My Top 3 Tips on Launching A Highly Successful Online Ministry
After 10 years of running an indie online ministry here is my best advice for young creatives wanting to do the same:
1. Don't wait until everything is perfect. Just start. When I look back at my early content it makes me cringe. The quality was bad. The approach was cheesy. And I totally annoyed people. But here's the thing: had I not started then, I wouldn't have a successful podcast, multiple self published books, and an online school with students around the world today. I'm glad I started when I did and learned a long the way. Because if I had waited till everything was perfect, I'd still be waiting.
2. Know your WHO. Knowing who you are serving with your online ministry is the only way to survive the trolls and critics. And trust me, if you didn't already know it, there are a ton of them. They will send you nasty emails. Leave you nasty comments. And if they find your contact info, they will even send you anonymous letters and texts with nasty words.
I've had plenty of them over the years. I've been called an arrogant child for the crime of daring to share my thoughts. I've been called a Jesuit for the crime of disagreeing with fundamentalist and ultra conservative nonsense. When I was an employee pastor, people complained behind my back to my conference leaders all the time (they never said it to my face of course) and caused all kinds of headaches.
It never deterred me and here's why. My online ministry wasn't for them. I knew my WHO and I served them with passion. And guess what? For every troll I've encountered in the last 10 years, I've met 10 thankful souls who absolutely love and support what I do. And their opinion is the only one that counts because they are my WHO.
3. Never, ever apologize for charging or selling content. The money mindset in Christianity is absolutely appalling. If you sell a book, an online course, or anything else you will have folk complaining that because it's ministry it should all be free.
Don't listen to them. First, they aren't your WHO anyways. Second, they are wrong.
Your creativity, time, and energy don't have to be free. If you produce good content that has good value people who appreciate it will pay. If they don't want to pay, it's because they don't value your offering.
Folk with a poor money mindset simply don't understand what it takes to run an online project because they either haven't done it, or they haven't done it in a modern, professional, elegant way. They don't get that it costs money to run a decent website, to host a podcast, to get good sound and video gear, fees to send email reminders, and high costs to advertise your products to reach more people. If you publish a book they don't get that the publisher takes a cut, the distributor takes a cut, you have to hire editors and designers that cost money and so on and so forth.
All they see is a price tag and immediately freak out. But their poor money mindset isn't your emergency. If you do good work, you deserve to be compensated, end of story.
So never apologize for monetizing content. Your ideal WHO won't complain anyway because they value you, your time, and your creativity.
Have any more questions about launching a successful online ministry? Ask below! I'll do my best to answer
