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Having started my first blog in 2009, it’s no surprise that I have gone through quite a few online courses to help me master different aspects of the content marketing game. Some have been a big waste of money, a few made a big impact on my bottom line and helped me get where I am today.
Today I wanted to point out a few of the best blogging courses I ever bought and what made them so special. There’s a little something in here for everyone regardless of where you are right now.
1. Email on Autopilot
Over the course of my last 10 years in blogging, I went from straight-up, simple RSS feed newsletters to mega-long, mega-linked email newsletters. While that started out great, over time, my email results went down, and down, and down.
In a desperate effort to turn things around before they fell off a cliff, I stumbled upon Email on Autopilot by Matt Molen.
Matt’s approach is far different than what I see in my own inbox as of late. To be honest, I was a little scared to implement his “forever series” system. (And old habits are just hard to break!)
But, it works.
Not only am I no longer spending the majority of my days writing those epic, labor-intensive newsletters, but I’m also seeing better results from these new emails I do send – better open rates, better click-through rates, more traffic back to my blog. And, my subscribers have a lot more flexibility in the content they want to see as well. We’re all happier.
If you are new to newsletters, Matt’s course also helps you develop an awesome “hook” to get you more subscribers, create compelling forms and get everything set up to run on autopilot. Check it out here.
2. Six-Figure Blogger
This is a great all-around course for monetization. It was created by Alex & Lauren of Create & Go. They have a six-figure blog in the health and wellness industry, something those of you worried only people telling people how to make money blogging make money. These guys didn’t start out that way.
Now, successful bloggers are typically well-diversified when it comes to their income. If you have been working from home for any amount of time, you have heard the phrase “dont put all your eggs in one basket.” This course helps you overcome that by teaching you affiliate marketing strategies, eBook creation, course creation.
One thing that I really love is that it dives deep into email funnels and sales pages. These two things can make a HUGE impact on your conversions yet they are so often missing from many marketing courses or just too complicated for many people to want to deal with. This course breaks it down.
All of that being said, this course does NOT go into traffic generation. If you are not yet getting enough hands-off traffic to generate a healthy income, you should start with traffic first. Their Make Money Blogging for Beginners may be more up your alley. Learn more here.
3. Elite Blog Academy
I started my blog, and a lot of blogs since then, with the intention of earning a full-time income. Several years later – YEARS – I was still struggling to earn $1,500 per month consistently. That wasn’t my dream. And I was working HARD for that $1,500. I felt like I was writing day and night to get more content out there. I was jumping on any new “trick” that I saw someone mention in hopes it would work for me. It didn’t. I was running in circles. I was running myself ragged.
I was on the verge of throwing in the towel when Elite Blog Academy opened for enrollment for the first time and out of fear of missing out – all the cool kids were doing it – I enrolled. It was more money than I had ever spent on any course. Ever. But I was committed to giving it one last go.
Elite Blog Academy wasn’t – and isn’t – a magic pill or the latest fad diet for bloggers. It’s all about creating a strong foundation that is sustainable:
- A strong and precise message.
- Traffic that comes to you. You aren’t trying to chase it down day and night.
- Monetization techniques that allow for that passive income we all are so desperately seeking.
- Making your blog a business that will provide for years to come.
If you don’t know me well, I struggle to spend money. Seriously. If I break open my pocketbook it’s with good reason and I will work day and night to make my money back or get my money’s worth. I did that with this course. I went through and implemented every step of a tried-and true strategy. And I saw results! Thankfully, the work I put into EBA provided me with results rather quickly.
Every single day I am still implementing those techniques from Elite Blog Academy. True story. When you have a strong foundation, you don’t have to chase fads. You just keep doing what you already know works.
If you want to know more about Elite Blog Academy, it unfortunately only opens once per year. You can get on the notification list here. (P.S. Ruth sends out tons of great tips throughout the year. This is an email list you will enjoy being on.)
The best blogging courses I ever bought are the ones that allow me to earn my money back ASAP. Because that’s really what we should be investing in. Right? Things that will make us more money for years to come. But here’s the deal: not a single one of these courses will make money FOR you. You have to do the work. You have to put in the time. Buying courses isn’t enough. You have to implement what you learn.
4. YouTube for Bosses
Oh my goodness. YouTube. So, I’ve had a channel over there since March 2010. I published a few videos over the years as I did screenshot tutorials or a webinar with another online entrepreneur, but I never got serious about it. After attending Success Incubator in 2017, I knew I had to overcome my fear and start taking advantage of this great opportunity.
As someone who has never really been involved in the YouTube scene – or even watched a lot of YouTube videos – I didn’t know where to start. I put up a few new videos, but nothing really happened. I don’t have the time or patience to figure it out on my own. So I sought out help.
That’s when I came across Sunny Lenarduzzi. Whoa! She’s phenomenal. I signed up for her email list and was immediately taken to her sales page. I didn’t really know this girl, but I had a feeling she could help me get where I was wanting to go – and FAST.
Now, this course is expensive. And it’s only about four hours long. If you want tons and tons and hours and hours of content directly tied to a price tag, this one might be hard for you to swallow. Me? I am SO willing to pay for “quick wins.” And this was one of them. As someone totally new to YouTube publishing, it made such a big difference for me. Learn more here.
5. EBA Live Pre-Conference/Success Incubator
I’m not huge on going to conferences, but I have been trying to hit one or two a year for the past few years. The first year I found myself a little let down by the content of those I attended. It was a great networking experience, don’t get me wrong! But the workshops were more beginner or intermediate level and I go really looking for a challenge.
In 2017, I took my conference going to the next level and purchased the VIP-level tickets to EBA LIVE and the pre-conference conference at FinCon, aka Digi CoLab, aka Success Incubator. Both were totally worth the upgrade. The EBA pre-conference workshop focused on product creation with a lot of Ruth’s own launches shown as examples. I always love that. (Don’t tell me. Show me what YOU do.)
Success Incubator in Dallas had several different speakers talking on advanced topics related to marketing, selling, business building and more. This was a really small group and the speakers included Darren Rowse, Pat Flynn, Andrea Vahl and more.