Wow. I was sitting and watching TV while eating my breakfast this morning and noticed my browser having a link to this website. I decided just for kicks to look at it on a mobile device. I hadn’t done that with any of my sites yet as I do almost all my work on a desktop PC. What came up was freaking amazing. I mean at this point I just have my home page, a couple other legal pages and this blog/journal. And the home page was amazing. It made me want to spend all day working on and adding more to this site so “Tears On The Cross (dot) com” will be ready for the masses as soon as possible. My heart is really in this site. It’s in the other sites as well because for some reason GOD seems to be leading me to show HIM through those other sites along side of the primary focus of each of them which has nothing to do with Christianity nor religion. Anyway…
Pretty busy since the last update. My next task is to set up email campaigns, that’s what it’s called in web-mastering when an email news letter is created. That’s also what it’s called when those focused on making money try manipulate or “spin” the emails such that their readers will spend money generating commissions for the online marketer.
Is there a conflict for me is this? I have websites that draw people’s interest. Some people will return and follow what I have to say. They want to see my message. Each of my websites are in niches that also have a lot of products that people want to buy. So, is it OK if I create links to those products and make a commission from the vendor if someone buys something? What if they wanted to buy it even if I didn’t make the commission for them buying the thing? The price is the same either way.
Do I need to be careful about this? Absolutely. I don’t want to fall into the very trap I accuse Christian Leaders of. I don’t want to start following my greed or ambition and going after the “low hanging fruit.” Just because it would be easy for me to push just a tiny bit and make a big pile of money, that doesn’t make it OK.
On the other hand, hosting this website costs money. Every single month, it costs money. A block of 10 ISBN numbers cost about $300. Each copyright for each book is some $60ish. Purchasing control of my domain names costs $60ish a year. Some of the plugins, along with services like the autoresponder cost varying amounts of money. The more action I get, the more money I have to pay. That money all comes from my pocket. Although I’m on Social Security, it falls something like a thousand bucks a month short without any of these costs, hence I had to get that day job and will need it for the indefinite future.
I refuse donations. In fact, although this site would easily fall under the guidelines for which I could get a 501C3 tax free status, I choose to leave it in the “for profit” arena and pay my taxes. Romans 13 pretty much covers rules about not trying to skirt around the law. And Jesus Himself said, “Render unto Ceaser…blah blah blah.” So paying my legitimate taxes is something my Christian integrity requires me to do. Paying for whatever GOD is requiring me to do is required by GOD Himself. Credit is not a good thing in this situation. Pay as I go, never getting something whereas I will pay later when more money is available. I don’t know if more money is actually gonna be available later and I never want to default on some bill GOD has made me generate.
OK, I was saying it would be easy to forget my “calling” to produce a message and spread it as far and wide as possible. I choose to never twist the message by “spinning” any part of it so it might somehow increase any part of my income. There will be some income simply as a byproduct of me doing these websites and books well. Never will it be my intention to push, or even encourage anyone to buy something just because I think they need it. That would come from a place hidden inside me where greed lives, trying to get me to manipulate someone in some way. Jesus never did that. I will suggest people to get things like their own Bible and possibly some other tools for spiritual growth, but those suggestions will be about someone deciding for them self they need something. It will never be about me wanting to make another sale. If someone buys something, I want it to be because they want it, not because I created a hunger for it. I don’t want to be that guy that sells the sizzle just to get someone to order a steak.
The progress update is, my next task is getting the ISBN numbers assigned to the print book that is ready, and getting it copyrighted. Except for those two steps, it’s could today hit the aggerate publisher. I will also have to self-publish this one to Amazon like the eBook. I purchased a block of 10 ISBN numbers. The paperback version will get one. The digital version will also get one. If I choose to go with a hardback, I can’t imagine why that is needed, it will also get one. That eBook is out in the wild already, but I can unpublish it, change to edition 2, and assign one of those ISBNs to it as well.
Working on assigning the ISBN numbers and doing the copyright requires to do some stuff then wait for the government to react. During the downtime of that I will create the campaigns for the emails to be sent out for the newsletters. When people decide to sign up I want there to be some activity. This of course will require watching lots of videos. (sigh)
Oh, another thing I realized today is I need categories for all the blog posts on each of these websites. Hours more work in just that. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.
Later readers.