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An Honest Review of Routh Soukup’s Elite Blog Academy Course

At the beginning of this year, I made what I thought at the time was a silly decision: closing down my six-figure database consulting company to blog full-time. I had no clue how to grow a blog so I signed up for Elite Blog Academy (EBA). Not only did I leave my profitable $10k per month side-hustle, I dropped a good chunk of change on an eCourse that I wasn’t sure I would ever see again.

I mean, who ever finishes those eCourse thingies anyway?

This was going to be interesting…

Fortunately, I had connected with a few successful bloggers who are KILLING IT in the blogging game. As a result, I began to think that maybe I had a shot and this course could turn out to be a good investment after all. I had interviewed successful EBA alum like Rosemarie Groner of the Busy Budgeter who is making $20K+ per month with her blog and Gina Horkey of HorkeyHand Book who also clears $20K+ each month with her online income.

Then, I had done guest posts for other successful EBA alum like Jessi Fearon of the Budget Mama and Kim Anderson of Thrifty Lil Mom.

The common thread to their success? Elite Blog Academy!

I thought to myself, “If it helped these ladies become mega-successful bloggers, it might help me.”

So I decided to take the leap and go all in. If I was going to fail at blogging, it wouldn’t be for a lack of trying. If I was going to give this blogging thing a real shot, I had to be all in and treat my blog like a business that needed investment.

One of my first, largest investments was Elite Blog Academy.

I’m glad I enrolled in EBA because it helped me grow my blog traffic and income. I was making $300-$400 consistently before taking EBA. My most recent income report was for over $3,000!

I can say, with certainty, that the foundational knowledge I received in EBA has been a key to my blogging success. It is the very reason that I became an EBA affiliate and enjoy pointing other aspiring bloggers in this same direction.

About Elite Blog Academy

Elite Blog Academy is a blogging eCourse designed by, Ruth Soukup, the successful mama mogul behind the mega-popular website, Living Well Spending Less (LWSL.) Ruth’s blog became so profitable that she was able to retire her aerospace engineer husband, pay off her prime real estate home in Florida and start an online media empire. I’d say she has figured out a thing or two about blogging!

Ruth began to get questions from readers about how to create, grow and monetize an online presence with a blog. People wanted tips on how to duplicate her success. Even though her book on the subject, How to Blog for Profit: Without Selling Your Soul, helped a lot of folks, people wanted more. Elite Blog Academy was born and the rest is history.

Current EBA modules include:

Refining Your Message
Growing Your Traffic
Monetizing Your Platform
Building Your Business

As you can see, it’s pretty thorough. Each module contains anywhere from 3-6 units. Each unit contains video instruction and a corresponding packet with additional information plus assignments. These assignments are designed for you to get the most out of EBA. This is not a course where you just zip through the information to get an “idea” of what’s going on. You’ve got to go full-monty and do everything suggested in each unit or you will be wasting your time and money.

Also, the neat thing about EBA is the bonus content. Ruth has done everything from writing a New York Times bestseller, to creating a planner and executing successful product launches. She’s had lots of content go viral and has grown her Instagram following like a champ. Though the bonus content probably changes from class to class, you can be sure that she’ll package a great deal of this experience and offer to you a student enrolled in EBA. This adds even more value to the course, in my opinion.

My Experience with Elite Blog Academy

I wanted to tell you about my experience because it might helpful for you. If you are on the fence about taking EBA, the more details you have from a personal standpoint, the better.

If you are thinking of enrolling in Elite Blog Academy, know that you should, at minimum:

Have started a blog (even if you haven’t done much with it.)
Know basic things about WordPress (the most common blogging platform) like creating posts, inserting images, etc.

If you haven’t started a blog yet, no worries. I actually have a free tutorial on starting a blog. It covers basic WordPress things you need to know so that you are ready for EBA. You can sign up for hosting with Bluehost.com for as little as $3.95 per month then access the free blog tutorial to get going ASAP!

Once you’ve got these things in place, you are set to enroll in Elite Blog Academy.

Ok, back to my experience.

Basically, I was stunned at how much I was “winging it.” I was writing tons of aimless posts hoping that someone would come find me and wondering why my blog income was in the toilet. Part of me was pretty bummed- feeling that I had wasted two years of my time not doing anything right. But I perked up once I started seeing my blog traffic pick up along with my income.

I had a pretty haphazard schedule when it came to going through the course. Obviously, this is not ideal. Since I am my kid’s primary home school teacher now (we’ve used tutors in the past), I was timed-strapped and harried for much of this year. Thankfully, we are getting on a more consistent routine and I am able to carve out more time for blogging and related education.

I found the tutorials very easy to watch and the homework straightforward to implement. I kept all of my homework and notes organized in an EverNote notebook. But you could also use a local folder on your computer, Google Drive, Trello, etc. Going through the homework and completing the lessons is key. If you take this course and decide not to complete any of the tasks, you will be very disappointed. If you think that would be difficult to do, then this might not be the best investment for you.

Pros & Cons of Elite Blog Academy

Pros:

EBA is self-paced so you can take your time to complete every lesson and assignment thoroughly
You’ll have access to a forum and other EBA alum/students to get extra support if needed. The networking is worth the cost of the course alone!
The layout is simple and easy to use. You access all your videos and assignments in once place. Flowing into each successive module is easy and straightforward.
You’ll get a lot of good advice on organizing your blog, creating intentional content that drives sales and increasing your traffic. If you take the assignments seriously, you should see an improvement in your blog and income.
There are a lot of good ideas around monetizing your website. Even if your traffic is not extraordinarily high, there are methods suited for you. The possibilities for making money are outlined and explained well in the course.

Cons:

The Elite Blog Academy cart opens once a year usually in February (you can get on the Elite Blog Academy waitlist here.)
It’s currently priced at $499 (but will be going up to $797, so get on the EBA waitlist before the price goes up!)
It takes a lot of time to go through. You should see a return on your investment, but if you go through it slower, then your return will come, but it will be slower.

Who Should Not Take Elite Blog Academy?

If you don’t think you’ll be able to dedicate at least 10 hours a week to blogging, this might not be the best time to sign up. If you are extremely cash-strapped and are not that confident that you will see a return on your investment, go with your gut. It might just mean that you need to do a little research first and make sure that EBA is for you.

The last thing you want to do is spend a ton of money, get distracted and discouraged then regret your decision to enroll in EBA. If you need to build some confidence in your blogging skills with a less costly investment, check out Ruth’s book, How to Blog for Profit: Without Selling Your Soul. It will introduce you to her teaching style and give you an idea of her knowledge in the realm of blogging.

You can also

Is Elite Blog Academy Worth the Cost?

Yes.

If you know that you enjoy putting out your knowledge and expertise for the world to be a better place, then chances are that blogging is a good business model for you. There are not many people who can get paid for what they are passionate about. But you can, because you’ll work hard to make it happen!

If you are going to do something for the rest of your life, you might as well enjoy it. So, invest in your passion. Cultivate it so that people can hear what you have to say. Someone is waiting to hear from you!

The traffic will come. The money will come. The success will come.

But won’t be automatic. You’ve got to do something.

Go ahead, click below and get on the Elite Blog Academy waiting list!