Oliver GaywoodCreating valuable online content has become more important than ever and one of the best ways to produce it on a regular basis is through blogging.
Whether you’re creating a personal blog, looking to make money from it or you want to start a business blog, if you’re not sure where to start it makes sense to sign up for an online blogging course. Prices and course structures vary from site to site, but below are some of the most popular courses to give you an idea of what to sign up for.
Course: Blogging for Beginners
By: Australian Writers’ Centre
Cost: $ 85
If you haven’t started your blog yet, this one-off course takes you through the basics. The lesson helps people take a rough idea and turn it into reality, with advice on how to set up a site, what to write and how to build an audience. As well as an online option, this Blogging for Beginners course is held in three locations across Australia (as a two-hour seminar). People who do the course online get access to all material for a year.
Course: How to Get More Blog Readers
By: Australian Writers’ Centre
Cost: $ 97
This course, run by Nicole Avery, is more advanced than AWC’s Blogging for Beginners course and touches on the basics of building a blog’s readership. It’s aimed at bloggers who have already started their work but have found that things aren’t going quite as well as they’d hoped. You’ll learn about blog strategies, writing engaging content and attracting advertisers.
Course: Blogging 101: Zero to Hero
By: Blogging University
Cost: Free
WordPress is by far the most popular blogging platform, so it makes sense that The Daily Post, an outlet for WordPress employees, has set up a Blogging University. All the courses are free and run regularly throughout the year.
Beginners should start with Blogging 101: Zero to Hero, a three week course that begins with how to make a post before going into writing, blogging and commenting lessons. Once you’ve completed that course you’re encouraged to sign up for the two Blogging 201 courses: Branding and Growth and Intermediate Customization.
Michelle Weber, Chancellor of Blogging Unversity, said “There are two things that make Blogging 101 so useful for new bloggers: first, the focus on a single, discrete task each day helps ensure that blogging feels manageable and makes the learning curve less steep, while seeing incremental changes keeps bloggers motivated. Second — and, I think, more important — is the camaraderie among participants. New bloggers have a place where they can ask anything, get constructive but supportive feedback, and make friends. So many new bloggers give up because they feel like they’re tossing their posts into a void where no one reads them; by helping bloggers situate themselves in a community, Blogging 101 mitigates that.
“In every course, we see bloggers double and triple their views, followers, and comments. The community aspect is so powerful and important that in many of our courses, the participating bloggers form their own private group blog so they can keep collaborating with and supporting one another once Blogging 101 ends. We blog to make our voices heard, so there’s nothing more thrilling than to know that others are listening.”
Course: WordPress – Blogging on the Web
By: Russell Stannard / Alison.com
Cost: Free
Alison is one of the leading sites for free teaching and among its treasures is this course teaching the basics of using WordPress. The content is geared more towards teaching you about the mechanics of the site rather than the writing side of things, but for some people that may be the most daunting aspect of blogging.
Like all courses on Alison this course is completely free. It also comes with a diploma (if you pass the assessment), and should take around two hours to complete.
Course leader Russell Stannard said, “For me blogging is one of the outstanding web 2.0 technologies. I have made widespread use of it in education especially for getting students to reflect, to assess their writing and even to develop E-Portfolios. Unfortunately, it is misunderstood by teachers who don’t realize the opportunities it offers and the variety of ways it can be used”.
https://alison.com/courses/WordPress-Blogging-on-the-Web
Course: Blog*Brilliantly
By: Christine Gilbert
Cost: $ 348 ($ 29/month for one year)
Blog*Brilliantly may be one of the most expensive blogging courses available online but it’s also one of the most thorough. Every week for a year, you receive an e-mail with video content and step-by-step instructions for that week’s lesson. The content for this course is a lot more in-depth than others mentioned, with writing, photography, videos, ebooks and social media explained, meaning students should be able to create a well-rounded blog to help them earn a living.
Despite the constant stream of lessons, students can study at their own pace and their payments entitle them to lifelong membership.
http://courses.blogbrilliantly.com/your-best-blogging-year-yet/
Course: Blog with Pip
By: Pip
Cost: $ 95
Blog with Pip is another course that’s aimed at taking people without blogs to a place where they feel comfortable with all aspects of the craft. The first lesson explains how to set up a blog, then future teachings include photo editing, writing blogs, basic SEO and building a community. Once the course is over, participants are granted lifelong membership access to an alumni group of fellow bloggers.
http://meetmeatmikes.madefreshly.com/category/blog-with-pip
Course: Blog Life
By: A Beautiful Mess (Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman)
Cost: $ 50
The Blog Life course, run by sisters Elsie and Emma, comes with 26 lessons that you can take at your own pace, and a private message board where you can ask questions to the creators.
This course takes the course through the teachers’ eight-year journey to get their blog, A Beautiful Mess, from nothing at the start to more than 1.5 million monthly readers today. The lessons look mainly at the content side of a blog, starting by creating a plan and identifying your audience, before going on to give help with writer’s block, networking and monetising your blog.
Once this course has been completed, the same site has further blog-related courses in areas such as design and using Photoshop (run by different teachers).
There are many nuances to creating a successful blog and while they may not be apparent to everyone starting a blog, they can all be learnt with the right resources. By taking a class with someone who’s been successful already and who has experience in earning money through a blog, you can help your own chances dramatically.
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