One of the biggest struggles for most Christian bloggers is how to get more readers to subscribe to their blogs. While we think that readers will just love our content and jump at the chance to subscribe, unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way.
You must give them a really great reason to allow you to take up space in their Inbox! There are so many content upgrade ideas that are perfect for Christian bloggers that you may not have even considered!
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Content Upgrade Ideas for Christian Bloggers
So what exactly is a content upgrade? Actually, you may have heard it called a variety of names:
- lead magnet
- optin
- subscriber freebie
Regardless of what you call it, a content upgrade is something you offer your readers to supplement the content of your blog (or a particular blog post) as a means to get them to subscribe to your email list.
Of course, what I offer my readers will vary from what you offer yours. And what works for one blogger won’t necessarily work for your audience.
At the end of the day, the content upgrade idea must provide value to your reader as it pertains to your ministry.
Also, since most of these things will be “printable” in nature, I created Printables for Christian Bloggers which offers even more ideas than what is listed here in this post.
1. Email Devotional Series
These are a series of emails delivered over a set period of time. You can create a different devotional series specific to each category that you write about. These could be as simple as a daily Bible verse with an actionable step to focus on or it can be more of a short Bible study on a particular verse of the Bible.
On Kingdom Bloggers, we have a weekly Wednesday Devotional that readers can sign up for and receive by email every week.
2. Printable Bible Study
Readers are always looking for new and creative ways to study their Bible. You can create various Bible studies for your readers to download and study at their own pace.
This can be a combination of the actual Bible study, along with worksheets and other study materials.
3. Printable Bible Reading Plan
Reading the Bible can be a bit daunting if you aren’t sure where to begin. Having a ready reference of which verses to read each day can really be helpful to your readers. You could create this as a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even an annual reading plan. Create them all and then put them together for a comprehensive Bible reading plan they can download and follow.
Kingdom Bloggers has a monthly Bible Reading Plan that is delivered via email the last week of month with everything needed to study for the following month.
4. Challenges
These content upgrade ideas can include anything from a 30-Bible reading challenge listing specific verses to read each day to something like a daily gratitude challenge listing specific tasks to complete each day to show gratitude. These can easily be created in programs such as Canva where you can add a little decorative color to the printable page.
You can see my 30 Day Prayer Challenge here.
5. Printable Scripture Cards
These are easy to make in Canva and can easily be printed out by readers to remind them of specific verses you’ve captured in a post. Be sure to keep your colors to a minimum since they will be printed out because color ink tends to go fast (and is expensive).
6. Scripture Coloring Pages
Who doesn’t love to color? These are a perfect way to capture the verses you’ve used in a post and turn them into something they can use for their Bible study time. Not sure how to make them? Here is a tutorial on how to create your own printable Bible verse coloring pages.
7. Printable Wall Art
I don’t know about you, but I love to hang pretty pictures on my walls and around my workspace. You can create a simple printable Bible verse with decorative art around it or some other type of encouraging quote that your readers can print out and hang.
8. Printable Lists and Checklists
These are an absolute must for any “list-posts” that you create. If you offer content that has actionable steps, put them into a printable checklist for your readers to take with them.
9. E-Book
Do you have a testimony to share that is a bit too long for a simple blog post? Turn it into short, PDF e-book that your readers can download and read. These are super easy to create – you literally just need to type it out in Word and convert it to a PDF document for your readers.
10. Chapter Preview
Do you have a book that you actually sell? Turn the first chapter or two into a single pdf for your reader to download. Not only can this help boost your subscribers, but it may also boost the sale of your book!
11. Access to Premium Content
If you publish content along the lines of Bible study resources, you can offer access to a library of free Bible study worksheets and other printables, and/or videos of you guiding them through the lessons. This would be considered “premium content” that could be offered as an incentive to sign up for your email list!
12. Free Printables Library
People love free stuff! Depending on your niche and audience, you could create a library of free printables reserved exclusively for your subscribers.
This could be anything from homeschool printables to Bible Study worksheets and more. In addition to access to the current contents of the library, you could offer a new printable each month or something like that.
An example of this might be if you offer Bible Journaling tips on your site. Create a library of journaling templates and send out a new bundle of goodies each week (or month).
13. Transcript of Recording of a Live Event
If you do regular live events (maybe a training or a Bible study), many readers may not always be able to attend it or maybe they just found you and didn’t have the opportunity to watch it. You can record these and provide the links for your subscribers to watch them anytime.
14. Printable Resource Page
This is similar to a list of Bible verses to read but can be just about anything other than Bible verses. Whatever you write about, how can you provide a printable resource for your readers to use beyond their visit to your site? A great example of this is Jessie who provides social media support to churches and Christian bloggers. She has this amazing Christian Hashtags for Instagram printable.
Easy Content Upgrade Ideas for Christian Bloggers
There you have it! 14 content upgrade ideas to help you increase subscribers and build an engaged following for your Christian blog. Most of these can easily be created using Canva or other editing software programs and be easily added to your blog with email marketing platforms such as ConvertKit or MailerLite. Keep them simple, but ensure they are truly something that your readers would actually benefit from.
If you are really struggling to come up with ideas specific to your target audience – or you just can’t figure out how to make your forms look great, List by Number from Suzy Whitford is an amazing course that will help you get it all figured out.
I’d love to hear what optin freebies have converted well for you? Are there any that I’m missing here on this list? Let me know so I can add it and give more ideas to those who may be struggling to come up with something.
Also, don’t forget to check out Printables for Christian Bloggers for even more ideas to offer your readers!
