How to Make Money as a Christian Content Creator (12 Ways)

so what are the best ways and the opportunities to make money as a Christian content creator or if you have a faith-based YouTube channel I've got 12 different ways that I want to talk about in this video as well as talk about a few Bible verses and maybe the right mindset and approach I think it's going to be pretty valuable so let's dive in you got to just press record so a question came in from Barnabas Lawson and he said what is the best way to monetize a Christian Channel books courses Channel sponsorships appeal for

support support this could make a good video well I agree and so here we are making a video thanks so much for the question and so let's dive into 12 ways to uh monetize a Christian or faith-based Channel and number one is the YouTube Partner program if you're watching this and you are aspiring to earn money on YouTube you probably realize that eventually you can get paid for views it takes 1,000 subscribers 4,000 hours of watch time or 10 million shorts views within 12 months you have to get 4,000 watch hours and then you can

apply for the YouTube Partner Program start getting paid for your views if the kind of content you're creating is getting tons of views then this could be pretty lucrative and that's maybe more broad appeal maybe there's certain Christian channels right that maybe they cover culture they cover trending topics they cover controversial topics they get a lot of views AdSense can pay you pretty well number two is going to be affiliate marketing as with any channel affiliate marketing's been big here on think media cuz we talk about tech so I could be an affiliate for Amazon

and talk about this microphone or this keyboard or you know maybe this plant I don't know this is from Ikea do they have an affiliate program you could be an affiliate for anything you put links in the description down below now with a Christian Channel A lot of times people think well what I mean what am I going to talk about but there's actually way more opportunities than you realize I mean there's websites like daily graceco you could sign up to be an affiliate there and they have Bible pencils and pens and bibles and journals

back when we were doing think International target audience of think International was church leaders we would interview different pastors leaders Church planners missionaries and it was all about leadership so one of the affiliate programs I discovered was a program called preaching rocket and giving rocket which was like coaching programs to help develop the incredibly tough skill of preaching well and communicating well and I want to say it might have been a couple hundred program or a couple thousand coaching program which for a professional you was a professional program if you have built an audience that's

aligned with that then it become becomes a win-win and even if you only get a couple transactions you know 10% on a $5,000 program is $500 next is going to be books ebooks and Audi books this is a good one in the Christian World Christians by Nature followers of Jesus are readers they're studiers they're students if I open this door how about I open the door this is a bookshelf right here okay this is a bookshelf but up here like these are what do we got here by the way we got we got books and

behind this stuff we got Proverbs by Andrew W's proverbs commentary we got swind doll's proverbs commentary I was kind of geeking out on Proverbs commentaries by the way that's like I buy more than one proverbs commentary and there's endless Christian authors you could interview on a podcast and then they've got a book you could talk about that as affiliate but here's my point one of the reasons to write a book is for the Audi book you know like I wrote a book called YouTube secrets with my friend Benji it's been fascinating to see the physical

Book Sales it's 135,000 or so copies sold Total Physical book ebook Audi book but I want to say we've probably made 50 60 Grand off audio book sales so that's number three number four physical products now in the Christian world number one you could be anything but number two I think about Christina Patterson from beloved woman she is a Bible teacher and she is one of our video ranking Academy students and she has done these journals over the years eventually you might launch something physical like a journal depending on your vision if you've ever walked

through a Christian bookstore like there's lots of different things that have been turned into physical products number five digital products so this could be online courses ebooks would be included in this it could be for recovering from postpartum depression or something like that maybe as opposed to just Broad and and by the way this is also kind of like a proven path a lot of authors in the Christian World think about building out here it is right there's the book there's the workbook AKA maybe the small group study guide and then there's like the video

curriculum that could potentially be distributed in churches number six is patreon or websites like that so this is going to be exclusive content and perks to paid subscribers so patreon is off of YouTube people sign up to be members five bucks a month 10 bucks a month I think you can set the prices all over the place you could do the same with what's called YouTube channel memberships is kind of similar one of the biggest things you want to think about is what percentage do they take I think patreon's percentage is 5 or 10% depending

on you know what level you're at which is very generous because they're offering you all the technology YouTube takes 30% of Channel memberships but again they're a offering you all the technology number seven is merchandise Brandon merch merchandise t-shirts mugs and accessories one of the cool things that I've noticed in the Christian world lately is like merch has really evolved like the clothing lines and apparel lines so of course you could just try to build up a Cool brand on your YouTube channel and slap it on a coffee mug you know or something like I

know some you might aspire to Fashion despire really aspired to design you've got that Solomon wisdom when the Queen of Sheba came by she was like wow look at your table set settings look at how your servants are dressed wow look at the order and everybody's happy you must be truly wise and so even Solomon in all of his Splendor wasn't dressed like the birds you know what it is so you've got merch in dice number eight sponsorships you could partnership with any brand if You' watched any amount of YouTube you could be like this

video is brought to you by nordvpn I mean if you grow to a certain size you get sponsored by just something that could work for anybody but you also might better align with different brands and by the way I also sometimes think we're going to have degrees of maybe how Christian our content is I think there's kind of like different levels to it right in the sense of maybe you're kind of a family Vlog Channel and it's clear your faith comes through but that's a little bit different than like I'm teaching the Bible or a

Bible study Channel or a theology Channel and so all that to say is the big key when it comes to sponsorships is like values alignment brands do want to align with creators that have similar values all right what else do we got we got crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and GoFundMe to spend to fund special projects crowdfunding might be like a oneoff I want to create this new batch of videos I want to create a documentary I want to just get started and maybe I want to exp like maybe you really add value for one year

two year three years and people really love you and and instead of just in a wait you're like hey we need $20,000 or we needed $100,000 because this year we want to create this content and we want to do this and you've built trust and so you you raise it with crowdfunding number 10 is you could start a nonprofit now that might not be your first step but but um here's one of the reasons to do so at least I could say here in America is then then you could actually give people proper giving tax

writeoffs this is especially interesting for Christian content creators because Christians are already used to this they're used to being able to give to their local church and give to things like missions or Charities or 501 c3s like beyond my wife and I's commitment to our local church think media's commitment our team we support Compassion International and I think right now we're supporting 101 kids through Compassion International we're always trying to raise the numbers my wife may have just raised them and that's like supporting on a monthly basis but as a 501c3 that is a write

off and of our charitable giving to that nonprofit so depending on the scale and the vision of what it is you're trying to achieve if you can qualify for that and get that all set up then you could cast vision and collect donations in a little bit more of a professional charity way than just patreon or things like that which is going to be taxed different number 11 is going to be coaching now this is an interesting one to think about because so coaching is pretty expansive but the big idea is you would be using

your YouTube channel to get awareness to add value to give people a lot of free information to transform as many lives as you can but I think everyone watching this you understand the power of working one-on-one with somebody or working in a group with somebody remember this people like to learn from people with shared values and shared beliefs in this YouTube Co YouTube world or in this online marketing world or in entrepreneurship or in business in general a lot of times people that want to hire a coach they want to hire somebody that might be

teaching the same thing as everybody else but the values are different right I don't want to follow this person over here who doesn't really align with me in terms of faith family and other things I found this person over here and they have the both there's the values alignment and the results I want to do coaching with them you know that's one of the things we do at think media we have think media coaching.com which is just an application we have a team now of certified coaches we're helping people with not just really their YouTube

channel but the whole strategy right and thinking through your whole online business thinking through your Niche thinking through the whole deal I'll link to that in the description down below if you're ever interested in doing coaching one-on-one or in a group setting with us here at think media saying that those are the 11 ways but I promised you some tips and Bible verses uh kind of in part two of this video so let me take a sip of my drink and let's dive in so I want to thank Barnabas Lawson again for this question on

the best ways to monetize a Christian Channel and maybe to share a few tips for maybe the mindset and approach to do so successfully and I think some things that would apply to us specifically specifically as Christians in terms of how we would approach this and the first one I got five tips is to sell is to serve I think that sometimes a lot of Christians haven't dealt with their money mindsets and they struggle with this area they struggle with monetization because they struggle to promote things they struggle to even sell their own things or

productize their own things they feel like the gospel has been freely you know freely received so freely give so shouldn't I just give all my stuff away free and I want to encourage you that that mindset should probably be shifted a little bit yes the gospel is a free gift by Grace you have been saved you did not earn it right by grace through faith Proverbs 11:26 says people will curse anyone who hoardes grain but a blessing will come to those who sell it you see that principle that sales is right there in the Bible

you can see kind of maybe a throwback of that verse to Joseph in wisdom storing up grain during the good times and then seeing a potential need that might come in the future future a famine prophetically even he sees that you know what's coming and he he does something he sets aside some resources he sets up a business and then people go hey man we're out of food because there's a famine going on and then he sells it and so to sell us to serve because curse is him who hoardes it like you have wisdom

you've got knowledge you've got creativity for Merch you've got the ability to build a community you've got a vision to you know disciple people like you need money for the mission there's a great book by Daniel Rabbi lein called business secrets from the Bible it's wild you'd be surprised how much business is in the Bible number two focus on product Excellence over marketing hype one of the things that I think when it comes to selling or building a product or something that we can make a mistake on is we focus all on like hyping it

up getting the views getting awareness to it but then like we let people down on the product now I that would never be your heart but there's sometimes an overemphasis I feel like in social media where it's like let's get views let's grow as big as possible let's get as many emails as possible let's just grow as big as possible we do really good at marketing but not very good at fulfillment and so I want to encourage you Proverbs 11:1 says a false balance is an Abomination to the Lord but a just weight is his

Delight if you like promise something in your marketing but don't deliver it in the product that's not honoring God that is an Abomination but what you want is accurate balance you want really good marketing by the way like content is King but marketing is Queen and she runs the household you just want to be great at marketing and even better at the product you build the the result you give the service you give it's with joy that I pay my counselor coach you know what I mean it's with joy they they deliver a good product

they've put in the work they've done the research they've gone to school it's a fair trade number three keep your word let your yes be yes and your no be no no for whatever is more than these comes from the evil one I think that in the Christian Community we need to say something and then back it up I think this is like the best business verse in the New Testament business is about making a promise and then fulfilling on that promise in a way YouTube is about making a promise in your title and then

fulfilling on it in the video If you promote someone else's product do your research and be transparent with the experience for example on thick media we number one have made mistakes in all of these different areas like I'm not on a pedestal preaching these are lessons I've learned and the Integrity we try to hold us to we have seven core values the first one is the Bible is our blueprint and so we like to think about though like if we have the title in a video of the best cameras for YouTube this year we want

the answer to be absolutely aligned with our ethical belief there might be differing opinions but that we've actually done the research if if we if a brand comes to us and says hey can you say this is the best software we might say no we can't say that what we could say is it's one of the best or we might position a little bit differently but just be very thoughtful about the meaning of our word and what we endorse and what we put our name on and stamp it doesn't mean we're without mistakes but this

is something that we're always aligning towards you know trying to solve for number four the result of doing everything we've just talked about is building a good brand and Proverbs 221 says a good name is more desirable than great riches to be esteemed is better than silver or gold what's interesting about a good name name is that's really essentially what branding is names mean something when you're unknown you don't really have a brand yet so you're in the process of building your brand but if you hear the company Apple it means something generally Apple's been

pretty faithful and seems to be a pretty strong brand until this thing and the only reason I had to get this was because true story my son picked my iPhone one tbte pro Max 13 I think out of our stroller and walked over to a storm drain and threw it down into the storm drain that's a true story apple is a brand name but overall you know they've built a strong brand it means something and you may you might love them or hate them and so a couple things here when it comes to monetizing I

think is long-term thinking not making short-term decisions for quick money but even delaying monetization or delaying gratification what reputation do you want over the Long Haul when choosing your monetization path make smart decisions lastly honesty and integrity which I think kind of sums this up this number five Proverbs 113 says the Integrity of the upright guides them but the Unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity you know I wrote down Integrity being truthful and honest in all your dealings reliability like you're reliable and this is something about like you want to make money on YouTube while

honoring God one way to be reliable is to be consistent you want to let your yes be yes and no be no if you say I'm going to start a YouTube channel and I'm going to deliver this kind of value and I'm going to show up as soon as you stop showing up that's a that's an Integrity breach you got to at least give it a fair shot you got to at least I think you know that's being reliable can people depend on you to show up on your podcast can people depend on you to

show up on YouTube let me know in the comments if you've been here for a while you're like yeah I think media is reliable like they've been shown up for a while you know like that's that's on that actually is part of integrity and I think that's something you want to make more money increase your integrity if you got value out of this conversation you can always smash the like button and subscribe and uh if you click or tap the screen I've actually got a couple videos there's one in particular that I think you're going

to like in terms of versus every Christian content creator needs to know uh subscribe if you're not subscribed um and I'll catch you in the next one