How to Start A Christian Blog

Do you feel like God is calling you to start a Christian blog?

If so, you might be overwhelmed.

What will you write about? Will anyone besides your mom ever read it? What if people hate it? What if they hate you? Do you need to know how to code?

Here’s the good news: If God is calling you to a ministry of blogging, you can do it even if you have zero experience.

It’s not hard to start a blog today. But with all the options available, the key is to start on the right foundation.

It’s easy to get sidetracked. You can set yourself up for failure by either being so cheap that you use bad resources that hold you back or going too far and spending way too much on tools you don’t need right now.

I want to give you a step-by-step guide to starting a Christian blog the right way.

But first, let me tell you my story so you know where I’m coming from.

Growing My Blog from Zero to a Million Views

I served over a decade as a pastor in multiple churches of all different sizes. But today, I make a living as a writer.

Blogging was never something that I saw coming. I didn’t plan for this to become my full-time thing. I simply had a topic that I was passionate about, wanted to learn more about it, and decided to share what I was learning.

In 2012, while still working full-time as a pastor, I had this idea to start a blog.

I love preaching, but I had so much to learn. Bible college taught me how to study the Bible but I had to learn to preach on the job. And I had a LOT of room for improvement.

I’ve always enjoyed writing because it helps me untangle my thoughts. I often don’t know what I think about something until I’ve written about it. It forces me to clarify the mess of an idea.

So I decided that I’d start a journey of personal growth. I would learn everything I could about preaching, and blog about what I was learning.

Honestly, I was terrified of the idea. I was afraid of what people might think. But I just had this feeling that it’s what God wanted me to do.

I decided to name the blog ProPreacher.com because it was about preaching, I didn’t want to make it about me, and I didn’t want anyone to know it was mine.

So I built up the courage, pushed past the fear, and on November 13, 2012, I hit publish on my first post

Then, I told nobody.

I just wrote and published, wrote and published.

Eventually, I created a ProPreacher social media account and started sharing the articles in case they might be helpful to anyone.

I’d get home from working all day at the church, hang out with my family, tuck my daughter into bed, and then write a little more.

At first, as expected, nobody read it. After all, I kept it a secret.

To this day, I still don’t know what happened, but one day I looked at my stats and saw that a handful of people had actually read a few articles.

Weird.

Not long after that, the handful of people grew to a few dozen, then a few hundred, and then a few thousand!

People somehow found my blog, liked it, and shared it with other people.

Before I knew it, the cost of running the blog was growing with a growing audience. So I took a lot of the content I was writing and turned it into one book, then another, and then a preaching course.

In the fall of 2018, the site was growing and taking so much time to operate that I followed God’s lead and took the risk to jump in full-time.

As of today, ProPreacher.com has had over a million views, averages tens of thousands of views per month, and it continues to grow.

I’m just amazed that God has given me the opportunity to create resources that help and encourage thousands of pastors every day around the world.

It has been a wild ride. I never saw it coming. But I am so glad I followed God’s call to start a Christian blog.

As I look back and wonder how the blog took off, I realize that it’s all because I started with a great foundation and continued building from there.

Why Start A Christian Blog?

Can you imagine if the internet existed back in the days of the apostles? What if Paul, Peter, or John had a blog?

In our Bibles, we still read the letters they wrote to churches. They had to hand write, hand copy, and hand deliver these letters. But nearly 2,000 years later, the words that God inspired them to write are still changing lives.

Now, I’m not saying that any of our writing is on par with Scripture. But the written word has been foundational throughout the history of Christianity.

When the printing press was invented, Christians took advantage of this technology immediately and began to mass produce copies of the Bible. Soon after, hundreds of other Christian writings were printed and distributed. Some even argue that the Protestant Reformation would not have been possible without the printing press.

Now, as the age of the internet is here, Christians are leveraging new technology like blogging to continue to spread the gospel.

Just think about it. Never before in the history of the world has it been easier to write something with the instant potential to reach millions of people around the world.

So why should you start a blog?

Blogging is a modern form of a long history of Christians harnessing the written word to bring glory to God.

If God has given you a gift to write, you feel led to write, and you have a burden for helping a specific group people, then pick up your keyboard and join the long tradition of Christian writers.

I’m so glad that I took action, pushed through fear, and started my blog. I get emails and comments every day from pastors around the world that have been encouraged and helped by my work, and I can’t wait to see how God uses your blog too.

But first, I need to warn you about a few things.

Why You Shouldn’t Start A Christian Blog?

Don’t start a blog if you just want to make money.

Run from anyone who tries to sell you blogging as a get-rich-quick scheme.

My blog has grown to earn an income, but that was never the point of it. It took years to make any money. Until that time, I was happy to keep writing even if I never made a penny.

If you help enough people, eventually your blog will make money because people exchange money for things that are helpful to them. But that shouldn’t be your primary focus.

Focus on helping people, not making money. God will sort the money part out in his timing if he wills.

Don’t start a blog if you think it will be easy.

When you start your shiny, new blog, it’s exciting! You’ll have hundreds of blog post ideas swirling around your head.

But eventually, like all things, the shine fades. There’ll be days when you’ll think you can’t write another word. You’ll sit at the keyboard and nothing will come. That’s all part of the journey.

Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. You need endurance and perseverance to keep going on the days you don’t feel like writing.

Thousands of abandoned blogs litter the internet. They were started by people who were excited at first but failed to persevere.

Don’t start if it’s really just about you.

You need a bigger vision for your blog.

Even though I started my blog anonymously, I still wrote as if I were speaking to other pastors. That’s one of the reasons it connected.

Again, blogging is about helping other people. It’s not about you.

The biggest mistake bloggers make is thinking it’s about themselves. Think about your readers. What will they get from reading your work?

If you’re starting a Christian blog for your glory rather than God’s glory, you need to check your heart before you dig that hole any deeper.

A blog can be a powerful ministry tool, but we have to remember what ministry is all about—loving God and loving people.

So if you think you might have what it takes, and I believe that you do, here’s how to get started so that you are set up for success.

7 Steps to Start a Christian Blog

Full Disclosure: some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission of sales at no cost to you. It’s a small way to help support this ministry, and probably a way that you’ll eventually helps support your work too. Please know that I don’t recommend anything that I don’t trust and use myself. So if you use a link, thank you. If you don’t, that’s alright too.

1. Decide Who You Want to Help

I’ve said it before, but I can’t emphasize this enough. You have to decide who you are writing for.

If you write to everybody, you’ll reach nobody. But if you write to the few, you’ll reach many.

I know it sounds contradictory, but I promise it’s true.

Just think about your favorite blogs and websites. They have a specific audience they are targeting, don’t they?

One reason my blog got traction was that I had a very specific audience. I wrote for pastors, but not even all pastors. I wrote for pastors who preach.

I wrote things that would only be interesting to preachers like me. So I shouldn’t have been surprised that preachers like me found it helpful.

So who will you write for?

What group of people do you have a burden to help?

• Entrepreneurs
• Moms
• College students
• Women in ministry
• Homeschoolers
• Millennial men with man buns

Okay, that last one may be too narrow. But hey, you never know.

You may find yourself in a dilemma here. What if you have a few different audiences you could write for?

If there’s a common thread between the two, then maybe you can find some middle ground.

However, I’d encourage you to pick just one. The more focused you are, the better.

Pray about it, and go with the audience God draws you to the most.

2. Choose a Web Host

All high-quality blogs (and most websites) run on a free platform called WordPress. There are other options out there, but most of them will either be less flexible while costing you more money or make your blog look amateurish.

Just go with WordPress.

Now, while WordPress is free, hosting for your WordPress site is not.

All websites need a hosting company.

The hosting company basically protects and stores all of your blog’s data on a computer server. So when people visit your blog online, they’re downloading the information from your web host’s server.

The only hosting company that I use and trust is BlueHost.

BlueHost is affordable, fast, reliable, and has always been helpful to me whenever I needed tech support or had any questions.

Right now, it’ll only cost you $3.95 a month to run your site if you use this link. That’s less than a cup of coffee every month for the opportunity to reach people around the world.

That’s not a bad investment.

3. Name Your Blog

This part can be fun and frustrating at the same time.

You’d be surprised how many domain names are already taken.

If you can’t find your favorite “.com” name, most people don’t care if you have a “.org”, “.net”, “.church” or another variation. The “.com” just makes it easier.

So make a list of a lot of ideas. Try different combinations of two or three words. Shorter is usually better, but it’s also good to have a name that’s easy to remember and immediately helps people know what the site is about.

For example, if I start a blog for youth pastors, I might try something like “youthpastorhelps.com”.

Naming it “pimplesandpizza.com” wouldn’t be as obvious, although it’s memorable and funny because youth pastors tend to eat pizza and hang out with teenagers who have pimples.

Even worse would be naming it something trendy sounding like “theconvergance.com”.

What does that even mean?

Now, you may get lucky and find that your first and last name is available. I’m lucky to have a less common name, although it’s hard to spell. So I had no problem getting BrandonHilgemann.com (I write a little there too). But if you have a more common name, you’ll have more trouble.

Before you pick a domain name, take time to brainstorm and really think about it. Once you select your domain name, it’s a huge pain to try to switch it later.

Be happy enough to marry the name and the brand that comes with it.

Now, before you go running to GoDaddy or another domain purchasing service, know that BlueHost offers a free domain with their hosting service. That’s what I did to secure ProPreacher.com too.

You’re going to need hosting anyway, so save money and get the free domain name.

Once you pick a domain name, enter it in BlueHost domain search bar to see if it’s available. If not, try another until you find one that works.

When you find a domain you are happy with, finish your hosting purchase and move to the next step. Here’s where it gets fun.

4. Choose a Theme

A theme is simply a template for your blog will look. You can find thousands of free themes or go with a premium theme.

If you are using BlueHost, they’ll help you get WordPress installed and set up with your first theme.

I’ve tried a lot of different themes over the years, but my favorite is GeneratePress. There’s a free version that you can start with, but if you have the funds, the paid version is more than worth it.

I’m using GeneratePress on this site right now.

It’s fast, and search engines like fast websites. Plus, it’s easy to customize through the WordPress menu system.

You can see exactly what the theme options change as you change them, and you’d be surprised how many themes don’t do this.

So find a theme that works for you, play around with it, and customize your blog to look however you like.

And, by the way, if you aren’t a graphic designer, don’t make your own logo. Hire a talented designer for a few bucks on Fiverr.com. I’ve used Fiverr for a bunch of projects, and I’ve never been disappointed.

5. Choose an Email Provider

I didn’t do everything right when I started, but one thing I did do right was having an email list early on.

The growth of your blog happens most by growing your email list. You need an email provider that will help you let readers sign up for your list so you can email them when a new post is published.

MailerLite is my favorite email provider. It’s what I use for my site. It’s as powerful as all the other providers, but it’s simple, and best of all, it’s the least expensive.

Your email list can become the most expensive thing about your blog. But with MailerLite, you’ll get your first 1,000 email subscribers for free. So you won’t pay anything unless your blog grows. And then, the price is about half the cost of other providers.

MailerLite has saved me hundreds of dollars in the last year alone.

Email is still the best communication tool for websites. You need to grow a list to grow the reach of your site.

6. Add Plugins

Plugins are simply add-ons to your WordPress site that give it more features.

It’s easy to get plugin happy, but be careful. Too many plugins will slow your site down, causing search engines like Google to not rank your articles as high in searches.

So find only the plugins you need, and get rid of the rest.

The Plugins I Use:

• Askimet Anti-Spam: Spam comments on your website are annoying. Askimet takes care of most of those for you so you don’t have to worry about them.
• Compress JPEG & PNG Images: This plugin automatically optimizes the images you upload so that they are a smaller file size. Your website runs faster when file sizes are smaller. Again, Google is more likely to send more traffic to faster sites over slower ones.
• RefTagger: If you’re planning to use a lot of Bible references, RefTagger allows readers to highlight the verse and read the reference. For example, I can write John 3:16 and you can see what it does.
• W3 Total Cache: This plugin basically helps speed up your website. Most bloggers swear by it. I’ve tried it and it works.
• Yoast SEO: SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” This plugin will help give every blog post a rating, and telling you what to do to make it more likely to be ranked higher by search engines.

Just click on the plugin tab in your WordPress dashboard. Click “add new.” Then, search for these plugins and you’ll find them.

7. Write, Publish, Repeat

Congratulations, you officially have a blog.

Now it’s time to grind.

Write your first post, then your second, third, fourth, and so on.

Keep going.

You’ll need to commit to at least a year or more of blogging if you hope to see any fruit. Each article you write will increase the chance of people finding your website.

This is where most blogs fail. They start, then stop. They aren’t consistent and then they’re abandoned.

Perseverance wins. People are investing their valuable time to visit your blog. They won’t keep coming back if you don’t.

Remember: You’re doing good work with your writing, and the Bible says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

Don’t give up.

Decide on a consistent and manageable publishing schedule. I’d suggest posting at least once a week, and more if you can handle it.

Remember, you’re playing the long game here. Blogging isn’t about instant, overnight success or getting rich quick.

Slow and steady wins the race.

What’s Holding You Back from Starting a Blog?

I know this is a whole lot of information on getting started, but I hope it helps.

Did I miss anything? Do you have other questions? Let me know in the comments and I’ll be happy to help.

Look, if God has gifted you and called you to start a Christian blog, what are you waiting for? People need to hear what God wants you to say.

Take action. Push past whatever fear, insecurity, and doubt that you have.

You won’t regret it.