Hi Sally, so sorry for the delay answering. I only just saw your comment. The DTC Pinterest course is totally comprehensive and if it’s in your budget I’d go for it, I just purchased the other Pinterest course as I like to take courses before I recommend them to my blogging readers, and I know a lot of people don’t have the budget or bandwidth for DTC.

Love this post. Really. I own a virtual tax firm and want to bring in more clients organically through Google and Pinterest (Facebook ads get expensive!), but at the same time I’d like to make a profit from blogging. I really want to sign up for Dare to Conquer. Do you think it will help me with these goals?

You mentioned in another comment that you are currently taking a Pinterest course? So was the Dare to Conquer’s course on Pinterest not comprehensive enough? Just curious.

Before I part with my cash, I really want to be sure. Thanks in advance for answering.

Hi Ashley, thanks for your comment. I just checked and EBA is $997 this year so that’s a fair chunk of change. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it, but if you’re looking for alternatives and you’re determined to succeed, this is what I’d do.

An affiliate marketing course – Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is great for beginners but Carly’s is a fine alternative if you have some idea about blogging and online marketing (sounds like you do from your work). Then a Pinterest course. I’m currently doing Jennifer Maker’s Pinterest Launch Plan ebook/course and think it’s the perfect Pinterest course for beginner bloggers and it’s only $27! I am about to write an in-depth review for this post but here’s the link if you’re interested: https://jennifermaker.teachable.com/p/the-pinterest-launch-plan?affcode=152016_akr0ywpf

EBA 4.0 might have more updated info on these techniques but when I took it, it was very high level and didn’t drill down into specific strategies on affiliate marketing and was light on details for the Pinterest – which is why I had to take other courses to top up my knowledge.

Hi Erika, I’m going to say either Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing (currently 20% off until 7 January) or if you have the budget – Billionaire Blog Club/Dare to Conquer (new name).

Making Sense of Aff Marketing has a full section on starting your blog from scratch and it’s a great course for absolute beginners.

BBC/DTC is an allround course. It covers absolutely everything, from niche selection to creating content to how to make pins and get traffic. Plus the course creator, Paul, is currently building a new site from scratch and is letting us all follow along. He even sent an email out today with the keywords he is targeting on this site (that’s crazy, no one ever shares their keywords because others will copy their strategy, but he’s determined to show anyone how to build a successful blog from scratch so he’s promised to be completely transparent. It’s really refreshing).

Which course would you recommend for a beginner that has not launched a blog and is unsure of what niche to go into?

Thank you, Kristine, I really appreciate you saying that. Working full-time definitely makes it harder, so you really just have to focus on the stuff that makes you money. It might make you more efficient than me (I spend a lot of time fussing about, not very focused on the task at hand, really need to work on that). I actually know some blogging VAs who make a decent living, there’s no shame in it. And as blogging continues to grow, there is a huge opportunity for skilled VAs who know about WordPress and Pinterest and all that good stuff to make a good living. All the best to you in whatever you choose to do 🙂

Hi Deirdre, thanks for the comment. So you need to focus on search engine traffic because you want to rank for terms like ‘sleep therapy Cork’ or similar. Sharon’s Build Blog Freedom SEO course (which is available as an individual course for around $300 I believe) would be an excellent start. Pinterest traffic will bring readers from everywhere, but for appointment-making you need to be ranking for those search terms. I use a free Chrome plugin called Keywords Everywhere to quickly tell the search volume those terms get, then write posts around them.
If you’re looking to add blogging as an income stream (lots of bricks and mortar businesses do this now), then getting Pinterest traffic to posts like 10 Things You Need To Do To Stop Insomnia or 5 Foods to Avoid if You Can’t Sleep At Night (they sound click-baity, I know, but those kinda titles really do work) is a great start. You can then make money from ads and affiliate sales.
So in summary, you need SEO for local booking for your therapy practice, and Pinterest would be a nice addition if you decided to do online consults or wanted to make money from ads and affiliates.