Is Elite Blog Academy* right for you? I think it’s right for some, I don’t think it’s right for all. This post contains my in-depth review aimed at helping you decide.
What is Elite Blog Academy (EBA)?
Elite Blog Academy is an online course intended to help bloggers “take their blogs to the next level.” The focus is on making more income, although the first part of the course covers the basics of laying a good blogging foundation. If you don’t yet have your blog set up, you will certainly want to do that first since the course assumes you already have. (You can follow my simple steps to do that here.)
First, total transparency:
I paid $299 for the course when it went on sale for Black Friday 2014. I did not get it for free. My goal is to write an objective review from the standpoint of a paying customer.
I have watched every unit video included in the course, start to finish. I also downloaded and read the course outline, the handouts, each of the unit outlines and the bonus materials. I have not personally implemented everything suggested, nor did I watch 100% of the two Live Q&A replay videos yet.
While I don’t know Ruth super well, I have met her in person and found her to be delightful. I have no reason to believe she’s anything but totally legit. (She’s also tall, which I appreciate because us tall girls have to stick together!)
I am an affiliate for Elite Blog Academy which means I will get a commission if you choose to buy it through any of my affiliate links.
Here’s what you get
12 Course Units – The course is split into 12 units (plus a course intro). Each unit consists of a video (averaging about 10 minutes), fill-in-the-blank worksheets to go along with the video, 1-2 handouts with extra info not necessarily covered explicitly in the video and 2-4 guided action step assignments. A few of the units have bonus materials such as resource lists, etc.
2 Live Q&A Videos – These are live hour-long videos where Ruth answers members’ questions. (The website indicates there are 4 videos although as of this writing, there are only 2. I assume the other 2 are scheduled for the future.)
Private Forum – This is where members can interact with one another, and Ruth as well. (The website indicates you’ll have access to a private Facebook group, but that was for the first class only. New members will now engage in a private forum right on the EBA website.)
Is the material worth the cost?
I’m not going to lie, when I first saw the price of the course, I was taken aback. For me, $299 is a hefty chunk of change (and it’s going up to $399 next time it opens in the spring of 2015).
There’s no doubt you can find most of the material for free online, but with products like these, what you’re paying for is the organized, straightforward way the information is packaged (saves you lots of time, searching and frustration), the expertise of the creator (Ruth is clearly very knowledgeable and successful) and, in the case of EBA, the built-in mastermind group that comes in the form of the private forum and the live Q&A videos.
There is a 100% money-back guarantee.
Where the course shines
Ruth presents very solid information about blogging.
For new bloggers or bloggers who feel lacking in direction or lacking in the fundamentals, I think it is an excellent investment.
For seasoned bloggers, I think much of the information will be review. However, the feedback I’ve heard repeatedly is that Ruth’s Pinterest strategy is particularly helpful, if implemented. Whether or not it would be a wise investment for you depends. In my case, I consume a gazillion social media marketing blogs and podcasts, so between those resources and Ruth’s book, How to Blog for Profit: Without Selling Your Soul (Expanded 2nd Edition) where she covers much of it, I didn’t feel like it was entirely new.
On the other hand, I struggle with implementation, so some encouragement and accountability would probably be good for me…which leads me to my next point.
In my opinion, the biggest benefit of the course is definitely the relationship-building potential. Relationships are key in blogging and, if treated correctly, will serve you well for years to come. The EBA forum and the live Q&As give you a chance to ask questions, get ideas, share ideas, ask for advice, get & provide support and encouragement, promote each other and build genuine relationships with other bloggers who “get” you.
I do think it’s worth noting that, so far, most of the members in EBA (from what I can tell) are female bloggers in the lifestyle, DIY, cooking, frugal living, crafting, parenting, home decor and fashion niches. I don’t think you have to be in one of these niches to benefit (in fact, for some it might be better not to be), but I appreciate knowing this type of information before I commit to something so I keep a good mix of people I’m interacting with. So, it’s just an FYI.
I would consider EBA if:
You’ve been blogging a while and are looking at other bloggers around you who are taking off and you wonder how they’re doing it.
You have a get-it-done personality. There is no question, in order to make this course work, you must implement the strategies Ruth shares or it will be a huge waste of time and money.
You have the tenacity to follow through. Many of the assignments require you to dig deep. It will take time and energy. You will have to work hard on it, regularly.
You are a relationship person who really wants to get to know other bloggers. If you are not at a place where you can pour into more relationships, skip it.
You’re a hands-on, fill-in-the-blanks type of person who likes to put pen to paper to process and get things done.
You like to learn from a person (video), rather than reading.
You have the room in your budget to pay for it. (If you don’t, read on for another option.)
The Elite Blog Academy website says,
Elite Blog Academy…shares proven, field-tested strategies for building a successful, profitable blog, regardless of your niche and no matter your target audience.
While I think many bloggers could pick up useful tidbits, I would definitely say those best served by EBA are bloggers in niches like DIY, frugal living, home decor, cooking, simple living, crafting, parenting, fashion, etc.
Remember, Ruth is teaching mainly from her personal experience (understandably so). For her own blog, she’s seen success by pursuing high traffic and monetizing mainly via display ads. She touches on other blogging models, but I think bloggers with this bent will glean the most.
A blogging conference alternative
I think the perfect candidate for this course is the blogger who has been blogging a while, wants to go to the next level and would like a cheaper alternative to a blogging conference.
For many, attending a blogging conference is a turning point in a blogging “career” (it was for me). However, when you consider buying a conference ticket, travel, hotel, etc., the more popular conferences can easily cost between $500 and $1000+ to attend. Yikes! I know that’s prohibitive for many.
Being part of Elite Blog Academy is not exactly the same as the face-to-face contact you’d get at a conference, but it’s a close second. You’ll be learning a lot and you’ll get to meet other like-minded bloggers.
Can’t afford the hefty price tag? Here’s a suggestion…
The main chunk of the material (the 12 course units) corresponds directly to the 12 chapters in Ruth’s book, How to Blog for Profit: Without Selling Your Soul (Expanded 2nd Edition). (The book is available in Kindle version, including Kindle Unlimited, and paperback.)
I would estimate the book contains about 90% of the information covered in the 12 EBA course units
. (Please see my update at the end of the post for clarification). So, if you’re only interested in the content (not the live Q&As or the forum), I would suggest buying the book first.
The positives
As I said, the relationship-building potential is the biggest benefit in my opinion.
It’s well done. The signup process is relatively glitch-free and easy to walk through. The videos are professional. The material is organized. It’s definitely high-quality.
It’s a product born out of experience, not just theory. Ruth is a well-established, very successful blogger who has a proven track record of getting things done. According to the advertising page on her main blog (Living Well Spending Less) she gets in excess of 3 million pageviews and 1 million unique visitors a month. Obviously, she’s teaching what has worked for her.
The negatives
If by now the course sounds like it would be a good fit for you, I think you’ll find the negatives to be minor. Still, I’ll list the things I took note of while going through:
I didn’t agree with a few of the tips. Overall, I probably agreed with 97% of the information and disagreed with about 3%.
Ruth is not technical. This is by her own admission and certainly not anything for which I would write off the course. EBA is more about strategy, not so much about the technical aspects of starting and running a blog. If you’re hoping for a lot of technical help, this course might not be the place to start.
There’s already some outdated info. This isn’t a problem with this course in particular, but with this type of content in general. (This has been the main problem with my own blog.) Blogging and social media change so fast, it’s hard for any of us to keep everything up to date.
Conclusion
As is the case often with reviews, there’s not a one-size-fits-all answer. I hope I’ve provided enough information so you know if Elite Blog Academy is for you.
Update 11/29/2014:
In the comments, Ruth Soukup (the creator of EBA) has graciously disagreed with my assessment that 90% of the content in the EBA course is covered in her book. In her estimation, the figure is between 10-15%.
Quite a discrepancy! I’ve given this quite a bit of thought because, first, I very much respect Ruth and second, how can two business-savvy, intelligent women come up with such vastly different numbers, right? 
While my goal is to be as objective as possible in my reviews, I am not immune to bias (or even gross exaggeration at times)! So naturally, upon reading her comment, I immediately wondered if my estimation of 90% was inaccurate.
For reference, here is Ruth’s comment:
Oh, one thing I would disagree with is that 90% of the content in the course is in the book. While the course follows the same basic outline, EBA goes FAR more in depth than the book in every single unit. This can be somewhat deceiving at first glance if you haven’t actually worked your way through the material and completed the exercises, but I would say it is more like 10-15%.
Ruth is absolutely right when she points out that I did not complete every assignment (I tried to be forthright about this in my “total transparency” section at the beginning of the post). I understand her to be saying that had I actually completed the exercises, I would have dug deeper.
I think this is a fair point. In fact, I concede she is correct – that had I actually completed all assignments, I would have arrived at a number lower than 90%.
In the spirit of informed decision-making for all, I would also like to provide an explanation of my process and how I initially came to the figure I did.
As I watched the EBA videos, I had Ruth’s book in hand (which is excellent). The chapter titles directly correspond to the course unit titles (as we both agree). However, in my opinion, with regards to the content of the book & course, the similarities go far beyond the basic outline.
Not only are the chapter headings the same, many of the section headings and sub-points are the same as well. I easily followed along in the book (page by page at times), and in general I was able to anticipate which tips would come next as I thumbed through and “looked ahead” in each book chapter.
As for the worksheets and assignments that accompany each unit, some were indeed different and/or more in-depth than what was covered in the book. On the other hand, others were replicas of the ones in the book. So, when I wrote the post, I estimated 90% was the same.
But as I mentioned, I will accept that 90% is too high. However, I don’t agree that my estimation was 75-80% too high and should be only 10-15%. Where would I land at this point? I’m not exactly sure. Perhaps somewhere around 70%? (Again, I want to reiterate that I’m speaking about the content of the book and course, not the extras.)
But in the end, do precise numbers matter?
The important thing is not the numbers, the important thing is value. What is valuable to me is not necessarily valuable to someone else and vice versa. This is the reason I tried hard to look at the product from as many angles as possible in my review
Two people often spend the same money on the same item and experience vastly different levels of value. But this is how change and innovation are achieved! The differences in opinion and experience are often the very things that make us collectively better. We learn things we didn’t know, we try things we haven’t tried and we embrace things we might never have had the courage to embrace on our own.
As a case in point, I’d like to highlight Sarah’s comment, which I was ecstatic to see. She is part of EBA and has not only seen her traffic TRIPLE(!) since September, she has established extremely valuable relationships as well. For her, I imagine 10%, 15%, 70%, 90% is irrelevant! I think we can safely assume that in her case, EBA has paid for itself many times over!
And that, you guys, THAT is what floats my boat, flies my kite, tickles me pink (enter your own phrase here). I love watching others do their thing and thrive in online business. The internet has leveled the playing field and there is so much room for all of us – to find our own space and to take advantage of its money-making potential. There is plenty of internet pie to go around!
Additionally, I am certain Ruth’s goal in creating EBA mirrors mine – to see other bloggers dive in, get what they need and explode in growth! In that, I’m sure we agree.
To me, this is not about reviews or comments. It’s not about two bloggers who disagree (hopefully not going at it viciously for all to see). This is about offering helpful products and honest feedback. It’s about raising the bar and helping others. It’s about growth, as individuals and as a blogging community.
Too ALL of our success,
Amy
If you’d like to take advantage of this deal, You have less than a week to buy it at the price of $299. According to the website, it will never be this price again. (The next time the course opens in the spring of 2015, it will be priced at $399.) You can get more information or buy it here.
Or maybe you want to go the cheaper route and buy the book first. Pick up How to Blog for Profit: Without Selling Your Soul (Expanded 2nd Edition).
If you’re looking for some free help, check out my How to Blog series.
*There are affiliate links in this post.
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