Beginner's Guide to Creating a Blog

June 20, 2016

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Blogging has become a legitimate profession. There are blogging conferences, blogging communities, and endless blogging platform options.

I follow bloggers who make $5,000+ from one Instagram picture. Some feature products on their blogs and receive compensation from big-name brands. Kind of sounds like a dream job, right? People send you free stuff, you say a few nice things about it online, and you get lots of money. That’s my dream, at least.

However, blogs don’t have to be monetized, despite the many bloggers out there who do make a profit. If you’re a pastor and have never set up a blog before, we’ve outlined a few of our best practices to starting a blog for beginners.

So what’s the first step?

Decide your blog’s purpose.

  • What do you want your blog to accomplish?
  • Who are you trying to reach?
  • What do you want your blog to share?
    • Simply your sermons?
    • Expanded Bible study discussion?
    • Personal testimonies/stories?
    • Answers to members’ questions?
    • Promotion of your church or ministry?

Use your answers to come up with a mission or purpose statement. While this isn’t necessary, it’s certainly a good idea, especially as your blog grows. Your mission statement will summarize what your blog aims to achieve, so you can return to it when you’re running low on ideas.

After you’ve narrowed down your purpose, find a platform that meets your needs. There are a plethora of website platforms, and, in that abundant pool, quite a few are free.

A popular option, WordPress, offers a ton of free themes, allows for endless customization, and provides easy-to-use functions. You can buy your own domain (to avoid “.wordpress.com” after your website name), but it’s not a necessity. Michael Hyatt has a great video tutorial on how to set up your WordPress site.

Blogger, powered by Google, is another contender for the most popular blog platform. Along with an abundance of free themes, Blogger offers the ability to use Google AdSense to help your blog gain revenue by placing relevant ads on your page. If you choose to use Blogger, wikihow offers step-by-step instructions to set up your blog.

Your church website might also have the ability to host your blog. This is great if you want to connect your blog with your church (so it’s not solely personal). Website builders such as Church360° Unite can create feeds where you can create and publish your blog posts and upload audio or video files.


This blog post is an excerpt from our ebook “Why Pastors Should Blog.” Download the free ebook by clicking the button below!

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