I frequently get asked, “what course should I take for….”
I have been blogging for a long time now. I have taken a lot of blogging courses, free courses to ones that cost thousands of dollars. I’ve signed up for too many bundled courses. I’ve bought into the hype and regretted some courses. Some courses I’ve loved and greatly benefited from.
Those are the ones I am sharing with you today!
My recommended list is a lot smaller than you would think.
My Favorite Courses for Bloggers:
These are the courses that I’ve loved, found beneficial to the growth of my blog business, and ones that I feel comfortable recommending. Recommending a course to my audience means that I believe it can help you too!
And as a note, many of the links below are my affiliate links. But as I mentioned, I take these recommendations very seriously, and as you’ll see, only a few make the cut.
Stupid Simple SEO –
Stupid Simple SEO is one of the most comprehensive yet approachable SEO courses for bloggers. Mike goes into all the things you need to focus on to get your content to rank on Google. To make it even more remarkable, Mike is continually adding value to the course. He showers his students with good information and a quality user experience.
You do have to go through his free workshop first before being able to purchase the course. The workshop was recently redone and is slightly more salesy than before, but there are still some good tips and a taste of what the course will look like. And I don’t mind all the success stories because I have been around SSSEO long enough to know they are true!
Here’s a convo that happened in my FB group,
Sticky Blogging –
I went through Sticky Blogging when my youngest was born. He was the slowest eater ever, and I spent a lot of time sitting on the couch. I enjoyed taking this course during that time! There are nuggets in every module that will help you be a better writer and connect with your audience. There are a few courses out there about writing blog posts, but Sticky Blogging’s approach focuses on your audience. I believe this is a crucial step everyone should take before moving into technical and SEO writing.
The format is slightly different from other courses. It is a live program that only runs a few times a year, which is cool but also a bummer because you can’t join whenever you want. If Sticky Blogging isn’t open when you read this post, you can start with the free class: Get more traffic with fewer posts. It will give you a taste of the style of sticky blogging and some tips on how to get people to love your content.
Pin Design Toolkit –
The Pin Design Toolkit template system to help you create beautiful Pins. It includes tons of templates to use, Canva training, branding tips, font suggestions, and more design goodness. Kristin does have more extensive design courses if you want to go deeper, but I think the Pin Design Toolkit is enough for most of us! My affiliate link takes you directly to the check out page, but if you want to learn more here is the landing page.
Plus, when you sign up for the Pin Design Toolkit, you get my guide, Text For Clarity – The words you use on Pin Graphics. Rounds off your Pin creation needs!
Journey to the Center Amazon –
This is the only course on the list that I haven’t actually gone through myself (I am not currently using Amazon as an affiliate). But, I put it on here because:
a) I love Debbie’s content and have scanned through the curriculum and approve and
b) ever since I recommended this course the first time, I frequently get emails thanking me for recommending it because it helped them dramatically increase their Amazon income.
Debbie also has some SEO courses and ebooks that I’ve heard great things about, but I have not personally looked into them.
Sales Page in a Day –
One of the things I stink the most at is writing sales pages. So when my friend told me about Sales Page in a Day, I immediately bought it, and my life (err sales pages) have never been the same. I love the templates, examples, and extras for this course. Plus, the price is fantastic. I mean, $37? I love when I can purchase something affordable, take action, and see results. It’s a win. If you sell your product, this course is a no-brainer.
Start a Blog Guide + Blog Launch Plan –
I’m a little bit biased here because these are my courses. They are two separate courses. The free Start a Blog Guide helps you get your self-hosted WordPress website up and running. It gives you an overview of using WordPress and the basics of running a blog. The Blog Launch Plan is the next step -what to do with your blog after it is set up. The Blog Launch Plan is my favorite course I’ve created.
And that sums up my current list of recommended courses. I’ll add to it as I find more that I love.
Courses I think look good but haven’t vetted yet:
The list above isn’t an all-inclusive list of excellent courses. There are a lot of great classes. These are just the ones that have personally helped me out. I liked their style and felt they were beneficial.
You’ve probably taken different courses that you’ve loved and benefited from. (feel free to share those in the comments)
These courses are ones that I want to look into soon: Gutenberg Ninja, Income School, Traffic Transformation, Pocket Products, Tailwind Tell All, Affiliate Marketing for Influencers, and GA4 Mini-Course.
Should I take a blogging course?
If you are wondering if you should take a blogging course and which one you should take, this section is for you!
Courses are a great way to learn! But don’t just take one for the fun of it. Take a course that fits where you are at in your blogging journey. Take the course because you need to learn more to grow and progress. The goal of taking a course should be to help you get where you want to go next.
Which course should I take?
If you haven’t launched your blog yet– go through my Start a Blog Guide and then the Blog Launch Plan.
If you are new to blogging and still trying to find your voice and your audience– start with Sticky Blogging. Learn the art of writing blog posts and connecting to your audience. This course will give you the foundation for good SEO and affiliate or ad income.
If you are ready for more traffic– then you need to take Stupid Simple SEO. If you want to be a successful blogger, you can’t ignore SEO. Social media is great, but for higher growth potential, you need SEO.
If you have ugly Pins– sign up for the Pin Design Toolkit
If you are ready to make more money– you should take Journey to the Center of Amazon if you focus on affiliate marketing and Sales Page in a Day if you are selling products.
Now, I know someone is going to ask: but what about an email marketing course? What about a Pinterest course?
I honestly don’t know of a Pinterest course worth recommending right now. Most Pinterest course owners have switched to a membership module. It is probably because keeping up with Pinterest changes in a course is hard, but maybe because it’s the trendy way to make money in the biz marketing world right now.
My Pinterest course is currently closed. I am working on updating it and plan on relaunching it this summer. It’s going to be for those of us that have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. 😉
If you want to look into a Pinterest membership, Jennifer Priest’s Smart Pin Pro is probably the best out there. She gets Pinterest and how it fits into the overall scheme of your online business. Carly Cambell’s Pinteresting Strategies is also a decent guide to Pinterest marketing. I don’t always jive with her style or approach, but Carly does understand the inner workings of Pinterest.
My approach to Pinterest has always been along the lines of truly treating Pinterest marketing like a sophisticated search engine. I would say both of the mentioned above treat it that way too.
For email, Meera Kothand has been my go-to expert on all things email marketing. I started her email course years ago but haven’t finished and can’t fully vouch for it yet. I also really like Elizabeth Goddard’s and Magan Ward’s approach to email marketing. I need to go through more of their content to add one of their courses to this list. But, if you’re looking for an email course, start with those three.
Are blogging courses worth it?
After reading my intro paragraph about taking a billion courses and then only seeing 5-6 on my recommended list, you might be wondering if blogging courses are worth it.
To that, I say: Yes, the right blogging courses are worth it.
Running a blog business is a huge learning curve for most of us. While you can learn trial and error and Googling things, an efficient course will walk you through all the things you need to do to reach your specific goal. Courses make the unknown approachable.
You should also know that I think blogging course bundles are worth it. At all. I don’t like them from the course creator’s perspective, and I don’t like them from the student perspective. I don’t think blogging course bundles are worth it. They are overwhelming to go through, and the courses are usually underwhelming. I have frequently found the same courses in these bundles listed as freebies on the creators site or as super affordable tripwires.
You don’t need all the courses.
You need the course to help you get to your next stepping stone. That is when courses are worth it.
Tips for deciding on whether or not you should purchase a course
I’ll leave you with some things to consider before enrolling in your next blogging course.
First, are you done with the current course you are working on? Do you have any others uncompleted that you can go through first? If not, finish that one before moving onto the next shiny course.
Next, ask yourself these questions:
- Will this course bring me closer to reaching my current goals? (not big dream goals or 2-year goals, but what you’re working on presently. The next stepping stone).
- Will taking the time to complete this course be a better use of my time than doing something else?
Then, go through the course creator’s free content first. Did you like their style? Did you learn something from them?
When in doubt, think about it for a day. I know there are time-sensitive bonuses or tripwire prices, but there is nothing wrong with thinking about it for a day if you aren’t sure.
That wraps up my suggestions on course for bloggers.
Do you have any courses you’d absolutely recommend?
