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[00:00:00] Hello. And welcome back to the channel today. I’m going to show you step-by-step how to start a church blog. So basically, what we are going to cover today is what exactly is a church blog. I will show you how to pick a niche and why you need to pick a niche if you want your website to be seen.
[00:00:13] And then I’m going to talk a bit of niching down. The next step is to get web posting and get a domain name for free for the first year. After that, I am going to show you how to install WordPress. I’m actually to talk about what WordPress is a little bit. How do we install both a free and premium WordPress theme, essential changes that you have to make to your website to see how and why to start writing.
[00:00:35] After that, I’m going to show you different ways to make money. If that’s something that you’re interested in, I’m also going to show you and tell you why you need to share your content on social media and how many blog posts you need to write. There will be some caveats to this. Make sure that you check out the first lead links in the description.
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[00:00:50] As these three links will cover. What we’re talking about today. So first things first, what is a church blog? Now? This is something that you’re going to have to spend some time to figure out an answer for yourself. In general, a church blog is a blog in which you will answer questions about either your church, your community, or your religion in general.
[00:01:11] And that’s why I say you need to spend some time to figure that out and think about where you want your, what direction you want your church. Because if you are going to provide information about your church simply, that’s going to be different than if you are going to provide information about your community, which will also be different if you provide information about your religion.
[00:01:30] So take some time figuring out which way you want to go, depending on what you pick, which direction you select. It will determine everything else. It’ll choose how you like a niche and how to niche down because those are three completely different avenues. If you are creating content, for example, about your church only, you will provide updates on upcoming events and past events.
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[00:01:52] You are going to talk about things that are happening in and around the church. However, suppose you’re talking about your coming. In that case, that will be different and even more so different than if you are creating content about your religion, religious beliefs, or upcoming holidays. Now you can do all three, but that’s going to take a lot of work.
[00:02:09] I recommend focusing on. Maybe too. If you have the time, you can also hire someone else within the church to hire to write for you. But you want to make sure that you are picking one or two to get started. Then, once you decide on your direction, you want to go out and get web hosting. Now web hosting is required so that your website can be seen on the internet.
[00:02:29] You aren’t going to work with web hosting. In this case, the first link in the description is to set up web hosting. When you get started with that link, you’ll get your domain name for free. And just let me show you an exact. Oh, a website and why posting. And if we go over here to church answers.com, they have decided to create a website that answers questions about growing the church and revitalizing.
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[00:02:52] So this is really towards the church leaders, which is an exciting concept, but there is a niche and a market, as you can see growing healthy churches together. So their goal is to help pastors and church organizers grow, which is yet another aspect of religion in developing your church. So if you look at this is an up here is church answers.
[00:03:14] Dotcom is the domain name. It’s what you would get for free for the first year. But what you can see here is a WordPress theme, which we’ll talk about in just a moment. But if we go back over here to get web hosting and domain name again, you need to have. You need to work with a web hosting provider so that your website can be seen.
[00:03:33] In fact, what we’re going to do next is I’m going to walk you through the process step by step of getting one posting, picking a domain name, and getting set up with everything that you need within 10 minutes. So let’s go ahead and do that. When you click that link, you’ll be taken to this website, where you’ll go ahead and click get started.
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[00:03:47] I recommend clicking the first one on the far left, the basic plan. If you’re just getting started with a website, as you can see, there are several options, but click that click select, and then move on here. You’re going to create a domain name. If you have one in mind, you’re going to type it in here.
[00:04:00] Like you see that I do. What I recommend is to try and find a domain name. It’s going to be related to your niche. Now, what I do is type in a domain name that I know is already taken. When it’s accepted, you’re going to get this error. What you can then do is go back and try different domains. Now make sure again, you want to pick one that’s related to you.
[00:04:18] Click next. And then you’re going to see a green box that says that it’s approved. The next step is simply to go through and enter your contact information. Make sure that you, when you scroll down here and make sure that you leave all of the settings on but again, entering your contact information, the settings right here, where it says domain privacy, leave all of this checked.
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[00:04:37] If you don’t leave a check, you’re going to get people reaching out to you. Spamming you, emailing you, trying to get you to sign up for. Web hosting. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to go ahead and sign up and then jump back to you once I sign on and move to the next step. All right. So I’ve signed up, and I’m going to go ahead and set up my website.
[00:04:54] Initially, just create a simple username and password and ensure it meets the requirements. And then move on, make sure that you write it down to write it down in a safe spot so that you have it. And you remember it because it can be a pain to go ahead and get everything back. So you will have to enter in some vital information, but just make sure that you write it down.
[00:05:13] It’s straightforward and effortless. Now, one thing that I do want to note is that this part is not sped up. This is real-time. And you can see that you’ll go from absolutely nothing to a complete website in less than probably 10 minutes. And once you click submit, you’re going to move on to the next step, where you get to log in. So here is where you’re going to start creating your WordPress website.
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[00:05:34] Now, the great thing is Bluehost does everything for you. And it’s straightforward. So again, I’m not speeding this up at all, and I want you to see what it takes to create a web. So Bluehost is going to do a little bit of work in the background for you. And we’re just going to click on skip this step.
[00:05:50] This first one I clicked on, I started a blog, but for the next step, just click, skip, because we know what we’re doing. And I’m going to tell you what to do so that we can get up and running. So click get started right here on the left-hand side. And then move on, click, skip here and click skip. And then pick the first one in the far left. Make sure that you’re choosing a free theme because they’ll charge you.
[00:06:14] They have both free and premium themes, which we’ll talk about in just a moment. So right now, it’s creating your WordPress website in just a few moments. You’re going to click on log in to WordPress on the right-hand side there. You’ll see it in just a second. And then, we can start looking at some basic configurations.
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[00:06:29] All right. So we click. And now we have a WordPress website. So what may need to happen is you may need to click refresh a few times to get it to work. But now we have our website. So as you can see, what I’m going to do is I’m going to log in and delete a few plugins because right now, it has coming soon.
[00:06:49] And so if someone tried to get to your website at this moment, it’s going to say coming soon to them, even though we can see it, this is what your WordPress website looks like, but for everyone else outside of your network, it’s going to say coming soon. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to go down to plugins eventually, and we’re going to delete some of the plugins that we don’t need.
[00:07:07] Now, I will talk about plugins later on, but plugins add additional features and functionality. So we are going to deactivate the blue host as well. Other plugins that are already activated, and then we can go through and make the necessary changes, which I’ll cover in just a moment. So we’re going to deactivate them and then delete them.
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[00:07:24] Now, you want to make sure that you only have the plugins that you’re using on your website. The more plugins you have, the slower your website will respond and function, and you’re going to lose out on ranking. So make sure you have a lean setup, very few plugins, and then move on. As you can see right now, I simply believe some stuff you don’t need.
[00:07:42] If you want to, you could keep them, but obviously, you don’t need this other stuff if you’re just getting started. What’s more important is the themes that we’re going to talk about in just a moment, as well as getting writing. So I’m just going to go ahead and delete those, deactivate them. And then we’re going to start moving on to settings, which you see right here.
[00:07:59] All right. So now that we’ve installed WordPress, we’ve established a free WordPress theme. I’m going to show you in just a second how to install a premium WordPress theme. We’ve made some changes to our website so that the masses can see it. So now, right now, you have a free and basic WordPress theme.
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[00:08:15] The problem with that theme is it has limited features and functionality. This right here, church answers.com is an example of a WordPress theme, a premium WordPress theme that has additional features and functionality. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to find one. That is congruent or in line with your audience.
[00:08:31] And we are going to go ahead and download it and install that on your WordPress website. And to do that, click the second link in the description. So when you click that second link, it’ll take you to this website. So what we’re going to do is we’re just going to type in church and the cool thing with some of these themes I’ve installed.
[00:08:46] A number of them are they’ll have—different things like a donation button. So you can collect donations online. It’ll allow you to live stream if you can’t. If some of your members can’t attend church in person, there are just several features and benefits to getting a premium WordPress theme for your church, a website there are calendars.
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[00:09:04], what I recommend that you do is once you click that second link in the description, go through and find a WordPress theme of a premium WordPress theme that will work best for you. Please don’t spend a ton of time on this, but you must go ahead and get one. As you can see, there are a number of them.
[00:09:19] They range anywhere from $34 to close to 99. So what you’re going to do is once you find a theme that you’re like, You’re going to press this button to add it to your cart. You are going to purchase the theme, and then you will download a zip file to your computer. Once you get that zip file, you are going to unpack that zip file.
[00:09:36] And there’s going to be a second zip file. What we’re going to do next is we’re going to install that second zip file right into our WordPress website. And to do that, we are going to go to appearance. We’re going to click on themes. And when we click on articles, we’re going to click on, add new. When we click on add new, we’re going to click on upload.
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[00:09:55] And then we’re going to drag and drop that second zip file right here. Or you can click on choose file and go ahead and find it manually. Regardless of the method you choose, you are going to click on install now and then activate once you do that, you will have a premium WordPress theme right on your website.
[00:10:10] The next thing that we need to do is start writing. Now I get several questions. I get three main questions when it comes to creating and writing blog posts. How do I write a blog post? How long should my blog post? And how many blog posts should I write before deciding if this is worth continuing? The first two I can answer right now.
[00:10:27] I’m going to answer for you right now. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to jump back over to our WordPress back office here. We’re going to click on it. And we’re going to click on, add new. So now you want to make sure that you create a new post and not a new page. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to enter in a keyword.
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[00:10:43] Now, the purpose of entering in a keyword or keyword phrase is so that we can be optimized for search. We want to get discovered organically. And to do that, we can, for example, let’s say we wanted to, let’s go to this blog here, and we’re just going to find one of their keywords. Let’s see.
[00:10:59] No more ghost towns winning over three kinds of your most challenging church members. Could say how to win over your most challenging church members. So we’re going to assume that’s a keyword. We’re going to put how to win over your most challenging church members. Okay. And so, let’s take that’s our keyword.
[00:11:22] And what we’re going to do is we are going to take 10 or 15 minutes and just brainstorm using the simple which. What, when, where, why, and how brainstorming method and why I like doing it this way is because again, our goal is to solve problems. The customers or that our target audience has. And when you do who, what, when, where, why, how it’s fundamental, but it helps to answer the question.
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[00:11:50] And what I’d like to do is ask and answer questions with the mindset of our keyword. Who let’s see, where are we at? Who is your most challenging shirt? Remember now when you are doing this, it is not essential that you get spelling correctly. It’s more important that you get your ideas down on paper or a computer to have as much as many ideas as possible so that you can write as thoroughly as possible.
[00:12:20] Why are they your most difficult church? So as you can see, I am writing errors, but that’s okay. Because when I go through and write my blog posts, I can clean this up, and it’ll look perfect. When are they, when do they become your most challenging church? As you can see here, I’ve got a lot of misspelled words, but that is done unintentionally just to get it on paper so I can move on to the next step.
[00:12:54] Again, spend 10 or 15 minutes brainstorming, write down all of your ideas. Good, bad. An average, because what we’re going to do next is we will delete the bad ones. We’re going to keep the good ones, and we’re going to turn the good ones into subheadings. So what we’re going to do is just who your most challenging church member is?
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[00:13:10] Let’s clean that up. Clean that up. Who are your most challenging church members? I’m going to turn this into an H two. As you can see here, each two, this is a Hone. You should only have one. Have one per blog post. And what you’re going to do is you’re just going to start writing. So I’m going to say my most challenging.
[00:13:28] Church members are the ones that sit in the back or whatever the answer is. And you’re simply going to write to answer the question and solve the problem. Now, this leads me to the next question. How long should my blog posts be? Your blog post should only be as long as it needs to be and what we’re going to do here to figure out approximately how long it should be is we are going to paste in this question.
[00:13:49] Into Google. And what we’re looking for is we’re looking for w we’re looking for how long other people are writing, though. So this is probably about a thousand-word blog post, about six 50 at this point, and what we’re doing here—6 0 2, and what we’re doing is we are simply going to write.
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[00:14:08] Longer, we’re going to write maybe six, 700, 800,000 words. And what you can do to make sure that you are hitting that target is review this blog post and review view the first five or six and figure out what your competitors haven’t answered, what angle hasn’t approached. And when you do the who, what, when, where, why, how method as I’m showing you.
[00:14:30] It’s going to help you write longer and get to that 1000 word length because you are answering the question and trying to help. Suppose you think about it like this, who, what, when, where, why, how it will generate a lot of questions, and it’s going to help you write longer. Now you don’t want to.
[00:14:46] 10,000 word blog post. If the question can be answered with 1000 or 2000 words, there’s no benefit to going extra long like that. It’ll probably be more diminishing returns because Google will see it as fluff and unnecessary. So make sure that your blog post is only as long as it needs to be, but try and make sure that you’re answering the question thoroughly. Try and put yours.
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[00:15:10] Mine try and take your customer’s approach and the questions they will ask the next concerning this topic. All right. So if we jump back over to our slide deck here, we’ve started writing. The next step is to figure out ways to make money. Now, there are several ways to make money with your blog or website.
[00:15:26] As I mentioned earlier, you could collect donations right on your website. You can sell products. If we go back up here, the let’s cart button allows you to sell things. Maybe you can sell seeds. Perhaps there are specific invitations or luncheons that you’re having. You can sell them here. You can also sell courses.
[00:15:42] They were probably selling several courses. Self-paced video training, and you can make money that way. You can also make money with affiliate marketing. Now, affiliate marketing is simply recommending or selling other people’s products and services. Affiliate marketing works to find affiliate programs that are in or congruent with your target audience.
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[00:16:00] You are going to get your affiliate links from that company, and you are going to, and you are going to paste them right on your web. When people click on the product and buy, you get paid a commission. You can become an affiliate for Bibles. You can be an affiliate for church robes, hymnals. There are all sorts of things, as long as it is, as long as it is in line with your target audience.
[00:16:21] So there’s a lot of opportunities out there for affiliate marketing. If you want to learn more about it through marketing, I do have a free course. It’s the third link in the description. Go ahead and click that, and you’ll learn affiliate marketing. Step-by-step if we go back over here. You can also create and sell your own digital and physical products.
[00:16:38] Another way to make money with your blog is to sell your own physical and digital products. Maybe you have t-shirts, or you have something that has your name and logo on it. You could go out and sell that and make money that way as well. All right. If we scroll down here, the next thing that I recommend that you do is go ahead and share your continental media, sharing your content with your congregation.
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[00:16:58] Most likely, you have a Facebook page or a Facebook group. So go ahead and share it there and invite people, encourage people to read it. And comment on the information that you’re providing. You will find that if you can get people to read and interact with your blog posts, they will form a stronger bond with your church, and they’ll probably buy whatever it is that your songs.
[00:17:19] You want to make sure that you are sharing your content on social media. You can also share it on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, and Tik TOK and read it. You can share it anywhere that people are congregating and need to hear your message. So the next thing that we want to take a look at is the number of blog posts you should write before determining if you should continue or give up.
[00:17:39] In my opinion, you should write 50 blog posts before you determine if your website’s a success or failure because you are a church. I think. You should just continue writing regardless because your goal is to get your message out there to the world. In reality, I usually tell people 50 blog posts, but just continue writing, write as much as you can to continue to further the word.
[00:18:02] All right. So make sure you check out the three links in the description. Those three links are designed to help. The first link is to get web hosting and a domain name for free for the first year. The second link is for a premium WordPress theme. And the third link is to learn affiliate marketing for free.
[00:18:17] Be sure to like subscribing to this video or any other video on the channel helps you out. Thanks for watching. And we’ll see you.
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