Posts Tagged ‘christian dating’

Peddling the Word of God - what’s okay?

Jul 1, 2008 Affiliate Rant

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?

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Something doesn’t smell right here…

Apr 10, 2008 Christian Dating Affiliates

I have enjoyed a lot of the information that ChristianDatingWatchDog.com has put out there on the Christian Dating sites that we should be wary of.   God Bless “The Dog” for doing it.   I also enjoyed another site that I suspect he is responsible for at BigChurchDating.info ]

However, I’m a little disappointed and sketchy about the fact that both sites are registered with “domains by proxy” privacy protection and both sites feature identical error messages when you try to use the “Contact us” form.

I have some questions on why my client at SinglesofFaith.com is listed on the “Dog House” list (we feel in error) and would love to address it.   The current situation makes this impossible.

I can understand that taking a stand like this against some big money guys can generate a bit of a crap storm.   But I have to say, that I would give more credence to “The Dogs” opinion if the anonymity thing was out of the way.     At least in the case of BigChurch,  your message is spot on.   Why not be available to answer questions by email occassionally?  Or to respond to possible inaccuracies?  Some may think you are just taking shots at dating sites you don’t affiliate with.  (for the record, we’d love to have you in the program at SinglesofFaith - you’d do well)

Here’s the deal.  I want to chat with or have an email conversation with “The Dog”  - heck - I’d love to PodCast the conversation and shine some light on some folks.

So “Dog” let’s chat - my contact form works - or you can email me at wade [at] christianaffiliatemarketers.com

Let’s do some good work together man.

God Bless,

Wade

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Tidbit on BigChurch you may find interesting

Apr 3, 2008 Christian Dating Affiliates

I was just chatting with John Porricolo of the United Sharing Network today and he reminded me of an interesting fact.    The parent company of  BigChurch is Friend Finder, which in turn is owned by Penthouse.com (as in the smut mag Penthouse)

I did some looking around to verify and found this from Dating.About.com

Adult Friend Finder was one of the first adult-oriented dating websites, and still remains high on the best-of list because of it’s numerous interactive features and increasingly large member base. However, the site was recently purchased by Penthouse.com, and it remains to be seen how or if the site will change with its new ownership.

Apparently, the folks at Penthouse are interested in selling off BigChurch as it clearly doesn’t fit into the mix with the rest of their sites.  Maybe a Christian company will step up and legitimize this site.

Until then… Christian web masters, now that the link to porn is more clearly spelled out, can we stop pretending that this is a legitimate option for Christians to promote on their sites and give high reviews, and profit big from?  Can we see it for what it is?

I was challenged by an affiliate with this question:

Do you guys spend money at Google?   They make Millions or Billions taking PPC money from porn companies?

Yes- we do use Google for PPC.  We are using the tools of the World to reach people with a dating site that will help them in their faith walk and help match them up with an equally yoked Christian and hopefully a strong Godly marriage.

Companies like FriendFinder are using Christian web masters as TOOLS.. to reach Christians and monetize them.  Period.   Is there any emphasis on development of faith there?   Any encouragement of members to prepare themselves for marriage through serving the less fortunate?  Any attempt to present the Gospel?

There is a total difference here.

God Bless,

Wade

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Serving two masters and Christian dating

Apr 1, 2008 Affiliate Rant

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.

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Dating Watchdog site with broken form ticks me off

Mar 27, 2008 Uncategorized

As I have discussed here time and time again,  “Christian” dating is a minefield of legitimate and illegitimate offers that target Christians.

Some are great and Christian in ownership and mission in vision like SinglesofFaith, ChristianCafe, CatholicMatch, etc and some like BigChurch are really flawed and shouldn’t be promoted by Christians to Christians.

A lot of Christian webmasters are still running BigChurch though because they either don’t know better or choose to look the other way for the cash.   Hey, I’ll admit it - they build a great landing page and they know the science of conversion… but they should.  They’re essentially a re-faced porn site that is veneered to appeal to Christians.

There are a couple of sites I like who play “watch dog” over the space and I really value what they bring to the table in terms of doing the research on corporate ownership of the “Christian” dating sites and giving people the straight scoop.   Then, today one of them really chapped my hide.

I saw SinglesofFaith listed as one of the sites not to work with due to “deceptive marketing practices.”  I beg to differ.  SOF is so legitimately Christian it’s ridiculous.  They absolutely should be listed with ChristianCafe and Single Christians Network as one of the “good guys”   I checked with Mike at SOF specifically on the types of marketing methods that were frowned on (bidding on competitor keywords) and was assured that this is not the case.

So- I attempted to contact the site owner through his contact form to get some clarification… hey - if my client has done something wrong, we’d like to fix it.   The “Contact us” form is broken.

Bottom line -  there is what we feel is incorrect negative info on the site up on the page and no way to get any feedback or get a changed noted and recommendation made.   ARGGGGH!

“Dog,” if you are out there and see this, please get in touch.  I love your site and want to be able to recommend you as the gold standard.  But we need to clear this up.
God Bless,

Wade Tonkin

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