A resource library is a great way to provide additional content to your readers beyond a blog post. They can also be a great way to provide additional, premium content to your email subscribers.
Having a combination of open and password-protected resource pages will enable you to generate consistent traffic to your site and can also help in increasing affiliate income (if you are monetizing your blog).
This tutorial will show you how to create a resource library that your readers will love!
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Creating Resource Libraries for Your Christian Blog
A resource library can be any content in which you provide a collection (or list) of various resources related to your target audience. What you offer in your resource library will vary depending on the overall needs of your audience and you can (and should) have more than just one.
They are created and published on the “page” template (not the “post” template), which means you must provide a physical link to them on your blog (they won’t show in your regular blog feed).
Types of Resource Pages
There are basic Resource pages that you might offer
- Open – meant to drive traffic and available to anyone
- Password-Protected – created specifically to house a variety of resources exclusively for your subscribers. Only those with the link and the password can access it. (Join my email list at the bottom of this post and get access to mine!)
As for the regular (not for subscribers) resource pages, the sky is really the limit on what you can offer. This is going to vary depending on the purpose of your blog and the needs of your target audience.
Just a few examples for a Bible Study blog might be:
- Bible Study Resources
- Scripture coloring pages
- Library of downloadable topical studies
For other blogs, you might find things like the following:
- Breastfeeding resources
- Christian Parenting Resources
- Marriage Resources
- Resources for New Moms
- Resources for Special Needs Moms
- Recommended Reading List
Drive More Traffic with Resource Pages
Resource pages are a GREAT way to drive a lot of organic traffic to your site for both Google and Pinterest.
If you do keyword research and optimize your resource pages for SEO, they can easily rank in search results.
For Pinterest, you can create multiple pins throughout the year to continually boost traffic to those pages.
Serve Your Subscribers with a Resource Library
A really good way to keep your subscribers engaged and wanting to stay connected is to provide stuff just for them! Over time, however, it can be a nightmare trying to manage everything you’ve created for them.
A password-protected resource page is the best way to keep it all organized.
As you add new stuff for them, you can simply send them the link to the page (along with the password) so they can access it.
Also, this provides ALL of your subscribers the ability to access everything. If they signed up for one freebie, they may not be aware of something else you used for a different optin.
Aside from serving your subscribers, this also helps to increase the sessions on your site (important for ad revenue).
How to Create a Resource Page
So how exactly do you create the different resource pages for your Christian blog?
- Decide on the type of resource page
- Do keyword research
- Gather the resources that you’ll be including
- Build your page!
Decide on the Type of Resource
The first step will, obviously, be to decide what kind of resource pages you want to offer. Even though you’ll eventually create a resource page exclusively for your subscribers, you should begin by creating a variety of resource pages that you can easily promote and are meant to serve your readers (and drive traffic to your site).
Like I mentioned before, ensure that each resource page fits your target audience and is filled with a variety of resources that your target audience would need or be looking for.
Do Keyword Research
Once you have decided on the types of resource pages you want to offer, do some keyword research to see how people might be searching for each one. Then layout the content in a similar way you would a blog post so it will be optimized for SEO (and rank in search results).
(Some types of resource pages may not really have Google SEO value but can really do well on Pinterest so it is totally OK to create some that are NOT optimized for SEO.)
Gather the Resources
This is the part that will probably take the most time. Keep in mind that YOU don’t have to create all of the resources that you’ll be including!
A really great resource page will include some things that you’ve created but will also link to helpful resources from other places (like other bloggers, etc).
For the things you’ve created (printables, etc), the best way to keep track of them is to house them in a folder on your cloud drive. Then you can link to the shareable file or folder link.
Build Your Resource Page
For me, this is the fun part!
Gutenberg has made it super easy to create really great resource pages that readers can easily navigate.
Get creative and use different block elements to lay out your different resources. I have Ultimate Add On Block or Gutenberg (plugin) that provides some additional block elements to use.
Promote Your Resource Page
For the open resource pages, you want to get them out and circulating so people can start clicking and visiting your page!
Here are a few places that you definitely want to share the links!
- Pinterest pins (a lot of them!)
- Share the link on social media
- Add it to your navigation menu
- Include a link in every email
- Include links in related blog posts
- Include a link when you guest post
A selection of resource pages is a must for any Christian blog. Not only can they provide additional value to your readers, but they can also help to increase the sessions and page views to your blog.
They can even be used to reward your loyal subscribers by offering them premium content that isn’t available in the blog content.
I’d love to see some examples of resource libraries that you offer your Christian blog audience!
