Honest Review: Make Money Blogging for Beginners
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Before I dive in and give you the rundown of the course, Make Money Blogging for Beginners, I want to give you a little bit of background on me!
I am Tiffer! I started the blog Tiffer Time, a travel blog for bikini babes all over. Basically, if you are a sun chaser that loves to travel to all the warm and tropical locations AND want all the insider scoops you will love my site. I am a Florida girl who moved to San Francisco the summer of 2017. Talk about a culture shock!
Ahh, I had no idea what I was getting into, so I am constantly searching out my next warm weather adventure to prance around in my bikini!
After a year of working in the city, I decided I wanted to follow my dreams and that is how Tiffer Time began.
First thing is first, you are going to want to grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and find a comfy spot to soak in all this knowledge. Because I am about to drop a ton on ya!
PS if it is late afternoon let me be your bad example and encourage you to reach for the vino. Oh, and just a heads up, this is going to be good, so a pen and paper is a good idea too. (wink, wink)
Blogging before Alex and Lauren (Create and Go: Make Money Blogging for Beginners Course)
I started my blog in July 2018, I knew I wanted it to be a travel blog. And to get the blog started I pretty much signed up for any FREE ‘start your blog’ course under the sun. (get it? because I am a sun chaser) OMG dad jokes for days.
But literally, probably close to 10 and honestly, I still sign up for some because I like to see what other bloggers are teaching future bloggers. This is beside the point. I used Pinterest as my manual to blogging and free courses to launch my blog.
Ready to start your blog?
Which if you have not launched your blog yet, check out my How to Start a Blog post, because if you cannot tell I am obsessed with learning and all I want to do is share my knowledge and make your dreams come true!
PS it is all free, super detailed using all of the best platforms. Real quick, WordPress.ORG is the shit. I put .ORG in caps because this shit gets confusing. Don’t mess with the free WordPress.com because you can’t do anything on it, at least not much.
And if you ever want to make money on your blog, which wine not (I love vino) good luck! Monetizing on WordPress.com is a BIG No, No.
Now the best hosting for less than a coffee a month. Heads up you do have to buy a year or three… do it invest in your dream, it won’t break the bank and you can have some major return on investment.
To be honest if I would have done this as month to month, I would’ve come up with an excuse to quit. So paying upfront sucks, especially if you have a family and/or bills (which we all do) but think about YOU for once and your future! YOU are worth it!
ALSO, Bluehost is the jam for hosting your website. You own your site, domain and have 24/7 customer service in case shit hits the fan! Learn more and set your dream blog up!
Blogging Before: Make Money Blogging for Beginners
Ok so back to my blogging days before Create and Go.
I set up my blog, wrote a few posts, made a business account on Pinterest and prayed something would happen. Meanwhile, I have the worst habit of OVER RESEARCHING, so I would get stuck in the black hole of Pinterest and never really got anywhere.
Investing in a course or email marketing at the beginning of my journey seemed like too much. In my mind I kept telling myself I could find more info for FREE on Pinterest, BUT what a freaking time suck!! Totally wish I bit the bullet sooner. Ughh literally kicking myself as we speak.
Alex and Lauren were constantly showing up in my feed, I followed them on Pinterest, I subscribed to their email list, read all of their articles, watched their videos and took so many notes my hand hurt. OUCH hand cramp.
Time to take it to the next level
This is when I decided to invest in my dreams again and buy a course. These two are pro’s literally have had multiple websites, failed, succeeded and came back to teach us!
AND they are super relatable, they are easy to listen to and motivational while not holding your hand through every step!
Are you sold on their awesomeness yet?!?!?!?!
So Many Course Options!
Now which course?
They have a roadmap HERE that tells you what course would be best for you depending on where you are in your blogging journey.
So, since I had launched my blog and understood WordPress and design, I was ready for the Make Money Blogging for Beginners Course. Woohoo!!!!
This is a middle ground course, meaning your blog has launched, you have content and little to no traffic besides your Mommacita of course! And you are not making ANY money YET!
Before I Bought: Make Money Blogging for Beginners
I RESEARCHED the shit out of it, duh!
And I totally recommend researching before purchasing any course. Whether you are just starting out or a full-time blogger every dollar counts, and some courses just aren’t great. They leave you with more questions as opposed to answer ALL the questions you have.
Like I mentioned before, I think Lauren and Alex are relatable, but they also speak and teach in a way that is easy to understand and implement.
They had great reviews, and not just the ones on their site but I googled: Create and Go Make Money Blogging for Beginners Reviews.
Needless to say, the reviews spoke for themselves. This course works and peeps are making money! Some reviews highlight an increase in sales and traffic, only a few mentioned making money for the first time.
BUT I wanted to make money so I decided fuck it, I will invest my $197 in this course. I already told ya how I feel about Alex and Lauren and their teaching totally matches with how I like to learn, so here I am.
Course Complete! I love finishing things so ‘Happy Dance’!
Before I dive deep into what you can expect, what I loved and what I could have done without.
My Results
TRAFFIC
MAJOR increase, like tripled! Especially on Pinterest which is the go-to traffic source for blogging. I was able to triple my views on Pinterest and on my website in just a few months. Between this course, Pinterest and Tailwind, my traffic continues to rise each month!
To be honest I have not made an affiliate sale yet, I was using ads and got close but never hit the benchmark to cash in. I still believe in these strategies and am taking them more seriously.
My personal fault is that I am not as consistent as I need to be. I am finally taking myself seriously and committing to this. So, stay tuned to see what I can do when I put my mind to it.
This just goes to show that you cannot put things in place and leave them, it is all about the follow through baby! So round 2!
Here is the scoop on the course and what I shoulda, coulda, woulda done and what I am changing now, as we speak. I mean type.
What you will get with Make Money Blogging
- All of Lauren and Alex’s fave resources. What they use, how they use it and insight to newer and better tools.
- Access to their private Facebook Group. I love seeing this feed and getting tips and tricks!
- Checklists for how to generate traffic and monetize your blog! This is not a step by step, do it in this order kind of list, it is more a list of things you can do to be successful!
The course sets clear expectations for you. Things to do with attainable goals.
- Focus on visitors to build traffic and then you can make some mula!
This is obvious BUT, the results depend on YOU! Hence, why I am back at it. I did not see the results I wanted BUT it is because I did not apply 100%.
It is so hard for me to write that, but it is true, and I cannot blame the course because I did not put in the time. I think everyone works at their own pace, but if we are given the tools and apply our problem solver attitudes we can do this.
So here I go, again!
The course does not tell you ‘do these steps to get this result’ instead it provides you with options and different ways to find success.
For instance, if you HATE Facebook, they tell you how to generate traffic and sales with Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and Google! Pick what resonates with you but more importantly what your audience likes!
Reminder
Pro Bloggers are problem solvers! Your content should solve problems, DUH! So, if you see or hear something and are unsure, google the answer, ask a FB group, BE RESOURCEFUL. No one is going to just give you the bible to blogging.
Oh also, get ready to juggle. This course is jam packed with yumminess and juicy nuggets, but it is also super overwhelming because ya gotta do everything at the same time.
Beginning of the Course Focus:
- Driving Traffic ( love Pinterest)
- Consistently Publish Content (my weakness)
- Add affiliate links to articles (find an affiliate before writing, turns out you can’t just write what’s on your mind)
- Build your email list (You’ve read it before, don’t wait on this!)
- Create a sales funnel for your affiliate products.
- Test, Test, Test!
Got it?!?!?!?!?!? Like I said it is a lot. Don’t get discouraged I did a little and got a little so if you apply it all. Your dreams will come true, I just know it. And I PROMISE, I would not write this if I didn’t believe it.
#TeamAlexandLauren #Create&Go #MakeMoneyBloggingforBeginners #WeGotThis!
Continuing with our overview now that I have hash tagged my face off!
Ways to Make Money
You get an overview of how to use, be successful, strategize and real-life examples of Ads, Sponsored Posts and Affiliate Marketing. Here are my thoughts:
Ads – to be successful you need mad traffic, thousands of views a day to make it worth it. I didn’t have that. Ads slowed down my site and made it look jenky.
So, I nixed them. Once, I boost my views to tens of thousands I can get in with a top ad network to make a little extra dough and still look professional.
Sponsored Post – my next venture! This is where you write and publish an article for someone else featuring their product on your blog. You can make bank doing this or you can rake in free products. My advice only write about shit you love! Our readers can spot a fake a mile away.
Perf if you love writing and networking.
Affiliate Marketing – this is how Alex and Lauren make bank, they swear by it and give you all the tools to kill it. You promote products on your site, email and social media for a commission. I want to master this soooo bad.
In time it turns into more of a passive income and through Pinterest it makes promoting super easy.
You will get the breakdown on, how it works, approvals with companies, tracking sales and links, finding companies, creating a strategy and formula to make the money you want, keeping it legal, most common mistakes and all the other ins and outs. Sounds like a lot BUT worth it!
They highlight the shit out of affiliate marketing, so this is all you will need to be successful. Stay tuned for my personal comeback with affiliate marketing.
Email Marketing
Seems dumb but I wanted nothing to do with this in the beginning. And I knew I would need to do something with email, but I dragged my feet and now I am late to the game. Don’t make my mistake!
Make Money Blogging for Beginners shows you how to turn a reader into a buyer.
The whole scoop on capturing leads, storing leads and selling the shit out of your leads. No joke with a great promo code to get you started with the best email marketing system in the blogging game. Made by bloggers, for bloggers Convertkit!
Feeling not so sold on grabbing emails and ‘spamming them’? You gotta change your mind set. This is how I felt, and I am now kicking myself literally. You have to remember you are in charge of the content and the amount of emails that go out.
So spamming people is in your hands. Also, anyone who signs up wants to know your story, so give the people what they want!
Bonus Alert: How to Get Your First 1K Subscribers
You also get a lesson on making your first opt-in, testing the shit out of it, everything you need to know about landing pages, sales funnels and making the right sales funnel. This is given to you in a step by step format making it super easy!
Third piece of the puzzle, you have monetization, email marketing, now you need TRAFFIC. Without traffic and visitors no one will see your amazing offers!
Traffic
Like I mentioned before you pick your traffic source and Alex and Lauren don’t want you to try and generate traffic from everywhere: Google, Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Finally, no more juggling.
They want you to FOCUS on ONE. You pick!
I started with a few hundred views a month and now I am topping out at over 30,000 each month and growing on Pinterest.
If I were you, I would stick with Pinterest. The platform is designed to collaborate. People hop on Pinterest to solve problems, AND as a blogger you are a what?!?!?!? PROBLEM SOLVER. AKA this is your space! Solve problems babe!
That is the super high-level overview of the meaty course from Create and Go Make Money Blogging for Beginners.
On top of what I went over you are given bonus after bonus on:
Instagram Growth
Natalie Bacon’s Mindset, Productivity, Time Management and Goal Setting (this one was a game changer for me. It constantly brings me back to focus on the bigger picture and actually moves me forward)
And Freelancing!
Administrative duties as a blogger, backend WordPress mumbo jumbo, and the tips needed to be productive are also included.
My Conclusion
If you are willing to put in the time. This course will work for you, IF you work for it. I know I bought the course, applied some, sat back and relaxed a little too much and NOW I am taking a second stab at it. Learn from my mistakes if you want to increase your traffic and start making money this is a fantastic course to do it! Get your Make Money Blogging for Beginners Course ASAP!
Though I have yet to add to my pockets, I have learned a ton and that alone is worth more than the amount I spent on this course. Once, I am seeing my bank account rise I will dive into Create & Go’s Pinterest Avalanche and then Six Figure Blogger!
#BloggingGoals
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