Post updated 2/14/16
Starting a blog is easy. Growing blog traffic is hard. Earning money off of a blog is really hard.
That is unless, you learn from the best.
In October of 2014 I decided to take a chance and enroll in the first-ever Elite Blog Academy course. I wasn’t sure what kind of results to expect but have since been blown away.
Two months after joining EBA I doubled my pageviews. Now a little more than a year after being in the course and continue applying the same principles, my traffic has grown almost ten-fold. See the results below!
Here are my traffic numbers from 2014.
And now results as of January 2016.
I went from 36,526 pageviews to 75,596 in less than two months And now a little over a year later my pageviews have surpassed 350,000.
Because the traffic to this blog has grown so much I’ve been able to slowly do less freelance work and rely on this blog for more income, which has been a huge blessing. (You can see my January 2016 income report here.)
I was also able to take this post from less than one thousand social shares to more than 35,000. And it’s not just that post either. I’ve resurrected some of my old posts from getting zero views to thousands per day.
Why I Love Elite Blog Academy
I don’t do many reviews on my blog because there aren’t many products that I feel comfortable wholeheartedly endorsing. As a reader of my blog I consider you my FRIEND. And in no way, shape or form would I ever recommend a product to you that I didn’t completely believe in.
But this course? The absolute best course I’ve ever taken. (Out of many, many courses!)
Ruth has gone above and beyond. When I signed up for this course I honestly thought I would just get access to the already created materials plus the Facebook Group. But it didn’t stop there! Ruth gives super detailed handouts on all types of blog aspects plus holds live webinars where questions are answered! She is a strategic genius.
If you’re just starting a blog or wanting to start a money making blog I would highly recommend you start here. (But do know that this course DOES NOT contain basic information. It’s all strategy.) I can only think of where I’d be if I would’ve implemented this kind of stuff two years ago.
And seasoned bloggers who feel stuck, want to boost passive income rather than dealing with sponsored posts all the time, and who really want to know how to leverage social media – this is for you.
What You Get With Elite Blog Academy
Through a powerful combination of effective videos, practical and insightful handouts, purposeful assignments, and interactive live webinars, Elite Blog Academy will empower, enable, and inspire you to take the specific steps necessary to refine your message, grow your audience, monetize your platform, and transform your blog into a successful and profitable business.
Over the course of 12 lessons, you will learn how to: (I bolded my favorite parts of the course for you 🙂 )
- Eliminate blog confusion by creating an organized framework that sets the stage for everything you do
- Discover the secret to harnessing Pinterest, the most powerful free marketing tool in the world.
- Understand what is not working in your current monetization model and instead develop concrete goals and a solid plan for achieving them.
- Dramatically increase your site’s passive income by mastering the four key strategies of optimizing ad network revenue.
- Take advantage of the critical—but often ignored—connection between SEO and ad revenue.
- Overcome your fear of private advertising and instead learn to approach brands with confidence.
- Learn what it really takes to earn a six-figure income from your blog, then develop your own product along with a successful marketing plan to sell it.
- Create a solid working business plan to take your blogging business to the next level.
- While so much of the information currently available about Internet marketing is written only by those whose audience consists of other bloggers and marketers, Elite Blog Academy is different. It shares proven, field-tested strategies for building a successful, profitable blog, regardless of the niche and no matter the target audience.
It is possible to create a successful business from a blog, and Elite Blog Academy shares exactly how it’s done, step-by-step.
Here is what the course includes:
- 12 Comprehensive Unit Videos
- 12 Detailed Unit Workbooks with Video Outlines
- 16 Powerful Handouts
- 30 Purposeful Assignments
- 4 Live Webinars
- Accountability & Community within a Private Community Forum
I started my blog for some accountability (or at least additional motivation) and didn’t monetize right away for that reason. I got interested in that a few months in and read Ruth’s book. I realized the goal of my site and its related themes don’t lend themselves well to making money. That’s fine, it wasn’t the goal…
I keep thinking it’s worth starting up another site with making money as the goal, but I don’t have it in me! Yet, the more reviews I see on the blog academy, the more tantalized I am 🙂
I was the same way. You can definitely tell from my first six months to one year of posts that this blog was all accountability! I’ve switched back and forth over the past couple years between making this a money maker or a personal blog and finally decided to try and make it a hybrid!
If you ever do decide to make your blog a money maker I would highly recommend this course 🙂
This is awesome, Alexa. I read her book too and started seeing improvements. Then when I went to check on her course it was booked. Going to see if I sign up today. Thank you for sharing this information with us.
You’re going to love the course!! As long as you put in the work (which there’s no doubt in my mind that you will!) the results are amazing. I think you’ll make the cost of the course back in the first few months if not sooner.
I signed up today for the course and I am so excited about learning more about blogging and building a great foundation for my blog. Thank you for disclosing your pageviews, this has reassured me that I have made the right decision.
As long as you put in the work you’ll definitely make your money back. I’ve taken several courses and I can honestly say that this is the very, very best I’ve ever taken. I wish I would’ve done this kind of stuff when I started.
Thanks for the reviews! I’m a fan of Ruth’s blog and have been thinking about signing up for her course. Seems like it’s well worth it!
It’s definitely well worth it. It’s a course that you make your money back on quick!
I loved Ruth’s book – I actually re-read it on a fairly regularly basis. Thanks so much for this review, Alexa! I’ve been curious about the Academy but was concerned about the time commitment. How many hours a week would you say you spend working on the Academy ‘s exercises?
The course is work-at-your-own pace so there’s no need to kill yourself getting through however I have spent much more time on this blog than I normally do. I’d say I used to spend 1-3 hours per week blogging and the past couple of months I’ve probably spent *at least* ten a week.
But that’s because I had to go back through and rework so many of my old posts! Now that I have that mostly done I won’t have to spend quite as much time. On the other hand I’ve been writing a lot of posts way, way ahead of time so who knows maybe I will keep spending ten or more hours a week doing it.
That’s really good to know, thank you! So basically it makes sense to sign up for Ruth’s Academy when your blog is small… before you have thousands of posts to go back and rework 🙂 Thanks!
Exactly! I have so many posts on here that are basically useless unless I completely rewrite them! If you start when your blog is small you can avoid making a lot of mistakes.
EBA is awesome, isn’t it? I have similar results – my traffic has tripled to about 65k page views over the last 30 days. The community is amazing.
Congrats on your success, Alexa!
Congrats to you too! Yes, EBA has completely exceeded my expectations 🙂
I want to start a blog for income but am hesitant as I am such a newbie and am more confused than ever by my on-line research. Even got a “Dummies” book from the library but I still feel confused. Do you think this course would be for me or would it be a bit over my head.
If you know the basics of WordPress then I think this course could be good for you. The course is nothing technical at all. It’s basically all blog fundamentals – how to create your content, how to promote your posts, basic SEO, social media marketing plans, how to create good blog pictures, and finally how to monetize.
I would recommend this course to you as long as you know the WordPress basics. There is A LOT of info in this course. And it walks you step by step through all of things I mentioned with very detailed instructions.
What are you most confused by?
I find SEO confusing. I want to do it effectively but not sure how it all works. Also ads, how to put them on my site, what affiliate marketing is all about. I bit the bullet and signed up before the price increased. Kinda hard to do just before Christmas but I hope in the long run it will be worth it. I always use word press for my blogs. Thanks for directing me to this course.
You’ll find a ton of help in the class. As far as SEO that is something that I’m actually pretty comfortable (think I’m good at.) You’re more than welcome to email me any time and I’d be happy to help you. Here’s a post outlining how I do SEO https://singlemomsincome.com/triple-search-engine-traffic-fast/ Another to note is that it usually takes 2-3 months before one of my posts does well in Google.
Alexa, I recently found your site and I’m so proud of you even though I don’t know you. You are doing everything I’ve been wanting to do. You are an inspiration living the dream! As a fellow single mom looking to begin the entrepreneurial dream, I need to stop the perpetual researching and procrastination and just dive in…….. Thank you for all of your resources!
Hey Chica! Just wanted to let you know that I signed up under your affiliate link…I think??! Thanks for the great review and all of the information. This came at the right time for me.
Thanks so much 🙂 Appreciated! If you need accountability email me and we can work together !
I will def. do that!!