How to Start A Christian Blog in 2021

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Are you looking to build a Christian blog? Look no further.

In this ultimate guide, I will show you exactly how I planned, built, and promoted my blog that attracted over 1000 readers during the first week of launch.

Apart from taking you on my journey, I will also show you how you, too, can plan and launch a highly successful Christian blog in no time.

What is a Christian Blog?

A Christian blog is a type of website where blog posts or articles are presented in reverse chronological order (newer articles appear first).

A Christian Blog is a digital evangelism platform where an individual, group or religious organization writers share their beliefs and views about the gospel.

Why I started my blog

In 2017, I had what was supposed to be a simple tonsillectomy surgery that turned out bad. At the same time, my wife and I were expecting our third child, and she decided to come two months early.

To cut a long story short, this was a tough time for my family. I ended up going in for a second surgery to repair the damage from the first one, and at the same time, we were attending to our fragile newborn.

One of the most difficult things for me was not being able to attend church. As an immigrant, church means much more than a place of worship. It's a place where we go to reset.

The church is a place where we catch up and fellowship with people who make life and living in the USA just a little more comfortable and enjoyable. People who left you up when you are down and always there when you need help.

Even though our daughter was home with us, she still needed a lot of attention and doctor visits. For the next 12 months, we avoided going to church, and we had to find new ways to consume the gospel.

So even before the COVID-19 hit a couple of years later, my family and I already had experienced digital or online church.

The Problem

There's a big difference between deciding not to go to church and have no choice but to stay home.

I found myself getting a little depressed, especially during the week. I soon realized that the church was for the physically able. One can only enjoy church when they can attend.

The problem with the church is that it has nothing to offer during the week. If I need some encouragement or merely an uplifting sermon, I have to wait for the next day church is in session.

During the time I was away from the church, I watched a lot of YouTube videos, and the experience was great. YouTube recommended some great videos and some not so great. But the best thing was that I was in control of what to watch.

The power to watch whatever I wanted also came at a great cost. Anyone can be an evangelist these days and some information people put out there is just wrong and deceiving. One has to be grounded in order to know what is true and what isn’t.

As a designer, I saw a massive problem with my church's absence from cyberspace, and my problem-solving skills kicked in.

The Solution

I began my research to find out if other people were experiencing the same problems as I was, and to my surprise, there were a lot of people complaining about the same. In fact, I found several online communities on Facebook, Quora.com, and Reddit talking about how the church was not meeting people's needs.

Digging deeper into my research, I discovered that a lot of people were leaving the church and consuming the gospel online.

The solution was obvious to me. As a digital marketer and media designer, I knew how powerful the internet was and how the church could utilize it to reach and connect with more people around the world.

Digital evangelism and outreach was the solution; however, after talking to a few people, I realized that many churches and solo evangelists had tried and failed to take off online.

What I did

I began another research into why so many churches were not gaining ground online and discovered that they were doing things wrong. They were taking everything they knew about offline church and evangelism and bringing it into cyberspace.

They created sermons just like they would in the offline church, and when they put them online, no one would watch except their people. The same was the case with their websites.

I decided to create a digital evangelism process that would teach churches or anyone who wanted to reach and evangelize online. The process had to be sufficient but straightforward to make an impact.

Del Method website visitor log — Del Method first 30 days visitor log

Now that you know how it all began, I am now going to take you on a journey of how I build the DelMethod from planning to deployment and promotion that attracted over 1,000 readers during the first week of launch and over ten thousand in the first 30 days.

Why you should start a Christian Blog

I would like to begin with a verse we all know so well, and it comes from Mathew 28 -[19]

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Ghost: [20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

If you are still on the fence and need more reasons to start a blog, we have an article "10 reasons you should start a Christian blog." Please read it, and I hope you find a reason to start a Christian blog.

When I was growing up, we spent a lot of time going out witnessing and passing out tracks. Things have changed now; modern evangelism is sanctuary based. Instead of going out, we expect people to come to church.

If you are like me and you want to do your part in spreading love and the gospel, then a blog is a perfect place for you to do that.

The following is what I did to plan, build, and launch my blog.

1. Find and validate your blog idea

There are more than 600 million blogs online right now and over 31 million writers in the US alone.

One of the most frustrating things that many beginners; Christian bloggers face is that their blogs get no traffic at all.

In fact, it is easier for your blog to be lost in the thick web that it is to be found by people looking for your content.

Here is the process I went through to discover a niche and validate it.

Find a problem you want to solve

I can never over stress how important it is to create a blog that is aimed at solving a problem.

You see, most people create blogs hoping to publish content, and when they finally launch, no one shows up to read their content, and they give up.

What is the best way to get traffic to a Christian blog?

Before you start planning out your blog, It is essential to know how and when the Christian journey begins.

There are so many entry points into the Christian journey, and we are not going to cover that in this article, however, it is vital to point out the main differences between the offline and online journeys.

In the offline space, one comes to your church based on the following;

Proximity
Your belief system
Programs you offer
Day of worship
Friends and family
history

On the other hand, the main entry point for the online Christian journey starts with a question.

To be successful online, your blog should try to answer people's questions.

Example

the best way to get traffic to a Christian blog

A man has recently lost his wife and child to COVID-19, and he's trying to find encouragement and perhaps a sermon to help him cope with the loss.

He goes to Google and types in, "how to grieve during COVID-19?"

Here is the difference between offline and online search results.

Offline Ministry

Job's Endurance – an excellent sermon about Job's Endurance and faith in God.

Online Ministry

How to grieve during COVID-19 when you're all alone.

Both these titles are correct, but only one will get traffic online.

People go online to find solutions to a problem or pain-point they are experiencing.

In my case, I knew that I wanted to do something in the digital evangelism and outreach field, and that was my starting point.

The next thing I did was research online and talked to a few people I know about the challenges of digital evangelism.

After my research, it was clear to me that I had to provide solutions to the problems many churches and faith-based nonprofits were facing when taking their ministries online.

Validate your niche idea

Without validation, you run a risk of investing time and money into something people don't need.

One of the mistakes I noticed many people making was that they did digital evangelism precisely the way they did offline evangelism, and that did not work.

To validate your idea, you have to find out if there's a demand for the service or solution you are about to provide.

Through the power of digital analytics tools, I was able to validate my idea.

For more information on how to validate your idea, we have an extensive article (how to implement the del method), and you can read it here.

2. Register your Christian blog domain name

One common issue I run into when helping people come up with the name of their blog is that they want a name to describe what they do.

If you do it that way, you will end up with a very long name that no one remembers.

The key here is to have the shortest and most memorable name for your blog. Your name doesn't have to describe your niche. Think of Apple – nothing to do with fruit.

In my case, I spent a lot of time looking for a name that was both short and memorable.

The first thing I did was to write down all the keywords and random words that came to mind. At the end of the exercise, I have hundreds of names.

The next step was to horn in and discover the number one issue I was trying to solve.

It was clear to me that I wanted to change the way the church does evangelism.

Since the church uses a pyramid type of organization, I wanted to flip that pyramid. I was flipping a triangle upside down into an inverted triangle, also known as a del.

The next step was to define the del further and finally settled on Del Method.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is like your address. It is the only way people can find you online.

A lot of people ask me what's the difference between hosting and domain and why do you need both.

Here is the simplest explanation.

Domain – your house address
Hosting – your house
Web content – you

If someone wants to visit you, they need your house address ( domain). Hosting is your house, and if your address has no home, people will not find you.

In short, you need both the domain and hosting to have a functioning website.

Once you find the perfect blog name, it's time to see if it's available for you to register.

Since there are billions of websites on the web, likely, you won't be able to register your name because it's already taken. It's always a good idea to have several fallback names before the search.

There are several ways to search and register your domain name, and I highly suggest that you get your domain even before you get your hosting.

The service I use for my domains is called Namecheap. I love this service because it allows me to manage several areas in one dashboard and also makes it easy to connect to external hosting.

3. Choose the right platform for your blog

Another question I get often is, "why do I need a platform when I have hosting?"

A platform is software that runs your website.

Let's say you buy a new computer. Without software, your computer is useless.

In this case, we are talking about a blogging platform that will allow you to create and publish articles.

As a web designer for over ten years now, I had to choose between two competent platforms WordPress and Webflow.

Choosing the best platform for your Christian blog

WordPress is the most popular and powerful, probably over 35% of websites on the internet right now, and that is over 455 million sites. I have been a WordPress designer for over ten years, and it was my default choice.

Why I chose Webflow

I recently started developing websites on the Webflow platform, and I fell in love with it. I knew that building a highly customized blog would be time-consuming and challenging, but I decided to go with Webflow.

It was definitely more work for me, but I love the fact that I was able to create something personal and exactly as I wanted it.

You may also find yourself wondering what's the best platform for your Christian blog, and there's no magic answer to that. You will have to decide based on budget, time, and skill.

A webflow site will cost you more because it's more customized than a wordpress site. You will also find a lot of wordpress designers compared to webflow, so you can get a website up and running faster.

What platform should you use?

If you are a beginner on a budget, I would suggest you go with WordPress. You can hire someone to build for you or build it yourself.

WordPress is also a template-based and most templates will allow you to build fast and your blog will be up and running in no time.

But if security, quality, and ease of use are what you are going for, then I highly suggest going with Webflow.

You can learn how to build in webflow or hire a webflow expert to do it for you.

4. Get a web hosting account

There are so many hosting services for wordpress, and your choice will depend on price and support.

Here is my favorite wordpress hosting service.

Siteground

We recommend Siteground hosting services because it is crafted for top speed, unmatched security, 24/7 fast and expert support, and trusted by more than 2 million domains!

In my case, I went with Webflow's dedicated hosting, which is managed by Webflow.

Experience the power of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a 100% visual canvas. Free design tool. Top tier hosting. 100% customizable CMS. Types: Responsive web design, Marketing sites, Blogs, Prototyping.

The hosting is a little pricey compared to wordpress hosting, but it's worth it. The best part is that you can sign up for a free account and only pay when you are ready to publish your blog. You can check out webflow here.

5. Create a brand for your Christian blog

Now that you have the name of your blog and decided on the hosting services, it's time to create your identity.

Your brand identity is much more than a logo and colors, and you must take a reasonable amount of time to develop it.

It is also essential to know that brands develop and mature over time, so don't let this process slow you down.

Get the fundamentals done and then work on the rest as you grow and redefine the brand.

Developing my brand identity was the hardest and most time-consuming for me. Yes, the fact that I am a designer made things worse.

I struggled to pick my colors and fonts, this is something I efficiently do for my clients, but for some reason, it wasn't the case with my brand.

After weeks of struggle, here is what I finally settled on.

DelMethod branding — DelMethod – Branding

6. Create content that adds value

Without content, you do not have a website. That's why we say, "Content is king."

In fact, it's better not to have a website than have one without content or poorly written content.

When creating content, it is essential to put your target audience and the problem you are trying to solve at the forefront.

It is effortless to get sidetracked, and if that happens, you will end up writing about everything under the sun.

Another essential thing to remember is to listen more to your audience.

You don't want to spend a lot of time and resources, writing things no one but you want to read.

Once you write the first few articles, you must pay attention to what your audience wants and then write about it.

I had a specific goal for my first blog, and I planned to write about ten articles before launch, and that did not happen. I ended up writing about eight blogs that mainly presented my thoughts and ideas.

The first eight articles were deliberate because I wanted to introduce myself, what I am about, what drove me to start a blog, and what my readers should expect from me.

Once I launched, it took me about one month before I wrote another article. During this time, I observed and talked to people about my writings. I took notes and made some changes to my original idea.

7. Optimize your content for online visibility

There are over 2 billion websites online right now, and it's tough to be found online.

However, through the power of search engine optimization, you will be able to put your website in front of people looking for solutions you want to solve.

Search engine optimization is a broad term and takes a lot of time to master, and I will not be telling you everything you need to know in this article. However, you can comment below if you're interested in an SEO course or some resources, and I will send that to you.

So the short story to SEO is that write about topics people are looking for and make sure to optimize your blog for SEO.

Here is another article, "Church SEO — The Best 5 Tips For Your Church Website," to help you get started.

8. Promote your Christian blog

Apart from optimizing your Christian blog for search engines, you will also have to do some promotion for people to find your website.

There are so many ways to promote your website, but here is how I promoted mine.

1. Tell family and friends

I put family and friends' promotion first because this could build or break your momentum. It's easy to expect support from family and friends, but that's not always the case, but you have to try it.

2. Online communities.

Online communities are a great place to start your Christian blog promotion. There's always a community for any topic or problem you want to solve.

You can find these communities on Facebook Groups, Reddit, Quora, and more.

Please remember not to spam your communities. The best way to promote your content is by creating relevant content that solves the problem your community is talking about.

3. Post on Pinterest.

Pinterest is a search engine, just like Google, and it's one of the best places to promote your content. You may have to invest some time and probably money to create great-looking pins.

If you are feeling creative, you can do it yourself easy and cheap by using web-based tools like Canva.com.

Or you can find a designer on Fiverr.com or similar services.

4. Paid Ads

If you have some cash to spare, then go ahead and put out some ads. The best places for ads are Facebook, Google, and Youtube.

You can spend as little as $5 per day on Facebook ads. The best part about ads is that you will be able to reach your ideal audience.

Conclusion

Somewhere along the way, the church's evangelism strategy changed from "go out" to "come to church."

If you've tried door-to-door evangelism lately, then you know how hostile the world has become. People just don't have the time and patience to engage.

Things are not the same, and that should not stop you and me from spreading the gospel. It only means that we must innovate and adapt. After all, no one said it'll be easy.

Now you can spend the whole day going door-to-door and talking to a few people or take our ministry online, where 4 billion people spend a lot of time daily.

The modern missionary is not the one that sails across the globe but one that creates content for the web.

I hope that this article pushed you just a little further into starting your evangelism and outreach machine.

Do you still have questions? leave a comment below or join our email list to get digital evangelism strategies straight to your inbox.