How to Become an Effective Faith-Based Influencer

How becoming a faith-based influencer can bring in an extra income

There is some debate as to whether the United States is technically in a recession right now, but following a couple of years of COVID lockdowns, our economy is far from healthy. One year ago, more than 15 million Americans were on unemployment, while restaurants, stores, entertainment venues and other businesses were struggling to survive. One year later, 6.3 million Americans remain unemployed and Dec, 2021 saw an unemployment rate of 3.9%.

As business have reduced hours or been forced to close permanently, millions of Americans have lost their jobs. The small stimulus checks that make it into the hands of American citizens are far outweighed by financial help going overseas and to illegal aliens within our borders. Becoming a faith-based influencer or blogger can play a pivotal role in bringing in an extra income.

Influencer marketing has become a big business. Utilizing social selling through influencers can help businesses reach new customers. In a similar way, becoming an influencer can help establish a new source of income for anyone who can find a niche and string informative, coherent sentences together.

The Importance of Finding the Right Niche

Finding the right niche is vitally important, especially to a faith-based blogger. It isn’t enough to have a Christian blog. A faith-based influencer has to write knowledgeably about a particular topic to create a following. Writing consistently about a topic you are passionate and knowledgeable about will make you and your blog look appealing to influencer marketers. Create a brand for your blog. Influencer marketers can then determine if your blog will attract customers likely to be interested in their products.

That’s what influencer Kayla Williams did. Kayla is a pastor in Orlando, Florida who loves hair, makeup and traveling. A religion and faith influencer, she divides her time between preaching and blogging about fashion and beauty. Her niche is fashion and beauty, and those are the types of businesses looking for bloggers like Kayla.

The Importance of Good Writing

Writing compelling content is the other vital part of being a faith-based influencer. It isn’t enough to find a cool topic. An influencer must create helpful, informative, and well-written content to be successful as an influencer. Nobody wants to be sold a product, but everyone likes to find content and products that are interesting and helpful.

The Importance of Followers

If you master these two requirements, you are well on your way to creating the kind of blog people will want to follow. In order to be an influencer, you have to have a good following, at the very least several hundred followers on your blog and social media. I have a reach of over 13k and am only considered a medium-sized influencer. This means there are others who receive significantly more pitches than I, for bigger and more expensive products, because their reach is 20k or more.

Building a following takes time, persistence and patience. Bloggers can utilize writers networks, social media and other resources to attract followers.

However, creating your niche, developing your writing or video skills and attracting a high number of followers doesn’t necessarily guarantee your blog will remain popular, especially if you share your faith. Christian blogger @imthejay learned this the hard way on her TikTok page. After becoming a Christian and sharing her faith on her platform,@imthejay was attacked repeatedly in the comments under her posts. In fact, Christian influencers often get attacked by their own followers, as well as those who do not follow them. Where other political and lifestyle groups can post pretty much anything about their beliefs, influencers who post Christian content are often accused of forcing Christianity on everyone or making non-Christians feel uncomfortable. It’s a sad fact, and one to be aware of: Christian influencers are often on the receiving end of hateful posts based on nothing other than their faith.

Does this mean Christian influencers should not share their faith on blogs and other platforms? On the contrary. If you have a voice, you should use it. However, sometimes it makes sense to have two blogs: one for your brand and one for your faith. Another idea is to write about your brand and tie your faith in carefully only where it fits well within the context of your article. Plus, you can always link from your brand blog to your faith blog if there is an article about faith that ties into an article about your brand topic.

Becoming a faith-based influencer can bring in an extra stream of cash. It also can generate a lot of freebies. And if used wisely, it can become a way to be a light in the darkness to those who read your blog.

Originally published March 18, 2021

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