Do you know you can preach the word of God, on a personal blog?
And still, make money from it.
That’s just what Christian blogging is about.
The digital sphere is becoming larger every day. Hence, the need to spread the word of God online.
Jesus said in Mathew 28:18:20…
“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and holy spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded”
Here on this page, we are going to discuss everything you need to know about how to start a Christian blog.
In the long run, we will also discuss how to make money legitimately from your Christian blog.
Let’s delve in…
What is Blogging?
Blogging is the process of creating self-published content online.
This content can be informational, religious, selling mechanisms etc.
Blogs are simple websites that are updated regularly.
Precisely, they are websites that allow readers’ engagement.
Examples of popular blogs are dooce.com, bbc.co.uk and our humble self, zikcomedia.com.
Can I Start a Christian Blog?
Yes, you can start a Christian blog. Whether you are a Christian, a pastor or a devoted believer, you can teach the word of Jesus on your Christian blog.
However, it does take some work like other niches of blogging. You have to be willing and ready to do research, study the Bible and Jesus’ teachings, and relay the message in the best interest of your readers.
Mind Blowing Facts That Signify You Will Be Successful As a Christian Blog
- As of 2020, There were about 2.6 billion+ Christians of the 7.8 billion world population – Source, Wikipedia.
Hence, Your target audience is massive.
- In 2017, more than half of Bible readers now access the Biblical texts from the internet, internet 55% and smartphones 53%, a significant increase from 2011 (37%, 18% respectively). (Source Barna Group)
This is still explaining why there is a higher demand for online teachings of Christianity.
- Approximately, 51% of churches claim at least one staff member regularly blogs or posts on social media.
More Christian bloggers are needed now and then.
Why Start a Christian Blog?
- Sharing your faith
- Making cool money
- Building a community
I’ve been friends with different Christian bloggers and I can’t help but admire the kind of passion that drives them.
Below are their reasons for starting a Christian blog:
1. Sharing your Faith
With a blog, you can tell people about your experience as a Christian.
Faith differs. My understanding of Jesus’ teaching is different from yours.
If you are looking to emphasise your faith as a Christian, building a blog is an efficient method of explaining it to people.
2. Making cool money
Money is the bicycle of Evangelism – one of the exclusive African proverbs.
Arguably, you can make money from your blog, while teaching Christ.
Besides, monetizing your blog is not a regretful act.
While starting, you will spend money on the domain name, hosting, web design, theme etc.
Similarly, the time and effort you’d be putting into your blog are worth some rewards.
So, taking profit once in a while is sensible.
3. Building a community
At some point, you will get a lot of recognition, and visibility and start connecting with other Christians.
From there, you can set up orientation camps, seminars, gospel events etc for your audience.
So, this is an opportunity to build an online community for Christians.
Who Can Start a Christian Blog?
I saw this question on Quora and one of the replies was that “you must be a pastor.”
Seriously… Must you be a pastor to start a Christian blog?
Absolutely no.
Once you are a Christian, you can start a Christian blog.
Besides, Faith is personal. Your Perspective about the world of God is different too.
It all boils down to one understanding of Christianity.
So, your Christian values might gather a lot of enthusiasts eventually, even if you weren’t a pastor initially.
Do you have a story to share? Is your faith worth explaining to people? Are you keen on making money online while preaching about Christianity?
Below is chance to build your own Christian blog.
How to Start a Christian Blog – Step by Step
Here are the steps involved in Starting a Christian blog:
- Decide the focus for your blog
- Choose a sub-niche of Christianity
- Choose your blogging platform
- Decide your domain
- Buy your domain name and hosting
- Design your blog
- Brand it (Logos and Essential pages)
- Create exciting content about Christianity
- Promote your blog
- Monetize your blog
1. Decide the focus for your blog
Every plan should have a goal. Besides, goals are products of a particular focus.
Hence, if you are starting anything, you need to find a focus.
So as when planning to start a Christian blog, you should have a plan, audience type, content and information you are focusing on.
Christianity is large and you can’t serve every single Christian on Earth.
So, better still choose a specific kind of audience, that goes with your vibes, sentiments and story and dedicate your blog to them.
For instance, you can narrow your blog’s message to:
- Christian mom’s
- Christian parents
- Christian teens
- Christian entrepreneurs
- Christian college students
- Christian nursing mothers etc.
You don’t need to worry about niching down yet. Just know your target at first.
You can mix your Christian blog with a personal lifestyle too. Such as:
- If you are a woman in ministry, you can create a blog offering Biblical inspiration and guidance.
- A business advisor can help develop Christian entrepreneurs via a blog.
- A Doctor can set up a blog that offers counsel, free tips and advice for health issues.
- A Christian parenting blog too will do.
- Personal development blogs for Christians. Here you can discuss topics about Fashion, Personal finance etc.
- A blog for Bible study and explanations.
… and a lot more.
Precisely, make sure it is something you are passionate about and can help other Christians with.
2. Choose a sub-niche of Christianity
In Blogging, if you try to write for everyone, you will reach no one.
Christianity is a niche on its own. And as a new blog, it would be very difficult for you to serve every audience that comes your way.
Wait! I understand you have already chosen your focused audience.
However, it would have been harder to serve all those audiences at the same time because of the competition.
So, the best way you can outsmart the competition is to choose a sub-niche.
For instance, if your target audience is Christian entrepreneurs, you can still narrow it down to a sub-niche under that, such as:
- Women entrepreneurs
- Men entrepreneurs
- Christian Start-Ups
- Business Marketing
- Branding in Christianity
- Biblical teachings about Business issues…
Believe me, when you focus on a sub-niche, you would not only be able to manage the competition but also your audience.
Blog visitors only come back after seeing that a certain blog matches their lifestyle.
Since you can’t appeal to every lifestyle at once, choose what you prefer at the moment and scale on it.
Here are the top sub-niches in Christian blogging:
- Gospel
- Gospel music
- Biblical quotes for an audience type
- Christians careers
- Christian fashion
- Saving money
- Divorce blog
- Marriage counselling
- Parenting teens
- Biblical study for children
- … the list is endless.
In the first step, we have touched, “Who are you writing for?”
This second step gives an opinion on, “How can you stay unique”
Time to discuss what every blogger does!
3. Choose your blogging platform
I want to assume you are just like me years ago, that couldn’t even wrap my head around what a blogging platform means.
A blogging platform is a content management system that lets you post your contents for your audience to see.
There is the free blogging platform and the premium blogging platform.
Examples of Free blogging platforms are Medium, Squarespace and other popular social media platforms -Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc.
The free platforms, though allow you to post your contents for free, but they have certain restrictions.
Besides, you wouldn’t have total control over the free platforms not to talk of monetising them.
As in, no matter how far you have gone as a Christian blogger on your Facebook or Twitter page, they can be restricted anytime since you are not in control of the platform.
Even an algorithm change can cause a depleting effect on your reach.
That’s because it’s a free platform you are using.
The premium platforms are not usually costly, and they offer you a more professional blog output.
They are typically software and CMS with full-fledged, flexible and accessible features.
Some of which include WordPress, Wix etc.
Guess what? This blog you are reading is run on WordPress.
WordPress is used by 43.2% of all websites on the internet, according to W3techs, 2022.
So, if you are looking to start your Christian blog, then the first blogging platform your should consider is WordPress.
You will have total control over your WordPress website, even monetise directly and earn from it.
Here are reasons I think wordpress is the best CMS to use:
- It is professional. You can own your domain name.
- It is easily accessible. You can easily do anything on the platform.
- It is fanned by virtually all digital enthusiasts.
- There are free themes and plugins to complete the ownership of your blog.
- You can monetise your website.
Do note that WordPress.com and WordPress.org are different. The latter is the self-hosted WordPress we are talking about.
4. Decide your domain
A domain name is the main address of a particular website. It’s the brandable name you should give to your blog.
If you are looking to set up a professional blog, then you must get a professional domain name, peculiar to Christianity.
What should your domain name look like then?
Make it Short and Concise
A short domain name is always easy to pronounce and memorise. This is a reason most of the top blogs have a very short domain name.
For instance, Google.com, Wikipedia.com, Forbes.com etc are all easy-to-pronounce domain names.
A domain name like materialforentrepreneur.com is just too long. Although it is showing what the theme of the website is, it is too long.
Buy a .com Domain Name
There are several domain name extensions including .com, .us, .co.uk, .faith, .church, .org etc. But each of them has its specified usage.
A .com domain is the best kind of domain extension you can buy now. According to certain research, 70% of people don’t trust newer domain extensions.
Don’t Be Too Specific
Your URL must be short, and concise but not too specific. Once your site starts gaining traction, it would be easier to spread more.
For instance, instead of making your domain name looks like “teenbiblecraving.com” which is too specific, you can make it bible biblecraving.com.
Get Creative
I can’t stop admiring the creativity behind Facebook.com and Google.com.
You should be creative when creating your domain name. However, you should not overthink it.
If you can’t find any other way to stay unique and become very creative, you can just add some words or even your name to a popular Christian name such as Hifaith.com, Docchrist.com(a doctor that reaches Christ) etc.
Rebrand a popular domain
Another thing you can do is to rebrand a popular domain name, still in the Christian niche.
For instance, Facebook.com can become christbook.com, USdecide.com can become Jesusdecide.com.
Use a Domain Name Generator Tool
There are several Free tools used for generating domain names such as Instant Domain Search. These tools help you to brainstorm and then give you several domain names to choose from.
These days it’s becoming really difficult to take something unique as a domain name. I once used my real name as a domain name for a personal website and it wasn’t available.
I mean, My cherished name can’t be claimed by me.
Don’t overthink it, you can just spend some time brainstorming or even as friends for suggestions.
Even if nothing else works, I wouldn’t advise you to go for a premium domain. Premium domain names are usually costly, hundreds or thousands of dollars.
However, if you have the money, you can go for a premium domain that would work for your Christian blog.
5. Buy your domain name and hosting
After deciding on the domain name, it’s time to buy the domain name…
And hosting.
The concept behind domain and hosting is relative to your House.
The domain name is your Home address while hosting is the land your house is built on.
And the blogging platform, WordPress is your home structures, facilities and improvements.
So, one can not work without the other.
But Where would you buy domain and hosting?
There are several hosting companies where you can buy domain and hosting.
Some popular ones include SiteGround, Namecheap, Bluehost, GoDaddy, Hostinger etc.
The domain names are usually priced between 9$-$19, on these platforms.
There are also several kinds of hosting but with $50, you should get hosting that would last you a year from any of the Hosting companies.
Let’s purchase the domain name and hosting from Namecheap. They are one of the cheapest and most reliable:
- Go to Namecheap homepage.
- Click on the hosting tab.
- There are different variations of hosting listed there, you should go for the shared hosting priced at $3.18 per month.
- After that, you’d be redirected to a page to pick a domain name. Input your chosen domain.
- One It has displayed the .com extension of your preferred domain, click on Connect to hosting.
- Click on the add to Cart Button.
- You’d be taken to the checkout page where you can choose your payment method.
- Agree to the terms and conditions and Pay. Once payment has been confirmed, you are now an owner of the domain and hosting.
Almost the same process is involved in buying a domain and hosting from Siteground and Bluehost.
6. Design your blog
Now, you have chosen your home address, and domain name.
And the real estate, which is the hosting.
It’s time to build the structures of the church.
That is you need to design your website.
If you type in your URL on any browser, you’d see that it’s showing nothing.
However, you need to install WordPress first before you can design your website.
Firstly, you’d have to install WordPress from your Cpanel.
After registering your domain name, the login info of your CPanel would be sent to your email.
Log in and scroll down to the Softaculous app category and click into it.
Choose WordPress as the app you want to install.
Input your username and password.
Then click on Install.
After which you can log into your WordPress dashboard.
Just go to yourwebsiteurl/wp-admin to access the login page. Input your username and password.
After landing on the home page, go to Appearance -> Theme -> Add a new theme.
Then redesign your site.
- Similarly, install the essential plugins.
I understand this particular step might be very difficult since you might not be used to designing a website.
So, you can email me at realsodeeqolaitan@gmail.com.
I will help you design your wordpress blog and give it an outstanding layout.
7. Brand it (Logos and Essential pages)
Although Branding starts from designing one’s website, it goes a long way more than that.
If you want your blog to stand out, then you should add brandable resources to your website.
…Including:
- Create an outstanding logo that visualizes what you talk about on your Christian blog.
- Adding Essential pages including the Legal pages, About us, Contact us, Blog pages, Bible quote teachings etc.
- Use a simple and clear colour.
- Create an outstanding landing page where you can offer free resources to your audience.
- You can also create a social media page for your Christian blog.
8. Create exciting content about Christianity
Now that your website is up for real work, you should start creating content for your blog.
However, creating SEO-optimised content is different from just any form of writing.
This is because you are writing for your readers and search engines.
Your readers need to feel the vibe of your content. While search engine bots need to understand what you are writing about.
Both general writing and blog post writing deserve optimum reader satisfaction. They must be able to satisfy the query of your target audience.
Looking at it, the main difference between general writing and blog post writing is Search Engine Optimisation(SEO).
And to achieve SEO-optimised content, you must be able to optimise your articles around keywords signifying your blog theme.
Now, you need to get a few keywords that are easy to rank for. And also, has a high search volume.
Ahref and Semrush are tools used for keyword research although. I prefer Ahref.
You can use Ahref keyword explorer to generate keyword ideas.
(Image: Ahref Keyword Explorer)
Finally, write articles about your keywords. Usually create a content plan, at least 10-20 topics at first.
For instance, let’s say “Christian parenting book” is your keyword. You can add the topics below to your contents plan even though they all are still targeting the same keywords:
- Best Christian parenting books 2023.
- Free Christian parenting books 2022.
- Which Christian parenting books can I buy on Amazon?
Anyways, I should use this medium to show you a page on Ahref Website, where OnPage SEO is fully explained.
It would be very phenomenal to your writing style on your blog.
9. Promote your blog
The next step is to promote your blog, boldly.
Alright at first, you should have written about 10 articles on your blog before trying to promote it.
Then, your blog should be connected to Google Search Console and analytics.
After which, you should install social sharing plugins to your blog, so readers can easily share on social media.
I should direct you to a page Wp Beginners website, where they outlined a list of outstanding social sharing plugins.
From there, some Christians can be redirected back to your blog from social media platforms. If your contents are valuable to them, they might return to your blog.
Similarly, you might need to build backlinks, and guest posts and connect with other bloggers in the Christian niche.
SEO genius Brian Dean has a simple guide on Building backlinks and connecting to other bloggers.
Also, you can build an email list of Christians who would be interested in your newsletters d then.
Interestingly, H-Educate has an Email Marketing guide on his YouTube Channel.
10. Monetize your blog
Although, I believe the primary reason you are starting your Christian blog is to preach faith if you decide to monetize, here are the common methods that Christian bloggers use to monetize their blogs:
1. Display Ads
Join ad networks such as Adsense, Ezoic, Media.net, Mediavine etc.
So, whenever they show their adverts to your blog visitors, you earn from it.
2. Sell Ad space on your blog
You could also sell Ad Space directly to advertisers.
So, instead of relying on display Ads from Ads networks, find advertisers who would like to promote their products on your Christian blog.
3. Affiliate marketing
You can promote 3rd party physical products, Christian products to your audience while earning a commission on every sale made.
4. Sell your products
Also, if you have products and services you’d like to promote to your audience do so.
Some of the products you can promote are:
- Christian Ebooks
- Consultations
- Christian journals
- Online courses
- Personal Gospel songs etc.
FAQ
Can you make money from a Christian blog?
Yeah, you can make money from a Christian blog. There is nothing wrong with monetising a Christian blog with paid ads, banner ads, personal products etc.
How much do you need to start a Christian blog?
With $60, you can start a Christian blog.
Is Christian Blogging Profitable?
Yes, Christian blogging is profitable. The audience the Christianity is massive. That’s tantamount to how profitable the niche can be.
Now to you!
I can’t help but stop here. Sincerely, I want to go on and on.
Are you planning to get a Christian blog very soon? What’s your theme going to be about?
Do share with me in the comment section, I can help you with a traffic hack.
