I Built an AI Tool for Pastors for a Year — Nobody Used It Until I Changed 3 Things

Six Months of Silence

I launched ShepherdAI in June 2025. A beautiful AI-powered platform designed specifically for pastors — sermon prep, newsletters, social posts, all in one place.

For the first six months, exactly zero people used the AI tools. Eleven people registered. Ten never came back. The one "paying" user was me.

I had built something nobody wanted.

Then I watched a video that changed everything. A creator named AI出海圈 broke down the 5 Claude AI side hustles that actually work. His framework wasn't about tools — it was about traffic and audience. And I realized my problem.

Here are the 3 things I changed.

1. I Stopped Selling Features and Started Telling Stories

My old homepage said things like: "AI-powered sermon prep with batch content studio and habit learning." Boring. Nobody cares about features.

I changed it to: "Turn Sunday's sermon into Monday's newsletter in 30 seconds."

The difference? Pastors don't want "AI." They want time. Every feature I list now starts with the time it saves.

2. I Found My "Small Monopoly"

The video said it perfectly: a high-value niche audience is worth more than a million random visitors.

I was trying to reach "every church." Instead, I focused on:

• Pastors of churches under 200 members (the ones with no admin staff)
• English and Portuguese markets (testing both)
• Email outreach to individual pastors, not Facebook ads

Small, focused, personal. That's where the traction is.

3. I Built a Content Engine, Not a Product

The biggest mistake: I built a tool and expected people to find it.

Now I'm writing blog posts like this one. Posting on social media. Sending cold emails. Each piece of content answers one question: "How can a pastor save time with AI?"

The tool is still the same code. But now people see it because they found the content first.

What's Next

These changes just went live this week. I'll keep posting what works and what doesn't — the numbers, the traffic, the conversions.

If you're a pastor reading this and you're tired of spending 6 hours on a newsletter, try the tool. It's free.

Start for free →