Friday, August 19, 2011

Eli Rose Social Media Blog Assessment

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was getting a blog assessment & personal strategy done by Eli Rose Social Media.  That has been completed and I am no working with 2711 Designs on a new, personalized blog design.

You may be wondering what a blog assessment is and why I (or you) need one, so I'm going to share my experience with Eli Rose Social Media and what I learned from them.

{image source: futureshape}


My blog design has been getting on my nerves for a little while and I've been lacking the inspiration and motivation to blog regularly.  I knew I needed something to change because I really enjoy blogging...but I felt like I had the worst case of writer's block.  I started hearing about Eli Rose Social Media and their blog assessments, so I began doing my research.

First of all, I do tend to look at cost before deciding whether or not to go through with anything.  The benefit has to either be obvious enough to justify an expense or the cost needs to be low enough to mitigate risk.  I'm not kidding and sometimes I'm embarrassed by how cheap I am. So be it.

The blog assessment from Eli Rose Social Media is ONLY $10.  Yes. You read that correctly.  If you purchase the personal strategy along with it, your whopping total amount invested is $25.  The price was right, so after reading a few positive reviews & comments regarding Eli Rose's services, I jumped on board.

The Blog Assessment

The 25+ Point Assessment basically looks at your blog as a whole experience and brand. It covers design, user (reader) friendliness, and branding throughout different social media sites, like Twitter & Facebook.

Eli Rose does an excellent job at highlighting what you are doing "right" and pointing out areas where you could improve.  They give clear reasoning to back up their assertions, giving you the information you need to decide whether or not to act on their recommendations.

In addition to tips directly related to your blog, they also include general information about tools you may want to use while blogging.

The Blog Assessment is an excellent use of $10 and I highly recommend it.

The Personal Strategy

For the personal strategy, Eli Rose sent me a list of questions to help determine my blogging goals & the areas where I'd like to improve and need tips.  From that information, they outlined the personal strategy to address key points that will (hopefully) assist me in reaching my blogging goals.

The tips I was given were very helpful.  An entire section was included on monetization of my blog, which is something I am not interested in at this point, but it's very good information to have should I change my mind in the future.  I could have used more information regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Blogger blogs, if that even exists. I realize Wordpress.Org is much better for SEO, but that is a financial commitment I am not ready to make at this point.

One of my biggest goals, in addition to just having fun while blogging, is to help promote information regarding VLCAD Deficiency and other related mitochondrial disorders.  Eli Rose gave me several helpful tips to achieve this goal through social media.  These tips prompted me to go ahead and take the leap into starting a Facebook Fan Page for Really, What Were We Thinking.

It did take slightly longer than I expected to receive the questionnaire & strategy based on the timeline I had been given via email and I would have liked more communication regarding delays with the Personal Strategy.  However, all emails I sent were promptly answered, including all follow up questions.  Additionally, Eli Rose made it clear that I was welcome to send them more questions in the future, should I have any.

I recommend the Personal Strategy from Eli Rose Social Media if you have hit a road block with your blogging and need some help taking your social media presence to the next level.

Summary

I think this is an excellent deal and is probably worth way more than Eli Rose charges for these services. I definitely have a greater understanding of what I want & need to do to get my blog where I want it to be and I now have the tools to reach my goals.

Additionally, Eli Rose Social Media maintains an incredibly helpful blog with tips on using social media in a way that is easy to understand. They are also quick to respond via email or twitter when you have questions. I think Eli Rose Social Media is an incredibly good resource for bloggers of all levels.

Even if you don't want to commit to the blog assessment or personal strategy right now, you need to follow Eli Rose on Twitter and keep EliRose.com bookmarked!  The information they regularly share is invaluable.

Have you ever had a blog assessment done?  What did you think?  Are you considering having it done for the first time?  Do you have any questions about the blog assessment process?

*******

This review was not solicited by Eli Rose Social Media nor did I receive any goods or services to provide this review. For more information, please read my full Disclosure.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...