Do you want to start a Christian blog that inspires millions around the world in their walk with God and makes money for you month after month?
Of course you do.
Who wouldn’t?
It’s the best way for Christians to earn online. It really is. No boss. No income limits. Work anywhere you want. Make a real difference in people's lives. The list goes on.
If this sounds good to you then you’re in the right place. In this guide, I'm going to walk you through how to start a Christian blog step-by-step, but more than that, I'm going to give you the strategies to actually grow your blog.
I’m talking about attracting readers and building a tribe, blog monetisation, content production and so much more.
And if you're worried about the technical side of starting a blog, let's put those fears to rest right now. I'm not technical at all. Heck, my smartphone is smarter than me and I've launched several successful blogs, attracted 5 million+ readers and earned $100,000s.
My hope in sharing my exact 4-step process is I can give your journey to becoming a Christian blogger the strongest start possible because starting your blog is just the beginning. It's when your blog starts to take off that the fun really starts! 🙂
Starting A Christian Blog Is As Simple As 1, 2, 3, 4
This is the definitive guide to starting a Christian blog you can be proud of and your fans will love. Your blog will have your own domain name and your own distinct design, and it will be able to scale with you as your readership grows.
When you’re starting a Christian blog, I recommend following these 4 steps to give you and your blog the very best shot at success:
STEP 1: Decide Who Your Christian Blog Is For
STEP 2: Get Hosting, Choose Your Domain And Create
STEP 3: Attract A Tribe Of Raving Fans
STEP 4: Get Paid As A Christian Blogger
Before we begin, let’s talk about why I started my Christian blog.
If you want to skip the intro, then click here to get started with the first step.
Why I Became A Christian Blogger
In 2016 I started GrowChurch.net, a Christian blog for pastors, for 3 reasons:
Reason #1. I love the local church: What gets my heart pumping is seeing the church rise up to become all she could be and should be.
Passion is the best reason to start a blog and the driving force that'll keep you going.
Reason #2. I saw a gap in the Christian blogging space: I saw a lot of people talking about the WHY, but hardly anyone talking about the HOW.
Assuming people's heart motives were right, I wanted to create a practical blog that would empower and equip church leaders, so I blogged about stuff like:
- How To Preach: A Guide For Beginners
- How To Grow A Church Youth Group
- How To Grow A Small Church
- How To Lead Worship
- How To Organise An ‘Invite a Friend To Church’ Sunday
If you can find a unique angle for your blog and cover topics no one else is talking about then you'll automatically stand out.
Reason #3. I needed to make money online: I'm a missionary in Thailand and my home church was no longer able to sponsor me. I needed a consistent and reliable income to support my church-planting work. And I needed to be able to earn no matter what country I was in and it had to fit around my schedule.
Starting a Christian blog was one of the best decisions I ever made. It's how I earn a living. I've been able to help thousands of pastors lead their churches better, support church-planting efforts in Thailand, minister in Filipino and Cambodian slums and support missionaries across Asia thanks to the income my blogs generate.
All this to say, becoming a Christian blogger is a great way to make money doing something fulfilling and eternally meaningful.
Start A Christian Blog: Video Walkthrough
If you want to follow the exact process I use to create a new blog then watch my video, How To Start A Blog, which gives you the full step-by-step:
While there are other blog builders out there like Wix and Squarespace, every serious blogger I know uses a self-hosted WordPress website because with 1,000s of themes and plugins to choose from, you really can get your blog looking exactly how you want.
How To Start A Christian Blog In 4 Simple Steps
What's the best way to start a blog? How do you register a domain? What do you write about? How do you find readers? Can you make money as a Christian blogger?
I know it can seem overwhelming at first but the good news is starting a Christian blog is a lot quicker and easier than you think.
Ready to get started? Just follow along and I’ll walk you through it.
STEP 1: Decide Who Your Christian Blog Is For
Before starting your blog you want to have a clear understanding of who your target audience is.
What is a target audience, you ask? Here's a great definition:
“Your blog’s target audience is the group of readers who your blog can help the most.
They’re the people who find the most value in your articles and who are most likely to fall in love with your content.”
Deciding what kind of person your blog is for is going to have a direct impact on every aspect of your blog, from the name and look of your blog to what kind of topics you'll cover in your posts.
And saying your blog is for “Christians generally” is probably not a specific enough answer…
For example, you could:
- Start a Christian devotional blog
- Start a blog for church leaders
- Start a Christian blog for women
- Start a Christian homeschooling blog
- Start a Christian parenting blog
- Start a blog for Christian singles
- Start a Christian blog for college students
- Start a Christian travel blog
- Start a blog to help married couples
Each of these types of blogs has a very specific target group.
If you're old-fashioned like me, grab a pen and paper and spend a few minutes to really narrow down exactly who your target audience is. If you were born after the year 2000 then open up whichever note-taking app you use on your phone.
What questions are they asking? What problems are they facing? What are their goals and aspirations? What are they trying to accomplish and how can you help them get there? Taking the time to do this now will definitely help you going forward.
STEP 2: Get Hosting, Choose A Domain And Create
Now it's crystal clear in your mind who your blog is for, you're ready to create your blog! I promise it's not that scary 🙂
In this step, I'll walk you through how to get the best hosting your blog, how to find and register a domain name, choose a WordPress theme and how you can customise the look and feel of your blog and start adding your first few blog posts.
Get Reliable Blog Hosting
Simply put, web hosting is where you pay a company to store your blog on a server somewhere so it's accessible to anyone anywhere in the world whenever they type in your website address.
The first thing I did when starting my Christian blog was to go to Wealthy Affiliate to create my Premium account and set up hosting.
Pay $19 the first month and $49 a month after that or go yearly at $495 to get a discount on your membership, a free .com domain and $50 in community credits.
I recommend hosting your blog with Wealthy Affiliate for a few reasons:
- I've Always Used Wealthy Affiliate. I personally use Wealthy Affiliate to host all my blogs, including GrowChurch and TheMakeMoneyOnlineBlog, so I know your blog will be in good hands.
- Easy-To-Use Website Builders. Worried starting a blog is too technical? Don't be. Your Christian blog will be live and kicking after just a few clicks and comes with WordPress already installed.
- 24/7 Technical Support. Need instant hosting help? With less than 5 minute average response times, their in-house team of “techies” have your back.
- Free SSL. Unlike other hosting companies who typically charge you $50 per domain for SSL, with Wealthy Affiliate it comes as standard.
- Keyword Research Tool. Not sure what to blog about or how to get ranked in the search engines? You'll have access to BILLIONS of keywords at the click of a button.
- Advanced Blogging Training. With weekly live interactive classes, 120 core lessons and a whole catalogue of courses, you'll be armed with the latest, cutting-edge strategies you need to build an authority blog.
- You Become Part Of An Amazing Community. With over 2.2 million+ members of like-minded bloggers from across the world, getting help and advice via the live chat, private messaging or question and answer areas is instant.
- Great Pricing. One membership gives you everything you need to take your blog to stratospheric heights. Plus, Wealthy Affiliate offers a 15% discount, a FREE .com domain and $50 in community credits when you go for the yearly option.
Now that you’re ready to get started, go to Wealthy Affiliate, enter your email address and click the green Get Started button.
Next fill out your name, password and username.
Once inside the members' area, click Websites in the top menu and hit Build A Website.
You'll be given three options depending on whether you want to start a blog on a free domain, a domain you already own or by registering a new domain.
I'll explain domains in a second, but let's set up hosting first and click Register A Domain.
Premium hosting is available at $49 a month and it's just $19 for the first month.
That's a 60% discount.
Or choose the $495 yearly option for a further 15% discount and a FREE .com domain.
Choose Your Christian Blog Name
Now your hosting is sorted, it's time to register a domain name for your Christian blog. Your domain name is your website address or your blog's URL. For example, my domain name is www.themakemoneyonlineblog.com.
A good domain name would be something:
- Short
- Memorable
- Easy to spell
- End in .com
Here are a few Christian blog name ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
Remember, as a yearly member you don't need to buy a domain since Wealthy Affiliate will give you a .com domain for free.
From the members' area, go to Websites then Build A New Website and Register A New Domain and here's where you check availability of a domain and Add to Cart.
Hit Continue and your domain has been registered!
Next, we create your blog! Let me show you just how easy it is.
Choose A WordPress Theme And Create!
Choose the Domain I Own option, then select your domain from the list and enter your Christian blog's name.
There's only one more thing you need to do before you go ahead and create your blog and that's to choose a WordPress theme. This will determine the look and feel of your website, so pick a good one.
There are over 4,000 free themes available but the theme I always use and recommend is GeneratePress because it's easy to customise and comes with amazing support. They have a paid version but the free version is more than good enough to start with.
Once you've selected your favourite theme (you can change it anytime later), simply smash that Build My Website button and let Wealthy Affiliate take care of the rest.
CONGRATS! You've got hosting set up, your domain name registered, your theme chosen and your blog is now LIVE and online for all the world to see!
Customise Your Blog And Make It Look Pretty
You are now officially the proud owner of a Christian blog and you should have the WordPress logins to prove it.
There are just a couple more things to set in place. We're almost there!
Sign in to your WordPress dashboard and it will look something like this:
It's here you can change how your blog looks. Go to Appearance then Customize and tinker around with the fonts, colours and layout options until you're happy.
This is also where you add new pages and create new blog posts, answer comments and just about anything else to do with your blog.
Create A Logo
Create a logo yourself using free design platforms like Canva (that's what I do and it's easy) or hire a designer on Fiverr to do it for you. Either way, I'd say keep it simple.
Add Plugins
Plugins are like mini-apps that add more functions to your WordPress blog. Your blog comes with two plugins already installed:
- All In One SEO. I use this to add a meta title and description (what shows in Google) for each post.
- Kraken Image Optimizer. This automatically compresses your images so your blog loads faster.
I recommend adding a couple more (free) plugins to give you more creative features:
- GenerateBlocks. Created by GeneratePress, I use this one when I'm building pages.
- Ultimate Addons For Gutenberg. This plugin gives you even more block options, say if you want to add a table of contents or customisable buttons to your posts.
Adding plugins to your new Christian blog is easy. Select Plugins from the left-hand side and click Add New. From there you can search for plugins, select and click Install Now.
Create Your About Page
It's time to publish your first piece of content and where better to start than with your About page. To add your About page, go to Pages and Add New and tell us about yourself.
Don't overthink it though, you just need 3 short simple paragraphs on:
- Who you are
- What you do
- Why you do it
Include a photo of yourself so the world can meet you, hit Publish and you're done! 🙂
STEP 3: Attract A Tribe Of Raving Fans
“I have a Christian blog! Now what?”
Why get 100,000+ monthly readers of course!
And while you can get readers through Pinterest and other social media sites like a lot of Christian bloggers do, I've found Google is (by far!) the best way to bring in the blog-reading crowds.
And people find your blog on Google when you create content. Inspiring and uplifting content. Super helpful content that answers your target reader's questions and solves their problems.
But what should you write about?
The biggest mistake 90% of newbie bloggers make is writing about random topics no one is looking for. If you want to reach a ton of people through your blog then you need to learn how to do keyword research. It’s that simple.
What is keyword research?
It sounds complicated, but it's basically just looking at how many times a month a certain phrase or question is searched for in Google and creating amazing content around that. It's also a great way to come up with endless ideas to blog about.
“Keyword research is a process bloggers use to discover which relevant search terms are being typed into search engines like Google. These commonly searched words and phrases give content creators a good indication of what people are searching for on the Internet—and thus which topics to write about in order to bring those readers to your website.”
Are you confuzzled? Have I completely lost you?
Don't worry, I'll give you a few real-life examples and it'll all click into place 🙂
Find Your Next Target Keywords
Go to the Wealthy Affiliate members' area and click Research in the top menu.
That'll take you to Jaaxy where you can start entering a few blog post title ideas, see how many monthly searches they get, see competitive data and find good keywords to target.
For example, let's say I start an evangelistic blog to share Jesus online. My target audience is people who are asking questions about Jesus and the Bible and the meaning of life.
If I type in the term “Who is Jesus?” into Jaaxy, I can see there's an average of 7,697 people each month asking this question so it'd definitely be worth targeting this.
Let's do one more example. “What is the Bible?” gets searched over 3.5 million times per month. That would be a great topic to create a blog post about.
You'll also notice Jaaxy comes up with a ton of related searches so trust me, you'll never ever have to struggle to come up with Christian blog post ideas!
I'd recommend creating a list of 30 or so keyword ideas for your blog going forward.
This leads us very nicely onto…
Create A Publishing Plan
How often should you publish on your new Christian blog?
That comes down to what your schedule looks like, but I would aim to post at least once a week. 2-3 times a week if possible.
The key to becoming a successful Christian blogger is consistency, which means being organised. What I do is take my list of blog post ideas and schedule them for specific days and set time aside to get them done. Trello is good for this, as is Google Sheets.
I'd also recommend having a designated working space where you can blog happily away distraction-free.
And a final note about publishing, if you've never practised the habit of writing before, crafting your first few blog posts might seem like pulling teeth… but stick with it and I promise the more you write, the more you improve and the easier you'll flow!
STEP 4: Get Paid As A Christian Blogger
You did it! You successfully started a blog, and you’re even posting regularly. You’re starting to see a little bit of traffic come in, so what’s next?
It's time to get paid for your efforts.
Whether you want to make $1,000/month or are looking to quit your day job and become a full-time Christian blogger, there are so many ways to generate an income.
Here are my favourite ways to make money with a Christian blog:
Put Ads On Your Blog
Displaying ads is a great way to monetise your blog without any extra work required on your end. Simply sign up to an ad network and watch your earnings accumulate.
There's AdThrive, Google Adsense and MediaVine, but Ezoic is the ad network I've had the most success with. They offer the highest payouts with no minimum pageviews.
Sell Your Products
If you've started a Christian devotional blog, why not write a Christian daily devotional book and recommend it to your readers?
If you've built a blog to help pastors preach better sermons, why not create your own preaching course and promote it?
You can make money selling your products that fit right with your audience.
My All-Time Favourite: Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is where you earn commissions for promoting other people's products or services, and it's how I generate $100,000s per year online.
This is the best way to make money from your Christian blog because it's a win-win-win:
- Your readers win
- You win
- The company you promote wins
Joining affiliate programs are free and they give you a unique tracking link so when one of your readers clicks through that link and buys something, you get a cut of the sale.
And there are so many Christian affiliate programs out there with a ton of relevant books, courses and gear you can promote to monetise your blog.
Type “Christian affiliate programs” into Google and you'll see pages of results.
Here are just a few top Christian affiliate program ideas to get the ball rolling, but as you'll see, the earning possibilities really are endless!
The Best 3 Christian Affiliate Programs
1. Christian Strong
Equip your readers to start conversations about Jesus and share their faith with Christian T-shirts, tank tops, hoodies (and cute baby onesies!) and earn 10% per sale.
2. Christianbook
Join Christianbooks' affiliate program and you'll instantly be able to promote any one of their 550,000 products for an 8% commission.
They sell everything from Bibles, books, mugs and music to toys, gifts, homeschool curriculum and church supplies.
3. Bible Belles
Bible Belles (via Truth Becomes Her) is all about empowering and teaching young women about their true worth.
What better way to earn 15% on every Bible Belles book or party in a box that's sold through your blog.
FAQs When Starting A Christian Blog
How Much Money Do Christian Bloggers Make?
Christian bloggers can make $10,000 per month within 12 months. Top Christian bloggers are earning 6 figures a month once they've created content consistently, built a loyal fan base and applied the right monetisation strategies.
Justine launched JustineMFulama.com, a faith-based dating and relationship coaching blog in 2017 and now makes $1,880 per month from ads alone.
Anh Lin runs AGirlAndHisWord.com; an inspirational Christian blog where she talks about travel and lifestyle, decor and faith and a YouTube channel with 460k+ subscribers. Her latest income reports show her making more than $10,000 a month.
Sarah started her Christian blog as a single mum living in a homeless shelter after a life-changing encounter with God. She earned $10,000/month from SarahTitus.com after a year, $23,000/month after two years and recently reported making an astonishing $8,456,992.93 in 2020.
The sky really is the limit in terms of how much you can earn with your Christian blog!
How To Start a Christian Blog For Free?
If you don't want to pay for domains and hosting then starting a Christian blog for free with Siterubix.com is a good starter option. You can transfer your blog to your own .com domain with ease when you're ready.
Starting a free Christian blog might be a good way to dip your toes in the water, but if you really want to grow your blog then you’ll want to host it on your domain at some point.
- Free blogging platforms like Siterubix have a lot of restrictions like limited storage and features
- Free blogs only give you a subdomain ( like yourblog.siterubix.com) which look unprofessinal
- It's much harder to get a free blog to rank in Google and other search engines
- You don't have complete control over the look and feel of your blog
- You don't actually own your blog and it can be taken down at anytime
And to be honest, starting a blog the right way doesn’t have to cost a bomb. So do it right and give your blog the strongest start possible.
That’s it! You’ve started your Christian blog and now have the tools, training and resources to make a huge success of it!
Happy blogging and you totally got this. 🙂
Questions? Ask in the comments or contact me here and I’ll do my best to help you out!
Simon Crowe is on a mission to help as many people as possible kiss their bosses goodbye.
Take the free Wealthy Affiliate test drive to discover how to smash your online income goals and make your dream business a reality.
Hi Simon,
It was a great share! I come from a Christian family, and I can tell you the importance of faith. I think my family has been planning to start a blog, and I am sure they will gain a lot of insights from this article. I have been trying to help them set up their blog and I think your tips will be very helpful in their process. Thanks a lot for sharing such an amazing article. I will definitely pass it along in my community.
Happy to help John!
Hi Simon. Thank you so much for this article.
It has been such a blessing to me. I am just about to start a Christian blog and this article has supported me with its information.
I look forward to being guided by you.
I look forward to working with you Daniel. You got this! 🙂
What a joy to have landed to this web!
Thank you Simon for committing yourself to make a difference and provide
value. You are blessed to be this an important human being. May the Lord keep you Graciously.
I will definitely have a story to tell in near future! It’s my belief.
Wow thanks Fredo! 🙂 Blogging is about giving as much value as possible. The more you can help your readers, ultimately the more successful you will be!
You got this!