I am finally ready to open up my Members Only portion of my website!
I must share my heart with you all and let you know that offering a paid portion of my site was not an easy decision to come to and has been prayed over a LOT. My husband and trusted friends have been helping me behind the scenes to make decisions like this and to truly seek God’s will for my online life.
As I am sure most of you know, I spend HOURS creating printables which I offer for free and I love doing it. When I began making PowerPoint learning shows to go along with my new Raising Rock Stars Preschool program, God seemed to pop the Members Only section into my head. Honestly I ignored it for awhile. I brought the idea to my husband first and asked him to talk it through with me and then we just prayed and waited. I continued to create the shows and let God iron out the many details spinning around in my brain.
After much time and prayer we did decide that offering a paid members only section seems to be the next step in my journey online. The main factor in deciding this is that we are 100% faith-supported missionaries, which means every dime of our paycheck comes from individuals who sponsor us. We do not have an organization or a church that pays a large portion of this. We stepped out in faith over 6 years ago and haven’t looked back since!
Our dream is to become more financially self-sufficient so we can focus less on fund raising, and more on doing ministry here in the inner-city. We’d also LOVE to be able to redirect the donations we receive for our personal paycheck towards the recovery ministry my husband leads, which is currently in need of funding to renovate the Redemption House so it can house recovering addicts. Having a bit of my site that brings in a small income would be a way for me to use my gifts and talents to not only bless others in my online community, but also bless my family financially. My husband is my biggest supporter and prayer warrior when it comes to my online life. He stands behind me and is in full support of all that I do-I would NOT do it if he wasn’t. He is my partner, my teammate, the God-given leader of our family. I am so grateful for his strong, compassionate leadership and guidance.
I DO NOT plan to put the printables in the paid section, they will still be free, as it truly is my heart to help others. I also hope you know that just because I am selling something now,I am still the same person. I never want any of my readers to feel like I am a saleslady ;-), I am still just plain ol’ me. I don’t have big advertising plans, just want to trust God to bring the right people to support us in this way and benefit in return from the materials I offer only to members.
Right now the Members Only section will be focused on PowerPoint learning shows, which are something new I have been making and working hard on! You can see an example of the shows that go along with RRSP here. I have been using these shows with Krash and they are amazing for him. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this idea sooner! He LOVES the computer, and loves the shows. It is a great way to not only teach him new concepts, but provide an intense and regular review ~ that’s also fun for him! As we move along, I hope to bring the shows in more and more as I create new ones!
Each Raising Rock Stars preschool lesson will have it’s own show, focused on teaching the new skills and also reviewing the past skills. I am also taking various Preschool/Kindergarten skills and making individual shows {ABCs, phonics, math, colors, etc.}.
I am also making shows now for our family Raising Rock Stars time too! I have the first one up, based on the Armor of God.
I even have a few shows in the work for Pac Man. One is focused on USA geography and I am about half way through with it. It interactively goes through each state alphabetically, focusing on the capitol, abbreviation, and location. Needless to say, this one is taking me awhile!
As I state on the Members Only info page-if you don’t have PowerPoint, or know how to use it, please research that first. As much as I would love to provide individual help, I simply do not have time. I won’t be able to provide technical support unless there is a problem with a show from my end. Simple questions of course, will be welcomed-I just don’t have time to teach individually the how-to’s of running a PowerPoint show. Someday, maybe I will, but for now-Google will have to teach you! 😉 Honestly if you have PowerPoint, or the PowerPoint viewer, and you know how to “click to view in slideshow mode”, and can press the arrow key-you’re set! I do all of the hard work from my end, you just scroll through the shows with your child! You can also print individual sheets straight from the shows if you ever want to.
This whole PayPal/Members Only thing is all new for me so there are bound to be mistakes I have made. if you notice anything, especially in the payment, redirection, emailing process-please let me know.
Want to learn more?
Visit the Members Only information page here!
