I enjoy reading blogs, but really there is a never ending supply of things to read on the web. Do I really need to put more out there? No, not really, but I am any way. Why? The next 3 paragraphs may not seem related at all, but, don't worry, in the end they will come together.
My husband and I moved to the country 12 years ago and started learning about country life and provident living. Things like raising chickens, wells, solar energy, and more. We are not experts at any of these things but we do have plenty of real life experience. Suburban expansion is at full throttle and we meet so many people who want to know about our experiences and glean from the knowledge we have gained.
We shop online a lot. One of our favorite online sites is Amazon. Don't get me wrong, we shop around for best prices, best shipping value, and reputability of the store. Quite frequently Amazon fits the bill but not always. So when we are asked, "where do I get one of those?", the answer is almost always, "Amazon.” I was in a gathering of moms recently when the topic of what do we buy from Amazon came up. The consensus was, "everything."
I have been following a lovely blog that posted free kindle books on the topics of homesteading, health, and homeschool. I am always on the lookout for good quality and good priced books for my voracious readers. She recently revealed just how she finds all those free books. I started looking for books and posting a few on Facebook. Amazon recently made changes so that blogger no longer offers the free service of finding those free books. Out of curiosity I looked into the Amazon program she had been affiliated with and what changes were causing so much uproar in the free book blogosphere.
What I found is basically a referral or commission program. The change was that in order to receive referral fees you cannot only advertise free books. I thought I should join because I am constantly sending people to Amazon. I needed a website to post the links and figured that, if I did it in blog form, I could write up posts about all the things we have learned. Then we don't have to keep having the same conversation with different people.
Here's the format I am planning on using. I will write about things like our homeschool journey, my constant search for good books, and provident living. Whenever I mention a product, I will hyperlink it to where we purchased ours, if possible. If you go through any Amazon link on my blog and make a purchase, I will get a tiny percentage of your entire purchase. So, if you are planning on making a purchase, please use my blog as a portal to get you there.
There you have it. I am combining what I am already doing (online shopping) an what I need to do (put our stories/experiences out there to make sharing them easier and so we don't forget) with the possibility of earning a little extra to help provide books for my readers.
