How I Make Money From This Site (and You)

I posted The New FTC Guidelines for Bloggers this morning.  They require that bloggers “clearly and conspicuously” disclose financial interests they receive when reviewing or endorsing a product/service.

My Advertising Disclosure explains the methods I employ to make money on this site.  Since not many people like to read blog policies, I thought I would take this opportunity to highlight this one in a post.  Hopefully you will find some valuable information here on how to monetize your site.

The Christian Entrepreneur is a for-profit business venture. This means that, while there is no charge to you to access and read this blog, I depend on advertising revenues and other programs to monetize this site.

Sometimes these efforts may be difficult for the reader to distinguish between an activity for which I receive compensation, and the information relayed to you in the normal course of this blog.

The information below briefly describes the various methods I am currently using, or that I plan to implement, to monetize my blog. It is my hope that the information below will clear up any confusion over how I make money from this blog.

Banner Advertisements

Banner advertisements come in all shapes and sizes. Think of these like the billboards you see along the highway – only with a lot more bells and whistles.

Banner advertisements are usually pretty easy to spot. You can find these banners on this website in any of the following locations:

• In the header (right-hand side)
• Above each blog post title
• After each blog post but before comments
• In the sidebar on the right
• At the bottom of the page before footer

I receive compensation from banner advertisements in a number of different ways. With the exception of those people who have won the banner placement through a contest that I have held, I receive some method of compensation from all these banners.

Paid Advertising

Each banner advertisement space is available to purchase on a subscription basis. This means that I rent the space out to an advertiser in exchange for a fee much like an advertisement in a magazine or newspaper.

I retain complete control over the appearance of these types of advertisements on my website. I try to make sure that whatever is being advertised is related to the content of this blog and helpful for my readers.

Since clicking on the banner will take you to another website, I cannot guarantee any claims made there. If you experience any issues from an advertiser that you clicked through an advertisement on my site to reach, please let me know.

Ads by Google

As a publisher, I participate in the Google’s AdSense program. You can read more about this program from Google’s official site.

These advertisements can appear in any of the banner ad locations as either text ads or images, but they will be always identify with “Ads by Google.” You may also see these ads in the rss feed of your reader.

Page Impressions

The first method through which I receive compensation is the number of page impressions that these ads make on my site. A page impression is simply having an ad appear in one of my banner advertisement areas. Advertisers pay Google to spread these ads out throughout the internet based on the content of the blog. I share in a tiny sliver of this when it appears on my site.

Pay Per Click

The second method through which I receive compensation is each time a reader clicks on one of the ads. I receive a small referral fee. Just like the advertisers that rent my advertising space, I cannot guarantee any of the claims made by these advertisers.

In fact, I have very little control over which advertisements appear, but I have filtered out large groups of advertisers. The ads are placed based on Google’s algorithms to closely match the content in my posts, but sometimes it misses dramatically.

Affiliate Programs

I participate in numerous affiliate programs that I rotate throughout the year. These affiliate programs are picked by me because they offer products or services that I believe will benefit my readers.

I receive a commission on whatever you purchase through an affiliate program using my links. These links may appear as banner ads, widgets on my sidebar that clearly identify an item for sale, in text links which take you to a site where you can purchase an item (e.g., amazon.com), or through a blog post endorsing or reviewing the product.

The vast majority of reviews that I blog about will not be for affiliate programs; however, I will add a disclaimer to every review (or perceived review) stating whether I am being compensated via commissions, free product/services, or a fee for writing the review.

Please Keep Me Honest

So that’s what you’ll find on my advertising disclosure page.  Did I miss something?  If you ever feel that I have written something that is misleading, or you just want to know how I am being compensated for a blog post I write, please leave a comment or email me.

My goal is to be as transparent as possible without being completely ridiculous.  I know though that what I may consider transparent may not be so transparent to someone reading my blog.  Please keep me honest.  Speak up if you see an issue.  Thanks!

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