As a part of our Blog Your Trip series, we are going to review the services, conferences, and organizations that we've tried out in recent years. As there are many out there designed to help travel bloggers, we're going to share our honest opinions on whether or not they are worth your money and time.
To begin this series, we're going to take a look at the popular online program Travel Blog Success that we have been members of for many years.
So let's jump right into it!The Price Tag is High - Or Is It?
At $347, the price tag of the Travel Blog Success course may make you hesitate. But what do you get for that cost? The current list of features includes:
- A comprehensive training course with 45 lessons in 6 modules.
- A private forum and Facebook group to ask questions to other active and professional travel bloggers.
- Over 30 recorded webinars from leaders in our industry with frequent additions.
- Exclusive perks and discounts for being a member, such as 25% off hosting with HostGator, 20% off Hotspot Shield, 20% off WooThemes, a free upgrade on 99designs, discounts on WordPress services from Performance Foundry, and more!
- An opportunity board for insider assignments.
- ..and a money back guarantee!
I'm going to take a step back here and lay this out another way. $347 is hardly going to buy you a ticket to an industry conference and airfare, let alone all the other costs you'll spend while there (hotel, food, etc.), and Travel Blog Success covers most all of the topics you'll hear at a conference within the first two bullet points featured above.
Don't worry, if you don't believe me you'll find out more in our conference reviews that are set to go live in the coming weeks.
Growing Every Day
My biggest concern with online courses is that they are often going to end up a failure. Seriously!
I would never plunk down more than $100 for an on-going course in any field if I didn't know that it would have staying power. Knowing my luck I'd go to log in a week later and everything would be shut down and my money vanished. Luckily for you, Travel Blog Success is established- it has been around since 2010 and experiences monumental growth year after year.
In 2014, for example, Travel Blog Success grew from a team of two to a team of four, membership increased to over 1,000 bloggers (with a 400% increase in sign-ups over 2013), and began a significant expansion of their courses to increase coverage on all things travel blogging.
Veteran Bloggers Can Find Value Too
I'm going to come out and say it right away that I don't think the course itself is as valuable for seasoned bloggers as it is for new bloggers. I ran through the courses pretty quickly and only picked up a dozen or so things to add onto my to-do list (after blogging for 5 years). But those dozen items I did implement proved quite valuable, and the little gems that helped me are the types of information I spend hours searching for online.
As I did not take as much away from the courses as others, I have to say that my favorite feature on Travel Blog Success is the forum and the private Facebook group. I've found these two places to be thriving communities of bloggers that are open to helping answer hard (or repetitive) questions- the very same questions that if asked in other groups would be met with harsh responses from bloggers with self-inflated egos. (Luckily, those are few and far between in the TBS community).
In fact, I've left almost every Facebook group about travel blogging except Travel Blog Success purely because it does not have the petty infighting that others in our industry take wherever they are. I know this happens to be true for many other professional travel bloggers there as well, so thankfully I'm not alone on this one.
Is Travel Blog Success Worth It?
When it comes down to it, the upfront cost for Travel Blog Success is high, but new bloggers will likely receive far more from it than any conference or other program out there today. In that respect, the price that is being charged is a value beyond compare.
As a bonus perk, once you have mastered all aspects of the course, the online community is there in a supportive capacity to answer your burning questions and help you succeed with your blog (you'll even find me in the Facebook group, too!).
When it comes down to it, the latter may be worth the price of admission alone, and with a 30-day money back guarantee you really have no excuse not to give it a try if you're considering it! After all, for a growing membership base, expanding course, and lifetime access, the price is only going to go up from here.
We'll see you on the Facebook groups.
To join Travel Blog Success, click the banner below:
Disclaimer: I received complimentary access to Travel Blog Success several years ago when it merged with another similar service that I was a member of. I have also contributed lessons to the program in exchange for payment. This article was not commissioned nor requested by the team at Travel Blog Success and all opinions are my own.
