When I decided I wanted to start this blog, I knew that I didn’t have enough knowledge to do it from scratch. Sure, I’d had two blogs over on Blogger, but those were sub-domains and very techno-tard friendly. I knew this project was going to require its own domain and skills I just didn’t have.
While I was writing the blog for Freymiller, I had signed up for some blog trainings. Once I realized those trainings weren’t what I needed for that blog, I set them aside, not knowing if I would ever use them.
Fast forward to October 2018… I pulled those trainings back out and while they were definitely useful, I knew they weren’t going to be enough. I Google’d the blog course I had gotten them from and started looking for how to get started. It was an expensive course, but I figured with the goals I had in mind, the investment would be well worth it. More digging around on that website revealed some bad news. You can’t start the course anytime you want. They open enrollment every spring for one week. I really didn’t want to wait 5 months to get started so I started searching for other blog courses. I learned quickly that blogging courses are kind of like cock roaches. For every one you see, there are probably one hundred you just haven’t spotted yet. And they are all advertising on Facebook.
The first one I found was about Travel Blogging. It looked like a great course, but I wasn’t looking to become a travel blogger and it was really focused towards travel blogging and creative ways to make money while you travel to support your travelling addiction. If anyone ever told me they wanted to be a travel blogger, I would totally send them to this course.
The next ad that came up was for the 30 Day Blog Challenge.
I clicked on the ad, went to their site and started reading. Their description sounded pretty thorough, so I signed up. Because of my job, I knew it would take me longer than 30 days, but I wasn’t worried about that. I was expecting 60 days, but it was closer to 90. This blog post is the assignment for the Day 30 lesson… write a review of the course and post it on your blog. So here we go….
The first thing I want you to know is I am not benefiting in any way by writing this review. There is no incentive for me to write anything but an honest review and that’s what you’re going to get. I want to start out with the good points.
- They do not charge students to take the course. The most expensive course I saw was almost $800 and I saw several in between. If you’re considering taking a blogging course and cost is a big issue, this is the course for you. The only completely unavoidable expense related to the course is purchasing the domain name and hosting, which combined ran me less than $90 for a year.
- The course is comprehensive. You honestly do learn enough to be able to competently run a blog by the time you finish the course. Lydia Lee of www.screwthecubicle.com instructs students through all 30 video lessons with a level of expertise that inspires trust. When Lydia told me it was okay to move forward imperfectly, I believed her. Instructional videos are also included in the technical lessons like adding widgets and graphics.
- The course is much more than technical lessons. Topics that are equally important, like narrowing down your niche, getting a clear picture of your ideal reader and overcoming fears are also discussed. The importance of being intentional and making time (as opposed to the idea of “finding time”) to work on your blog was made very clear. Ways to create an income and expand your following are addressed in the last week of the course.
- There is a “blog socials” area, which is basically a message string where you post your completed assignment for each day. You can also use this area to ask questions and find an accountability partner to work with.
- There is a companion course, “WordPress for Beginners” of 20 lessons that is also available at no cost. Easy to understand video lessons are a life saver if you’re like me… terrified you’re going to accidentally find the Self-Destruct button.
Over all, I was impressed with the quality of the lessons and felt they were arranged in a way that made sense.
In the spirit of “nothing is ever 100% good (or bad),” I want to address what I considered to be disadvantages of the 30 Day Blog Challenge.
- On Day 1, 603 unique voices posted on the message string. They introduced themselves, shared the name and vision for their blog and expressed their excitement about this new chapter in their lives. To date, on Day 30, 27 unique voices (including my own) posted their final excitement and gratitude for having completed the course. That is less than a 5% completion. I’m going to place the bulk of the responsibility for that dropout rate on the individual participants. With such a minimal investment (less than $100) they really wouldn’t be losing much if they didn’t complete the course. They probably would have had more motivation to finish the course if they would have invested upwards of $800 to get into it.
- I was unable to find an accountability partner in the course. I reached out to a few people, one responded… two months after I emailed him using the contact form on his blog. He gave me some lame excuse about how starting a blog was harder than he thought it was going to be and I never heard from him again. Also, I clicked on the link of several blogs in the message string and on average, the majority of the blogs had been deserted about 60 days after the author started the course.
- The message string was just weird. It felt clunky and while I could post my completed assignments, I was never sure if the reply feature worked. I clicked on it once in the first week and a box opened under the post I wanted to respond to, but it never seemed to work right after that.
- There seems to be a “set it and forget it” mindset. Questions for the instructors in the message string went mostly unanswered. The Facebook page for the course hasn’t been updated since August 31, 2017. I found the WordPress course totally by accident… after I’d purchased “WordPress for Dummies.”
- When I was first setting up the blog, I couldn’t get my opt-in widget to show up on my page. I emailed an instructor and explained my dilemma. He asked for access to my blog (which I gave him) and he went in and fixed it. I asked him what I had done wrong – or what step I was missing – and never got a response. I wish he would have replied and taken advantage of the teachable moment. Kind of a “give a man a fish” versus “teach a man to fish” situation.
So that’s my opinions, both positive and negative on the 30 Day Blog Course. I guess that just leaves the two most important questions.
- Knowing what I know now, would I sign up for the class again?
Absolutely. I learned a lot. The positives, even though they were equal in number to the negatives in my list, far outweighed the negatives in effect.
- 2. Would I recommend the course to anyone else?
In a heartbeat. I think the course is valuable. Although if someone asked me about it, I would also caution them that they’re not going to find community. I had to go elsewhere for it.
