I have a standing meeting every Tuesday morning with a man in the same industry as me.  We challenge each other, encourage each other, and give each other an outlet for counsel outside of our local circle of friends.

This morning before I ran off to meet, I checked my stats.  FeedBurner says I have 0 Feed Readers.  Clearly this is not accurate.  I know that at least I read my own feed.

Google says that I am only getting $.05 a click today and traffic seems pretty light.  Also not a great sign.

But I know better than to pay to much attention to these stats on a daily basis.  Most internet entrepeneaurs would be good to learn what successful stock brokers teach their clients,

Don’t read the stock prices every day.

That seems crazy to most people but it is the key to long term growth and good mental health.

Unless you are a day trader, you buy stock in a company believing that in the long term it will be profitable and that the stock will be worth more next year than it is today.  Bumps in stock performance do not mean anything in the short term.  It is long term we are looking for.

With internet marketing, it is the same thing.  Unless you are solely a ppc marketer or are paying for traffic, you built your site with the belief that it could grow and be  popular destination.  You spend your time creating quality content and build good web of social netoworking contacts.  If you have done your research, built in the right niche, created a quality site, then success will follow.

Do yourself a favor, don’t check your stats 10 times today.  Spend that time building some quality backlinks, developing some relationships with people in your industry, and improve your site visitor’s experience.  In the long run it will be far more valuable.  And you might learn to sleep without dreaming about stats.

So you built your super cool Christian themed web 2.0 site and now you are sitting back and waiting for the traffic.  How’s that working out for you?  Probably not very well.  The problem is that nobody knows about your site.   After designing a site and adding quality content, you must get good quality relevant inbound links.

One of the best free ways to do this is to post in forums that allow you to have links in your signature.  Getting links through forums is often called spam because the comments are rarely relevant.  This is a really short sighted strategy.  It will get you banned and your posts deleted.

If you find a community that is relevant to your site, posting a dozen or so posts a day is quite easy.  While these are not the highest quality links, they have several benefits.

1. They are permanent
2. They target the community you are trying to reach
3. They are free
4. You are making relationships with people who may want to further promote your site
5. Forum posters are web surfers
6. You can market yourself as an expert in your field.

So here are 10 PR3+ Christian forums that allow do-follow links in signatures.  Remember, no spam!  Now go link build.

Crosswalk Forums PR5

Christian Forums PR4

Grace Centered Christian Forums PR3 Site with the most obvious non-christian links in signatures

christian Forum Site PR3

Christian-Forum.Net PR3

Christian Teen Forums PR3

Christian Musician Forum PR3

Christian Guitar Resources PR3

Christian Webmasters PR3

Christianity Board PR2 This is not PR3+ but it was the only one with a Rapture Statement.  You can’t pass that up!

Friday’s are for friends.  Here is what is happening around the Christian Affiliate Marketing blogsphere.

Christian Affiliate Program Directory - Wade is finally getting his affiliate program directory done.  He has been working on this for a while.  You should definitely sign up for it.

Jim Kukral Jim Kukral has not updated his blog in over a week!  I don’t remember the last time this happened.

September 2008 Earning Report! New blog friend Shannon Lilly almost beat a grand for the month!  Great job!  Follow him as he breaks the bank.

Earlier today I went to Digital Point and was greeted by this page.  You have to remind yourself that even the most successful sites get errors.

What can you do about it?  I recommed getting the best server you can afford.  If you make your money online, this is a place that it is really stupid to save a few pennies.

the average business that has a 15% profit margin is said to be killing it.  The average online guy wants at least 50% and most are making way more.  Spend a few bucks.  Get some decent hosting.  But when the lights go out temporarily, don’t freak out.

I upgraded to wordpress 2.5 and it has not changed my life.