I know that not everyone who reads this blog is a blogger- in fact, most of you I’m guessing are not. If you are not a blogger, I apologize, because this post is about blogging, and specifically about how I doubled my blog traffic! I just have to share some exciting news and a phenomenal resource with those of you who are bloggers. Even if you do not have your own blog but have thought that one day you might like to start a blog, this post is for you!
Note: This post contains affiliate links.
If you are a blogger, you know all too well how overwhelming it can feel to manage the daily demands of running a blog, while trying to keep the big picture in mind at the same time. In other words, you want to write great content and connect with your readers- but you are putting a lot of work into it, and you are thinking that it would be nice if someone could help you figure out how to turn it into a business.
That is EXACTLY what Elite Blog Academy was designed to do.
In the Beginning
I started my blog in October 2013 knowing very little (i.e. nothing) about blogging or website design. I was an avid reader of a few other personal finance blogs, and that gave me the idea that perhaps I could start my own. Then one day I read a post one day by a different blogger who laid out the steps on how to start a blog. I followed her instructions to the letter, and boom! I had my very own blog.
But just because I HAD a blog did not mean that I necessarily had any idea how to drive traffic to it, gain readers, or make any money from it. I still knew practically nothing, and found myself constantly googling every little website-related thing.
In other words, things were pretty slow going in my early blogging days. It took months for me to start seeing more than a couple hundred page views per day.
Slowly Building
Things gradually improved over time. I continued to read about blogging, followed other successful bloggers, and began doing useful things like building an email list and focusing on using Pinterest to drive traffic. I attended the blogging conference FinCon in the fall of 2014, and that helped give me a lot of new ideas as well.
The Big Push
And then in the summer of 2015 I began reading a lot about Elite Blog Academy. By then I had been around the blogging world long enough to have heard about it quite a bit. I had even heard Ruth Soukup (EBA founder) speak at FinCon in the fall of 2014. I had been super impressed by her then, as she had been the one who initially put it in my mind that I needed to be focusing on Pinterest in order to gain traffic with my blog. I had implemented the things I had learned from her at that conference, and I had already seen a traffic increase to my site from that.
In the summer of 2015, I put my name on the waiting list to get into Elite Blog Academy (EBA). I finally was able to enroll in EBA that September and started the course. I had been blogging for almost two years by then, so I wasn’t sure I would learn anything new, but I was willing to take the chance.
I am so glad I did! Within two months of starting Elite Blog Academy, my blog traffic more than doubled. Here are my page views from the last few months, by the numbers:
November 2015: 14,636 page views
December 2015: 31,327 page views
January 2016: 37,912 page views
I credit this traffic increase entirely to EBA. Not only has my traffic increased since I took the EBA course, but my blog income has increased as well. I am actually spending a lot LESS time on Pinterest now than I was previously (and getting more traffic and income from it!) EBA has had a huge impact on my life as a blogger.
How Elite Blog Academy Works
Through a combination of effective videos, insightful handouts, useful assignments, and interactive live webinars, Elite Blog Academy seeks to empower and inspire bloggers to take the necessary steps to build an awesome blog. It does this through the four core sections, which are: 1) Refine Your Message, 2) Grow Your Audience, 3) Monetize Your Platform, and 4) Transform Your Blog into a Profitable and Successful Business.
What Elite Blog Academy Did For Me
What EBA really did for me was a LOT. Not only did the course help me with things like better organizing the framework for my blog, but it also helped me refine my content, become better at Pinterest, increase my site’s passive income by learning new/better monetization strategies, and MUCH more.
Here is What the Course Includes:
- 12 Comprehensive Unit Videos
- 12 Detailed Unit Workbooks and Video Outlines
- 16 Powerful Handouts
- 30 Purposeful Assignments
- Additional Training Webinars
- Accountability & Community Within a Private Forum
- An EBA Mobile app to access the forum on the go
- A weekly newsletter for added encouragement & motivation
EBA is a 12 week course, but I personally took longer than 12 weeks to go through all the material- there is just so much there. I was committed to actually doing every single assignment and getting maximum impact for my blog, and I wanted to take as much time as needed to do it right. The course truly does require a willingness to buckle down and do the work. For those who are willing to do the work, the course comes with a 100% money-back guarantee.
Also, if you think you might be interested in Elite Blog Academy maybe not right now but at some point in the future, you may want to click this link and just put your name on the waiting list. The course only runs one or two times a year, and enrollment is limited. I had put my name on the enrollment waiting list a few months before I was finally able to enroll.
CLICK HERE TO ENROLL IN ELITE BLOG ACADEMY
As I mentioned, EBA has made a world of difference in my blogging life. I learned SO MUCH and I cannot say enough wonderful things about the course. Please let me know if you have any questions about EBA and I will answer as best I can! Good luck on your blogging journey!
Have you ever taken a blogging course or participated in Elite Blog Academy? What was your experience?
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Hey DEE,
Your blog looks great and you’ve done so well over the years! This is great that you found a way to fouble your traffic and keep things on the go. It’s certainly worth the time and effort for any blogger to invest in some sort of research or training if they want to make money from blogging and learn all the secrets along the way. Pinterest is probably one of the better social media out there but I also like Flipboard which drives a good amount of traffic as well. Have a great day!!
Thanks Mr. CBB! I’ll have to look into Flipboard more, it’s not a place that I receive a lot of traffic from currently. Thanks for stopping by!
I think this is awesome! Great job boosting your traffic!
Thanks Holly!
Congratulations on your success, Dee! I’ve never done Elite Blog Academy, but I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews from other successful bloggers. I’m underwater with freelance work at the moment, but I definitely want to take another look in 6 months.
Yeah I think she might open the course again near the end of the year, although she has not announced it yet. That’s awesome that you’re getting tons of freelance work! Making our dreams come true here in the good ol’ internet…
Congrats on the growth! I’m just finally starting to focus on Pinterest — and among so many other things trying to suck my attention away — but I’m definitely seeing results. I’m not quite where you are — I’m still going back and getting images for old posts in order to get them pinned. But it’s definitely making a difference!
I took a couple months last fall and pretty much did nothing but go back and change old images. I’ve seen a lot more success since doing this- it’s time consuming but worth it.
Congrats on your growth! I’m looking to do the same but had honestly never heard of EBA – definitely going to look into it. Thanks for the suggestion!
I highly recommend it!
Dee, enjoyed the post and commend you on the progress made thus far. The combination of patience and consistency are evident in following through the entire process as you mentioned, keep up the stron work.
Thanks!
What many bloggers need to understand is that traffic is not important if it’s not the RIGHT kind of traffic. Let me explain: in many cases Pinterest traffic has a HUGE bounce rate, people just come and leave. I have seen some huge blogs (with a lot of social media traffic) that are barren: almost no comments or maybe 2-3 for an article. For websites that get tens of thousands of visitors/day this is VERY bad.
And I’ll go even further with my examples:
A few weeks ago I wrote an article on my Romanian blog about how parents shouldn’t take their sick kids to the kindergarten (we mean really sick kids, not a common cold). The article got promoted heavily on Facebook and I got about 50 thousand visitors from it. More than a month’s worth of traffic hit my blog in 2 days (luckily my hosting provider was able to set the server properly, so that we could take the ‘hit’).
From all these visitors I got maybe 10 subcribers and the bounce rate was off the charts (close to 99%). So the people came, maybe read and left.
Weird enough, after launching my freelancing course I also used Facebook to promote it (since I have a lot of friends and people I know, so it was logical to use my personal network to push it. It get few visits from there, but the conversion rate was HUGE, I sold memberships minutes after opening.
So the conclusion is: do chase high traffic, but see if it’s also the right kind of traffic. If a certain traffic venue doesn’t convert, you should focus on what gives you the best results. And just visitors alone is not the thing you are after, you need people who stay on the website and (ideally) do something: subscribe, buy etc.
On another note, as soon as I free up some money, I’ll look into the program. While I am a very experienced blogger/Wordpress web designer, I’m always open to learn new stuff.
I agree that certain kinds of traffic can be fickle. I’ve known plenty of bloggers whose traffic got wiped out overnight after a Google algorithm change. I think the key is to build traffic from multiple sources so you will be less affected by one algorithm change. I’d still recommend the course, as it does not just focus on Pinterest, but rather building traffic from a variety of sources.
Hi Dee,
Congrats on your success!
This course seems interesting. One thing is for sure, your blog graphic looks ah-mazing!
Thank you Vanessa!
Congrats on the double! 30,000+ traffic is awesome. My blog built traffic pretty quickly the first 12 months but has since leveled off. Will have to take a look at EBA, thanks for the info.
Thanks for stopping by Joseph!
I too have heard nothing but awesome reviews about Elite Blog Academy. She obviously really knows her stuff!!
It’s an amazing course, truly helped me a TON!!
Congratulations with your success. I haven’t heard of this course before but you seem to have done very well as a result from it, certainly something I shall have to have a look into – however I wonder how much can be copied across in terms of applying it to a YouTube channel?
I think there would still be a lot you could learn! A great deal of the course covers how to expand your online reach in general, not to mention how to expand and increase revenue opportunities. It is an excellent course.