Blogging for Ministry

Lead Magnet Installation

Advanced Blogging Techniques

You’ve come far this week. Just glance at the sidebar at all we’ve done together—representing a whole semester. But where do you go from here?

Here are some advanced blogging techniques you’ll want to consider as you move forward.

6 FREE Advanced Techniques

There are some actions you can take that cost you nothing.

1. Post more than once per week—perhaps making use of your mini-posts. Most posts = more traffic = more subscribers and more ministry.
2. Set up an automation sequence in Mailchimp that connects with each subscriber over the course of time. (Go to: Reports > Automation > Welcome New Subscribers > Onboarding Series) Some Ideas:
   1. At week 3, ask them to recommend your blog to others (include subscribe link).
   2. At week 5, tell them you’re praying for them.
   3. At week 7, offer to sell them something.
3. Do a survey of your readers each year with SurveyMonkey. You can look at some surveys I’ve done for ideas. A follow-up post is a great way to summarize your survey for your readers. (SurveyMonkey is free for 10 questions and 100 responses.)
4. Sell products through PayPal. (Not very easy to set up, but it’s free.)
5. Start a podcast where you broadcast your teaching, your posts, or interviews with others. You can see how to do with help from Pat Flynn or the Podcast Answer-man. (Some of their recommendations may cost.)
6. Set up sub-domains in your Bluehost account for your courses, web store, and other sites unrelated to your primary blog. You can also buy URLs that point to your subdomain. This way, you can have unlimited Websites for the cost of a URL.

5 Paid Advanced Techniques (that pay off)

If I was going to invest in my blog ministry, these are the priorities I would make and the services I would use (because I use them):

1. Get OptinMonster to increase your subscribers. It also allows you to do “Content Upgrades”—or Lead Magnets specific to particular posts. My “Judge Not” post is an example.
2. Get a paid email solution like ConvertKit that allows automation and smart marketing with your email campaigns.
3. Get a social media manager like CoSchedule to easily manage promoting your posts and social media calendar. (Note: Post a review of CoSchedule each year and get HALF off the cost!) See my example and review.
4. Join Platform University for a complete course FULL of great content to help you get your platform up and running. You can begin by subscribing to their free blog.
5. Sell your products online with an e-commerce store like WooCommerce. It’s pretty easy to set up, mobile friendly, and provides an elegant experience for your buyers/donors. This is a free solution, but if you sell on your site, you’ll want to upgrade your Bluehost to include an SSL (Secure Site License).
6. Create an online course to sell or as a lead magnet (or content upgrade). Get a plugin like Wishlist Member (what I currently use for my membership site) or Kajabi to make the experience more elegant.
7. Use Lead Pages for elegant Landing Pages that are easy to set up. I use this for my Walking the Bible Lands pages and my Israel Tours and my webinars.
8. Do a free live webinar, record it, and set it up to run 24/7 as an evergreen marketing tool to generate leads or make sales. See my “Top 6 Lessons from the Holy Land” as an example. See Amy Porterfield’s course on “Webinars that Convert” for how to set this up. You can buy Facebook ads to get folks to sign up for it.
9. Buy Facebook ads to drive folks to sign up for your lead magnet, webinars, and anything else.
10. Check out Jeff Walker’s book, Launch. 

What to Do When You Want to Shred Your Blog and Quit the Whole Thing

Blogging is ministry—and hard work. Sometimes we want to toss the whole thing. When you’re ready to quit blogging (or anything), re-connect to your “Why.”

• Why did you start your blog?
• Is that reason still valid?
• Perhaps pull back some or get someone to help you.

Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be your best. Perfectionism is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgement, and shame. It’s a shield. It’s a twenty-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from flight.— Brené Brown

Here are a few resources to encourage you:

• 7 Questions I Answered on FaithVillage
• The One Way to Guarantee You Won’t Succeed [Podcast]
• There’s No Present Like the Time

Homework

• Email me your Reading Report by midnight tonight. I.e.: “I completed 90% of the assigned reading.”
• Keep blogging for ministry!