Why You NEED to Be Using Affiliate Links as a Blogger

If you missed the last post about my favorite affiliate companies – the ones I've found to be easy to promote and high-paying – you really should check that out.

But in this post I want to explain why every blogger who's trying to maximize their time NEEDS to be promoting affiliate links.

1. Quick posts on social media (takes maybe a minute to grab a link from Amazon?) perform really well. A brand new blogger might earn 50 cents from that link. If you have a large social media following, you can earn $10 or more. For 1 minute of work people! If that's not maximizing your time I don't know what is! I shoot for 1 – 2 product links on my page per day. As long as I'm posting other high-quality content throughout the day, no one is going to care. Honestly, people like it because I'm helping them get a great deal on something that is relevant to them.

2. Blog posts with affiliate links in them provide passive income. Make your posts evergreen – something that can be revisited and re-shared until the end of time – and include relevant affiliate links. Do you blog about fun kids' activities? Tell people where you got the supplies, or link to your favorite brand of markers, or whatever. Every time that post gets re-shared on social media, you've got a whole new set of potential clickers on your affiliate links. Passive income is the most time-efficient way to earn that I know of!

If you're trying to earn blog income on a minimal amount of time, you NEED to be using affiliate links!

What would you add?  Are there any other ways you've found to earn with affiliate links AND maximize your time?

Healthy Christmas Treats

We all like to bake goodies at Christmas time, but actually making Healthy Christmas Treats can be a little more challenging.

I'll be honest and say I am not the recipe expert at all.  I can make them, but I'm not usually the one coming up with them.  When one of my readers asked for some ideas for healthy Christmas treats, I sent out a mayday to some of my fellow bloggers asking them for their recipes.

This is what came in.  I am so excited to try out some of these recipes!

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

No Bake Chocolate Coconut Macaroons

Almost Healthy Jam Cookies.

Raw Pecan Pie

Gluten Free Lemon Bars

Coconut Macaroons

Peppermint Carob Truffles

Healthy Chocolate Date Balls

Raw Caramel Slice

Crispy Nut Chocolate Brittle

Images used with permission from their respective owners.

What is your favorite healthy Christmas treat?  Please leave a comment and tell us!

Healthy Baking Substitutions

Many of you are likely doing quite a bit of baking this time of year.  Here are some Healthy Baking Substitutions you can use to make your goodies more healthy!

Sugar

Replace white sugar with the following:

• Organic pure cane sugar (rapadura) or sucanat (1:1 ratio.  Also, you can gradually reduce the amount of sugar the recipe calls for until you get used to less sugar.  You should be able to get used to the total amount of sugar being cut by as much as half.)
• Honey (Use 1/2 to 3/4 cup for every cup of sugar.  Reduce liquids by 1/4 cup for each cup of honey used.)
• Maple Syrup (Use 3/4 cup for every cup of sugar.  Reduce liquids by 3 tablespoons for each cup of maple syrup.)
• Applesauce (Cut the sugar in half, then replace the missing half with applesauce plus another 1/3 the amount.  Example: if the recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar, use 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of applesauce plus another 1/3 cup of applesauce. Reduce liquids by 1/4 cup for every cup of applesauce you add.)

Butter

Although real butter is not an unhealthy fat, you may want to replace up to half the butter in your baking recipes.  I use these substitutions often for cost savings or to add a bigger variety of nutrition.  (You can also use these substitutions if you can't have dairy.)  You can use the following substitutions:

• Applesauce
• Plain Yogurt
• Coconut Oil
• Mashed Avocado

Vegetable Oil, Crisco, or Margarine

Please, please do not bake with these products!  These are trans fats, and your body does not even recognize them as food, but will store them as toxins instead!  Use the following substitutions:

• Real butter
• Applesauce
• Plain Yogurt
• Coconut Oil

Chocolate Chips

Most chocolate chips are made with GMO sugar and soy lecithin, which are both harmful to your body.  Instead, use homemade chocolate chips, an organic chocolate bar cut into chunks or Enjoy Life's chocolate chips (I find them cheapest at Vitacost.)

Milk

This one is a little bit of an advanced step if you're not used to it.  I do not drink store-bought milk, but instead use raw milk and the cream off it for any recipes that use milk, cream, evaporated milk, buttermilk, etc.  If you're not ready to use raw milk/can't afford it, etc., at least try to purchase milk that is antibiotic and hormone free. (If you can't have dairy, you can substitute almond milk or rice milk.  Soy milk is not the best option – here's why.)

Eggs

Another advanced step is to make sure you are using farm fresh eggs.  The nutritional content is about 1000% higher than store-bought eggs, and in fact you may be harming your system with GMO's when you eat eggs from commercial chickens.  If you're out of eggs or have allergies, you can substitute ground flax seed and water.  All you need to do is finely grind some flax seeds in a heavy-duty blender and use 1 Tbsp. ground flaxseed mixed with 3 Tbsp. of water for each egg you need to replace.

Flour

Today's flour (even whole wheat flour) is a completely different product than it was years ago.  It is basically devoid of nutrition, and actually contains phytic acid which steals nutrients from your body.  So in a way it has negative nutrition.  If you can find a resource for heirloom wheat (such as Tropical Traditions) you will be getting a product that has not been altered through hybridization.  If you cannot get quality heirloom wheat, try to avoid recipes with wheat as much as possible. Instead opt for gluten-free recipes using oat flour, almond flour, coconut flour, bean flour, etc.

What did I miss?  How do you make traditional recipes more healthy?

Free Women’s or Kids Clothes!

I love Thredup, and I shop there frequently.
Thredup is like an online Goodwill, and all of their stuff is very, very nice and priced very reasonably.

When you sign up for an account through my referral link you'll get a free $10 credit in your account.

Since items start at around $4.99, you can get a couple items free! (Just pay shipping, which is very reasonable.)

If you have kids, you can also find tons of kids clothes on there as well.

Seriously, there is no reason for you not to take advantage of this deal.  Who couldn’t use free clothes?!

Let me give you one little tip, though.  It’s very easy to get overwhelmed on there because of the sheer volume of clothes available.  You’ll want to look through every single page (and there are hundreds!).  Not a good idea.  What ends up happening is that it takes too long, and you realize you don’t have time, so you just end up closing it down without getting your free stuff.

What I’ve found works a whole lot better is just to pick the first thing(s) I find that I like, put it in my cart, and go right to checkout.  Then I still get something, but I don’t spend forever browsing only to end up with nothing.

What are you waiting for?!  Go shopping!

Have fun!

Lowest Price on Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil!

It is no secret that I love coconut oil from Tropical Traditions.  It is about the highest quality coconut oil that I have found.

This weekend, you can get 2 quarts of virgin coconut oil at a cheaper price per ounce than you can get an off-brand!

Here's the deal:

• Go here and add 2 quarts of coconut oil to your cart.  They are buy one get one free right now.
• Use the coupon code 11328 at checkout to take off an additional $10.
• The final price is $30 for 2 quarts, or $.47 per ounce.
• If you don't need coconut oil, another great deal is the coconut cream concentrate that is Buy One Get One Free.  It comes out to $8.00 for 2 jars after the coupon!

Disclosure: the links in this post are my referral links.  I will receive a store credit when you order through these links.  Thank you for helping support this site!

Shutterfly Cards and Photo Gifts {$50 Giveaway!}

Have you ordered your Christmas cards yet?

Shutterfly has some awesome new designs for 2013!

Their collection includes:

o   Classic: Traditional colors, iconic illustrations, aspirational sentiments, snowflakes, monogram

o   Contemporary: trend forward colors, texture and layering, water color techniques, shine, glitter, Instagram pictures are perfect for this style

o   Whimsy: humor and nostalgia meet, fun sentiments

o   Merry and Bright: all about color and having fun

o   Religious: metallic type treatments, incorporated story ideas

o   Photo Basics: multiple colors, vertical type, family name highlights

How fun are these tri-fold cards?!

If you like something more simple, they've got that too:

I love this one too because it can be used for Christmas and New Year's combined (especially great if you get your cards out a little late!)

One of our family's favorite gifts to give grandparents is some type of photo gift, and Shutterfly has tons of them.

We have given these blankets in the past, and they were definitely a favorite!

I think a pillow with updated pictures would be a great addition this year:

I love Shutterfly's selection of  photo gifts – they have a lot of really unique stuff that isn't available elsewhere.  Their selection of both products and designs is really above-average.  Check out all their gift selections here.

The giveaway has now ended.  Congrats to the winner Trish!

Win a $50 Shutterfly Gift Card!

Shutterfly is offering one of my readers a $50 Shutterfly Gift Card (includes free shipping)!

To enter, just leave a comment telling me which photo card or photo gift you would choose if you won.

If you'd like an extra entry, share this giveaway on Facebook or Pinterest and leave another comment telling me you did so.

This is a quick giveaway, ending Friday at noon EST, so be sure to get your entry in right away!  The winner will be contacted by email Friday evening, and will need to respond by Saturday at noon EST, or you will forfeit your prize.  Be sure to keep an eye out to see if you won!

Disclosure: I received a gift card from Shutterfly in exchange for posting this.  As always, all opinions are 100% my own.