Blogging For Profit – Gold City Venture’s Side Hustle Course Review

So another course review…. YES, I’m in both the Etsy Printables and Blogging For Profit Courses. I wanted to hit the ground running and give my best shot at creating side hustles I could earn an extra income from at home!

And I’m here to tell you, I have learned SO MUCH from this Blogging for Profit course. The value, support, and motivation it has given me has changed my life forever.

What is a blog?

A blog is a space where someone like me shares valuable information with an audience like you to help you in your life to fix, work towards, or accomplish some goal. Right now, you’re reading my blog, The Frugal Dietitian.

What does blogging for profit mean?

Blogging for profit means you take measures to monetize (make money from) your blog. It may sound spam-y at first, however, when you you provide value to others in the form of saving them money, saving their health or their marriage, or teaching them something new, it is only fair that you benefit as well.

You can profit from your blog by displaying advertising, using affiliate links, selling your own products, offering services, doing email marketing, etc.

The course goes into each of these in depth. I know firsthand how overwhelming it can be to even think about the phrase affiliate marketing. Heck, that was one of the reasons swirling around in my head keeping me from starting a blog in the first place.

mY FIRST ATTEMPT AT BLOGGING

WAS A COMPLETE FAILURE. Okay, maybe not, because I learned what NOT TO DO. But it was frustrating. I tried hosting through BlueHost and I didn’t know what a theme was or how to set anything on my site up. I tried changing my domain name one time and it took me 3 HOURS to get it fixed.

Talk about a waste of time!

I ended up giving up. That was about 2 years ago. But I still wanted to start a blog.

Then things started to look up for my blogging career….

So I was super excited when I was listening to the FIREdrill Podcast one day and heard that Julie had partnered with Cody to create some awesome side hustle courses. One of them being, Blogging for Profit! Being a long time listener of the show, I just knew that these courses would be great and would definitely help me get where I wanted to be with my blog.

I signed up at the very end of June 2019, and now you’re reading my 6th ever written blog post.

I’ve started out slow so far. However, the course is go at your own pace and with an 11 month old stuck to my leg, plus trying to work on my Etsy shop and Becoming a Pinterest VA (yes I’m doing this course too, no I’m not sure what I was thinking – these side hustles get me excited okay), I just don’t have the time right now to publish as much content as I would like.

BUT, that is going to change with the new year, because I will have 1 day per week to solely focus on my side hustles, yay!

However, I have been able to figure out the nitty gritty aspects of my site like what a widget is and how to manage them and how plugins work which is all super helpful to fine tune your site.

Now let’s dive into all the sweet props you’ll get from the course.

Benefits of Blogging for Profit

The modules contain content that include VIDEO & TEXT for learning.

This is important to me being a visual learner. Everyone learns different, however, I’m hands on so for me, video is a necessity.

As well as, the video usually contains different or additional information than what is in the text. I would advise reading and viewing both.

Optional (but in my opinion NECESSARY) VIP Blogging for Profit Facebook Group

I am currently locked in at a $29/month fee to be a member of the VIP Facebook Group. Cody and Julie do weekly FB lives in this group every week where they feature some extra content exclusive to the group and do two giveaways. One giveaway that the whole group is entered in and one for the challenge of the week (need motivation anyone).

I’ve won twice for completing the weekly challenge and won the Canva Master Course as well as the Six Figure Chick’s Secure the Bag Bundle Course!

I use Canva for my blog to create pins to put on Pinterest and to make sure my images are all the exact same size when uploading them to my blog. Having a Pinterest account and putting fresh pins on Pinterest is a way to drive traffic to your blog and market your brand. I also use Canva extensively to create my Etsy shop listings (double win there ;)).

The Secure the Bag Bundle Course is actually packed full of content. It features:

• how to create an ebook
• an ultimate guide to Instagram
• business planner
• how to create a sales funnel
• and SO MUCH more.

Cody and Julie also schedule extra Facebook lives from bloggers who have made a name for themselves in the group, today they are going live with Tori Dunlap. She is going to share her story about landing big media, which is a great way to get back links and traffic to your site. I know, I know, what is a back link? Don’t worry you will learn about all of that in the course!

I’m letting you know all this so that you can get a feel for the value you will receive when you sign up for the Blogging for Profit VIP Facebook Group.

LIFETIME access to the course with access to updates!

This course is a go at your own pace. You can take 1 month or 2 years to go through the content. Any time the course creators add an update to the content or add new content, you have access to it!

The point is, where they see a need, Cody and Julie will discuss it in the VIP Facebook group or eventually add it to the course content.

Optional Accountability Buddy

Cody and Julie give you the option to sign up and pair you with an accountability buddy. The goal of the accountability buddy is to keep you moving forward and to help you answer questions quickly. While I personally haven’t taken advantage of the accountability buddy system yet, I think it is a good option if you need motivation.

Bonus Content in the Blogging for Profit Course

The bonus content features additional resources such as blogging podcasts and experts like Grant Sabatier and Monica Louie giving you their take on SEO (search engine optimization), Facebook Advertising, and travel bloggin.

Blogging for profit COURSE DOWNFALLS

Using WordPress

While I love the course and think it is a superb, top-level, and should be your go to blogging for profit course, there are some minor downfalls you should be aware of….

The course primarily focuses on using WordPress for your blog so if you are a Squarespace, WIX, Weebly, Joomla, any of the others user, you might have to do a little bit of work to get all of your questions answered.

However, Cody and Julie focus on WordPress because that is what they know best and that is what they recommend bloggers use as a platform for their blog. And we wouldn’t want them talking about something they weren’t experts in, right? So I commend them for that.

I was a little skeptical when I first opened the course and figured out I would be working with WordPress again because that is what I was using when I failed the first time, however, I didn’t know how to appropriately use it. When you have a helping hand, it is all MUCH EASIER. So I wouldn’t let this hold you back.

VIP Blogging for Profit Facebook Group

The VIP Facebook Group isn’t mandatory, however, I do think it is essential to your success in building and growing your blog. I’ve had questions after going through the course content (about little technical things like how to configure widgets or change font on my site) that I just asked about in the group to get an answer quickly.

If you want to save yourself time and leg work (googling), the group is a necessity. For me, the value it provides is totally worth it (and you can deduct it on your taxes for a membership), however, this might be something for you to take into consideration regarding cost.

My Blogging for Profit Success thus far:

While I don’t have much traffic to my site yet, I’m not getting discouraged. I still have quite a bit of work to do on my social media profiles to market my content. I need to get into Tailwind and group boards on Pinterest. Making great content isn’t enough, you have to save some time to get it out to the world so they can see it!

The first comment I received was on my Baby Led Weaning post. I can’t tell you HOW EXCITED I was to read that comment, someone was seeing the article that I had written! That little comment was just what I needed to give me motivation and drive to spend more time developing my blog.

I know the strategy I need to take to get there, it just takes time.

My husband likes to say, “all in due time, but it do take time”.

CALL TO ACTION

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Go sign up for the BLOGGING FOR PROFIT COURSE and create a side hustle that makes money for you in your sleep!

If you want to learn more about my personal journey and how I aim to help you all, start here!