Hey! Are you looking for an honest review of By Sophia Lee’s blogging courses? I took her blogging courses and have made a list of pros and cons for anyone looking into purchasing a course from BSL. Is it really worth it?

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My Honest Review of By Sophia Lee's Blogging Courses

On January 6, 2022, I purchased By Sophia Lee’s Perfecting Pinterest and Perfecting Blogging courses (aka Sophie Zang, the millennial Martha Stewart ) after spending days researching blogging courses.

I wasn’t necessarily new to blogging as I first created my blog near the end of 2020 – I was publishing blog posts here and there because I genuinely enjoyed writing and sharing products I love but I definitely wasn’t making any money off it.

Upon researching, I realized I was missing out on making a profit from my blog. A MAJOR profit.

It took me about five minutes into my YouTube deep dive of “how to make money blogging” to find By Sophia Lee's viral video explaining how she makes crazy money blogging. [Watch here]

I immediately shifted my mindset and decided if I was going to continue putting any time into my blog, I had to do it the right way.

What I looked for when choosing a blogging course

My main focus when searching for a blogging course was to learn how to monetize my website. I had the content, the ideas, and the motivation to make it happen; I just didn’t know where to start. The list below is exactly what I was looking for when choosing the perfect course:

• The person selling (teaching) the course had to be reputable and have public access to their blog-growing stats, specifically, an income report.
  
  
  
• The course had to be applicable to any niche.
  
  
  
• The information had to be in-depth, aka worth spending money on. With so much good, free blogging information available all over the internet, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t throwing money at the wall.
  
  
• Access to the course could never expire.
  
  
  
• Everything had to be up-to-date, I didn’t want a blogging course from like, 2017.

My criteria list wasn’t overly specific and as you’ll see throughout your own research, many bloggers are transparent about their growth and success. But, their blogging courses often cost a pretty penny and I am always on the hunt for the best deals.

Sophia’s courses stood out to me because she is so passionate about her brand, she’s relatable, and her course bundle is seriously a great deal, two courses for $249!

I ended up purchasing the bundle of Perfecting Blogging and Perfecting Pinterest.

Pros and Cons of By Sophia Lee’s Courses

I was immediately granted access to her class through Teachable. This was my first Teachable class ever and I was super impressed with the accessibility and the overall setup of the course.

It took me about one week to complete the course after working through it for about 2-4 hours a day.

This is my honest review of By Sophia Lee’s blogging courses: Perfecting Blogging and Perfecting Pinterest. 

Pros

• If you are a visual learner – you’ll LOVE how she shows every lesson with real-time examples. Spoiler: she builds out a Pinterest + parts of a WordPress site during the class and it is incredibly helpful.
  
  
  
• The lessons aren’t just surface level, she backs everything up with why & how.
  
  
  
• You can adjust the playback speed of all of the course videos. I personally had them all at 1.25 to get through the class a little bit quicker.
  
  
  
• You receive access to a private Facebook group with other course students.
  
  
  
• Her team is on top of keeping the content up-to-date with any superior changes to SEO or Pinterest (mostly Pinterest).
  
  
• Access to the course never expires, it’s yours forever!
   
  
  
• She lays out her actual Pinterest and blogging strategy — she is super clear on what her team does and does not do.
  
  
  
• There is no gatekeeping when it comes to the websites, plugins, and add-ons that By Sophia Lee uses. Everything is shared within the course.
  
  
  
• Printables and downloadables are included, like keyword charts & branding guides.
  
  
  
• Did I mention how organized everything is? It’s simple to find exactly what you need by navigating the lesson tabs.

Cons

• The affiliate marketing lessons are not super in-depth as the SEO lessons are.
  
  
  
• In some cases, there are updated videos following an original lesson video so it can become confusing to keep track of what’s applicable to today’s algorithm after watching the original videos.
  
  
  
• If there ARE updates to the course, I don’t believe you are notified. It could be helpful to always be in the loop when things are added or strategies are improved.
  
  
  
• If you are brand new to blogging, she doesn’t cover the WordPress basics. This was not a concern to me but I could see how a beginner blogger could run into some issues.
  

My personal growth from taking
By Sophia Lee courses

I am writing this on September 12, 2022, and have been applying the strategies that I’ve learned from these courses since I completed them in January.

It’s SOOOO important to note that results take time, consistency, and effort. If you are looking for a get-rich-quick fix, blogging might not be for you in the first place.

My blog analytics have been all over the place from either being inconsistent or just seasonal slopes (we all have off-seasons in the blogging world).

Below are my user (audience) analytics from January 1, 2021, to now, September 2022.

As you can see, my blog has been a rollercoaster ride, to say the least. I started my blog in November of 2020 and my traffic was low, like 0-8 views per week low.

I wasn’t intentionally posting content nor did I know the science behind ranking on Pinterest or Google. You can tell when one of my blog posts began to pick up traffic, bringing more and more people to my website but again, it was all luck and unintentional keywords that just stuck.

I pretty much had no idea what I was doing.

In the middle of taking Perfecting Pinterest and Perfecting Blogging, you can see a spike in my views and then an immediate decline.

I began publishing SUPER keyword-rich posts, funneling out a new system of click-worthy pins for Pinterest, and applying my newly learned strategy in January-early February, as soon as I completed the courses.

My views skyrocketed after my blog posts had time to index on Google and gain SEO traction. Slowly but surely, I was figuring out the key to blogging the right way!

It’s still a steady climb but each day I am receiving over 100 views a day and making ad money from each visit. And that’s so exciting to me!! Remember, I’m still a small blogger. 

Hitting my first milestone

On July 14, 2022, I submitted my final request for approval to Google AdSense. Prior to that, my website didn’t qualify for ads due to low content and I wasn’t getting enough views to serve any advertisers.

Excuse the Snapchat screenshot of my computer screen, I was feeling very hopeful in the moment after submitting my review hah

I was accepted into Google AdSense on July 19, 2022! Ads began showing up on my website that morning and I was instantly seeing my estimated earnings growing.

By implementing By Sophia Lee’s strategy, along with staying consistent, and not getting overly discouraged by the numbers (I’m still learning how to NOT stress), I was able to hit my first money-making milestone.

After a little over a month with ads running, I received my first payment from Google Adsense!
Cashing out at $101.78

With my current balance and earnings for next month (AdSense pays out monthly, by the way!), the course bundle will have paid for itself in less than 8 months.

Note: This does not include my payouts from my affiliates through LTK (rewardStyle). I will cover my affiliate marketing journey in another post - it’s still a work in progress!

Soooo, is it worth it?

While I continue to apply the strategies from both Perfecting Pinterest and Perfecting blogging, I am honestly seeing great success and of course, my goal of becoming a monetized blog is now a reality.

As a small blogger who followed absolutely NO strategy prior, I say YES, this course is SO worth it! It doesn’t feel like a lecture or a boring online class.

It truly feels like you’re sitting in her office and getting the information straight from the source.

 Since you are taking in a lot of information, the way the course is organized is extremely helpful and not overwhelming at all. 

Here is a glimpse of the Perfecting Blogging course content:

Here is a glimpse of the Perfecting Pinterest content:

My final thoughts

I really advise any new or seasoned blogger to invest in your blog. Never stop learning new strategies and trying new methods when it comes to SEO and Pinterest. 

Thanks for stopping by

Check out my other blogging posts!

How to Make Money on Pinterest without a Blog
Making Money on Pinterest: My First $500!