Elaine Rau of Lady Boss Blogger offers two distinct courses for Christian bloggers. I have taken both of them! In this blog post, I share my honest thoughts on Lady Boss Blogger Courses. Keep reading for my Launch Christian Blog review and my Grow Christian Blog review.
Disclaimer: I received complimentary access to Grow Christian Blog by Elaine Rau in exchange for social media posts and this review. By coincidence, I already had access to Launch Christian Blog because I purchased the Ultimate Christian Living Bundle earlier this year. I honestly did not notice the connection until after I started the collaboration process with Lady Boss Blogger Courses. This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I will receive a commission at no cost to you.
Elaine Rau of Lady Boss Blogger
Elaine Rau is a full-time blogger, influencer, and entrepreneur who founded Lady Boss Blogger during a low time in her life. Since then, she has expanded her brand and created multiple courses for bloggers.
In 2020, God called Rau to change her focus.
My new mission is to help Christian bloggers and influencers market and monetize their content so we can start to see more uplifting Christian content in the media.
Elaine Rau
In line with this mission, Rau has created two courses for Christian bloggers, and she’s working on a third course. These courses are:
- Launch Christian Blog
- Grow Christian Blog
- Monetize Christian Blog (coming soon)
Part of this launch has included a truly remarkable influencer campaign to generate honest reviews. As I explained in my Instagram post, I honestly feel like God called me to this collaboration with Lady Boss Blogger.
However, I want to be completely transparent in my Lady Boss Blogger Courses review, which means I need to share my negative opinions alongside my positive ones.
Keep in mind, I started Belle Brita in 2014, and Muddling Through Together in 2017. I don’t need the blogging basics offered in Launch Christian Blog, but to give a good review, I started working through the course anyway.
While I have completed everything (and implemented everything) in Grow Christian Blog, I have not finished Launch Christian Blog. I have read through everything so that I can give my honest review, but I haven’t had time to implement all of the strategies.
Launch Christian Blog Review
Launch Christian Blog is a course for beginners looking to start a Christian blog. This course is ideal for:
- Christians who have never blogged before
- Christian bloggers who have started blogging, but don’t know what to do next
- beginner bloggers intimidated by the technical side of running a Christian blog
In Launch Christian Blog, Rau goes over every step to starting a solid Christian blog, from helpful blogging resources to keyword research.
Launch Christian Blog Modules
Launch Christian Blog includes ten modules, each with between three and eight lessons. These modules are:
- Introduction
- Mindset
- Foundations
- Technical
- Design
- SEO
- Launch
- Promote
- Monetize
Launch Christian Blog also features bonus content, including a 365-Day Done-for-You Editorial Calendar.
What I Like
Rau basically holds your hand every step of the way as she helps you launch your own faith-based blog. She covers the entire blogging beginning, from deciding why you should blog and choosing a blog topic, to setting up a self-hosted blog and starting an email list.
As already mentioned, I didn’t need that basic knowledge, but the instruction is good. I also know a fair amount about SEO, but I believe it’s important to keep learning.
Rau’s module on SEO is excellent. She breaks down keyword research with several free tools. I’ve done a lot of my own keyword research. My process overlaps with Rau’s process, but I’m eager to try some new things.
Finally, the bonuses are actually valuable. Often blog courses hype up mediocre bonuses, but the 365-Day Done-for-You Editorial Calendar is truly helpful.
What I Dislike
Too much of the course felt like an ad. I completely understand sharing products and services that you personally use. Blog hosting is important for anyone serious about starting a blog.
However, I’m tired of blogging experts pushing ConvertKit as the best email marketing platform. Yes, it offers robust features, but Mailchimp is better for newbie bloggers. While ConvertKit is probably better overall, Mailchimp offers a better free plan. I use Mailchimp for my newsletter to Muddling Through Together subscribers. With a small mailing list, I can’t justify the cost of a premium service.
I would have liked to see other free services offered as alternatives to paid services. For example, Hootsuite has some free options for scheduling social media posts.
Some of the lessons are also just pitches for students to buy Grow Christian Blog. I wouldn’t mind the pitch if it was part of a robust lesson with lots of information, but literally “Get Massive Blog Traffic” (under Promote) is just an ad for Grow Christian Blog.
I also would have liked tutorials for some of the services Rau promotes. What are the best practices for a blogger using Planoly or SmarterQueue?
Finally, the biggest strength of this course is the unique Christian perspective. Rau could have applied this to more lessons in the course.
Final Thoughts on Launch Christian Blog
Out of her two courses for Christian bloggers, Launch Christian Blog is the better value. Rau provides detailed information for anyone looking to start a faith-based blog. While you can find free blog posts outlining most of the information in Technical, Design, and Email, it’s helpful to go over everything step-by-step, in the most intuitive order.
In addition, every lesson under Foundations is essential to starting a strong Christian blog from the very beginning. From my own SEO expertise, I can assure you that the SEO lessons are equally invaluable.
Finally, as a Christian, I really appreciate the 7 Faith-Based Business Principles (under Mindset) and the How to Find Your “Why” (under Bonuses).
Grow Christian Blog Review
Grow Christian Blog is a course for beginner and intermediate bloggers who feel stuck with their Christian blog. This course is designed for:
- Christians bloggers who have plateaued with their growth
- bloggers struggling to promote their Christian posts on Pinterest
- Christian bloggers who need help with email marketing
In Grow Christian Blog, Rau covers a few foundational basics of building a faith-based blog before diving into the importance of an email list and Pinterest.
Grow Christian Blog Modules
Grow Christian Blog includes nine modules, each with between five and eight lessons. These modules are:
- Introduction
- Foundations
- Mistakes
- Email Traffic: Subscribers + Freebies
- Email Traffic: Opt-Ins + Landing Pages
- Email Traffic: Email Series + Sequence
- Pinterest Traffic: Creation + Optimization
- Pinterest Traffic: Boards + Pins + Automations
- Monetize
Grow Christian Blog also features bonus content, including Pinterest pin templates.
What I Like
Even though I already have a decent understanding of email marketing, I still learned something new. Rau breaks down different ways to create opt-in forms to entice readers to become email subscribers. She includes multiple examples specifically related to Christian blogging.
Once you have email subscribers, what do you send them? Rau offers ideas for this, specifically emails that build trust with your subscribers. Plus one of the bonuses is email subject line templates!
Finally, I appreciated the lesson on Pinterest design. Rau includes an example of a pin that evolves until it’s finally an eye-catching, clickable pin. This series of similar pin designs really illustrates the importance of little tweaks.
My Results from Grow Christian Blog
Implementing the Pinterest lessons definitely helped me grow not just my Impressions, but my Engagements on Pinterest. The following screenshots are from before I started Grow Christian Blog, from when I technically finished the course after two weeks, and from after two full weeks of applying Rau’s advice. (Note the dates in the second and third screenshots do overlap).
While these screenshots show growth on my Pinterest account, they aren’t even the most impressive result. I’ve been traveling fairly consistently for the last month, including an entire two weeks from October 25th to November 7th. I wasn’t able to do much on Pinterest during that time, not even with Tailwind’s handy scheduling features. I didn’t post to Pinterest at all between October 15th and October 26th. I only shared 12 pins between October 16th and November 7th. Yet, look at my analytics from the last two weeks.
Engagements are the most important metric in Pinterest Analytics. My Engagements and my Engaged Audience are both up, even without sufficient recent activity in my account. As long as I continue to implement the Pinterest growth strategies Rau shares in Grow Christian Blog, these numbers should increase over time.
What I Dislike
Scroll back up and look at the modules for both Launch Christian Blog and Grow Christian Blog. Do you see the similarities? Yeah… some of the lessons in those modules are identical. In fact, the entire Monetize module is exactly the same.
In addition, much of the course also felt like an ad. Another tutorial to sign up for blog hosting. Another tutorial to sign up for ConvertKit. Then all of the admittedly great tutorials for using ConvertKit are only for ConvertKit. I’m tech-savvy enough to apply the general concepts to Mailchimp, but that’s not true for everyone. I really would have liked some tutorials for Mailchimp.
Rau did actually convince me to sign up for Tailwind, which I have resisted for years. However, I would have liked an alternative tutorial on growing Pinterest without automation. Also, Rau didn’t even mention Tailwind’s design features! In my opinion, the scheduling is nice, but the ease of designing multiple Pinterest pins is what really makes Tailwind a good deal. I hope that Rau adds a new tutorial on Pinterest design using Tailwind.
Final Thoughts on Grow Christian Blog
To be blunt, Grow Christian Blog is not worth the price. At the moment, this course costs $197. For comparison, Launch Christian Blog is priced at $97, for more valuable information.
I respect Elaine Rau as a Christian woman and as an entrepreneur. She has clearly put a lot of work into the entire line of Lady Boss Blogger Courses. However, Grow Christian Blog fails to meet my expectations. Too much of the course overlaps with Launch Christian Blog, and the unique information offers insufficient detail.
ALL OF THAT SAID, if you visit the sales page for Grow Christian Blog, and it speaks to you, give it a try. Rau offers a 30-day guarantee. If you take the course, AND implement the strategies, and you don’t see significant growth, you can get a full refund. If you want to do this, use code bellebrita to take 20% off.
How to Start a Christian Blog with Lady Boss Blogger Courses
Now that you’ve read through my Lady Boss Blogger Courses review, you might feel uncertain about what to do next. If you want to start a Christian blog, how do you start? Lady Boss Blogger can help, but you don’t need to purchase a Lady Boss Blogger course right away.
Rau has published multiple blog posts for beginners on Lady Boss Blogger. While these don’t have the same faith-based foundation, they can still help you start a Christian blog.
- How to Start a Profitable Blog in 7 Steps
- How To Find Your Niche In Blogging
- 200 Inspiring Christian Influencers to Follow
Rau also offers free email courses for new bloggers.
If these blogging lessons help you as a Christian blogger, and you want to learn more, I recommend buying Launch Christian Blog. This course truly goes over the foundations of blogging, particularly with a Christian mindset. If you apply all of the lessons, you will brainstorm plenty of relevant blog posts for your editorial calendar. You will also understand the basics of social media marketing. Most importantly, you will understand the difference between blogging for yourself and blogging for God.
Take 20% off with code bellebrita
How to Start Blogging as a Christian Woman
If you aren’t quite ready to start your own Christian blog, you can guest post here on Muddling Through Together! Here are a few posts submitted by regular contributors and guest bloggers.
- Leading By Example in Marriage
- A Divorce Attorney Walks into a Bar
- A Catholic Perspective on the Annunciation
Apply to write for Muddling Through Together today!
I hope this honest review of Lady Boss Blogger Courses will help you in your own Christian blogging journey.
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