How to Sell Christian Products Online

Hey there Sea Changers and welcome back. Today I am going to step into a subject that could provide an opportunity to build a very successful online business for those of faith and/or with a genuine interest in religion as we discuss how to sell Christian products online.

Now before we start, I should probably be clear on what we are discussing here. We are talking about all of the various products that go along with Christianity or the practising of religion. This can include:

• Literature
• Books
• Music
• Artefacts
• Cards
• Church based requirements
• Christian Jewelry
• Accessories
• Ceremony products and so on.

Now, I do understand that by default, that some strands of the Christian faith may not approve of this sort of online venture however there is a definite requirement for these products and with everything else, more and more of them are being purchased online. I would also like to be clear from the start that this site is about building an online business within this niche only, and not a religious sermon, debate or as a means of preaching His word.

So without further delay and carry on, let's check it all out…

As usual, regardless of whether I think this might be a good area to investigate for an online business, I would hate to convince anybody to start their own online Christian based business and have it fall away due to the fact that noone wants to buy their related products online. So as usual, let's see what people are searching for:

What are people looking for?

To start let's just confirm our market numbers:

1. Number of monthly searches

As we are looking to see if there is an interest in the purchase of Christianity related products and accessories online (so we can sell them), let's start by checking for purchase related searches. You will need to find yourself a good keyword tool (I use Jaaxy) and enter in the keywords that best describe your market. In this case, let's start with the basics:

Ok, So we can see that Christianity itself does attract a good number of searches. However, as I scrolled down the results, there are a lot of searches for variations – which give us both an insight into what people are looking for and for sub niche ideas. A few calculations shows over 2000 searches per month for Christian related products searches. Let's break it down a little…

So we can see here a good outline as to what people are looking for online – items such as books, gifts, merchandise etc. can all provide a good base to selling Christian supplies. Let's just do one last look based on another area that caught my eye before:

Christian dating is an area that has some really decent search interest so that may be a good place to start your niche, or as a side to a main Christian based niche – we will discuss niches soon. But all in all, even though the numbers aren't huge, I think there is definitely enough there to have a good look at…

2. Search Trends

Another important aspect of online sales and niche selection is to check that interest is maintained over time. To gain an insight into this let's check out how the searches for some of the highlighted Christian related products above are trending online.

Ok, some interesting results here:

1. There is definite interest – especially on specifics rather than just Christian products or supplies in general.
2. Interest remains stable year long – i.e. there are no real spikes.
3. As outlined in number one – People tend to search for very specific requirements rather than general terms.

Again, the numbers are not as high as many other niches I have researched in other posts however there is definitely an opportunity here.

What is our niche?

Ok, now the fun part begins… In the statistics and screen dumps above, we can already see some of the interest in different niches within this market. The decision you have now is to determine just what you want to create your online business around within this niche. I have already highlighted the fact that search records within this niche tend to work towards specific requirements rather that Christianity based products as a whole however there is probably enough there to incorporate most of it into a single site.

As you start to think about this, the question to ask yourself is whether the content you are covering is too large to cover effectively. I personally think that this is a simple enough market to include the whole lot on one site. However, if you start with a niche that is too broad, you may not be able to cover everything to the level required or to become authority on the subject (Christian dating comes to mind here) – which you will need to be if you are going to convince people to purchase from you and not their local store. Don't forget, you can always add a new section to your site as you grow as well.

As you work through narrowing your targeted niche, consider the following:

• Are you able to solve a problem – Most people undertake searches on the internet to solve a problem – see next section.
• Is it a subject that you have an interest, or knowledge in– I am guessing that you are in this post as you are a person of faith, or have a strong interest in Christianity. If you don't have either of these, maybe consider another market as, to be honest, you might struggle to produce solid content if you don't know much about the subject – or worse, have no interest in it. Trust me, this is a subject where people will know immediately (or worse, be offended) if your information is not up to scratch.

Let's investigate this a little further by discussing the problem solving elements of niche selection.

What problem are we solving?

If this is a niche that you are interested in, you may already know what it is that you are trying to sell. If not, then maybe start to look at it from the perspective of solving problems. This, added to your area of interest is a great way to work out exactly what you think you might like to base your business upon.

Think about your own search behaviours when you are online – I would hazard a guess that most searches you do are in order to solve a problem. Now think of these in a manner in which someone might have problems within the greater ‘Christian' niche such as:

1. You know what you want to buy a Christian book for your children but don't know which is best.
2. You have a problem and need a solution – I.e. “I am having a religious wedding at my home and don't know what supplies I need”.

Your goal here is to determine just what problem/s you are trying to solve for your readers. This maybe one problem that spans your site or differ for each post that you write. For example, if you have chosen Christian dating for your niche, then problems might be:

• Matching products to use– They want to know what which site is best for meeting like-minded people – you would outline these with recommended products to match.
• Where to go – What are the best activities to do when on a date with a fellow Christian?

In these cases, people would be searching for those topics based on having a problem and needing a solution. Your site would outline and review the best options for them.

Note: You do not need to identify every possible problem that your readers may have straight away. In many cases, the more you write, the more ‘problems’ will present themselves so initially you really just want to make sure that there are some that may need solving as we have found here.

How are you going to convince them to buy?

Now that we know our niche (or are at least working on it) and have an idea of the types of problems that we want to solve, there is one last thing to consider which is the online purchase behaviour of your targeted audience.

The first thing you would need to consider is exactly who will be looking at your site. The first group that comes to mind are those of strong faith – they will want to know exactly what it they are getting and how it relates to their beliefs? Then what about families who want to get an idea about becoming more religious? Oh, and don't forget the non-religious who want to purchase gifts for family members who have strong faith. Your sales/post pitches not only need to match the needs and problems that your site visitors are looking to solve, but also target them specifically as well.

So at the end of the day, even though we do have purchaser behaviour on our side, to be successful in selling christian related products online, consider the following:

• Solve problems without purchase – That's right – write your posts in a way that actually makes it easier for people to do their research and buy elsewhere – by doing this, you are solving problems and helping readers out. If they trust you, they will be more likely to return next time and buy from you then – especially if you follow up with posts on similar or compatible products or accessories that might interest them!
• Provide the intangibles – One major disadvantage when it comes to selling anything online is that we can't really know what the products look and feel like. And the same goes for terminology – after all, even words such as ‘faith' and ‘worship' can mean different things to different people. Your posts will need to cover this information in a manner that puts minds at ease and explains some of the intangibles.
• Know your audience – A big mistake many make here is to target the product and not necessarily the buyer. This is especially important when dealing with a person's faith. It is very easy for example to get carried away explaining how great a product is because it is cheap all the while forgetting that your readers are looking for specific details to ensure it matches their ceremonial needs. The same goes for high end options… Expensive doesn't always mean better or more appropriate. Make sure you do your research on the buying behaviours of those you are targeting before writing your posts.

Tip: Still not sure? Have a look and see what others are doing. It might just help you with some ideas.

And now we come to probably the most important aspect of this whole online selling caper in that we need to consider how we are going to sell the products that we have decided to promote. Depending on the product, there are a number of methods you can use to do this. Let's explore them below:

Affiliate programs

Affiliate programs are setup directly by companies or marketplace platforms (Amazon, Ebay etc.) that allow you to join and then refer traffic to them via customised affiliate links. In short, this means that you will write about Christian related products and then refer your readers to a link where they will purchase directly from the vendors. The vendors then pay you a commission for the sale.

Finding affiliate programs is generally not a difficult task either. To locate them, you would normally just type “Affiliate: Christian” into your preferred search engine:

As you can see, there are plenty of options in regards to affiliate programs for Christianity related niches. As you search through them all, you can check it all out and find programs that:

• Relate to your niche/problems that you are solving.
• Have quality products – your brand can be severely damaged if you promote poor quality or unsafe products.
• Have solid payment and customer service arrangements.
• Pay decent commissions.
• Have good testimonials covering commission payouts and quality of product.
• Whether they have high ticket items you can promote on the side.

In most cases, you will need to apply for the program before you are allowed to promote their products – don’t take this step lightly or you will be rejected. Affiliate programs will generally want to know:

• Your website name.
• Traffic levels.
• Why you want to join – (“So I can make money by selling your Christian books” is unfortunately not generally a good enough answer).
• How you plan to promote their products.

One thing to be aware of here I guess is to keep in mind the issues we discussed earlier in regards to selling Christian products online. You need to make sure that the programs you choose can be trusted and that the consumer is comfortable that they have recourse if something goes wrong. For this reason you will need to make sure that your chosen programs are going to resonate with your readers and your niche. That said, some marketplace programs such as Amazon and EBay can give you access to these types of products and as they are more trusted, then they maybe worth a look for sure. Some Amazon examples are as below:

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is something that may be of advantage to you in this niche if you are looking to play with pricing on your products. This process is similar to affiliate marketing in that you are generally promoting the products of others without the need to actually hold any inventory. With affiliate marketing, you are paid a commission on whatever price the vendor sets but do not manage any customer service, sales processes or post sales requirements. The main difference with dropshipping, is that you perform the following (there are a number of variations to this but this is the guist of it):

• Strike a relationship with a wholesaler.
• Promote the product for whatever price you see fit – often via a marketplace site such as Shopify, Amazon or Ebay.
• Manage the sales processes and customer service.
• Send the final order and payment to the wholesaler for packaging and shipping.

The money that you make is effectively the difference between whatever you managed to sell the product for and the wholesale price that you owe the vendor. The other advantages of dropshipping over affiliate marketing is that:

• You own the customer list – which is another means of building an effective email list.
• You control the cost of the product and hence the profit margins.
• You can control when you put things on ‘sale', group them in packages or increase the price for high demand items.

The disadvantages however are the extra workload in handling payment and any ongoing customer service requirements.

To find dropshipping suppliers online, you can enter searches such as “dropshipping: Christian products” into your favourite search engine:

Note: These results will usually be based on your geographical location.

From here you can search through and find programs that:

• Offer dropshipping services – Not all product suppliers offer dropshipping as a service – this may just mean that you need to organise the shipping yourself after it is delivered to you.
• Have experience and are helpful – If they are not helpful and/or appear inexperienced then you can expect the same when you are trying to process sales.
• Have acceptable fees – most dropshipping wholesalers will charge a small fee for the dropshipping service – just make sure it is not so high that it eats into your profit margins.
• Provide fast shipping – One disadvantage with dropshipping when dealing with vendors is that the customer is yours, not theirs hence sometimes shipping priorities are not where they should be – make sure shipping time frames are acceptable.
• Have quality products – as with affiliate marketing, don't sell rubbish.
• Have a good name – do your research and see what others are saying about them.

Sell your own

If affiliate marketing or dropshipping are not your cup of tea, maybe you could try sourcing and selling your own products – especially if you are working with the more ‘crafty' side of things such as Bible covers, or Church seat protectors etc. Here you actually purchase your product from a vendor or wholesaler, add your own label and then on-sell them via your website or platforms such as Amazon etc.

This process requires a much higher setup costs as you will need to purchase your products, create and affix your labels and manage orders and shipment. Some wholesalers/vendors however will affix the labels that you send them and then manage the packaging and shipment for you (see dropshipping above). This will cost you less to set up but obviously you will make less on the sale once they take their processing fee.

Again, to find out where to acquire your product, do a search for “wholesale: Christian products”:

Note: These results will usually be based on your geographical location so you may at times need to sort through a few pages.

From here you will need to follow the same processes as with affiliate and dropshipping programs in determining whether they are a good fit for your business plans including:

• Relate to your niche/problems that you are solving.
• Have solid delivery and customer service arrangements.
• Have good testimonials covering service and quality of product.

Alternatively, keep your eye out in your local area for exhibitions and Church group meetings etc. These are a great way to find and purchase your products at good prices – you never know, you might even find a solid supplier for future sales as well.

Tip: This method can be very effective in driving online traffic and sales via the implementation of more traditional sales methods such as kiosks and market stalls etc. As people get to know you, they can purchase from you there and then be directed to your website for future sales.

Once we have all of the above sorted, or at the very least a plan in place, we need to choose and setup the media that we intend to use to sell our product. This can include:

Build a Website

If you are looking to build your online business as an affiliate marketer, drop shipper or supplier, then chances are you will most probably need a website. Websites allow you to solve problems via blog posts and videos that people can view in order to identify the solutions that they need. Usually, this process is fairly straight forward in that you build your website, write posts (on the differences between certain types of Christian ceremonies for example), then provide links so that your readers can view/purchase the relevant materials from your links.

Promote on Social Media

This is an area that is probably not always considered in the same sentence as Christianity, but in truth there is probably no more powerful tool than Social media. It has the power to reach thousands and allows you to target specific segments if you choose the correct platform. In terms of Christian related products online, a good platform to start with is FaceBook where you can discuss items with your audience, display them in use and share videos.

However, if you are looking to set yourself with visuals – if you are selling Christian based Art for example – then Instagram and YouTube will be your absolute best friend – some even use these platforms without a website. These are great for visuals such as pictures and/or videos showing you discussing Christian related products and processes.

Join like-minded groups

Anther great tool when it comes to selling products online are social groups. By getting involved with these groups you can really get a great understanding as to what its members are struggling with, what information they seek and what products they are looking to buy – in real time. Below is an example of Christian related FaceBook groups:

Now obviously this is geographically based but you get the picture – oh, and this can also be a great asset for those of you who are still settling on a niche. I found an online prayer group which could be a whole other sub niche on its own as well.

Note: Many of these groups will not allow you to spruike or promote your sites directly, however if you can interact and demonstrate your knowledge then people will ask you directly for the information. At the very least, as above, it is a great way to get ideas and insight into what people in this area really want to know about and what they are buying online.

And there it is – How to make money selling Christian products online. I hope it has been helpful and as usual, please do not hesitate to comment below if you have any questions, need some advice or have any experiences to share.

Do you want further assistance with any of the above or need help to build your own Christianity related website?

Are you looking for a comprehensive training platform that can give you step by step training, 24/7 support, tools to develop and host your very own website, ongoing assistance with SEO and social media and access to some of the best affiliate marketing minds on the planet, then click on the following link to read more about Wealthy Affiliate.

Until next time

Have fun

Paul

Note: If you make a purchase from this page, there is a very good chance that I make a commission from it – these commissions do not increase your sale price. This may include sales made via Wealthy Affiliate.