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?
Tags: alpha omega publications, c28, christian dating, christian financial, christian merchants, faith based marketing, jesusbranded, singlesoffaith, sonlight curricululum
Affiliate Advice- Moving past the banner farm
Jun 18, 2008 Become an Affiliate
I see it again and again; affiliates applying for an affiliate program of a merchant I work with. I go to the application and click on the link to their site that they submitted for review. I find…… a page full of banners and little or no content.
I do some homework with some cool little tools that I use to evaluate site’s traffic and I find very little or no traffic. I’m not surprised. Why would there be traffic?
Would you as a shopper knowingly seek out a page made up of just image ads?
The quality of the merchants you work with doesn’t even matter. If you don’t offer any reason for someone to find you, let alone spend some time on your site, why would you expect them to act on your ads?
To be a successful affiliate - and by this, I mean someone who makes more than occassional latte’ or beer money from affiliate marketing, you need to add something to the conversation. Better yet- why not start a conversation of your own?
“Banner farms” or sites made up of just a bunch of banner slapped up on a page - suck
Niche content pages are the way to go - find something you are passionate about, find a domain name that plays into your theme and start writing. Review products, share your thoughts, share your expertise, react to other people’s thoughts and content - generate CONTENT. Then, surround your content with ads targeting people who would be interested in your content.
Is your niche content page or blog about raising good Christian kids? The you should be working with Nest Entertainment and Family Christian and promoting products that help parents raise good Christian kids. Writing about Homeschooling from a Christian perspective? You had better be hooked up with and promoting Alpha Omega Publications or Sonlight.
Do you see what I am saying?
Affiliate Marketing has NEVER been about just slapping up some banners and making money. That is lazy.
Real affiliate marketing is about matching up people who are looking for a product with the product they want - and what better way to do that by giving your shoppers CONTENT to answer their questions and “pre-sell” them on the products that you would like them to buy.
You could also start a community based on your interest. Chances are that other people have the same interests and concerns. Let them start the conversations and suggests products and deals while you bring in the affiliate links. It worked pretty well for FatWallet.com
Affiliate success is work… it’s not overnight. But if you set out do do it the right way, you will be rewarded.
We’ll talk more tomorrow about pre-selling and reviews and the all important issue of INTEGRITY
God Bless,
Wade
Tags: affiliate education, affiliate marketing, banner farms, Christian Affiliate Programs, christian merchants, how to get started in affiliate marketing
