As a Christian any home based business we start needs to glorify God and encourage others in Christ.  That doesn’t mean you necessary have to start a religious business.  As long as you are seeking God’s counsel and putting Him first in your business, you could start a very success Dog Catcher website.  You don’t have to run a devotional or Bible study site in order to glorify God.

Christian home based business are on the rise. The internet makes it easy for people aspiring to transition from a traditional 9-5 or make some extra money from home. Here are some of the top ways to earn from home.

#1 Freelancing

Freelancing is simply selling a service without a long term contract. You can offer any number of services. Writing, graphic design, transcription, editing, audio creation, photography, and even voice over services can all be offered as a freelancer. Freelancing gives you the ability to pick and choose the projects you work on and whom you work with. It provides you with the freedom to set your rates and to choose when you work and when you don’t.

This is a great option for a Christian.  You have the opportunity to work with a large number of a variety of people.  You can choose to work with only Christians, churches, or even missionaries.  Of course, you can choose to work with the everyone and became a witness to those you work with.

#2 Information Marketing

Information marketing is exactly what it sounds like, it’s making money by selling information. We’re an information hungry society and we often turn to the internet to help solve our problems. Whether you need to stop back pain, learn how to train your dog or learn how to be a parent to your teenager, we all have problems we want to solve – even Christians.

Many times information marketers make their living writing books and reports. However, information marketers also create software products, or have them created for them. You can hold teleseminars or offer an online course. The key to being a successful information marketer is finding a topic you’re passionate about and researching supply and demand. There are tons of niches just waiting for a motivated entrepreneur.

Writing Christian e-books or hosting Christian based teleseminars can have a huge impact on the online community.  This gives you the opportunity to get the Word of God out in front of people.  By creating a e-book or hosting a teleseminar, you could be planting the seeds that eventually leads someone to Christ.

Creating an information product is not as hard as it sounds either.  Kelly McCausey actually walks you through it in her 42 Day Launch Incubator.  I went through this program back when she first started it and now I based all my new information products on that model.

#3 Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketers earn a commission on products or services they sell. Generally, affiliate marketers create a website around a niche topic. They use content to build an audience and drive traffic to their website. In their content they promote, review, and link to the sales pages of the products or services they represent.

For example, a person could create a website around pet health and be an affiliate for companies that provide products and services that support pet health. Affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative home based business. Like information marketing the key is to find a niche you’re passionate about and to research supply and demand. You’ll also want to research affiliate products and services.

Some ideas for Christians who want to get started in affiliate marketing, you could build a niche site based on Bibles or Christian Bible studies, or even Christian t-shirts.    For more information about Affiliate marketing check out, Lynn Terry’s Elite Group at Self-Starters Weekly Tips.  The forum is wealth of information about affiliate marketing.  I’m a member and love it.

Other ways to start a home business include direct sales, selling a product, coaching and membership sites. There are a number of ways to make a living from home.   By praying and consulting with God you can find the right business model for you and start a Christian home based business.

One of my biggest problems with affiliate marketing is keeping track of all of my affiliate links. Not only do I want to keep track of all my links, I also want to be able to cloak the links so others can not change out my affiliate link with another. Luckily there are some WordPress plugins that help keep all my affiliate links nice and organized.

The WordPress plugin I have chosen to help organize and cloak my affiliate links is MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate. The reason I chose this particular plugin is because I have used other MaxBlogPress plugins and have been very happy with them.

Take a look at the powerful features the power MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate plugin has as an affiliate blogging tool:

1. A link that looks original and distinct

With Ninja Affiliate, you can easily give each affiliate link an easy-to-remember name. Manage your affiliate links and make them look professional, original and vividly distinct too.

2. Manage Links by Groups

If you have too many affiliate links then Ninja Affiliate allows you to easily create different groups to manage your links. Group your affiliate links in an organized way.

3. Convert ordinary keywords into money making affiliate links

Automatically turn keywords in your blog to affiliate links. Ninja Affiliate has been designed not only to track and manage affiliate links but also to convert the keywords inside the blog posts to affiliate links.

4. Avoid commission theft

Cloak your affiliate links to prevent link theft and affiliate sabotage. No one will ever steal your hard-earned commissions again.

5. Insert Affiliate Links Directly

Add your affiliate links directly for your WordPress blog editor so that you’ll never have to hunt for links again. (This is my favorite feature! )

I know there are other similar WordPress plugins out there, but this is the one I use and recommend. How do you keep your affiliate links organized?

Since it’s a new month I have been trying to create a game plan for the month and define my goals.  One of my goals for the month of December is to get caught up-to-date with all past lessons from Affiliatenaire.  I’m paying for the course so I need to start acting on what I am learning and make the cost worthwhile.

Are you taking Jimmy D. Brown’s Affiliatenaire course?  If so, how are you coming along with it?

Lynn’s Super Affiliate Handbook Review was very detailed and thorough but I still had some questions about affiliate marketing in general and the book itself.  Luckily Lynn is awesome and agree to answer my questions in a short interview!

My Question: What is your favorite aspect of affiliate marketing?  Is there one part of it you love more than the others?

Lynn: Cashing checks certainly ranks right up there at the top LOL – income aside though, I really do enjoy affiliate marketing. I think my favorite part about it is connecting with the different markets and finding out what makes them tick – well, click in this case.

It can be a fun challenge to research a market inside and out, and get to know the human side of the need or want behind the purchases. And in markets where I’m a buyer myself, the conversations and networking – and even the research – are a lot of fun.

As an example, if you’re a foodie with an affiliate site or blog all about cool unique kitchen appliances… hanging out in food & cooking related forums is part of your job. It makes work fun!

My Question: In your review of The Super Affiliate Handbook you mentioned that “Rosalind gives you 6 ways to create content, a detailed example of a well-written Elance project proposal…” How does Elance play a part in affiliate marketing?  Isn’t it just for freelancers looking for jobs?

Lynn: Right, elance.com is a place where you go to find people to help you do odd jobs or work on projects. This is great if you need to hire someone to customize your affiliate blog theme, or create you a custom header graphic for your affiliate site.

You might also want to outsource things like content development, programming, link-building or other tasks that go along with creating and marketing your own affiliate site.

Obviously you can do all of these things yourself, and most things are easy enough to learn, but no guide would be complete without at least mentioning the option to outsource to make things go quicker for you.

I do a lot of outsourcing myself, as I have more than a dozen active sites at the moment. Sometimes links need to be updated, or mundane tasks need to be done – like submitting the site or blog to directories, for example. I’d rather focus on doing the thing I’m best at and outsource the rest.

My Question: You also mention a list of 20 Questions to ask before joining an affiliate program is included in the book.  Are there are any other questions you would add that to that list that you believe are also important?

Lynn: Rosalind covered the bases with that list in her Super Affiliate Handbook, and some of them I hadn’t thought of on my own. The most important thing to me is having a personal contact, or knowing who and how to get in touch if I have a question or want to discuss a certain aspect of their affiliate program.

I work with a large number of networks and merchants, and they all operate differently. Those that keep an open line of communication, are open to feedback, and go out of their way to help me make sales for them… are the merchants that get my loyalty. Those that treat their affiliates best, usually treat their customers better as well – and that goes a long way with me when choosing who and what to promote.

My Question: How do you decide what kind of site to setup for affiliate marketing?  A static site, mini-site, or full blog?

Lynn: That’s a great question. It depends on the product and the market, and on your specific objective. Sometimes you have to test and see what will work best – and sometimes the answer to that will surprise you.

I often do more than one for any given product or market. For example you can set up a blog to build a readership around your topic, and funnel that traffic into your product-based mini-site. Or you can set up a mini-site with an opt-in offer for a free report and funnel them into your static site or blog in the follow-up series.

There’s no one right way that will work best in every market, or for every product. My favorite method is to set up affiliate blogs around topics (I always create around topics, not products). This allows you to create a lot of content around keywords, and reach your market through the major search engines – and build a loyal readership.

Thank you Lynn for answering my questions!

Here is a little bit more about The Super Affiliate Handbook:

Read the amazing true story of how one woman, with no previous business experience, earns $435,000+ per year … selling other people’s stuff online!

In her down-to-earth, sincere and often humorous style, Rosalind Gardner guides you through the entire process of building an affiliate marketing business on the ‘Net. In 220+ pages, and more than 68,000 words, you’ll learn how to pick the best programs, negotiate a commission raise and save time, money and effort on everything from affiliate software to web hosting.

To learn exactly how she does it, Click Here.

I will be purchasing this book in the near future.  Lynn has totally sold me on it.   What about you?  If you want to get started in affiliate marketing The Super Affiliate Handbook sounds like a must have resource!

P.S. If you have been wanting to join the affiliate marketing world, I highly suggest you read Lynn’s ClickNewz blog and check out her forum, Self-Starters Weekly Tips.  There is all kinds of great information in both places.

So on to my update.  I have gotten behind in the lessons but am at least staying up-to-date with my accountability group.  One thing I didn’t realize is how much writing it takes.  Wow – I feel like all I do is write one article after another.  While I don’t mind writing articles, it’s not something I love to do.  Of course I also have the option of using PLR and/or hiring a ghostwriter.

Jimmy D. Brown gives great information in his lessons and I love how down to earth he writes.  It not hard to follow along.  He makes it seem almost effortless and motivates you to get to work in each and every lesson.

I also missed my accountability group meeting this past week due to a sick son.  I missed having that chance to discuss everything with the other Mom Masterminds members also going through the Affiliatenaire program.  It’s a great chance to get ideas, ask questions, get feedback, and brainstorm together.

I still have a way to go, but I am looking forward to completely the program and increasing my online income.

I also found a smaller list of Christian affiliate programs at ChristianAffiliatePrograms.info.  What is nice about this list is that the site owner actually created a table with relevant information on each affiliate program, including if the site is Christian owned and the commissions being offered.

Of course, I also offer an affiliate program for my products at Christian Mom PLR and Start A Christian Review Blog.

The Affiliatenaire program is a 12 month membership site by Jimmy D. Brown, another fellow Christian, that teaches you how to become a successful and profitable affiliate.  It is designed to help you find buyers.  It was created to help you promote your affiliate link.  Every week Jimmy will send you a 5-7 page lesson that explains in “beginner language” a way to find buyers. You follow the steps he lists.  You get clicks on your affiliate link.  You earn referral commissions.

A group of us at Mom Masterminds have all joined Affiliantenaire and will be meeting online once a week to track our progress and to make us accountable.  Of course at the same time we are hoping to make some money too.

If you have ever wanted to get started in affiliate marketing, I would highly suggest you join both Mom Masterminds and the Affiliantenaire program.  Not only will you be learning from the best, Jimmy D. Brown, but you will get support and encouragement from other women like you.  I can’t wait to get started!