Side of Hustle

Creating Extra Income Using the Skills You Already Have

You are here: Home / Blogging / Genius Blogger’s Toolkit 2017 Review

Genius Blogger’s Toolkit 2017 Review

Disclosure: Witty edutainment is a side hustle.

I write to indulge in boba milk tea, feed a family, and the perspective of hustles told.

Updated 10/9/17

Introducing the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit 2017 Bundle! For reference, here’s the 2016 bundle.

It’s somewhat fascinating that the targeted audience and affiliates are the same.

What did I take away last year’s when I was starting?

  • Surprisingly no overlap in products. Bloggers that contributed both years put out unique resources.
  • I bought 2016‘s twice. Some of the resources underwent updates between the October and April (flash) promotion. So even information can get “outdated” in 6 months time. If I was more prepared for the flash promotion *wink* I wouldn’t have paid twice/thrice for a resource in the course. I bought one of the courses full-price (cost almost as much as the bundle!) that underwent an update right before the flash sale. I fully expected to use ConvertKit trial that has since expired (twice). Sigh. I am finally warming up to setting up ConvertKit.. coming this week! 🙂
  • I’ve learned this year I’m momentum driven, so I’ll usually take on 3-4days assignments when I can ramp up. It also means I’m skipping days that I lack energy or have something more
  • There’s going be shiny object syndrome. There was enough value in last year and this year’s bundle that I bought both. I also went through almost half the products from last year. The next thing is an implementation (huge!) My blog is on hustling, the best way to “study” is figure out how others’ are presenting their products and resourcefulness. The blogging education is a fraction of my college years.
  • Aim to use 3-4 products. However, a lot of additional products are good for quick wins or if you need a quick resource to a specific topic (Youtube videos, podcast setup, etc.) Many of these products reflect the livelihood of the contributors, so some of their best works are featured in this bundles. Their best tips are going be in the paid products (which you get by purchasing) and not in the free stuff you find online. Having a toolkit as a resource would save you hours (it’s so easy to get lost and distracted within Google) of combing through the millions of pages that talk about a specific topic or technology.
  • After implementation, a lot of the contributors also have affiliate programs that you can promote outside of the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit sale. I have a list below of products I enjoyed and found helpful last year that I am happy to back up.
  • Ultimate Bundles stand by their happiness guarantee! Never had to use it, but it’s there. Their customer service is top notched! I met them and they are every bit as helpful in person.

Products from Last Year I did and recommend

  • 17 Strategies I Used to Go from 17K to 350K+ Pageviews in 9 Months by Lena Gotts ($25) (aff)
    I plan on going through this eBook again. It was an easy read until I realized how much of it I skimmed during Activate when Lena was going over deeper points. It has since been 50k more views in a single month.
  • Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers by Tasha Agruso ($75)(aff)   review link
    I happily upgraded to the main course (see review) since Tasha went out of her way to serve both the Ultimate Bundle purchases and EBA students. The videos are essential if you’re a visual learner.
  • Asana for Bloggers by Matthew Giovanisci ($25)(aff)
    If there was one course, I thoroughly enjoyed and rewatched multiple times to get Asana just right. It’s this course; I love it so much I can’t look at iCal or Google Calendar the same way as a productivity system. Not sure if I want to try Trello if Asana has been working well for me.
  • Building a Framework by Abby Lawson ($75)(aff)
    So this was the course I bought twice or thrice. I got the 2nd edition via the first bundle. I paid for the 3rd edition right before the flash sale, which updated in the bundle. It was worth the cost the 3rd edition to set up the technical stuff. It was the course that helped me set up Siteground.
  • Productivity Guide for Bloggers by Ruth Soukup ($97) 
    This course paid for the entire bundle. I have taken away quite a few productivity tips away from it. I rewatch it at the start of every quarter.
  • Sticky Blogging SEO by Kelly Holmes ($99)(aff) 
    SEO and her regular Sticky Blogging Courses are ripe with detail about how to write catchy headlines. I’m working on a balance of good headlines (that aren’t clickbaity) and SEO. Most of my titles, meta descriptions are decently SEO-friendly.
  • The Knowtbook by Amy Lynn Andrews ($24)(aff)
    In the 2016’s post, I raved about this eBook. On the surface, it looks like a simple Google Doc. Play around a bit and each level of detail, which expands and minimizes between sublevels.

Note that last year’s Bundle is a similar value priced at $97. I have more than arbitrarily completed more than the advertised price with.

Webinar Series!

(Unfortunately no replays, but highly recommended! I’m a huge fan to every one of these presenters! 5pm PDT or 8pm EDT) Sign up for each individually, so you don’t miss out!


The Genius Blogging Essentials User Manual

  • The workbook has a new look, simpler and more elegant for the eyes. It no longer looks stretched out and sticks to simplicity. It features a 6-part video series to introduce the bundle. If you went through it last year, the content is similar. The stories are a year wiser. I found it helpful to go through the videos (10-15mins each) and reflect whether my values have changed from a year ago.Plan of approach: Take each video and lesson day-by-day for one week (6 days), it’s an excellent way to get yourself ready for the journey ahead. For the motivated, the video series can be knocked out in a day.
  • As there are a good number of online courses, it was nice of Ultimate Bundles to include a couple of sheets to consolidate all the links and logins.PRO: Easier to view main focuses in a column vs. last year’s dot format. Fewer columns overall is easier on the eyes.
    CON: This time around, the authors are not listed next to their corresponding products. Minor inconvenience.
  • LIGHTBULB MOMENT: Day #2 – Say “no” to aspects of blogging that doesn’t make good use of your time without guilt. Stephanie going over her decision matrix was eyeopening for me. When you’re doing fewer things, you can focus on doing those good things better.

Observations about Genius Blogger’s Toolkit #2 this time around?

  • There are even more products (91 this second round)! Fewer but high-quality bonuses. Clearly a lot ;)… we’re having trouble settling whether it’s 89 or 91 resources. FTR it’s 91.
  • The bonuses and Tanya Peterson’s Profitable Blogging For Beginners: The 4 Week Online Class can help you set up your blog from scratch. It’s within their product to help you set up the domain, hosting and even themes (included in the cost) to get the setup going. You’d just need to focus on delivering the content! You wouldn’t need to buy anything else. Pretty low startup cost, if I must say. The learning curve is steep and that’s where people get lost in the shuffle.. and like any small businesses bust in a year. It’s where I’m starting to understand why I don’t need to do everything, but the important things well.
  • More products also mean more contributors are happy to contribute to sales and exposure. Greater distribution for Ultimate Bundles, wider exposure to bloggers where “blogging courses are a secondary income stream” to their niches. Affiliates and customers (like myself) can learn more to be a shark and not do all the bottom-feeding algae activities (ahem, Swagbucks.)
  • I’m especially motivated to ramp up enough traffic to afford the Aghost long-term (not sure if that’s “A ghost” or “Ag Host,” Ag as in “silver”). They sound like a reliable company to work with. Spoke with them during Focused and Activate this year.
  • There is some solid content in the bundle. Don’t focus on the dollar amounts they usually go for. I found some of the more reasonably priced eBooks presented better than some of the more expensive/ Teachable courses.I also saw instances that the because some of the content was UB curated (customed with UB in mind) that they felt more lead-magnety than they do feel like signature pieces.
  • Rather than updating directly on the older Genius Blogger’s Post (one of my oldest and highest trafficked post), I decided it was better to show the differences between the older bundle and this year’s bundle for value purposes.
  • As a starting blogger, you underestimate the time that goes into writing a post and email sequences. That’s something I need to work on. I’ve lost over a day to promote GBTK and the month and weekend before to talk it up. I haven’t been as good with other affiliate launches either.
  • There’s an Intensive (mastermind) that run about 6 weeks with UB that is an upsell. It consists of 6 weeks of workshops (Mondays) and Q/A (Fridays). You’ll have access to a private Facebook group and also a page on the Bundles page if you can’t make the times for either. It’s also a greater motivator for me (11am EDT or 8am PDT) to get up and pumped for the rest of the day!

******BONUS: I am going to leaf through ALL 91 products in the toolkit as a “preview” and highlight the pros/cons as an extended description in one handy place. Let me know you’ve purchased the bundle through one of the links on this post and I’m happy to send it your way by the 10th. Allow me some grace as I’m finishing it up! 🙂

pst. If you end up also getting the Work At Home Bundle, let me know. I can also send you an extended description over as well 😉 ******

What is my strategy for the toolkit?

  • I don’t need the whole toolkit, but I won’t know what I need and don’t need until I come across it. My strategy is to purchase this bundle, register all the resources and file them away until I need them. I’ve done this by using a simple Google Sheet.
  • I’ve been working through Elite Blog Academy and Blog to Biz Hive, steadily and gaining momentum. The flipside is both of these courses are comprehensive and stresses what you need to do. They, don’t however, teach you how to do some of the things (they tell you to do) that cause hangups and frustrations initially. They can’t, otherwise, the courses become unfocused. The toolkit is there to fill in the gap. As a natural bootstrapper, I’m typically leery of dropping money but I do if I can reduce the time and curve to go past surface details. 90% of what you find online is surface, 10% (including useful paid products) is the brave step to jump from the deep end.
  • I’m learning a lot about affiliate and email marketing as a participant (affiliate) and as an outsider (email). A bundle reflects many minds and collaboration. For there to be this many minds all in, there, unfortunately, needs to be some urgency. It’s unsustainable to offer it forever, but when they do… it’s like buying one nice piece of clothing (that works year-round) and discovering the mix and matched potential. Because there are so many products, it’s like finding loose change in the couch.
  • I’m learning from some great minds themselves how they are doing things. For these reasons, I haven’t opted out of any sales pitches even though they no longer apply to me.

To not overwhelm you and overwork me, I’m providing links for featured author content below after the sale is over.

Featured Content (by category) Include:

Beyond Blogging

  • Flipping Blogs for Profit by Jenn Leach ($27) Sounds like an interesting side hustle, so I can’t say I will go out and do it. For flipping to be profitable, it appears you would need focused content.
  • Blogger to Author: How I Went from Hobby Blogger to Getting Two Book Deals With a Major Publisher by Erin Odom ($30) – I have no foreseeable interest to go the published book route, but blogging is a great way to develop a following and a platform to go that direction.
  • Side Hustle Blueprint: How to make an Extra $1000 per month Writing eBooks by Lise Cartwright ($17) 

Blog-Life Balance

  • The Bliss-Filled Mama’s 3 Month Biz Plan: Your Step by Step Process to Designing Your Most Blissful Biz Season Yet! By Kathy Sotwell ($47.00)
  • Your Business Personality Assessment: Manage and Grow Your Business with Ease by Melissa Llado ($28.95)

Branding

  • Brand Yourself Like a Creative Hustler by Steven Picanza ($397.00) – Hustling is my jam and if you can teach me to be a better hustler, I’m there 🙂

Content Creation

  • Make Your Old Content New Again: Six Steps to Getting More Traffic, Money and Followers By updating Your Existing Posts by Katy Widrick ($14.99)

Creating & Selling Products

  • Sales Page Success by Chelsea Damon ($30)

Email Marketing

  • ConvertKit Masterclass: The Exact Formula I Used to Grow My Email List […] ($47)
  • How to Create Yoru First Opt-in Freebie by Angie Nelson ($29)
  • List Building Mania: Build Your List […] ($87)
  • Problem to Promotion: A Training on Creating the Perfect Opt-in […] ($39)

Getting Organized

  • Blogging Binder by Sarah Titus ($47)

Getting Started

  • Blog by Number: Every Busy Mom’s Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog by Suzi Whitford ($47)
  • Become by Dollie Freeman ($99)

Increase Traffic

  • Blog Traffic Bootcamp by Lena Gott ($37)
  • Demystifying SEO: A Blogger’s Guide to Search Engine Traffic by Kim Six ($29)
  • Find Your Tribe Online: Find Your Readers, Grow Your Blog, and Have Fun Doing It! by Jen Snyder ($67)

Legal & Financial

  • Blog and Be Legal: The Start to Finish Guide to Starting Your Blog & Online Biz Legally by Jackie Jade ($297)
  • The Blogger’s Simple Guide to Taxes: A Guide to Saving Time and Money by Sarah Korhnak ($3.99)

Monetization

  • Affiliate Acceleration: Impactful Strategies to Increase Your Passive Income by Kayla Aimee ($27)
  • Become an Affiliate Blogger: Preparing You to Create a Full Time Income So You Can Work From Home! By Tia Mac ($47)
  • Core Affiliate Strategy by Rosemarie Groner ($64)
  • How to Make Money From Blogging: The Ultimate Guide to Earning A Five-Figure Income from Your Blog by Sharon Gourlay ($24.99)
  • Make Money Blogging at Any Level by Victoria Pruett($20)
  • Media Kit Smash: Increase Your Earning Potential with Professional Media Kit Using Canva by Melissa Culbertson ($87)

Podcasting

  • Start Your Podcast: From Idea to First Episode by Jacey Verdicchio ($39)

Productivity

  • **Automation Education by Amber Temerity($49)
  • BlogWise: How to do More with Less by Darren Rowse ($19.99)
  • ** Creative Biz Plan Workshop: Using Smart Strategies to Run Your Biz Without it Running You ($47)
  • Don’t Eat That Frog! A Liberating Look at Time Management Strategies by Stacy Farrell ($14.95)
  • Inbox Hero ($35)
  • ** Organize Your Entire Business Like a CEO by Laura Smith ($49)
  • Productivity Freedom by Elizabeth Masarik ($47)
  • Spend Less Work Less by Loralee Hutton ($99)

Professional Blogging

  • Activate ($297) – I attended this conference about a month ago in Portland, OR and almost every attendee left pumped up. Included are two days worth of video and the workbook we used. This is a strategic move on Ruth’s part to get people interested in the next year’s Activate 2018 conference (I’ll be attending btw!) and who knows she might not offer next year’s videos in a similar bundle ever again. Considering that has been almost no overlap between 2016 and 2017‘s bundles, I expect these videos are going sell fine on their own.I’m excited because I knew that these videos will be available this time around, so it allowed me to take in the conference and not worry about taking notes alongside the speakers.
  • Blogging to Win: Modern Blogging Strategies for the Busy Woman by Allison Lindstrom ($179)
  • Fall in Love With Blogging: From Passion to Plan to Profit by Dwainia Grey ($17)
  • Turn Your Dreams into Money: How to Build a Six-Figure Blog and Live the Life You Want by Emma Drew ($250)

Social Media

  • Crush it With Facebook Groups: The Ultimate Guide for Bloggers and Creative Entrepreneurs by Lindsey Aleson ($15)
  • Group Board Master: Unlock the Key to Massive Pinterest Growth! By Caroline Vencil ($97)
  • How to Master Tailwind by Kate Ahl ($67)
  • Pageviews from Pinterest: The 7-Step System to Skyrocket Your Blog Traffic (& Income!) in the Next 30 Days by Krista Dickson ($197)
  • Pinterest Boost: How to Optimize and Automate Your Pinterest Account Using BoardBooster by MaryEllen Bream ($27)
  • Pinterest Strategies: How I Went from 0-200k Page Views with Manual Pinning by Carly Campbell ($32)
  • Social Media Strategies for Bloggers by Alea Milham ($99)


What is my strategy for 2018?

Growing Subscribers

  • Growing subscribers on my mailing list. I regret not doing it sooner because I was so focused on content and getting the site up. After going to Activate, it makes a lot of sense to at least have a landing page and an opt-in up to capture people initially. My pageviews this far are from me sharing with my friends, Facebook groups, Twitter, and organic traffic. The one disadvantage about this is you hear to do this first by ear and not in a later Elite Blog Academy chapter.
  • More engaging with other bloggers’ and other online entrepreneurs. I have a friend back home who is doing wonders in the community as a private chef and instructor. I can’t wait to get to the next point in my journey, so there are fewer excuses to visit and drop by in one of her classes. I’m unfortunately a millennial with no cooking skills.
  • Perfect categories: Email Marketing, Increase Traffic, Creating & Selling Products, Monetization

Decluttering

  • Finally decluttering the workplace and bedroom. One of my favorite 90s shows growing up was Recess. Menlo’s mantra is “Organize your appearance and your mind will follow.” I’m not sure why, but that quote has stuck with all these years.
  • Perfect categories: Getting Organized, Branding

Productivity

  • My productivity has been better. I’ve taken ideas from Don’t Eat That Frog! By Stacy Farrell ($14.95) and last year’s Productivity Guide for Bloggers by Ruth Soukup to heart. I know I’ve been taking on a lot more projects and I’ve scaled back to two main hustles.
  • My main one currently brings in a somewhat tidy little income to allow me to continue investing in blogging education. Blogging is hard work. I know it doesn’t seem like it when I’m always on the computer clicking away and of these posts are raw. It is so much easier to give up and explore other avenues. I could put in more time and scale up the first hustle. I can’t see myself continuing long-term where I’m based… it’s not a great place to source. Whereas with blogging, I can bring myself to a point where I can do it anywhere at a pace it’s more manageable if my health deteriorates.
  • Perfect for: Blog-Life Balance, Productivity, Beyond Blogging

Technical side

  • A year ago, I was ready to be on every platform. Nope, not no longer. I’ve decided to stick out:
    • Facebook: It’s my second source of traffic and hub online. It consumes me enough that I’m infrequent on other platforms. It is still the easiest way to share info. I do aim to be more productive, so I can dedicate more time in my readers and spending quality time on other blogger’s blogs.
    • Pinterest: It is entirely my bane, and I should love it. We’ll see. I used Pinterest as a search engine when I was ready to chop off my hair. It was easy to punch in “A-line bobs” and “purple-colored hair.” So there’s a marketing value and an incentive to get out of my comfort zone.
    • Twitter: Twitter is fantastic for micro-headlines and quick blurbs. Because I still use a personal account, I’ll either be migrating people to a new handle or switch it over and clean it of my past lives.
    • Way further down: Podcasting, Video.
  • Going put up with a simple website design and keep chugging along. That was my crux; I thought if I can make it pretty first… I can always add the content later. It works the other way. To keep load time quick, I decided I rather enhance the experience by not putting any ad blocks. Ideally, I want to earn pennies but not at the expense of my readers exiting sooner.
  • Perfect: Social Media, Legal & Financial,  Content Creation, Getting Started, Podcasting

Alrighty, I mapped the reasons why you should consider picking up The Genius Blogger’s Toolkit 2017. I’ve also shown you an inside look how I’m using the 2016 and the 2017‘s. I am including a bonus for everyone who purchases through me (nicely for those who didn’t).

***** BONUS: I am going to leaf through ALL 91 products in the toolkit as a “preview” and highlight the pros/cons as an extended description in one handy place. Let me know you’ve purchased the bundle through one of the links on this post and I’m happy to send it your way by the 10th. Allow me some grace as I’m finishing it up! 🙂

pst. If you end up also getting the Work At Home Bundle upsell, let me know. I can also send you an extended description over as well 😉 *****

Webinars! Because they’re a one-time thing (no scheduled replays) and the best times, in my opinion, to buy then *hint*, I’m listing the sessions twice in the post. 5pm PDT or 8pm EDT. Sign up for each individually, so you don’t miss out!

Here’s the link again!

 

This bundle was created as a resource for bloggers who need help and on a budget. There is a payment plan for those interested as well. At $37/month or a little more than $1/day, it cost less than a lottery ticket to get started (and you’re far more likely to have more wins!) Take the 30days to implement and if you don’t see results, ask for your money back. They are so helpful, hassle-free and genuinely want you to spend less time bootstrapping and more time doing. Bootstrapping is still the cheapest way to learn, but it’s not the most effective use of your time. We lead noisy lives with family and aim to reduce our stress and workload.

I’m excited to hear about your journeys ahead! 🙂

Tweet4
Pin10
Share6
20 Shares

Comments

    • Hi, I’ll hint that there’ll be a flash sale sometime this quarter. Not exactly sure when the dates are, but sign up for email notifications and it’ll likely be highlighted!

      It means a lot you find the post (hopefully one of value). 🙂

      Reply

        • Good news, Mommy Jhy! The GBTK from last year should be on a flash sale next week 🙂 Let me know if you got additional questions. I hope it helps making your blog that much stronger!

          Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.