Lessons From One Year of Blogging – Happy Birthday ProPreacher.com

Today (November 12, 2013) is the official one year anniversary of the day I published my first post.

Exactly one year ago I threw together a website and published my first post on the new ProPreacher.com

I got the idea to start Pro Preacher because when I first got into ministry, there were practically no resources to teach for learning about preaching. Sure, there were a few books and a conference or two, but I was a flat broke, newlywed youth pastor. I could barely afford Raman noodles, much less plane tickets and a hotel for a preaching workshop.

I didn’t have a mentor, and I only had one class in Bible College that actually made me preach a sermon. I basically was on my own. So I began a now 10 year journey to become the best preacher I can be and learn everything I possibly could from every person and resource available to me.

Fast forward to November of last year as I continued studying preaching, and I thought, “I wish there was a blog completely about preaching that I could have learned from every week.” I looked around and saw that there were not very many websites dedicated solely to preaching.

So I decided I would take it on myself to create that website. I didn’t think anyone would actually read it. I thought it would be a fun part of my journey to help me process my own learnings.

I didn’t even tell anyone that I was creating it. I just started writing to a pretend audience that didn’t exist yet and things slowly took off from there.

One year later and am absolutely shocked at the results!

I recently sat down and looked over all the data. Here is what I learned from one year of blogging:

Statistics

• Posts published = 132
• Total Page Views = 98, 874
• Total Unique Visits = 26,930
• Twitter Followers = 8,120
• Facebook Fans =  140
• Email Subscribers = 447

Wow, I cannot believe I have written 131 posts already! At around 500-1000 words each I estimate that I have written more than 100,000 words!

To put that in perspective, the average non-fiction book is around 40,000-50,000 words. So I have written enough words to fill two books!

Then, I am blown away when I to think that ProPreacher.com had almost 100,000 page views in the first year! We will pass 100,000 by the end of the month. If you would have predicted that a year ago I would have laughed at you.

I love seeing these number not because I am obsessed with being famous, but because every one of these numbers represents somebody who I could have potentially helped. If more pastors learn or are inspired to preach better, then the kingdom of God will  be stronger for it. That is what pumps me up!

Top Posts (# of Views)

1. The Absolute Best iPad Apps for Pastors (9,110)
2. The Ten Commandments of iPad Preaching (6,012)
3. 8 Ways You Might Be Losing People in Your Sermon (2,729)
4. The Best iPhone Apps for Pastors 1 (2,303)
5. 5 Ways Evernote Makes a Pastor’s Life Easier (1,879)

This list made me laugh a little. I write mostly about preaching, so it is interesting that 4 out of the top 5 posts were about technology. There is definitely a need among pastors to learn more about how to leverage technology for better ministry.

The other thing that stood out to me is that every one of my top posts are list posts. Apparently everyone loves a good list!

I will definitely keep this in mind as I write more posts.

Income

To be completely transparent, I want to talk briefly about the money end of things. Although the goal of ProPreacher.com is not about making money, I have implemented a few things on the site to help bring in a few dollars to help cover the costs of running this site.

Through a handful of affiliate links and an occasional paid advertisement I am shocked that in its first year ProPreacher.com has been able to be a small financial blessing to my family.

Some months have been better than others. However, over the past 5 months this site has brought in whopping $15 a month to me and my family. (I told you I wasn’t doing this for the money!)

Most of this has gone back into paying for domain and web hosting fees. But what little extra is left occasionally pays for a date night with my wife. It feels amazing to say, “Don’t worry babe, this one is on Pro Preacher.”

By far, the coolest side effect that I did not anticipate were some of the other benefits. For example, as a avid book reader, I have had the majority of my reading habit paid for through Amazon.com affiliate links.

So for anyone who has ever purchased something that I recommended through an affiliate link or clicked an ad from a sponsor, my family and I thank you very much. And don’t worry, I promise to never recommend anything that I do not fully stand behind myself and think might benefit you as well.

Lessons Learned So Far

Blogging is hard work. There were many times when I thought about slacking off. There were many early mornings or late nights when I didn’t want to write, but pushed through and did it anyway. This is probably the most difficult discipline I have ever undertaken, but 132 posts in, it has also been the most rewarding.

The internet is big. I cannot believe how many people have been influenced by my thoughts on preaching! ProPreacher.com has been read in 153 different countries! (See map below) It has literally spanned the globe. I keep hearing stories of people in Africa, India, Australia, and around the world using the articles I write to teach others about preaching!

It takes time to build an audience. The first few months I was happy if I got 10 visits a day. Now I average around 200 readers a day! Most bloggers quit after a month of blogging because they have no traffic. The key is to hang in there and keep working. Eventually, like-minded people will find you.

I have grown with my blog. The whole point of ProPreacher.com was to share my thoughts and ideas on preaching. The discipline of  putting words to thoughts has helped me grow tremendously. It has forced me to clarify my thoughts. It has forced me to think deeper about things I took for granted. It has caused me to further evaluate every aspect of my own preaching. For the personal benefits alone, blogging is great.

Thank You!

To all my faithful readers, and those who are just getting started I just want to say a huge thank you! On those days when I have wanted to quit, your visits to the website, emails, comments, Twitter and Facebook messages have kept me going.

I would not be here today without you.

Thanks for coming along this ride with me. We are just getting started!

If reading this makes you think about starting a blog of your own, I wrote a Pastors guide to starting a blog that might be helpful to you.

QUESTIONS: I want to make ProPreacher.com a resource for you and other pastors to learn more about preaching. What else could ProPreacher.com offer to help you? How has this website helped? What would you like to see more of? What questions do you have for me?