First, this is a Christian based website. It deals with churches, church issues, Christians, Christian leadership, and issues both of those groups of people have. Christianity and components thereof is what this website is about. I would much prefer winning a soul over making a commission.
It’s also for people mad at Christians.
Yet, people, even Christians, are sometimes curious how affiliate links work.
How affiliate links work is, websites that sell things, we will call them “seller sites” rely on traffic. Traffic is people, anyone, that visits a website. Desirable traffic is people that visit those “seller sites” to buy something. But someone shopping for a can of beans will just be wasting time and electricity visiting an online auto-parts store. So the online grocery store does want people shopping for beans to shop with them, and the auto-parts store doesn’t want that traffic.
The right kind of traffic going to the right kind of seller, is called targeted traffic. Another part of targeted traffic is people ready to purchase. This is the most desired traffic. Those people just window shopping, although maybe the right kind of people are not truly targeted so not exactly what the seller site wants to spend its electricity and Internet bandwidth on.
These “seller sites” are in competition with each other. Grocery store one, is competing with grocery store two. Auto-parts one is competing with auto-parts two. They are desperate for people ready to buy their products, and want to avoid people that won’t be buying what they have.
Combining all that information is where affiliates come in. Anyone visiting my website, and decides they want something, well, I could send this visitor with their spending money to “seller site” one, or I could send them to “seller site” two. Lets say each “seller site” wants me to send my site visitors to them. They offer me incentive in the form of commissions to send targeted traffic to them. Instead of my own profit, I prefer to just send people to the best “seller site” for their needs. I try find good deals for my site visitors, because I want them to continue being visitors to my site. If I scam them somehow, they won’t be back. If I sell them out to a bad “seller site” because that seller pays a slightly higher commission, I will lose this visitor and make an enemy at the same time. I might make a nickel, but I will lose a site visitor and maybe make it look like I have no integrity as a Christian. I have seen Christians like that. People that think its OK to work to do dishonest work because no one is putting a gun to the head of a consumer making them buy something from a dishonest website. This is not me, and if such are discovered in my organization, they are terminated on the spot. There is no place for anyone without integrity here.
I can provide a link to a specific item, or a link that gives a list of items. The problem with this is sometimes when presented with a list, a person often gets overwhelmed with information. Conversely, the challenge with just a single item is another cheaper one might show up the next day. When faced with a list, or just making any hard decision, consumers are afraid they aren’t making the very best deal, or not getting the best free shipping option, or don’t notice a vendor with few reviews, so they just click away and don’t buy anything. On this site, they might have chosen to get a pink leathersoft Bible with large print for their mom’s birthday, but if a list is presented they get overwhelmed with choices and their mother ends up with no gift for her special day.
List of pink leatherbound Bibles.
What I do is try send people looking for specific items, to the site to best meet their needs. Mostly these people are ready to buy so I send them to a specific item they can add to their cart and check out. I try send motivated buyers to the product that will best meet their needs by my educated guess. I can’t anticipate if someone has more money to get something more urgently to fill a hot need, or if they have more time to wait but less money to spend. So I do my best, however its up to the consumer to make sure for themself that they are getting the right thing, for the right price, to fill their personal needs of time or urgency or whatever. There is always a better deal somewhere, but sometimes its best to just make a decision and go.
When my website visitors need something, or want something I send them to a “seller site.” If I did my part right, I located online the very item that visitor might want, and made a link to it so with just a click the visitor finds themself on a “seller” website. For me, usually that is Amazon, but I send links to other sites as well, when it’s appropriate. Anyway, the website is so happy to see a possible customer that they are willing to give me a “finders fee” kind of payment for qualifying purchases that person makes. Most of this type of commission is quite low. I might make four cents if you spend a dollar. It takes a lot of four cent commissions to add up to $100 dollars. Sales tax is often more than the commission I will make. And the cool thing is, you will pay the same amount for the same item even if I don’t earn the commission.
On TearsOnTheCross.com and my other websites, I put affiliate links in everything. Sometimes I present something from a seller website I don’t have a partnership with so I still put a link, but without any hope of earning a commission. This is what good business people will do. Take care of the customer even if it means they don’t get paid. If you are going to buy something anyway, I want to earn whatever commission I can from that purchase. For reference here, just watch “Miracle on 34th Street” next Christmas.
Now, this doesn’t include books I personally wrote. I don’t put my affiliatID in those book links because I may already earn royalties and sellers consider that double dipping. They don’t like it.
My vow to you, website visitor, is to try give you links to only what you want, or a selection thereof. I will additionally try get a good price from a reputable source so if you buy it, you will get it. Also, mostly I only represent sites that offer returns.
For several years, ending about 2020, I did a little online business. I was called an Internet Marketer. That means I tried to make a full time income from doing marketing online in various ways. CPC and CPA, coupons, forum posts with signatures, email campaigns, writing articles, lots of ways I tried. I spent thousands of dollars and thousands of hours working but never even really broke even. I found the best way to do it, is don’t. Don’t become a person trying to make money online just for the sake of making money. Instead, if a legitimate business opportunity is there, go into a real business and use the Internet as one way to reach your customers. By that, I mean do a real business. Then if the Internet can improve your business, go for it.
By the way, if you think you want to check out this “making money online” angle, trust me. You don’t. After reading that statement, if you still think you want to pursue it, I wrote an ebook that kind of explains it more thoroughly. This is an ebook only and linked to Amazon, but you can find it almost anywhere else online books are sold. “So You Want To Make A Million Dollars on the Internet.” Before going there, just know that 99% of people that try this invest hundreds or even thousands of dollars and hours but come away with nothing but frustration, loss, and often anger. People have lost family members over it.
Yes, I’ve interacted with and know a small handful that became millionaires this way. One has become a personal friend over the years, but demands on her time is unreadable. These are very rare in life. If you still think you want to give it a try, just remember to never spend anything you can’t afford to loose. The odds are 99% chance you will loose all you invest. Only one percent chance of making money.