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Honest Christina Galbato Blogger Bootcamp Review
This is an honest Christina Galbato Blogger Bootcamp Review and the honesty is that I didn’t much like the course.
The Blogger Bootcamp was the first (but not last) paid blogging course I ever took. And even though I did learn a few valuable things about how to set up my blog in the beginning, I wouldn’t recommend the course to new bloggers.
In this article, I’m going to talk about the structure of the course and the elements I didn’t like.
Setup of the Blogger Bootcamp by Christina Galbato
The Blogger Bootcamp is split up into 6 modules, each module has between 3 and 13 videos in it. The videos are usually less than 10 minutes long. You can read a description of the modules on the sales page of the Blogger Bootcamp.
- Module 0: Getting Started
- Module 1: Establish Your Branding
- Module 2: Create Your Blog
- Module 3: Plan & Write Your Blog Posts
- Module 4: Grow Your Blog Traffic
- Module 5: Build & Nurture Your E-mail List
- Module 6: Monetize and Create Passive Income
Detailed Christina Galbato Blogger Bootcamp Review
Module 0: Getting Started
In this Module Christina Galbato just gives an introduction about the course and how you can join her Facebook group. In which her team members answer your questions. She almost never posts in it herself.
Module 1: Establish Your Branding
In the first real module Christina goes into finding a niche, a blog name and everything that goes with your brand, like brand colors or brand fonts.
It becomes quite clear that Christina isn’t just a blogger but also an influencer. As an influencer aesthetics, brand colours and so on are very important. As a blogger not so much as I’ve learned.
In my opinion, being a blogger and being an influencer are two different things. Yes, some people are both but you don’t have to be. It feels to me that Christina sometimes sees those two as interchangeable and gives advice for those who want to be both.
Since taking the course I found out for example, that for a blog speed is so much more important than having a pretty font in my experience.
Module 2: Create Your Blog
As the name indicates this module is all about how to set up your blog and I have to admit, it was a very helpful module for me at the beginning. But to be honest, almost every blogging course has a chapter about how to set up your blog.
For the first year of my blogging journey I chose SiteGround as my website host after the recommendations in the videos.
SiteGround was great in the one year I used it but after the first year I was so annoyed at their increased prices that I switched to Lyrical Host and so far so good.
š¤© Get 10% off at Lyrical Host with the discount code VEGANDERLUST1 !
Because of the Blogger Bootcamp I bought a pretty theme on Etsy, because I didn’t know any better. Only after learning about site speed somewhere else, did I realise the mistake of just choosing a theme based on aesthetics. So I switched to Kadence, a free and fast theme.
In this module Christina Galbato also goes over all the plugins she uses and how to set up your categories.
What plugins to use is very much a personal preference, so I won’t say too much about it. Just that Christina genuinely doesn’t seem to be concerned about site speed because she doesn’t mention that it’s bad to have too many plugins as they can slow down your site.
Module 3: Plan & Write Your Blog Posts
To be honest, I think this module is the worst one. In it Christina talks about creating a content calendar without even having mentioned what a keyword is. If you want to be a successful blogger you should write for your audience and not what you feel like.
It doesn’t help me if I come up with a long list of blog post ideas and only afterwards I realise that I can’t rank on any of them with a new blog.
Module 4: Grow Your Blog Traffic
In the Grow Your Blog Traffic module is one single 22-minute video about SEO. But SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is SOOOO important, especially for new blogs. Because the only way that you’re going to rank on the first page of Google is with a good SEO strategy.
In this module of the Blogger Bootcamp Christina finally talks about site speed and how to improve user experience but I think those topics would deserve more time.
I have to admit, the Pinterest section of this module was very helpful. Ironically, this is the only part of the Blogger Bootcamp not done by Christina Galbato herself.
Another focus in this module is Facebook and Instagram. Christina makes it sound like a great way to get traffic to your site. In my experience it’s a waste of time if you don’t have a big following. And do get a big following on social media would be a full-time job on it’s own.
Module 5: Build & Nurture Your Email List
The email module focuses on how to create a freebie, a free thing you give to readers in exchange for their email address and how to write emails.
My main critic point of the email module is that she assumes once again that you already have a following on social media. She suggests for example to build a freebie about what your followers ask you most about. But when you’re just starting out nobody asks anything of you.
To be fair, she does say that if you don’t have a following you should just create something you come up with on your own. But by this time I was already annoyed, that the first recommendation is always to reach out to your followers.
Module 6: Monetize and Create Passive Income
In the last module Christina very briefly talks about different ways of monetising a blog, which is a very important question when you’re just starting out.
I personally would have loved a more in depth lesson on monetisation since itās such a big topic which is difficult to cover in one short video.
Why I don’t like the Blogger Bootcamp
- Focus is too much on aesthetics and less on functionality (but Google cares about functionality and speed more than aesthetics!)
- The example sites she uses are very general
- She recommends a LOT of paid products and showcases almost only those with small side notes that there are free ones as well
- No video on site speed, which is very important for user experience
- Only one video on SEO (SEO is the way to get on the first page of Google)
- I would have preferred for her to go into more depth into the single topics of the course
- She talks about how to utilize your social media following but not so much what to do if you don’t want to do social media
- Asking for feedback is good, making it mandatory to progress in the course is just annoying
Final thoughts: Christina Galbato Reviews
Christina Galbato tries to sell the stereotypical blogger image, a blogger which is at the same time an influencer on social media, who does sponsorships and always has the best pictures.
It does sound great, doesn’t it? But since I started my blog I learned so much about being a blogger and I learned in most cases social media just keeps you from focusing on the important things of growing a blog.
Don’t get me wrong, social media can be a great addition to a blog but it’s not mandatory and especially at the beginning it would be too overwhelming to try to do everything at once.
So all in all, I was not happy that the Blogger Bootcamp was my first ever blogging course.
Enjoyed reading my honest review? Check out my review of the SEO Roadmap, a different blogging course I took.
