliate at SinglesofFaith this morning and I heard an attitude that disturbed me a bit.   I saw that the affiliate had reviewed BigChurch and given it a great rating and raved about what a good place is was for Christians looking for dates.

I mentioned the details on the backstory of BigChurch and he responded that he was a Christian and he didn’t see a problem with sending people to BigChurch because they provide a nice niche dating site for Christians that many Christian have had good luck with.    He mentioned that he knew that they also had niche sites and made  money from a number of other niches that most traditional Christians would consider offensive but had no problem with that.

Is it bad theology for me to liken this to serving two masters?

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Matthew 6:24 (NIV)

I don’t think you can claim to be a “Christian” dating site and look to profit from it if you are also promoting values and actions that are “abhorrant” to God.

I have real concern for the legitimately Christian sites out there that are affiliated with BigChurch and the like and think it’s okay -if they know what the company behind the BigChurch brand is really  up to.

It’s one thing if they are ignorant.  It’s another to know that you are promoting a “Christian” site that is owned and operated by a company that profits from promoting and facilitating adultery,etc  and continue doing it for the money.

I have not always been a Christian.  I have not always been involved in projects that could be considered in line with my current beliefs.    About 2 years back I walked away from a job that probably would have earned me well over $500,000 per year monetizinf 50 of the top “adult” domains in the UK.   That was easy money, but on the eve of signing the deal… I asked myself “at what cost?”

Yeah… I could be making a lot of money… but I would be the equivalent of a street drug dealer.    Promoting poison that addicts and profiting from it.

So, I called the prospective client and told them that I’d pass… and that while I’d like to say “I wish you the best”  I couldn’t.  I  wish the guys efforts failed miserably.

It’s time for Christian webmasters to make a stand and make sure that they know the details on who they promote.   If the site is one that is not in keeping with your values and those of your audience, even it it’s not obvious on the site they want you promote, it’s time to pass and find some guys who are Gospel advancing to work with.

It’s been said that “the Devil is in the details.”

How true.

<rant>So, I am talking with a prospect today.  The last thing that is keeping them from signing with my company is their web team signing off on the Performics tracking and reporting implementation and giving them a fair price for doing the work.  My prospect comes back to me and says “well, as predicted, they quoted me 10 hours of work to do the job”

So… we’re stuck.

My next question asked is - do they also HOST your site and ecommerce solution?

Answer “yes”

So - effectively, my prospect is stuck here because his whole site and ecommerce solution are hosted on their proprietary system which gives his internal resources, or vendors like my company,  a way to plug in this tracking code, which should take no more than an hour.

What was his mistake?

There is nothing wrong with outsourcing your ecommerce development.  BUT, I heartily recommend that you both  choose your provider carefully, and insist that your solution is developed on a commercially available cart solution that YOU own and have total access to.  If you don’t you are selling your soul and making your future very dependant on the web company you outsourced to.

Let’s say my prospect gets tired of these guys taking advantage of him.   What can he do?   They control his site completely, and because it’s hosted on THEIR proprietary system, good luck on being able to move it somewhere else to work with somone reasonable.

The work we’re looking to have done is a 1 hour job ( since most companies bill a 1 hour minimum) on almost all of the cart solutions I have ever worked with.  I have even implemented some and I am one of the least technically proficient people I know.

If you are looking to launch an ecommerce site, or to have yours redeveloped, please consider very carefully the approach you take and make sure you are not putting yourself in a bad place for the short and long term.

</rant>

Let me take a moment to vent.

I just found a product that I am pretty psyched to promote to my audience here… I take their tour and I am impressed, I am happy to see that they offer an affiliate marketing program. I sign up for the affiliate program. I get approved a few mintes later. Awesome so far right?

I thought so.

I log in to pick up some link code for my site… thought I might throw them a banner and a write up to see if I could stimulate some business. I get logged and there are literally no creatives other than their default text link.

ARGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

Okay…. here is the deal. If you have a badass product, launching an affiliate program is a great idea. But for the love of Pete (whoever that is)

MAKE SURE YOUR AFFILIATE PROGRAM IS POPULATED BEFORE YOU LINK TO THE AFFILIATE PROGRAM ON YOUR SITE!!!

That is all… you may go…. I feel better now.

My invoice for affiliate consulting is in the mail.