Christian blogging is such an amazing way to bring more Jesus into people's lives. But it is also a way for many stay-at-home moms to both share their love of Jesus and earn the income needed to manage their households. What better way to earn a living than to help others grow closer in their walk with Christ?
But just like the technical blogging stuff, monetizing can be a challenge if you don't have some direction and guidance. Here are 4 of the most common ways to monetize a Christian blog.
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This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my full affiliate disclosure here.
How to Monetize Your Christian Blog
I know there are some who question whether Christian bloggers should be earning money by writing about Jesus. I'm not going to go into that topic in this post. I'll just reference a single verse from the Bible that clearly answers that question. I will also say that it is a personal decision for each person. Talk to God about it and decide if that is the direction He wants you to go with it.
the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. (1 Corinthians 9:14)
Before I dive into the different methods of earning money as a Christian blogger, I first want to make sure that you understand that none of these will work if you haven't first
- Really defined your target audience
- Laid down a solid SEO foundation for your blog
- Written content specifically to your target audience.
If you don't focus on the foundation first, the rest of it will be fruitless. SEO is truly the key to getting your content found by the people who are looking for it, which in turn will result in higher conversions. Most new bloggers try to simply just throw in a random affiliate product here and there and don't understand why it isn't working.
Affiliate Marketing
The first and most common way to monetize your Christian blog is through affiliate marketing. This is where you promote products in blog content and earn a commission when sales are generated. Most new bloggers don't do very well with affiliate marketing because they don't really have a plan or strategy and just randomly throw links in their blog posts. By focusing on products and services your target audience needs or wants and writing blog content centered around that, you'll have much better conversion rates. You can also expand beyond the blog by using affiliate links on Pinterest.
** Here are some good affiliate programs for Christian bloggers.
About 2 years ago, I did finally break down and take Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing which sort of opened my eyes to some things I hadn't previously thought of in the way of promoting affiliate products. While I did learn a lot from the course, it didn't teach me about the importance of (or how to do) SEO research for my blog. Now that I fully understand SEO, my affiliate products do much better than when I first took that course.
Product posts are a great way to reach your blog audience with affiliate products. Instead of just writing about a single product, think of what general types of products your audience might be searching for on Google. For example, a Christian mom blogger focusing on helping moms of preschool children could write product roundup posts on things like “nontoxic bath toys” or something like that. Then write it like a regular blog post but list several product options in that category. These are the things your readers would naturally be searching for.
Here are some product posts we've written for Bibles and Bible journals:
- The Best Women’s Bible Study Coloring Journals
- The Best Bibles for Teen Girls
- Must-Have Children’s Bibles for Toddlers and Babies
- The 6 Best Devotional Books for Young Women
Creating and Selling Digital Products
Contrary to what you may have heard, most bloggers do not earn the bulk of their money with affiliate marketing. The key to really growing a profitable blogging ministry is creating and selling digital products that serve a need for your target audience. Don't just create stuff to create stuff. Figure out what your audience really needs and either create downloadable files for them to purchase. Here are some examples of products from Christian bloggers that do really well:
- Arabah Joy has several products such as prayer journals, Bible studies, and devotionals.
- Sarah Frazier offers a really helpful Bible study notebook to her audience.
- Equipping Godly Women offers Marriage Conversation Cards and several E-books to their audience.
- Married by His Grace created a really great E-book about Christian blogging to help other Christian bloggers.
Ad Networks
While you may think ads on your site are a nuisance, they are a great way to earn residual income. Most newer bloggers join Google Adsense, but I don't recommend them. Their ads do tend to look tacky and the return isn't the best. The better ones are SheMedia and MediaVine, but you do need a certain amount of traffic to your site to be eligible to join either of them. By working on your SEO and getting more organic traffic to your blog, you'll be able to eventually join one of them. We currently use SheMedia as our ad network on Kingdom Bloggers.
Virtual Services
One, often overlooked, way to earn money as a Christian blogger is to offer services through your blog. If you are a great writer, there are lots of opportunities for freelance writing for churches and other Christian entities. You could also offer other administrative services as a Virtual Assistant. This is basically like an assistant for another blogger but it is also stuff accomplished through the computer such as posting on social media, responding to emails, editing blog posts, etc.
Always make God the priority when choosing to monetize your Christian blog. #christianblogging Click To Tweet
Making Money as a Christian Blogger
There are many ways to monetize a Christian blog but the most important thing to remember is to keep God as the priority in your blogging. The finance part should never be the primary focus! Always treat your audience with respect by never promoting stuff just to promote it. Provide solid value in anything you offer through your blog content. Always do your research on anything you intend to promote or recommend. Even better, recommend products or services that you've actually used or tried out your self so you can write about your experience with it. Your goal should always be to offer tools to help them in their journey as it pertains to your blog.
Connect with other Christian bloggers and find opportunities to support them by trying and recommending any products or services that they offer. You can visit our Resources for Christian Women and find that many of the resources listed there offer affiliate programs. These cover a variety of Christian blogging niches.
Be sure to also read:
- 4 Reasons Your Amazon Links Aren’t Converting as a Christian Blogger
- How to Make Coloring Pages for Bible Verses
- Tips for Building a Successful and Engaged Email List
Love this post and the ways you say to monetize a Christian blog. I took Making Sense if Affiliate Marketing, and you’re absolutely right- great course but nothing about SEO! I even asked her about it and she said she was learning SEO this summer! Thanks for all you’ve taught us about ways to monetize a Christian blog as well as SEO!
For anyone who wants to monetize a Christian blog these are clear, helpful suggestions. And combined with the kind of SEO training you provide these tips sound like a recipe for success! Thanks for laying it out so concisely.
This is a great post! I am an affiliate for Christianbook.com but no matter how much I use them, nothing. I must be doing something wrong.
I had not heard of SheMedia. I am using Monumetric on one of my blogs and itis great!
This was a post right on time for me! I have been trying to find more creative ways to monetize my blog however don’t want to lose focus on what it’s really for and that’s spreading the gospel! I do like the ideas you have! Thanks so much! Great post with a lot of information!