How to Start a Christian Blog

Key Facts

• Starting a Christian blog can enable you to share your faith and connect with writers and readers all around the world. 
• Longer, engaging posts are ideal for search engine optimization and for keeping your audience interested in your blog.
• Posting often can enable you to grow your number of readers.

Did you know that Christianity is the most popular religion in the world? Moreover, more than half of Christians use the internet for various reasons, including growing their faith. Thanks to the internet and tech developments, you have a chance to evangelize to thousands, if not millions, of people through a Christian blog.

Generally, the process of creating a Christian blog is easier said than done. Fortunately, with the right steps and approach, it is possible to start a successful Christian blog. So, are you ready to spread the gospel worldwide through a Christian blog? 

Keep reading to learn the 9 steps of starting your journey as a Christian blogger. 

Why Should You Start a Christian Blog?

There are many reasons why starting a Christian blog is a wise idea. These reasons include:

An Opportunity to Share Your Faith

Although Christianity has existed for over 2000 years, it never grows old. As a Christian blogger, you will have something fresh to give your audience, especially if you share your experience with God. 

Every Christian blogger is unique, and your content might make an impression that no other blog has made on the readers.

You’ll Join a Community

Christian blogging is nothing new. There are already innumerable Christian writers running successful blogs, and others continue to come up. When you start your blog, you join these people with that you probably have the same passion, interest, and goals. This community can help you grow your faith, not to mention better your blog.

Have a Chance to Evangelize and Help Others

Thousands of people turn to the internet for answers and knowledge on many areas, including Christ. Therefore, if you have the information they are looking for, give it to them through your blog. 

Christian blogging makes it easier for Christians to keep up with Jesus’ great commission of preaching the good news to all creations. The blog is also a perfect platform to inspire, teach and help others with how everyday matters relate to Christianity. For instance, Christianity and business. 

You Make Money

Your Christian blog can become your side hustle or even your main source of income with time. Although the money may not be your main goal for starting the blog, you deserve what you get through the blog. Starting and sustaining a blog needs money; any amount you get from it is a lifesaver. 

9 Steps for Starting a Christian Blog

Now that you are convinced you should start the Christian blog you desire, it is time to get to the nitty-gritty of starting the blog.

1. Choose Your Niche

This often-overlooked step highly determines the overall success of your blog. While Christianity is a niche on its own, having a blog about Christian life is way too general. A rule of thumb in blogging is when you write for everyone, you reach no one. 

Therefore, try to narrow this down and get a specific topic for your blog. With a specific topic, it is easier for your readers to find you and lure a loyal following.

Ideally, choose your niche around matters that you are passionate about or that you’re an expert in. For instance, talk about Christianity and entrepreneurship if you are an entrepreneur. Additionally, if you are a parent, consider Christian parenting. Other ideal niches you can discuss are Christian lifestyle, relationships, health, business, schooling, and scripture, among others.

For inspiration on a perfect niche, use sites like FeedSpot to see other Christian blogs. Moreover, you can use competing domain tools like Ahref to identify bloggers in similar niches.

2. Choose a Blog Name and Domain

Your blog name, also called a domain name, is the address of your blog. Unfortunately, some people take a lot of time in this step, which becomes a barrier to starting a blog. For you to have a good and successful domain name, you should:

Have a .com Domain

While there are many domain names to choose from, you can settle for .com. Most people trust the .com domain names more than other extensions such as .church, .faith, or .net.

It Should Reflect Your Niche

Choosing a domain name comes after choosing your niche so that the name can reflect the niche. Readers should be able to predict your blog’s content through the blog name. Case in point, if your niche is parenting, an ideal name could be christianparenting.com.

Make It Short

The shorter your domain name, the more memorable it is to your target audience. This is why the most visited sites worldwide are those with short domain names. Therefore, aim for a short domain.

Be Creative

Strive to avoid the obvious when creating a domain name. Most likely, an obvious blog name is already taken by another writer. You can use a domain name register to know whether your selected domain name exists. If it does, use a synonym to make it unique.

If you still don’t have a perfect name for your blog, you can use domain name generator sites like Instant Domain Search to get the correct name.

Moreover, don’t limit your blog using your domain name. You limit your blog by niching too far in your blog name, thus limiting the topics that you can discuss. For instance, a blog called christianparenting.com is expected to talk only about parenting while christianfamily.com is open to parenting, marriage, divorce, and other issues that families may want to learn about.

After you confirm that your domain name is available, it is time to buy it. Purchasing the domain name costs about $10 to $20 per year. You can choose a plan that lasts even longer based on your budget. Remember to renew your domain name in time to avoid losing it. 

3. Choose a Blogging Platform and Hosting

Now it’s time to go to the tech-savvy part of the blog. You will need a platform and a host to get your blog running. A platform is a software or system that allows you to publish on the internet. 

On the other hand, a host is the system that stores your files and sends them to a site visitor through the internet. Compared to a mobile phone, the platform is the phone’s operating system like Apple, while the hosting is the phone’s service, such as AT&T.

Many blogging platforms are available, some of which are free while others are paid. Some blogging platforms include Blogger, Tumbler, Wix, and WordPress.com. While it is tempting to use a free platform, they are not recommendable. With the free platforms, you can’t have your domain name since the platform’s name is included in the domain name. In this case, your domain name becomes christianfamily.wix.com. Additionally, monetizing your blog is tricky if you use a free platform.

Choose a paid platform such as WordPress.org. This platform powers more than a third of all websites on the internet. The amount you pay for the platform helps you have total control of the site and makes it possible to monetize it. For site hosting, go for a site like Siteground or Bluehost. They will ensure you have a smooth-running site.

In the following video, Leanne from Kingdom Bloggers shares her recommendations for the best blogging platforms and why she prefers one above the others.

4. Choose a Theme

The theme is the décor for your blog and the website’s appearance. It is the front-end design, color, font style, and appearance. The theme should show your style and vibe in the blog. 

An ideal theme should be fast and easy to customize. It should also be responsive so that it operates on a mobile phone. There are many WordPress themes that you can use. You can use free WordPress themes, but premium plans have better options.

If you are unsure of the best theme, get help from Kadence or Astra. Moreover, you can look for church themes from WordPress for perfect ministry themes. 

To install a theme, you must first log in to your WordPress dashboard and click on appearance. Select themes and add new ones. Look for the theme that you want to install and click install.

5. Install Plugins

Plugins are WordPress software that adds new features to your site. These features are mainly links to other sites. For instance, if you have a link to your Twitter account, get a Twitter sharing plugin and install it. This applies to every other social media.

Another important plugin that you can have is Getresponse. This allows you to keep in touch with your website visitors and help create an email list. Other good plugins for your Christian blog include Bible verse of the day, events calendar, sermon manager, and GiveWP (used for donations).

6. Create Essential Pages for the Blog

By now, you are done with the skeleton of your blog. To create essential pages, go to your WordPress dashboard, and on pages, select create a new page. The essential pages that you should create are:

Homepage

The homepage is the page that welcomes people to your blog. On this page, visitors should know what the website is about and how it benefits them. The page should also have links to other content the visitor may need.

About us

Give a brief history of your blog on your about us page. Explain your purpose for the blog and state some personality in the blog. You can also add a portrait to help your readers know you more.

Contact Page

Explain to your reader how they can contact you on this page. You can have social media links, emails, or even phone numbers.

Privacy Policy

The privacy policy page protects both you and your readers. It explains the type of information you collect from them and how you use it. You can use privacy policy generators like PrivacyPolicy.com to help create a privacy policy page.

Besides, you can add even more pages to your blog based on the information that you plan on having in the blog.

7. Create Content for the Blog

It is time to start writing in the blog you have been preparing. While many factors can lead to the blog’s failure, low-quality content is the main culprit. Therefore, get ready to post content that promotes your blog.

First, aim for keyword-focused posts. These posts are likely to appear on the first page of search engines like Google, making the blog more accessible to the target audience. 

Moreover, use keywords that have high monthly searches. You can use tools like Ahref’s keyword explorer to get the monthly volume of the keywords you plan to use. It is possible to get up to ten titles using a keyword. 

To ensure that you have quality content, you should:

• Have a clear purpose for each blog – Before you start writing, think about your objective for writing the blog and ensure that the content meets this objective.
• Have your target audience in mind – Consider the person you expect to attract with this post when writing. Knowing your audience will help you use the tone and words that relate to them. 
• Write your personal life experience – Real-life examples and experiences will help you better relate and connect with your readers. They also bring life to your posts.
• Link to other relevant content – Don’t saturate one blog with so much content. Instead, write different blogs and use links to connect them.
• Engage with the readers – If you want your readers to keep coming back and engaging in your blog, add a conversational tone to your posts. It is easy to add emotions if writing on topics you have experience with.
• Stay on topic – Strive not to go out of topic in every post you write. You may scare away readers if the title has different information from what they expected.

If you are having trouble getting the best topics, get help from tools like SEOPressor. Additionally, you can break down your blog to have different subtopics. Say your blog is on Christian families; you can have subtopics like marriage, parenthood, divorce, courtship, and dating. Having subtopics makes it easier for you to pick your target audience.

9. Promote or Advertise the Blog

It is frustrating to do so much work on your blog and eventually be the only one who sees it. You must promote your blog to ensure that it serves its purpose of reaching out to your audience. How do you do this?

Share It with Your Family and Friends

Charity begins at home. Therefore, your family and friends are the first ambassadors of your blog. Ask them to check out the blog and leave their comments and feedback. They can also share the blog with their friends.

Use Your Social Media Accounts

Open social media accounts with the name of your blog and use them to connect to your audience. If you already have a large following in your accounts, you don’t need to open new ones. Join groups where your target audiences participate, and share a link to your blog.

Use Email Marketing

Create an email list and send emails with the information that readers can get from your blog. To start with, you can use your existing email contacts as your email list.

Optimize Your Blog

Learn how to optimize your blog using strategies like keywords to ensure that it ranks high on search engines. It is easier to market the blog if it ranks high because it’s visible to a greater audience.

Ask the Church to Promote Your Blog

Your church community is already a perfect audience. You can ask your church leader to mention your blog at the end of the service. This community will likely be your most trusted audience since they know you in person. 

9. Monetize Your Blog

Now that you got your blog up and running, it is time to get some reward for your effort by monetizing your blog. Remember, there should be no guilt or shame when monetizing your Christian blog. 

So, how do you make money from this blog?

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing involves promoting products and services in your blog, and you earn a commission from the money it generates. As a Christian blogger, most of the products and services you promote are Christian-related, but you can explore other areas as well. 

If you are writing a parenting blog, you can promote baby products. Affiliate networks that you can use include ClickBank and Amazon, among others. 

Before promoting any product or service, ensure that you trust it to avoid ruining your reputation with your readers.

Sell Digital Products and Services

You can create digital products that your audience can download at a price. These are products such as Bible Study resources, journaling products, prayer resources, and homeschooling resources. You can also offer counseling services through the blog and your audience will pay to get the service.

Join Ad Networks

Ad networks show adverts on your blog, and you get paid when site visitors click on the ad. Some of the ad networks that you can join are Google AdSense, She Media, MediaVine, and Media.net. You need to have high traffic on your blog to earn through these ad networks.

Conclusion

Starting and running a Christian blog should be easy if you follow the steps above. Though it may seem a lot at first glance, your passion and desire to spread the gospel through your blog will make it easier. It also helps if you advance your knowledge in the word and in Christianity to enrich people’s lives and build your reputation in the niche you’ll choose.

Up Next…

Interested in finding out more about blogging and other niches you can explore? Click on the links below:

• How Much Does It Cost to Start a Blog? What expenses do you need to be aware of? How many of them are a one-off affair? How many are not? Find out in this article.
• How to Start A Music Blog: Do you want to share your favorite music with the world? Click the link to find out how to get started.
• How to Start a Beauty Blog: Are you an expert in all things skincare, hair, and makeup-related? Here’s how you can start what can become a rather remunerative hobby.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Chat Karen Studio/Shutterstock.com.