There’s an elephant in the room and for me it’s blogging and religion!
Let me just say right off the bat that I am not a religious person.
I have my reasons – none of which I feel compelled to share with you in this blog or ever unless we know each other really well!
Now if this makes you run to ‘unfriend’, ‘unlike’, ‘unfollow’ or burn my effigy then so be it!
Here’s what I am….
I am an educated person with an open mind and I have no problem conversing with you about your beliefs, whatever they may be. In fact, I love that kind of open discussion!
I don’t judge and I respect that you have the right to choose, as do I!
I don’t discuss publicly on my blog my thoughts on the topic of religion (I promise this is the only post you will see from me on the matter!) as it simply isn’t relevant to my niche.
Is it a cultural thing?
So here’s the thing! I’m English, born and bred.
We were brought up to not discuss various things as they are private (and should remain so) or indeed, not to discuss them because they may evoke confrontation.
These include:
- Political allegiance
- Religion
- Salary
- Which Football team we support (and I mean our football, not the North American kind)
Living in Canada for the last fourteen years I see the same sort of rules, except of course everyone wears their hockey team allegiance, loud and proud.
[Note: I live near Toronto so bleed blue and white with the rest of the Maple Leafs (and believe me that’s not an easy thing to admit!)]
But living so near and working with so many people from the U.S.A. I see a different set of rules.
Religion is openly discussed and I get preached to on a regular basis (indirectly).
It is assumed that I MUST believe in your God.
Now, are the people of the UK and Canada any less religious?
Probably not!
So my question is one for business.
Would you still do business with me if I was a different religion to you?
Would you?
I may be your ideal customer. Every ‘tick box’ checked EXCEPT the religion one!
If I read your post and can’t relate to it as it is full of your beliefs then I am less likely to do business with you or even leave a comment – because let’s face it – you made me feel uncomfortable and alienated.
Now if your niche requires you to talk about religion and your spirituality then great but if not, are you missing out on a huge part of your potential client base?
For example, are you targeting healthy weight loss for Christians or are you just targeting healthy weight loss?
The beauty of a blog is that it is a very personal thing, so if your religion is the number one most important thing in YOUR life then, of course, you are going to talk about it and I know bloggers who do this very successfully. (But they are successful because THEIR niche has a religious connection.)
BUT, if you are blogging to make money online and your niche DOES NOT require your customer to share your beliefs could you consider toning down the God talk on your site?
It’s an interesting thought – can you be open-minded enough to put aside your firmly held beliefs to work with someone who doesn’t share them?
Or is that just not possible?
I’m a techie!
Techie issues cut across all religious barriers – you are NOT more likely to have your website crash if you are a Born Again Christian than if you are a Mormon!
At least not in my eyes!
And because of that, you are unlikely to see a post from me about Religion and The Top Ten WordPress Plugins.
They just don’t FIT together for my niche.
Something to consider maybe, or not! Either way I got rid of the Elephant in MY room about Blogging & Religion!
So, in closing, I’d just like to share with you the words of the dearly departed Irish Comedian, Dave Allen…
Goodnight and thank you, and may your God go with you!
