Elite Blog Academy Review: What Affiliates Fail to Tell You!

Welcome to my Elite Blog Academy review!

First of all, I must congratulate you for taking the time to do your own research before buying into any "seemingly good" products.

That's the way to avoid scams and find the legitimate program to make real money online!

I know I only have a few seconds to capture your attention. So very quickly WHY listen to me?

The reason is very simple...

I'm NOT an Affiliate of Elite Blog Academy!

If you do a simple search and look at all the other Elite Blog Academy reviews, you'll find that majority of them are all written by EBA Affiliates who are promoting this product.

Yes, some of them are unbiased and honest.

But let me reveal to you what are the things that most affiliates are NOT telling you...

Elite Blog Academy, as it's name suggests, is a self-paced blogging course to help bloggers build successful and profitable blogs and turn them into real businesses.

It was first launched in 2014 by Ruth Soukup. Over the years, the course has been updated to 2.0 and currently, it's at EBA 3.0.

One thing I totally agree with Elite Blog Academy is that...

"The problem with creating a successful, profitable blog isn’t that there’s not enough information out there, it’s that there is way too much!"

To be honest, all the information in the course can be found online for Free. But the problem is where to find it?

So, I'm glad that EBA has consolidated "most" of the essential information into a step-by-step training to help bloggers level up their "blogging game".

Having said that, I'm not recommending this course despite it has legit and valuable training.

Here's the reason...

EBA claimed that their course is suitable for all levels of bloggers - complete beginners, intermediate bloggers or professionals.

But, that's really not the case...

EBA will not teach you how to set up your WordPress blog. They're expecting you to know how WordPress works, the basics of blogging and they expect you to have an existing blog.

Obviously they won't said that explicitly. But the fact that they don't teach you anything on that means you have to learn it yourself.

Ruth does have a blog post documenting the process of setting up your WordPress blog step-by-step. But it's really basic. I'm sure complete beginners will still get stuck!

On the other hand, Wealthy Affiliate, my top recommended program, has real step-by-step training with videos to assist you setting up your own website.

In addition, EBA is just a course and it doesn't offer any technical support which is extremely important, especially for beginners.

Personally, I still need technical support on my website despite I'm now experienced in blogging and making a good living from it.

Why?

Because just like you, I don't know anything about coding or programming. No matter how experienced you are in blogging, you'll still face technical issues on your website for sure.

It can be really frustrating if it can't be fixed immediately.

That's why I'm really grateful that Wealthy Affiliate has a 24/7 technical support. No matter what issue I run into for my website, I can submit a support ticket and I'll get a reply as soon as 3 minutes!

EBA claimed that they want to ensure the quality of their community. So they only open up application once a year for 5 days.

It usually lies around February to March. So, EBA 3.0 has been closed this year 2018. It will not open again until 2019.

So the Call-To-Action on their site is to join their Waiting List and get more updates from there.

This may be a good way to keep the group small and ensure the quality. But for other people, it doesn't really make sense for you to wait one year just to get access to their course.

That's why I don't really like their strategy of making it very hard to join.

If the course is digital, why not make it available all the time?

I don't get it but it doesn't matter.

For those of you wanting to start your own online (blogging) business, what you can do is to join their waiting list and wait for the course to reopen once again for a very limited time.

But I don't recommend it because I believe you can start your business anytime you want.

Wealthy Affiliate can help you with that. If you're willing to put in the time and hard work, it's even possible for you to start making money before EBA opens up again.

So, why wait?

By right, you can't enroll in their course at this point.

BUT...

Look at what I've found! Check out this link.

It's their salespage for you to join their course. To be honest, I don't dare to purchase the course on that page because I'm afraid that I may not be able to access the course and get my money back.

So, it's really weird. They claimed that application is closed now, yet I can find their salespage for people to purchase.

Like I've said, EBA 3.0 is already closed for 2018. But from the weird salespage I just found, it costs a one-time fee of $897 or 3 monthly payments of $350.

To be honest, no matter how much value they claimed, I think it's totally overpriced!

Here's the proof...

The main products you'll be getting are:

• 12 Step-by-step training units
• 36 assignments
• Private EBA Facebook Group
• Some bonus training on Facebook Ads, Pinterest marketing and other social media marketing campaign strategies
• Weekly newsletter with additional tips and tricks
• Lifetime access to the entire course and future materials

These may seem a ton of value but to be honest, most of the information can be found online for Free.

Not only that, there are some other hidden costs you have to consider:

• Website domain name
• Web hosting
• Email Service Provider (ESP) / Autoresponder

These 3 alone can add up to an extra monthly cost of around hundred dollars.

So, is it really worth $897? I don't really think so.

Let's compare it with Wealthy Affiliate once again...

Wealthy Affiliate is Free to join and the Premium Membership only costs $49/month.

At $49/month, you're entitled to:

• Their state-of-the-art Web hosting service for up to 25 websites
• Keyword research tool
• Free subdomain websites
• 24/7 technical support
• Unlimited community support
• Private access to the owners
• More than 50 lessons of step-by-step training on how to set up your blog and monetize it

I don't know about you. But I feel that Wealthy Affiliate is more worth the money.

$897 is really too much for a blogging course when most of the information can be found online for Free. What they're doing is simply organizing the information together in an easy-to-follow format.

Last but not least, Elite Blog Academy has a 180-day Refund Period. But it's really hard to get your money back.

Let me explain...

EBA 3.0 Refund Policy states that:

"In order to be eligible for a refund for our full course, Elite Blog Academy 3.0, you must submit your completed homework for all 36 assignments by 180 days from your purchase date. You can send your fully completed assignments to support@lwslinc.com. This should include screen shots of your before and after blog design, analytics, and income reports."

This kind of refund policy can ensure people take their course seriously but this also means that it's really difficult for you to get a refund.

There are cases where members get stuck at certain stage and couldn't move on. But since he couldn't provide the assignments, his refund request got declined.

I must say, this kind of refund policy is basically the same as having no refund policy. It's way too complicated and difficult to get your money back!

You even need to provide screenshots of your blog before and after plus your analytics and income reports. That's way too much!

Some programs have lots of information but it can be really overwhelming for beginners to comprehend ans absorb.

That's not the case for Elite Blog Academy. EBA's step-by-step training is easy-to-follow and not overwhelming at all.

Once you're in, you can access their private FB Group and get connected with other members.

The good thing is that it's a good place to get help and network with like-minded people.

But the downside is that FB Group is NOT a systematic way to get real support for your blog and your business.

You can't have different categories or threads for different issues.

So, I would say this is just a place for people to make friends and get some minor help. It's not a place for you to get real help if you happen to face any problems in your business.

Another benefit of EBA's training is that it caters to people with different learning preference.

There are video tutorials which come with transcripts. There are also downloadable workbooks, Q&A videos and assignments.

Once you become a member, you're an EBA member for life. You can access their resources as many times as you want including the future materials and versions.

Ruth achieved her success with her blog LivingWellSpendingLess.com. You can go an take a look at how successful she is and she's now helping others to achieve success online through blogging.

So, the good thing is that this product is not created by some mysterious owners like those blatant scams.

Instead, you can really learn some valuable information from real successful blogger.

It's totally possible to make real money online with the help of Elite Blog Academy. Just take a look at their success stories here!

There are 4 main modules included in the EBA members area:

1. Refine Your Message
2. Grow Your Traffic
3. Monetize Your Platform
4. Build Your Business

Within these modules, they are broken down into 12 different Units. Each Unit represents a lesson on itself.

Below is an overview of all the Units provided:

1. Start with Awesome - Understand what makes your Blog UNIQUE
2. Content is King - 4 Strategies for creating contents that ROCKS
3. Presentation is Everything - How to make your Blog visually appealing & use Pinterest to effectively market it
4. Grow Your Platform - 8 Proven Strategies to grow your website and SEO traffic
5. Grow Your List - Email Marketing tips & strategies
6. Rock Your Social Media - How to effectively leverage social media to get eyeballs
7. Show Me the Money - Understanding how to monetize your Blog
8. Create Your Product - Preparing your own digital product for sale
9. Master Sales & Marketing - How to convert your readers into buyers
10. Work Smarter, Not Harder - Let your Blog work for you
11. From Blog to Business - How to scale up your Blog and turn it into a real business
12. Lead Your Team - Outsourcing and managing resources

Apart from the main course, there are some other bonus training on social media marketing, Facebook Ads and Pinterest.

The only major support you'll get is the private FB Group for all EBA members.

Like I've mentioned in the beginning, Elite Blog Academy is definitely NOT for everyone like what they claimed.

It's NOT for beginners because it lacks the basic training on how to set up your blog and the technical support needed.

Simply put, EBA is just a course and there's no real tools and resources to help you on the technical part.

To set up your blog, you'll first be directed to purchasing your own hosting at Bluehost. But there's no training on that. It's just a brief blog post.

That's why I would argue that EBA is more for intermediate bloggers who already have their own website but are struggling to make money and scale it up to become a real business.

For professionals, I don't think they even need such courses, unless they're struggling at certain part.

Best way for professional bloggers to grow is to network and work with other more successful people. This can open up more ideas and inspirations for your business. Such courses are not really useful if you're already a pro.

Obviously NO! Elite Blog Academy is NOT a scam because their training and community are all legit.

Ruth has great intentions to help people succeed with their blog. There are even real life success stories so there's no doubt on the legitimacy.

The problem is just its price and availability!

Personally, I don't think it's worth almost $900 and there's no point for you to wait for months until the course opens to the public.

If you happen to get access to the course application and you're interested, by all means go ahead and sign up.

If not, don't wait any longer to start your blog.

No one can stop you from getting started with your own blogging business.

Get started right away with Wealthy Affiliate to set up your own website now!

I'll be there to guide you personally 🙂