Tag: Blogging

New Blogging-for-Books Buttons

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

I recently created a few blog buttons for the blogging-for-books programs I participate in. Tyndale House and Thomas Nelson (now Book Sneeze), have their own buttons. I made some new ones for NavPress, Reformation Trust, Bethany House and Waterbrook Multnomah. Check out my blog sidebar, and feel free to steal my buttons.

Copy the image and display it on your blog (you may need to set the width to work with your blog better). Then if you haven’t joined any of these programs, click on the links to sign up. When you get accepted feel free to then steal the button and display it on your blog. Do make sure it links to the correct blog review program.

This is a way we can spread the word about blogging for books, and also help out the publishers that make these great programs available to us bloggers. To learn more about blogging for books, check out this post.

Honesty Check: Why This Blog (and others) Link to Amazon

~ Bob Hayton ~ 4 Comments

Abraham Piper at Twenty-Two Words recently commented on why bloggers link to Amazon:

Why bloggers link to Amazon so much…other than that Amazon is cheap and has everything.

Whenever I link to Amazon, then you click and buy something, I make money. This is true for almost every serious blogger.

He’s right. And I thought I would take the time and opportunity that Abraham’s post gives, to do an honesty check for my own blogging.

If you notice the credits at the bottom of this blog’s header, you will see that I am in association with Westminster Bookstore, Monergism Books, and yes, Amazon.com. If you follow links to learn more about books or to purchase them, I usually try to have my referral code in the link. So visiting their site or purchasing from it (depending on which site it is), can result in a modest amount of compensation to me for providing the link.

I also highlight special offers in my Odds N’ Ends section, and in the past had trumpeted a music club where if you signed up for it, I would get some free CDs for sending you their way.

I think that this is all fair and above board. I spend time blogging, and take the time to point you to other sites for deals or books or whatever. And based on the amount of traffic I send their way, I get a small something out of it.

To be very honest about this, I have not received all that much back from these sites. I did get a lot of “free CDs” but I had to still pay 4 bucks or more for shipping. From Amazon, I have made just over $100 total compensation from two years of linking to Amazon. Now that I have purchased my own site, I’m paying almost that much each year to maintain it. I have yet to meet the threshold for receiving compensation from the other stores (which would be in gift certificates).

Another compensation for my blogging, of late, has been free books. And with this I try to be above board as well. I ask publishers for books, and promise to review them. I ask for books I am already interested in. I then review them, with no promise of a positive or glowing review. The nature of my review pertains to my real honest assessment of the book. I also am careful to mention in my review that I got the book from the publisher.

If you are a blogger, I encourage you to take advantage of these means to get compensated. This will help you stick to your blog, and in my case, it keeps my nose in good books. Bringing in a small amount of income or saving yourself from spending a bit more than you would otherwise for books, is an honest venture. And blogging can and should be an honorable hobby.

And for those of you who enjoy reading this blog and others like it, I would ask you to understand about the occaasional links to Amazon and other sites. I try to keep the advertisement as low key as possible. And I am not in blogging to make money, anyway. But if you’d like to support me and this site, I’d love it if you use these links when you shop for books or other purchases. Many thanks for your readership.

Bob’s Blog Finds: Tiger Woods, the Manhattan Declaration, Blogging Arrogance & More

~ Bob Hayton

In my blog finds I highlight some of the best articles I’ve found online recently. You can see all my blog finds in my sidebar, under the Bob’s Blog Finds & Bob’s on Twitter sections.

Tiger Woods Controversy

I don’t relish the media’s obsession with all the gory details of things like this. Thankfully, I’ve missed most of such coverage. I did come across a couple really good treatments of the issue from a Christian perspective and wanted to share them here for your benefit.

  • Albert Mohler: “The force of public outrage directed at Tiger Woods’s admission of marital infidelity indicates that the American public conscience remains more deeply rooted in its biblical origins than many secular observers would expect or appreciate…. For Christians, there is an even deeper concern. The current travail of Tiger Woods points far beyond his need for marital recovery, career consultation, or brand management. Tiger Woods needs a Savior. I am praying that this devastating experience, caused so classically by his own sin, will lead Tiger Woods to understand that he is not so self-sufficient as he thinks…. In the end, all this must remind Christians of the universal need for the Gospel. We must remember our own sin and our utter dependence upon the grace and mercy of God made ours in Jesus Christ. Without question, this is the most important lesson drawn from the travail of Tiger Woods.”
  • Curt Harding: “The truth is he’s no better or worse than you and me. You can talk yourself into believing you’re superior, but you’re not. There’s no leader board for sin and Tiger’s not at the top of it…. The good news for Tiger is that this can be done. Peace can be his again. God wants to put us all back together.”

The Manhattan Declaration

I’ve already blogged a little about this. But R.C. Sproul recently explained why he is not signing the declaration. I thought his post was really good and worth the read.

However, true reformation and revival within the church and the winning of our culture to Christ will come only through the power of the Holy Spirit and our clear, bold proclamation of the biblical gospel, not through joint ecumenical statements that equivocate on the most precious truths given to us. There is no other gospel than that which has already been given (Gal. 1:6–8).

The Manhattan Declaration puts evangelical Christians in a tight spot. I have dear friends in the ministry who have signed this document, and my soul plummeted when I saw their names. I think my friends were misled and that they made a mistake, and I want to carefully assert that I have spoken with some of them personally about their error and have expressed my hope that they will remove their signatures from this document. Nevertheless, I remain in fellowship with them at this time and believe they are men of integrity who affirm the biblical gospel and the biblical doctrines articulated in the Protestant Reformation.

Blogging Arrogance

Carl Trueman has some important words for those of us who engage in social media and blogging:

Let’s stop there a minute. This is madness. Is this where we have come to, with our Christian use of the web? Men who make careers in part out of bashing the complacency and arrogance of those with whose theology they disagree, yet who applaud themselves on blogs and twitters they have built solely for their own deification? Young men who are so humbled by flattering references that they just have to spread the word of their contribution all over the web like some dodgy rash they picked up in the tropics? And established writers who are so insecure that they feel the need to direct others to places where they are puffed and pushed as the next big thing? I repeat: this is madness, stark staring, conceited, smug, self-glorifying madness of the most pike-staffingly obvious and shameful variety.

Slow Going

~ Bob Hayton ~ 3 Comments

Life’s been moving fast around here. 4 kids, school, a new church plant we’re a part of, work, life, and more stuff. Where does my blogging fit in? I now have two other team blogs I’m a part of: KJV Only? which I started, and Fundamentally Changed, which I’ve been asked to contribute to. I”m also surrounded by stacks of books I’ve promised to review!

So what should I do? I believe trodding forward slowly is the best course of action for now. I still think there are a few unturned stones around here, and some unfinished business. This kind of decision is always begging for the attention of bloggers. When do you call it quits on your blog? When is it’s life over?

I think the KJV Only blog is picking up steam, and that’s where I’ll be blogging more consitently with posts pertaining to fundamentalist concerns. Over here, I’m pretty much focusing on my reviews for now. I also want to finish fleshing out some things. I”d like to pack things up in a tidier fashion and put out some posts examining different issues, and looking at fundamentalism as a whole, etc. I”d like to do more writing, but I think reading and real life take precedence over all that.

My blogging friend Damien, just pulled the plug on his blog. His last post is worth reading. For now, I”m going to keep mine running. But I’ll plan on taking it a bit slower than it was. Hope it remains useful for my readers. I’ll continue my twitter use. On my twitter feed you’ll see lots of blog-worthy links and etc. shared. I just don’t have the time to turn them all into blog posts.

Okay, now that I’ve explained myself, back to real life….

Reforming Fundamentalism, Bob Bixby and Blogging

~ Bob Hayton

If you have followed fundamentalist blogging at all, or if you consider yourself a bit of a reformed (or former) fundamentalist, in the IFB sense, listen up. Bob Bixby has a phenomenal post detailing the history and motivations behind his 7 years of blogging. He is hanging up the towel on Pensees, but this last post is well worth a hearing.

Along the way he explains his concept of an “emerging middle”, a coming together of the younger and more careful (in my estimation) wing of fundamentalism and the more conservative wing of evangelicalism (e.g., MacArthur, Piper, Mohler, Dever and others). He goes on to show how he has long advocated that young fundamentalists work for change withing the fundamentalist system, and he sees some evidence of a “refreshed fundamentalism”. His post still details many remaining fundamentalist warts, and also includes a good bit of introspection and self-critique.

Bixby models how a serious minded leader should view blogging. He lets you into his thought process on the advantages and disadvantages of blogging, and I for one was blessed by it. He points out the obvious in fundamentalist blogging — its a battlefield out there. Blogwars never end, and so a day comes when that emphasis has to be left behind. In my own blogging I’ve made drastic changes in the focus of my blog. And I can see one day hanging it up as well.

All in all, whether you’re identified with IFB fundamentalism or not, this is an interesting and important read. It won’t be available for long, so check it out.