Update Dec 4: We have OVER 20 registrants so far and I’ll be closing signups soon!! If you’re interested to learn about blogging and creating your top blog, now is the chance! I’ll see you guys come Dec 8!
Update Dec 8: We have a FULL class and registration is now CLOSED. Thanks everyone who have signed up and look forward to an amazing six modules ahead!
Ready to learn the best in blogging?
For those of you without a blog: Thinking of starting your blog but not sure where to begin?
For the rest of you who own a blog: Been running your blog for a while but tired of not getting the traffic you desire?
After a highly successful run of my blogging program last year, come Dec 8 (that’s in less than two weeks!), I’m starting a new and improved run of my Blogging Success Program, sharing my top strategies on how to blog your way to a million pageviews.
If you are tired of courses that don’t deliver and want to pick up cutting-edge blogging strategies from someone who blogs for a living, this upcoming blogging course is for you. :) Read on!
My Blogging Story
(This section shares my blogging story for those of you who don’t know. If you already know this, skip to the next section on course details!)
December 14, 2008 was the day I started my blog, Personal Excellence. At that time, it was called Embrace Living under the domain embraceliving.net (now defunct). My layout was nothing fancy, just a standard WordPress template:
My blog subsequently went through several overhauls, going through changes in site name, tagline, logo, layout, and even domain name!
PE in March 2009
PE in second half of 2009. By then I have switched my blog title to “The Personal Excellence Blog” and domain to “CelestineChua.com”. This wasn’t the last of it!
2010 was when I dropped “The” and “Blog” for the blog name “Personal Excellence”. I also switched my domain to PersonalExcellence.co, which is PE’s domain name today.
PE in 2010
How PE looks like today (2013)
Hitting 1 Million Pageviews/Month in < 3 Years
Throughout my blogging journey, I learned many crucial lessons about building a top blog. I learned the key steps to build a blog’s traffic. I learned the things which web surfers look out for in deciding whether to stay on at a site. I learned what are the things that separate a top blog and a “not” blog. And I learned how to create a blog that people would want to read, above and beyond other blogs.
Because of that, my blog traffic grew very quickly.
- In my 1st week of launch (Dec ’08), I was getting an average of 237 pageviews / day (some have difficulty hitting the 100’s range in traffic even after years of blogging).
- In my 1st year (Dec ’09), I was getting 1,893 pageviews / day (that’s a 800% growth!!!).
- In my 2nd year (Dec ’10), I was already getting over 10,000 pageviews a day: 11,117, to be precise. That’s a 600% growth on top of the previous year’s 800% growth, or a 4,690% growth vs. my first week!!!!
PE’s traffic between Dec 2008 to Oct 2011
Then in Oct 2011, after less than three years of running the blog, I reached over one million pageviews in that month alone. That meant that PE was receiving over one million “views” of the individual pages on the site in just that month, all coming from hundred thousands of visitors from around the world!
Hitting one million pageviews in just one month!
Achieving that milestone meant that PE has become one of the most highly read personal development blogs in the world! In a sphere immensely saturated with hundred thousand other sites, this was an incredible feat.
PE Today: Leading Personal Development Platform
Today, I have developed PE into a go-to resource for anything to do with personal growth, from having free articles to inspirational quotes, to videos, to podcasts, to ebooks and more.
Inspirational Quotes Section at PE
Videos Section at PE
On the Media
I’ve been interviewed and featured over 80 times in the media, including CNN, Channel News Asia, Cosmopolitan, Sun-Herald, My Paper, CBS Business Network, and more.
On Channel News Asia AM Live!, speaking about new year resolutions and how to set them
On Channel 8’s Good Morning Singapore! to share advice on setting new year’s resolutions. (Channel 8 has the highest viewership among the TV channels in Singapore.)
Being interviewed by Channel New Asia’s Suzanne Jung in my home
On Channel News Asia, BlogTV, sharing about bucket lists
Invited to Speak at Events
I’m also regularly invited to speak at conferences and events, having spoken at Wharton Business School (University of Pennsylvania), Kimberly Clark, JobsCentral, deBaak (leading training institute in Holland), National University of Singapore, Singapore Institute of Management, and more.
Panelist at the prestigious Wharton Marketing Conference 2011 to share on “Social Media: Fad or the Future of Marketing?”
Sharing my entrepreneurial story at National Library Board’s Entrepreneur Series
World Travel… 100% Mobility
Having a blog as the platform for my business also allows me to be 100% mobile, where I can be in any place, anywhere I want. Between 2011–2012, I went on a seven-month long travel around Europe and U.S., experiencing different cultures and sights, and meeting PE readers from around the world.
This year 2013, I’ve been on four trips visiting Hong Kong, India, South Africa (Johannesburg and Cape Town), and even Scotland (for my engagement shoot)!
Reader Meet-Ups Around the World
Since 2011, I’ve conducted over 10 PE reader meetups around the world in Europe, U.S., Asia, and even South Africa. Just some pictures:
Blog Your Way to a Million Pageviews: My Blogging Course!
Blogging has changed my life. It has opened doors for me where there weren’t, connected me to great minds from around the world, forged new friendships on my behalf, and allowed me to pursue my passion.
Most importantly, blogging has led me to you.
I’ve learned heaps in my blogging journey (five years and counting, plus I had five years of web development experience pre-PE, making it a total of 10 years of online experience). I’ve learned what it takes to create a top blog, set it apart from the crowd, and build top traffic in the shortest amount of time. I built PE to a million pageviews a month in less than three years, and this wasn’t by chance in anyway: it was all a deliberate, conscious effort at blog building and traffic building.
And I’m here to teach you how to achieve the same too.
Starting Dec 8, I’m opening a limited-slots-only blogging course to those of you who want to learn the best about blogging and blog your way to a million pageviews. Details below, and sign up NOW by scrolling to the end of this post!
Who Should Attend This Course?
- If you are looking at blogging to build your business. Even if you are new to blogging but you would like to explore it for your business platform, this is for you!
- If you want to build a personal blog and take it to success. The course is suitable even for those who want to build a personal blog. The fundamental strategies and tactics I’m going to share will be relevant be it for a personal or business blog.
- If you are a newbie blogger and you want to cut down their learning curve. Let’s face it — blogging isn’t easy. It can be tough and intimidating, especially when you are starting out all alone in this huge blogosphere. Rather than struggle in your blog journey and go through the arduous learning curve, I’ll be sharing you my proven success strategies in this course. No frills and no fluff. Just real content and things that work.
- If you have been blogging for a while and you want to take your blog to the next level. Whether you are currently facing a traffic plateau or you wish to break through to that next level in your traffic, my strategies will apply. What I’m going to teach are timeless and they apply to any blog development phase; they continue to be relevant for me today even as I reach out to more readers on PE.
Don’t expect tutorials with technical how-to’s (like how to use WordPress, set up your blog, code in HTML, install a plugin, use a plugin, or install a theme). All these, you can easily read up by searching via Google!! I’m here to teach you pure content and top blogging success strategies which you cannot find anywhere else. I’ll most definitely be sharing links to resources and recommended plugins where appropriate.
Agenda
There will be six modules at a pace of one module each week:
- Module 1: Set Your Blog Fundamentals
- Module 2: How to Create Cutting-Edge Content
- Module 3: How to Get New Visitors To Your Blog
- Module 4: How to Retain Existing Visitors
- Module 5: Art of Creating Raving Fans (Key to Self-Fueling Traffic)
- Module 6: Review and Wrap Up
Each session will be 2 hours long. It will be in a small-group, group coaching format, where I will be presenting the lessons, sharing real-time exercises, and having participants discuss their answers with the group each week. It will be a live and highly interactive course.
Course Schedule
There will be six sessions every Sunday, 9pm to 11pm (2 hours long), Singapore time (GMT +8).
Kindly crosscheck the corresponding time for Singapore for your timezone. I’ve provided the equivalent timings for other time zones below as a reference, though they may be subject to errors as it depends on whether you are observing daylight savings in your country currently:
- CDT (GMT -6, no daylight savings): Sunday, 7am to 9am
- EDT (GMT -5, no daylight savings): Sunday, 8am to 10am
- UTC (GMT +0): Sunday, 1pm to 3pm
- CET (GMT +1, no daylight savings): Sunday, 2pm to 4pm
- IST (GMT +5:30): Sunday, 6:30pm to 8:30pm
At the moment, the sessions are planned for the following dates (subject to changes):
- Module 1 – Dec 8 / Sun
- Module 2 – Dec 15 / Sun (No class on Dec 22 and Dec 29 as it’ll be vacation period)
- Module 3 – Jan 5 / Sun
- Module 4 – Jan 12 / Sun
- Module 5 – Jan 19 / Sun
- Module 6 – Jan 26 / Sun
* This is the second run of the course; our first run was between Dec 2012 – Feb 2013.
Testimonials from Past Participants
Here are just a handful of the many testimonials from past participants of the course…
“ My blog would definitely not be what it is today without Celes’s teachings. I took her first blogging course in 2011, and back then my web site really needed a makeover! I learned so much from that experience, but there is always more to learn. I knew that I would get immense value from taking another blogging course with Celes, and that is why I signed up for this one.
In this blogging program, I walked away with some really big insights. I got specific feedback on my blog– this was a great forum to get real constructive feedback from people sharing their true thoughts. I also learned some techniques for attracting more readers and encouraging them to stay involved in discussions on my blog. Celes very clearly explained how to make a blog more user friendly and the specific reasons for each suggestion, based on her real-life personal experience. She explains what to do and *why* it works.
Perhaps the biggest insight I gained is the importance of sharing personal information and using my blog as a platform to have an intimate conversation with my readers, like I’m sharing over coffee. Throughout this course, I’ve worked through my own visibility and criticism fears and have started taking steps to share more of myself. So it has been very therapeutic as well.
Celes shares all her step-by-step secrets for how to get one million pageviews/month on a blog in a simple, structured way. She holds back nothing and is very transparent about how she has achieved this goal for herself.
I recommend this course for beginning bloggers, but also for more advanced bloggers who want to improve their blogs—I guarantee you will walk away with at least one new high-level insight that will make a big difference!
Thank you for sharing! Looking forward to another course soon. :) ”
~ Christina Mattschei, Blogger @ Coaching with Christina, Blogging Success Course Participant
“ I cannot believe all the information I’ve learned about blogging from the Blogging Success Program. I thought I had a pretty good blog when I started the course and just wanted to find ways to get new people to find me. I’d even considered skipping the first couple of lessons since I thought I’d already done a great job on my layout, title, etc.
Looking back, I am SO glad I did not skip those lessons. I’ve made so many changes on my blog already and the difference is amazing. Even the parts of the course I thought I didn’t need helped me tremendously! And the parts I knew I needed help on, driving traffic to my site and retaining visitors, was also priceless. I am certain that by following Celes’s advice I learned in this course, I will have an amazing and wildly popular blog.
Celes is an amazing teacher, and after doing this course with her, I would even call her a friend. Her style is casual, yet informative, and you can tell she really cares and wants the best for you as she’s teaching you all her best tips. What she teaches you in the Blogging Success Program is the same stuff she used herself to create a mega successful blog and business for herself. These are tried and true methods!
I’ve read many articles on blogging over the years and I have never found anything that matches what you learn in this course.
If you are serious about having a successful blog and are willing to put in a little time and effort into growing it, you need this course. I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone out there wanting to start, grow or improve their blog.
Thank you so much Celes, my teacher, my blogging mentor, and my friend! You have most definitely created a raving fan out of me! ”
~ Marsha Roberts, Blogger @ Get Off the Couch, Blogging Success Course Participant
“ I LOVED the course! This was easily the fastest way for me to learn all the information necessary to creating a top blog.
From the very first lesson I was already learning vital information to improving my site. One of the things I learned was how my sites theme can convey the subject I want to new readersand how detrimental having a poorly thought out page design can be ( Module 1).
I also learned how important it is to make a personal connection with my readers (Module 2, Module 5). I know how I can create a strong relationship with readers so that they see me and my blog as a person they can trust rather than just a faceless website. This is something I can use to keep readers coming back again and again.
Before the program, building traffic was easily the most mysterious task for me. Celes helped me to understand the various ways of driving traffic to my site (Module 3). She also helped me to better understand the pros and cons of different traffic sources as well as how to maximize the effectiveness of advertising on other sites.
Celes was a fantastic trainer and very knowledgable. She gave all the nuts and bolts information that any site needs to thrive. All of the information was well organized and easy to grasp. There are a million things a person can do to try to grow their blog. Some of these things could be more effective than others. Celes gave me the key steps that will help me to make my site successful. So instead of needing to test a million different items that may or may not work I now have proven action steps from a person who has years of experience in blogging.
I would absolutely recommend this course! I think anybody who is serious about building a successful blog needs the Blogging Success Program. It’s the easiest and fastest way to understand the steps to make you and your work successful online. ”
~ Matt Leyva, Blogger @ Your Drawing Lessons, Blogging Success Course Participant
“ This blogging course is not like any other course that I’ve attended. It is really open up my mind to what a successful blog should look like, be like. I realized that all my previous blogs are crap! And obviously nobody reads them! It was when I was taking this course that I learned that I wasn’t delivering value to my readers.
The best thing I’ve learned from the course is the importance of providing high value content to readers. Before this I didn’t realize that there were so many elements to consider when writing our content and also the types of must-have content in a blog (Module 2). I’ve also learned a lot on how to create a blog layout that will attract web-surfers and make them want to explore my blog (Module 1, Module 4). Besides that, Celes also taught us how to have a clear identity, branding and mission (Module 1).
With this knowledge, my blog would not be “just another blog” anymore.
I can’t think of any course better than this that will teach you the step-by-step strategies to grow your traffic, list out the pros and cons of each method, and even evaluate the effectiveness of each method (Module 3). It will definitely take me years of research and trial if I were to find my own way to attract people to visit my blog! The different ways to retain readers and eventually create a fan base were also very informative (Modules 4–5).
Celes is a very fantastic and hardworking trainer. She patiently goes through every single point with us and makes sure that everyone understands. She also tries to answer all our questions and one of the most powerful tool that she uses throughout the whole course is a lot of examples to make us understand all the modules better. Celes is also a very friendly facilitator.
I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who wants to create a top blog and hit one million pageviews quickly. The value you get out of this course is worth many times more than the price you pay. ”
~ Alyssa Choong, Malaysia, Blogging Success Course Participant
“ The Blogging Success Program was beyond all my expectations, both in terms of the content, structure and relevant information, and also because it went so much more beyond that. Personally, for me, it was a truly growing and empowering experience!
After finishing the last module, I worked on my blog for 5 hours straight! I was so filled with ideas, energy and optimism and I haven’t felt so empowered and so right in a very, very long time. So thank you, Celes, for that. :)
I have learned so many strategies, techniques, tips and valuable resources that I am absolutely convinced that I would not have found anywhere else. The modules were packed, filled with on-the-spot exercises, very structured and organized, but also, very much focused on the participants. I loved that after each segment, we had time to reflect and ask questions. I have also learned the right fundamentals for a successful blog (Module 1) and most importantly, how to maintain and keep your blog and your business growing (Modules 2–5).
Again, all the information presented, all the tips and techniques are based on hard, personal work and doing your very best, which I believe it is awesome. The course will not provide a short term, quick success, but is focused on providing you with the tools and knowledge to develop a stable, authentic and lasting blog, ever-growing, that is if you follow the suggestions and do your part.
I would absolutely recommend this course! It’s a must! I actually had a blog for quite a while, so I knew some of the fundamentals of creating one, but even still, I was amazed at the powerful, quality-filled content, its efficient structure and the way Celes conducted the webinars.
Thank you so much, Celes! ”
~ Roxi Staton, Blogger @ Playground for Life, Virginia, Blogging Success Course Participant
“ Celes gave me the confidence to start my platform and succeed. This confidence comes from a solid understanding of ALL aspects of blogging and the blogging world.
I look at other sites and see glaring—easy to fix—mistakes and feel sorry for them as they are spending their valuable time and energy on something that’s not working very well.
You’ll have so many aha!! moments in this course. Back yourself 100% and buy this course. I can’t recommend it enough.”
~ Monique Hohnberg, Sydney, Australia, Blogging Success Course Participant
“ I had seen the tremendous value Celes provides to her readers through her blog, Personal Excellence. Her posts overflow with detailed information and helpful insights, some taken from Celes’ personal life experiences. I knew that if I ever managed to get my blog going it needed to have the underlying qualities of PE, so when the Blogging Success Course was announced, it was obvious to me that I had to attend.
My expectations for the course were high and Celes did not disappoint. She willingly shared what she knew and coached us through six expertly-crafted modules that took us step by step through the process of building our own successful blog from scratch.
I learned the importance of knowing my target audience and developing my theme; how to create great content and how to attract, retain and transform visitors into raving fans. Most importantly for me, I learned that blogging takes time, effort and a genuine desire to deliver high value to your readers. I would need to give myself if I wanted people to truly connect with my message and the only way for me to achieve this would be to blog about a topic I genuinely believe in, love and enjoy.
Thanks Celes for a great course and for giving me massive value for money. I’ll be using the lessons learned for a long time to come. ”
~ Thomas Harper, United States, Blogging Success Course Participant
“ What an awesome program! Celes has a wonderful demeanor and managed to embrace and connect with every attendee. This created a supportive, constructive, productive platform… which really helped, as she provided huge amounts of information.
Each module was detailed and well thought out. Thorough, methodical, laid out in simplistic format with accompanying slides, examples and case studies… Suggestions and recommendations ranged from blog ‘friendly’ programs to start up your blog (Module 1) as well as layout options/rational (Module 4), to target audience breakdowns (Module 3) and the elements of creating great content (Module 2), etc.
There were so many areas of focus… by the time the program was complete, I had a much better picture of my goal and how to make it happen. I am excited and inspired – as was everyone – to get started.
Interestingly, and surprising, the fifth module was the most poignant and personal for me. Creating advocacy (Module 5) was truly a light bulb topic – not only for my blogging hopes, but for life in general.
For all you blogging wannabes, you know you want to strike a chord with peoples’ hearts… this course gives you the tools to let that chord ring out farther and louder… enabling you to reach more readers.
Thank You Celes! Awesome Job!! ”
~ Nancy Lopez, United States, New York, Blogging Success Course Participant
Frequently Asked Questions
There are some clashes between the course schedule and my calendar. What should I do?
Don’t fret. Video recordings and slides will be sent to all participants of the course 48 hours after each session ends. This is to help the participants who already have prior engagements they need to attend.
Also, even if you can’t attend the sessions, I will be giving free email consultation to any course participant who has questions in between the week’s modules. This consultation will last throughout the duration of the course.
There are so many blogging sites out there with free information. Why should I sign up for this one?
I always like to look at the accomplishments of a person before I decide whether to take on the person’s advice. So for example, if someone is giving me weight loss advice but does not have a healthy physique, it suggests that the person is probably still missing the full picture on being healthy and hence does not have the information I’m looking for.
In the area of blogging, there are indeed many blogs out there dispensing free information on blogging. I’ve no doubt their opinions have merit.
However, each person’s advice has different layers of depth and can only bring you to the level he/she is at. Meaning if someone is running a site that is four years old with about a 200 visitors a day, following the person’s advice will likely bring me to the maximum result of 200 visitors a day (which is still healthy traffic by the way, don’t get me wrong).
If I want to learn the best there is in blogging, I would much rather learn from someone who has achieved significant blogging milestones which I want for myself. This person’s opinion would have the most credibility because he/she has walked the path and “made” the marks I want, and hence know the best way to get there.
I’ve already shared the results of my blogging journey in the beginning of this post. Now it’s your turn to decide if you want to achieve similar growth for yourself.
In taking this course, you get direct, point-by-point insights on how to create a million-pageview blog, all packed in an easy-to-digest six-module course. These are insights you will not get from plowing through 1,000 sites on blogging, because not everyone may have the knowledge to achieve such results.
I’m an alumni of last year’s course and I’m interested to attend again.
You are definitely welcome to! As a special thank-you for supporting my work, all alumni will get to attend for free. Attending the session again is also a great way to reinforce the lessons you have learned.
Simply let me know your interest and post your payment transaction number for last year’s course in the comments section and I’ll hook you up with the registration details! :)
I bought Blogging Success Program before and I’d like to attend the live course.
If you have bought the product version of Blogging Success Program before 1 Nov, you get to attend this course at a top up fee of $120 USD (that’s just $20 USD per session)! You will find the live experience is much richer than just viewing a video recording because you get to interact with the participants, do the exercises live, share your answers, ask questions, and get instant feedback.
Simply let me know your interest and post your payment transaction number for your product purchase in the comments section and I’ll send you the discount coupon!
How much is the course?
$397 only. There is also a limited-time registration offer for initial registrants. Read on for details!
Register for Your Seat *NOW* [Registration CLOSED.]
The six-week insights-loaded course is priced at only $397 USD right now.
In comparison, I do one-to-one blog coaching and I charge $150 USD per hour with each individual client. That amounts to $1,800 USD for a twelve-hour course like this. (You can even check the testimonials section of my coaching page of my past blog coaching clients; everyone of them walk away loaded with nothing but insights.)
The price tag of $397 USD is a complete steal for the knowledge-packed Blogging Success Course. That’s only $30+ per hour for the entire six-week, twelve-hour intensive course… for content that’s going to change your blog’s growth trajectory and help you jumpstart your blogging journey–by miles.
All you are going to learn inside this course are concrete, actual answers that will skyrocket your blog’s growth.
Grab your seat NOW:
Update Dec 8: We have a FULL class of 26 registrants and registration is now CLOSED. Thanks everyone who have signed up and look forward to an amazing six modules ahead!! :D
I do my blogging course only once a year. I’m not sure if I’m going to do it next year because I’m always busy with different projects every quarter. (And I’m not dangling this as some sales pitch; I’m serious that I don’t commit to conducting regular courses since I focus on creating passive income systems.)
If you are serious about learning about blogging from someone who has been there done it, now is your chance. If you’re interested to learn about blogging and creating your top blog, now is the time to do it.
If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to create a top blog that attracts hundred thousands of readers a month, and why only a small handful of bloggers succeed where 99.99% others don’t, then this course is for you.
“ I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who wants to create a top blog and hit one million pageviews quickly. The value you get is worth many times more than the price you pay!” — Alyssa Choong, past Blogging Success Course Participant
“I’ve read many articles on blogging over the years and I have never found anything that matches what you will learn in this course. If you are serious about having a successful blog, you need this course.” — Marsha Roberts, past Blogging Success Course Participant
“The Blogging Success Program was beyond all my expectations. After finishing the last module, I worked on my blog for 5 hours straight because I was so filled with ideas, energy and optimism!” — Roxi Staton, past Blogging Success Course Participant
Enough with generic blogging tips that don’t get your blog anywhere. What you learn in this program will separate your blog from the masses and rise to become the top 0.01% blogs in the world. Blogging Success Program packs my best strategies on blogging and generating blog traffic. This program is what you need to take your blog to your million pageviews, just like I have!
Update Dec 8: We have a FULL class and registration is now CLOSED. Thanks everyone who have signed up and look forward to an amazing six modules ahead!! :D
* Registration will not be open for long: it will be CLOSED once we hit the desired class size. Don’t miss this chance to learn the best in blogging and grow your blog to a million pageviews.
** Installment plan is available for special circumstances. Please post your inquiry in the comments section.
Any Questions?
If you have any questions, post them in the comments section! I look forward to hearing from you.
Look forward to helping you build your million pageviews come Dec 8! :)
Update, Aug 2015: After 3 years of running Blogging Success Program, I’ve since retired the course/product. Thank you everyone for your support all these years! Please read: Retiring Blogging Success Program & Passive Income System