Category: Blogging Tips

Tim Challies on Piper & Warren: Responding with Grace

~ Bob Hayton

Last week, I posted my response to John Piper’s invitation of Rick Warren to speak at this year’s DG Conference. I have since gotten mixed reactions to it. Both on my blog and elsewhere, I’ve seen a wide range of reactions. Some are denouncing Piper as a heretic. At least one has withdrawn any endorsement or use of Piper’s books and materials in his church’s ministry. Some are waiting to see how this turns out, but displeased with Piper’s action. Others see no problem at all and are incensed with all the negative reactions.

Today, Tim Challies posted his response, and I think his post is a model of how to respond gracefully to such controversies in the church. He posts clear and thoughtful reasons why Piper shouldn’t have invited Warren. But he does this charitably and stresses it isn’t that big of a deal. We shouldn’t disregard Piper’s proven record of faithful ministry over this one decision.

I encourage you to check out Challies’ post, and may we all learn to express ourselves with such reserve and grace in such matters.

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.

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.

Bob’s Blogging Tips: Instapaper’s Read It Later Bookmarklet

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

Over the years, I’ve covered quite a few blogging tips. I’ve been meaning to blog about this one for quite a while.

As you find time throughout your day to surf the web, I’m sure you make the rounds to a few of your favorite blogs (like mine!), or check out your Google Reader. If you are being swept away by Twitter, like I am, you probably find quite a few interesting articles or links shared by your Twitter contacts. Invariably there isn’t time to finish reading everything that seems worth reading. What are you to do?

I’ve found a tool which helps me keep track of what I’m interested in reading. Instapaper has a “read later” bookmarklet. Once you sign up for a free account, you can drag a button to your favorites toolbar. Then when your browser is open to a page you want to read later, you just click the “read later” button and it is saved to your Instapaper account.

When you login to your account, you see a list of all your unread links. You can read them, save them, organize or delete them. I’ve found this quite helpful when I want to blog on something but don’t have time right then and there.

There may be other tools similar to this, but I find this one extremely easy to use. Let me know if anyone else uses this or has some other option which might be as good or better.