My Answers to the Top 8 Frequently Asked Questions about Elite Blog Academy

I purchased Elite Blog Academy 2 years ago now and I have loved the journey of taking my blog to the next level and developing the business and brand I’ve  dreamed of. When I tell other bloggers that I made such a large investment in a blog, I always get a lot of questions. So I thought I would share with you my answers to the top 8 frequently asked questions about Elite Blog Academy so you can decide if it’s a wise investment for you and your blog.

Note: This post contains affiliate links as indicated by an asterisk. Purchases from these links provides a small commission to me at no extra cost to you.

My Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

1. How Can I Afford Elite Blog Academy?

I understand, I really do. The $897 price tag is steep and I genuinely wish I could give everyone struggling financially a copy of this course. But I’ve got 3 growing boys eating me out of house and home and a teen that needs auto insurance and college soon, yikes!

The thing is back when I first heard of EBA, it was $297 and I thought it was too expensive then to invest in my “hobby”. I was working full-time so if I was going to buy it, I should have done it then, it would not have hurt our bank account so badly. I should have invested in pursuing my passion and my dream to earn a living doing something I loved. I should have had confidence in my ability to reach and help people through my writing.

But I didn’t buy it then and I regretted it.

When EBA 2.0 came out in 2016, the price was $499 and I bought it. Then I was a stay at home mom without any extra income. So I cut back on some expenses in our budget so that it wouldn’t be such a big hit on our credit card (we pay our credit card in full every month, I am not endorsing racking up credit card debt). I cashed in credit card rewards. We ate out less for a few months, I cut back on Target trips, I consigned some kids’ clothing and toys they didn’t use anymore and I made it work so I could buy it and give myself my shot at my dream job. I really did feel it was now or never.

Imho, the thing is Ruth keeps attending high level conferences that cost more than what I paid for my first year in college and then passes along what she learns from her success when she updates EBA. Unfortunately, with that ramped up content comes an increased price for us but who can blame her? She puts a ton of work and content into this program, so I don’t think EBA will ever get cheaper. The good news is there is a payment plan option this year*.

2. Is EBA the only course I’ll ever need? 

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I never say never since I’m a course junkie and have bought other courses to supplement EBA. But I can say that Ruth lays out a very comprehensive foundation and takes us step by step through each complicated blogging topic, telling us how to excel at each one and then moves on so we are continuously improving our blogs. She covers every important topic to refine our message, grow our platform, make income and build our business.

She also then secures partner bonuses from successful bloggers who are experts in different areas to give us more detailed education in areas we can complete as we choose. This year’s EBA includes some amazing partner bonuses that I had on my list to buy separately/have already bought anyway include:

• Blog Starter Workbook and Core Affiliate Strategy by Rosemarie Groner
• 5 day Challenge to Better Blog Photography by Kristy Haare
• Boost Your SEO: SEO Playbook for Bloggers by Nikki Robinson
• Convertkit Masterclass 101 by Monica Froese (I’ve taken this one and it is excellent!)
• List Building Jumpstart by Laura Smith (I’ve taken this one too and another goodie)
• List Building Love by Jennifer Maker Marx
• Email Growth & Marketing Bootcamp by Jennifer Roskamp
• Making $ With Email Challenges and Twitter Strategy for Bloggers by Saira Perl
• Ensure Your Pins Have Panache and How to Master Tailwind by Kate Ahl
• Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers (another excellent one I’ve taken)
• Work with Brands Masterclass by Janel Hutton
• Live Sales Funnel Training by Brian Dixon
• Mastering Your blog Processes Mini-Course by Kim Anderson (a good one for being more efficient and productive!)

and there’s a few more I haven’t listed!

In total the value of the course with all the bonuses is $2,797 so getting them all for $897 is actually about 66% off what you would pay for them individually. That’s an amazing deal for some expert content!

EBA is so comprehensive and with lifetime access, I don’t intend to buy another mega course. What lifetime access means is that you pay one price now when you buy it, and every time Ruth updates and switches out bonuses, we get them for free even if the price increases for new students! So after I bought it in 2016, EBA content was majorly overhauled to focus more on growing our businesses and the partner bonuses were switched out and I downloaded them ALL! 

So the way I look at it, EBA is a one-time investment for continuous learning and growth. And with the 100% money-back guarantee*, you can request your money back if you aren’t satisfied, nothing to lose! I may decide I need another course if my blog/business goes in a completely direction, but as of now, EBA is the only course for my blog that I need.

Long story short, EBA is worth a look and careful consideration. Find out about all the bonuses and see if you’d find them helpful. Don’t let the price turn you off completely if you are passionate about making your blog a success. When you subscribe to my blogging newsletter, you get a FREE Investment Decision Matrix to see if EBA is a wise investment for you. The matrix will help you see where you need help, if EBA can fulfill that need, compare costs of other courses you planned to take vs. EBA and help you objectively decide if the growth and income you desire is worth the one-time cost.

3. I’m already making a sizable investment, will what’s taught in EBA require me to spend even more money on tools and resources, like Tailwind for pin scheduling?

I think Ruth is good about spelling out the different tools she tried and whether they were successful for her. Regarding pin scheduling, she tells us about the 3 different scheduling tools and how they worked for her. She’ll tell you what worked and what didn’t and why she chose what she did. She’ll be straight up and say, this tool is completely confusing and hard to work with if it is.

Yes, she recommends different tools and resources to help you along. Honestly, it’s a trade off, you could spend the time to figure out the best approach or pay for a tool that figures out the best times to post your pins. That’s part of doing business, analyzing the cost vs. benefit of any new tool or course.

I’ve used Tailwind* since before I got EBA and I had incredible traffic growth because of it so I’m a fan of that one. I don’t think Ruth goes overboard on getting you to spend a ton of money.

She does encourage us to get a professional custom design but I didn’t because I didn’t want to fork over the money. I purchased Genesis and what I thought was a gorgeous premade theme* for a fraction of the cost and I love it, I get so many compliments on it.

Once your email list gets big enough, you will need to spend money on an email marketing platform. Ruth gives her recommendations but again the choice is yours. From my 2017 blog income, I was able to invest in an annual subscription for Convertkit* since my subscribers were over 2,000 for my free Mailchimp account. In 2018, I’m switching to Mailerlite* for cost savings even though I love Convertkit’s ease of tagging and I’m investing the time to figure out how to get Mailerlite to do what I want so I can save about $400 a year for my current list size.

I think the assignments are fair. To get the money back guarantee you have to do all the assignments within 180 days and I’ll be honest that will be HARD. (It’s taken me 2 years to get through all the assignments) But the assignment does not say for example, purchase Tailwind and schedule 30 pins. It will say “create a pinterest marketing plan” and you use the lessons learned to make your own to accomplish your own objectives.

How you invest your hard earned money is up to you, Ruth gives recommendations but not requirements.

4. Tell Me the Most Important Thing You Learned in EBA

Here are my biggest lessons learned:

• being an EBA affiliate that has really taught me how to do effective affiliate marketing. Like I said above, I’ve already made back my entire investment times 5 from learning the strategies and using the sample copy EBA provides to their affiliates.
• how to use the topics I’m passionate about to create an income so it doesn’t feel like “work” at all
• FOCUSing my writing, finding my voice and pinpointing readers’ wants and needs so I can better connect with and serve my readers
• setting the foundations for a business I am excited about pursuing so I can still stay home with my kids
• getting out of my comfort zone (y’all I had to do a video, I was terrified but I actually kinda liked it!)
• finding ways to stay true to my principles (I still won’t put ad networks on my site) and make money doing something I love. 

5. I fear that the training will be too focused on ads and sponsored gigs. Since I’m outside the US, most opportunities don’t apply to me and I was afraid of not being able to take full advantage of the course. Are there many “foreigners” in the group?

This was a question from last year and I can say that I’m also not willing to do ads or sponsored posts right now either (even though I am in the US). Ruth gives an overview on ad networks and securing sponsored posts but there is much more focus on affiliate marketing and providing products and services because they generate more authentic content and greater income.

I asked Ruth for an answer on this one last year and luckily she responded right away. She said, “”We definitely focus very little on ads and sponsored posts! The monetization module has changed a lot this year to focus much more on how to best leverage the audience you have (not the one you wish you had) through choosing smarter monetization strategies like affiliate marketing and product creation. We focus heavily on learning how to master sales and marketing (without feeling like a used car salesman) and how to build a sustainable blogging business.”

Some of the EBA affiliates responded that they were international bloggers as well and had no problems with the course as it was relevant to all bloggers. But just in case, EBA does have that 100% money-back guarantee if you get the work done in time so if you are concerned about it, make sure to get the work done in time! 

6. Is EBA applicable even if you aren’t a mom or lifestyle blogger? What about if I blog in a small niche?

I understand that too. Nowadays, I blog mostly about working from home/blogging, books and chronic illness. None of these topics are very mainstream. 

What I love though is Ruth gets me to think outside the box to figure out how to create products that will serve my readers. I created my first paid blog planner and it was included in the 2017 Genius Blogger’s Toolkit from Ultimate Bundles (another affiliate program I highly recommend) which gave me great income and a boost in my email subscribers. I have more product ideas than time to create them all, a good problem to have in my opinion and I will work on another product in the next unit of EBA I tackle.

So yes, I think you may have to work harder to brainstorm ideas and get your word out but it’s totally possible to apply EBA to small niches and find a way that works for your readers.

7. How Long Does it Take To Complete EBA? Can I really get the money-back guarantee? How long will it take for me to see an income?

That is up to you. I might be the slowest EBA student, it’s taken me 2 years and I am just about done! But after years of haphazard blogging, I am going through slowly so I do it right the first time and won’t have to waste time doing it over. I became an EBA affiliate as soon as I qualified and from EBA affiliate sales alone I have made back my investment times 7! I earned $4.5k in 2017 and reinvested $2k so net income of $2,500. I do blog about blogging and my experience with the different tools I use that brings me affiliate income. I also developed my own product, the Free Your Mind Blog Planner, which was included in the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit in 2017 and earned me almost $700.

I have about 10 more product ideas for my productivity and chronic illness niches that aren’t tailored to bloggers. I just have to develop them, file my paperwork with the state and set up my online shop. EBA helped me get my product ideas flowing and got me excited about helping people in a different way than just writing. 

Your results will be different and how long it takes depends on how much time you can devote to each week. Some assignments take longer than others. I think completing it in 180 days is doable if you are willing to devote full-time hours to get it done in time. But if you’re like me and can’t get it done that quickly, I still don’t think you will need a refund because I hope you’d love the results as much as I have. 

8. Bottom Line…Is EBA Worth the Money?

Yes, if you do the work required. If you aren’t going to commit to a plan to get it done and it becomes another weight hanging on your already overwhelming to-do list, then no.

To help you with staying focused on completing the work, you can grab my FREE blog planner to help you track all those zillions of blogging tasks. If you purchase EBA, I want to make sure you complete it to get the most out of it. I have been working on it for 2 years and I have not regretted my purchase for a second and I WILL FINISH!

Still undecided? Subscribe to my Blogging Newsletter and Get my FREE EBA Investment Decision Matrix to help you objectively decide if EBA is right for you. 

How Much Time Do You Have to Decide?