If you want to bring your blogging career to the next level, keep reading this article where I will suggest some of the best blogging courses you can enroll in 2021 to make sure your blogging career will skyrocket. This article is meant to be a guide to all of you looking for the best tips to transform your hobby into a success, where success can either be measured by looking at how much money you make out of your project or how “influential” you are.
You can use the following table of contents to navigate through this guide but I suggest you keep reading to find inspiration and motivation.
Table of Contents
What is a blog?
Let’s start from the basics: what’s a blog?
In simple terms, the blog is the combination of two words
- Web + log = blog
used to identify a cultural phenomen that has changed over time.
In the early stages, a blog was a personal weblog or journal to share their opinion on a variety of topics. It was considered a diary to share with the whole world in a simple yet funny and engaging way.
Nowadays, a blog is an updated website and can either be used for personal use or to fulfill a business need. To be even more practical, a blog is a space where one or more people collect their articles and content on a specific topic. A blog can be more or less advanced technology, it can integrate images and videos, it can include advanced features to make it more appealing.
How many types of blog are there?
It’s hard to say how many types of blogs are available and one can create.
On a macro-level, there are 2 types of blogs:
- Business run by companies
- Individuals run by single people
But on a micro-level, the types of blogs available or potentially available are infinite: one could create a blog on any single topic, even the smallest and most insignificant one.
We can say that the most famous types of blogs are:
- Fashion Blogs
- Lifestyle Blogs
- Finance Blogs
- Professional Blogs
- DIY Blogs
- Food Blogs
- Travel Blogs
Within these categories, there are a plethora of blogs that can be created.
There’s no category that guarantees success, so even the most popular ones are not meant to guarantee success just because they are popular. It is common to believe that the more specific the blog is, the better it is nowadays.
What’s the purpose of a blog?
A blog can serve multiple purposes, depending on the reason why it has been created.
Typically, we can identify these 4 purposes, based on the type of blog and its overall goals:
- To help a company rank on search engines, attract traffic and generate leads;
- To share information about a specific topic and become an expert in an industry (that’s what food blogs and travel blogs are all about, just to name a couple);
- To cultivate an online community and engage with an audience.
Based on the above goals, it’s clear how a blog can be created by a single person or by a company.
In the first case, this person (also known as the blogger) wants to have a space where to document things and create a personal brand. In the second case, the company can create a blog within its website to write about topics strictly related to what they sell (Hubspot is a perfect example in this sense. They write about marketing, they have a blog where they dispense advice on marketing).
What does a blogger do?
The main task of a blogger is to produce content in the form of articles. Content has to provide value to the audience they’re directed to, they have to educate them on specific topics and can serve two different purposes:
- build trust to make them spend money
- provide the right information and help the audience in the decisional process.
The first purpose is usually connected to the creation of a community around your blog: the community will be nurtured by the content you will produce and will grow as long as you keep building trust with your audience. If you want to build trust with your audience, you need to adopt a more personal approach, and you may end up telling stories from your own life to build a relationship with your readers based on loyalty and trust.
The second purpose is for all those blogs that want to reach people via search engines, to serve a specific request and help people in the decisional process. You don’t need to go personal, but you need to be competent and your blog has to be trustable in regards to the information provided and the accuracy of them.
Both these approaches are valid and can lead to gigantic results, making blogging a successful business.
Why every freelancer should have a blog?
Having a blog is a way to show expertise on a specific topic and build credibility and trust.
You don’t necessarily need to consider a blog as your own career, but you can use it as a freelancer to get clients and leads.
Imagine you are a financial writer and you want to find clients in the niche; if you have a blog where you discuss financial matters and show competence, companies interested in hiring professional freelancers with your skills will gladly come to you if they can find you online and can read what you have written.
For freelancers, a blog can either be a secondary way to earn money or a way to create brand recognition in a specific industry. That’s why if you’re a freelancer, you should consider opening a blog and start putting your expertise out.
Blogging is a great way to promote your work!
How to open a blog
Opening a blog is as simple as it sounds: choose your name, choose the hosting, choose the CMS, and start customizing your space. Once everything is ready, you can start putting out your content, optimize them, and start getting traffic.
There are two approaches one can choose when it comes to opening a blog:
- Do everything by yourself or with the help of a developer
- Choose a website builder and customise it.
If you want to do everything by yourself, these are some of the resources I recommend:
- NameCheap or Domain.com: to register your domain name;
- BlueHost: to host your blog (it comes with WordPress installed);
- WpEngine: another hosting, and in this case you can go for the managed or the unmanaged one;
- Premium WordPress Themes: you can choose one for your blog;
- Weebly: if you want to use a ready-to-go platform and just focus on content.
If you’re looking for a website builder, have a read at our comprehensive Squarespace review.
How can you earn money from blogging?
A blogger can make money in different ways. Some methods are direct, while others are indirect; some will earn you more money and some will earn you money faster.
The choice between one and another depends on the type of blog you have and your business: being a blogger as a main job means you have to choose one method, using your blog to generate leads means you need to choose another one.
Some of the basic ways to make money with a blog include:
- Putting ads on your blog
- Recommending products in your articles
- Selling your own digital products
- Selling your own professional services
These are just four of the main revenue-oriented ways for a blogger, which can be expanded into a few other things, such as:
- Selling sponsored posts
- Becoming brand ambassadors
Is it hard to become a blogger?
I don’t want to lie: becoming a blogger and running a successful blog isn’t easy. Blogging is much more complex than it seems to be on the surface: it requires patience, dedication, and a lot of motivation.
In fact, opening a blog is just the first step to make it a success: to date, there are more than 500 million blogs out of 1.7 billion websites in the world. As crazy as it sounds, this means that people love having a blog, some of them use it as a portfolio to showcase what they can do and find clients, others as a personal diary, others to generate an income.
Some bloggers have a blog in the hope of becoming famous, others just blog because they want to write and make money out of it, others simply for the pleasure of writing.
There are millions of bloggers and blogs out there, all with a different goal and purpose: not all of them will turn into a career, not all of them are meant to become a career. But if you’re one of those people interested in making money with your blog and turning it into a passive (or active) income, then you need to strategize it and become a better blogger. Or, at least, better than others and different.
How to become a better blogger
If you have your blog up and running but you are stuck with it and don’t know how to move forward, or if you want to open a blog but you want to set the foundations to make good work, you need to put in place a strategy that will allow you to become a better blogger and also to see some results.
Just remember: blogging is not a short term thing, it requires dedication and motivation. Results are not instantaneous and even if you’ve opened your webspace years ago, you may end up struggling to find your voice and get results.
These are a few things to do to become a better blogger:
1. Focus on the content
It may sound cheesy to say, but content really is the king. You should focus 99% of your time in creating unique and extremely valuable content because that’s the only way people can see your expertise and start trusting you and your advice.
Give your blog it’s own unique voice, no matter what’s the subject of your space, and make sure you’re on top of the niche when it comes to news and updates.
If you have a blog about the Keto diet, you need to be able to articulate everything in regards to this topic, and also be able to write things that others cannot write because they have no expertise.
2. Be consistent
Blogging consistently will allow you to build a routine. Having a routine in place will allow you to understand what works and what doesn’t work and to adjust your space according to your needs and observations.
Being consistent doesn’t mean writing every day or having fixed scheduling: it means only choosing the topics you are specialized in without changing trajectory just because it’s trendy. It also means don’t feeling pressured to publish every day just to fill the page but at the same time establishing some kind of rhythm with your posting.
Consistency leads to authority, and consistency doesn’t translate into rushing things but into giving readers what they are looking for in a timely mannered way.
3. Don’t have an outdated look
The look of your blog reflects who you are, and your personality. You don’t need to follow the trends when it comes to giving your blog a particular look, but to choose the style you like and make sure it’s consistent with what you do and with your topic. Also, do not forget that people will read your content and will navigate your website: if the website is hard to digest from a design standpoint, readers won’t stick around.
4. Don’t compare yourselves to others
Comparing to other freelancers and bloggers can be extremely detrimental both personally and professionally.
Theodore Roosevelt used to say that “Comparison is the thief of joy”, and I cannot agree more.
Nowadays, it is easier than ever to constantly find someone “better” to compare ourselves to but this leads basically to nothing. In fact, if we start comparing ourselves to others, we end up resenting other people and ourselves and wasting too much time instead of focusing on the right goals.
Comparisons are bad from every point of view: we are all unique and what we accomplish is the result of who we are. Also, if you see someone that is apparently more successful compared to us, does it mean this person is also happy?
5. Experiment with your resources
The best way to succeed as a blogger is to experiment. Especially if you’ve been in business for a long time, you need to invest some time on your strategy to find something that can revamp your passion.
Considering you are the owner of your blog, you can do what you want with it and experimenting must be part of your plan to become a better blogger.
You could turn your articles into videos, or create a podcast starting from your articles, just to name a couple of things. This may not be a successful project but it can be the motivation you need to keep doing what you are doing. Or, on the other side, it could become more successful than you think and open up to new possibilities. Try, experiment, and give yourself another chance of success.
6. Find your passion
To find your voice, you need to write about something you actually like. It may be tempting to start writing about something that is trendy with the perspective of making money, but if you’re not even slightly interested in the topic your articles will become boring and you will end up not writing anything anymore.
If you want to build a profitable blog and become a better blogger, you may as well base it on something you’re interested in.
Let’s assume you’re a digital marketer and you offer various services to your clients: among all the services you offer, Facebook management is the one you like the most, and Instagram management is the one you like the least. Your blog should focus on Facebook and its management, because this is something that you like doing and you will hopefully want to do more and more in the future: writing about this specific topic that you like, will give you motivation and will make you an expert. If you introduce Instagram in your blog but you’re not particularly interested in the topic and in working with this social network, your lack of enthusiasm for it will come through in your writing.
7. Be persistent
No achievement is possible without persistent work and this applies also to blogging. Whether you’re blogging as a primary career or if you’re using your blog to generate leads for your freelancing business, you should make sure to develop persistence.
The road to success is not easy and many people quit in the middle of their journey because of hardships, discomfort, and uncertainty.
Make sure you develop discipline and good habits and keep doing what you are doing without hesitation. Adjust and adapt your action plan but keep it going: in the beginning, you are going to get next to nothing in terms of views and revenue but over time, the situation may change and you may end up being overwhelmed with the results you got.
The best blogging courses to become a better blogger and make money
Aside from the advice above, there are other things that you can do to become a better blogger and generate an income with your blog. Enrolling in specific courses can be extremely beneficial and will allow you to gain that knowledge you may need to bring things to the next level.
The Best All-in-One Blogging Courses
1. Blogging Masterclass: How To Build A Successful Blog
Build a successful blog using these proven blogging strategies for content, promotion, list building, and monetization. With this course, you will learn how to build a successful blog from scratch or take your existing blog to the next level, how to discover a blogging niche that is both profitable and interesting, how to develop a system to plan new content, and never run out of ideas again, how to optimize your website for search engines to drive a consistent stream of free traffic, how to grow an email list that allows you to generate traffic and revenue on-demand and more.
2. Blogging for a Living
This course will help you to create a fully-fledged blog from scratch on any subject, to monetize your blog with high commission digital products, to build a list of quality email subscribers from your blog or website, to send high-quality visitors to your blog from multiple free sources, and more.
1. Seth Godin’s Freelancer Course
Master how to make your work unique, create a well-known brand, find clients, and increase demand for your products or services. Understand what it takes to be more than the average freelancer and start to become remarkable and unique.
The Best SEO Online Courses
1. SEO 2021: Complete SEO Training + SEO for WordPress Websites
This SEO training will reveal the 50+ SEO factors to rank on Google. Learn all the 8 Technical SEO factors. SEO your website to bring in more organic traffic from Google & other search engines.
2. Complete SEO Training With Top SEO Expert Peter Kent!
In this course, you will learn how to rank a Web site high up in the major search engines using SEO. The knowledge you need to do the SEO work yourself or supervise an SEO optimization team or outside SEO firm.
3. SEO Training: Get Free Traffic to Your Website With SEO
With this course, you will learn how to Get Hundreds of Visitors from the Search Engines Every Day for FREE. Avoid Dangerous SEO Myths That Can Hurt Your Business. Help Clients Increase their Search Position, Traffic, and Sales.
4. SEO Specialization
If you want to learn everything about Search Engine Optimization, this specialization can be a good starting point. This specialization is constructed as a series of 5 courses (+ 1 recap) that help you master this skill. You can enroll in the specialization directly, or just choose the one you’d like to start with.
Modules of the SEO specialization:
- Introduction to Search Engine Optimization
- Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals
- Optimizing a Website for Search
- Advanced Content and Social Tactics to Optimize SEO
- Website Optimization Client Report Project
5. Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals
If you want to learn the basics of SEO to create better content, this is the course we recommend. You will learn how search engine algorithms work and how they affect organic search results and websites. You’ll also learn the critical elements for creating an effective SEO strategy, including how to select keywords and perform keyword research, consumer psychology, and search behavior, and how to conduct on-page SEO analysis to identify opportunities to improve a website’s search optimization.
The Best Online Social Media Courses
1. Facebook Ads & Facebook Marketing
Join 100,000+ students who mastered Facebook and are now Facebook Ads experts. Connect with new audiences and lower your ad costs via Facebook Ads! Mass post quickly to various social media networks. Use the advanced features available in Facebook Business Manager.
2. Instagram Marketing: Complete Guide To Instagram Growth
Join 100,000+ students and learn Instagram marketing. Have a powerful Instagram account setup for your Business or personal that you can build your brand and convert your followers into paying customers.
3. Social Media Marketing Mastery: Learn Ads on 10+ Platforms
Understand everything about Social Media Marketing! Learn Instagram Marketing A-Z and how to monetize the social platform. MASTER YouTube marketing, including layout, content creation, and video ads. Learn the power of Pinterest promoted pins and ALL the Pinterest Marketing strategies we implement for our clients. Become a Facebook Ads Expert! Learn Twitter Marketing strategies for LASER focused ads.
4. Social Media Marketing: Complete Certificate Course
Understand the social media foundations. Understand the basics of Youtube, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram and blogging. Build a social media strategy, understand the risks of social media and use them not just for marketing, but for customer services & PR.
The Best Online Content Writing Courses
1. Copywriting secrets – How to write copy that sells
Learn how to write compelling sales copy and how to apply the power of emotional drivers, even when writing in a B2B environment. This course has a ranking of 4.5 and 4500+ enthusiastic reviews. It will help you discover the secrets of copywriting success for different media and outlets.
2. Content Marketing Masterclass
This course is designed for people into content creation, promotion, copywriting, SEO, email marketing, & more. One of the most exciting aspects of it is the chapter about understanding the cognitive buying journey and how your content can inspire people to take action. This online content writing course also focuses on how to generate ideas, how to make sure to create content that will rank, and how to repurpose existing content efficiently.
3. Ultimate Web Content Writing Masterclass
In this online course, you will learn how to write killer content that sells for a website. This course is for people interested in learning the differences between writing for the Web and writing for other media, and it’s perfect for writers interested in perfecting their digital skills.
4. Become a Freelance Copywriter
Learn how to turn basic writing skills into a career with this detailed step-by-step guide to becoming a successful freelance copywriter working from home, from scratch. The course is full of useful information, and it’s more focused on giving you a list of things to do rather than explaining to you how to write: for this reason, it’s an excellent complement to other proper writing courses to get things done.
5. Content is King: Writing Killer Content for Web & Marketing
In this online course, you’ll learn how to find ideas and develop content for websites, blogs, and also ebooks but also how to edit them so that they will convert better. The author will also explain the 3 best ways to create killer content.
6. How to Write Great Web Content – Better Search Rankings!
Rank in the search engines for lots of search terms, without using tactics that can get you banned. Get a better understanding of the type of content that Google wants to ranks in the top 10; learn how to come up with great ideas; understand the term “niche vocabulary” and how to find the niche vocabulary for any content. This course is designed with SEO in mind, so it will also give you an essential checklist of SEO to create content.
7. Business & Technical Writing Immersion
If you want to master the art of business writing, this course can be your choice. It will help to learn a proven approach to the art of practical, persuasive business, and financial writing. Using 12 steps and almost 60 practical techniques, the course works through from initial writing analysis to final copy, producing documents that succeed every time. It is a particular and focused course, so you want to enroll if you have a passion for technical and business writing.
8. The Strategy of Content Marketing
In this course, you will learn the core strategies content marketers use to acquire and retain customers profitably. Specifically, you will learn how to develop, organize and implement a content marketing strategy, analyze and measure the effectiveness of content marketing, write compelling copy, use a strategic framework when writing, and build your professional brand and authority through content marketing.
9. Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals
If you want to learn the basics of SEO to create better content, this is the course we recommend. You will learn how search engine algorithms work and how they affect organic search results and websites. You’ll also learn the critical elements for creating an effective SEO strategy, including how to select keywords and perform keyword research, consumer psychology, and search behavior, and how to conduct on-page SEO analysis to identify opportunities to improve a website’s search optimization.
10. Content Strategy for Professionals Specialization
If you’re serious about content writing, this specialization is possibly one of the best you can get online. You’ll learn how to engage your audience by implementing stories and using proven tools and techniques to enhance an audience’s experience and interests. You’ll manage content once created by learning how best to tell an organization’s “content story” across media platforms using a human-centered design. You’ll also learn actionable ways to grow internal and external audiences, and expand your content’s reach. The specialization is constructed as a series of 4 courses (+ 1 summary) that help you master this skill. You can enroll in the specialization directly, or just choose the one you’d like to start with.
Modules of the content writing Specialization:
- Content Strategy for Professionals: Engaging Audiences
- Content Strategy for Professionals: Managing Content
- Content Strategy for Professionals: Expanding Your Content’s Reach
- Content Strategy for Professionals: Ensuring Your Content’s Impact
11. Advanced Content and Social Tactics to Optimize SEO
Discover the content marketing and social media ecosystems and how these interconnected channels drive search results to a website with this online class. Learn how to leverage content marketing and social media as part of your SEO strategy and how to use influence marketing to establish a website’s authority.
12. Business & Technical Writing Immersion
If you want to master the art of business writing, this course can be your choice. It will help to learn a proven approach to the art of practical, persuasive business, and financial writing. Using 12 steps and almost 60 practical techniques, the course works through from initial writing analysis to final copy, producing documents that succeed every time. It is a particular and focused course, so you want to enroll if you have a passion for technical and business writing.
13. The Strategy of Content Marketing
In this course, you will learn the core strategies content marketers use to acquire and retain customers profitably. Specifically, you will learn how to develop, organize and implement a content marketing strategy, analyze and measure the effectiveness of content marketing, write compelling copy, use a strategic framework when writing, and build your professional brand and authority through content marketing.
14. Content Strategy for Professionals Specialization
If you’re serious about content writing, this specialization is possibly one of the best you can get online. You’ll learn how to engage your audience by implementing stories and using proven tools and techniques to enhance an audience’s experience and interests. You’ll manage content once created by learning how best to tell an organization’s “content story” across media platforms using a human-centered design. You’ll also learn actionable ways to grow internal and external audiences, and expand your content’s reach. The specialization is constructed as a series of 4 courses (+ 1 summary) that help you master this skill. You can enroll in the specialization directly, or just choose the one you’d like to start with.
Modules of the content writing Specialization:
- Content Strategy for Professionals: Engaging Audiences
- Content Strategy for Professionals: Managing Content
- Content Strategy for Professionals: Expanding Your Content’s Reach
- Content Strategy for Professionals: Ensuring Your Content’s Impact
15. Advanced Content and Social Tactics to Optimize SEO
Discover the content marketing and social media ecosystems and how these interconnected channels drive search results to a website with this online class. Learn how to leverage content marketing and social media as part of your SEO strategy and how to use influence marketing to establish a website’s authority.
The Best Online Traffic Driving-Focused Blogging Courses
1. Pinterest Marketing: Using Pinterest for Business Growth
Learn how to have your own professional-looking Pinterest for business site up and running. Optimize your Pinterest account to help your business get found in the big search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.
2. Quora Marketing: 7 Steps to Increase Website Traffic Fast
Quora Marketing: learn how to answer simple questions on Quora to build authority and drive targeted traffic to your website!
3. Facebook Marketing: Drive Highly Targeted Facebook Traffic
Learn how to drive cheap & highly targeted Facebook traffic to your website or blog. Discover a traffic strategy that is working & stop paying & per click.
The Best Online Email List Building-Focused Courses
1. Email Marketing Mastery
Learn how to create your email list and send email campaigns on autopilot. The best ways to capture new leads and add them to your email list.
2. The Complete MailChimp Email Marketing Course
Learn how to use Mailchimp, grow an email subscriber list, and build high-quality email marketing campaigns!
The Best Online Affiliate Marketing Courses
1. Amazon Affiliate Marketing+SEO
Build Amazon affiliate sites that earn commissions every month from free search engine traffic. Includes detailed tutorials on how to do keyword research – and find keywords low competition that will rank in Google’s top 10 with minimal external backlinks.
2. Email & Affiliate Marketing Mastermind
Learn how to build an email list from scratch in no more than a day. How to use an email list to make money and how to find profitable Affiliate Marketing products.
3. 10 Facebook Ads Strategies That Make Me 6-Figures
Create powerful Facebook ads using Facebook advertising. For entrepreneurs, influencers, professionals.
The Best Niche Blogging Courses
1. Superstar Blogging Masterclass
Nomadic Matt is a recognized name in the travel blogging industry. In his Superstar blogging course, he will explain how to create a travel blog from zero and how to make it work. Even if this is a niche course, the advice and suggestions can be applied to every type of blog, no matter the topic or the industry.
2. Food Blogger Pro
Food Blogger Pro is the best online course for people interested in food blogging: you will learn the basics, how to create and maintain a blog from scratch, and also how to make sure it will work for you. Once again, even if this is a niche course, the advice and suggestions can be applied to every type of blog, no matter the topic or the industry.
Best Blogging Courses: are you ready for the challenge?
If you’ve read till the end, it means you are ready to take blogging seriously. many people dream of doing something, but they end up not doing anything. That’s why I only have an advice for you: keep experimenting, keep learning, and take action to achieve what you want to achieve.
Make sure you out time aside to grow your blog and, most of all, make sure it grows in a sustainable and healthy way. Invest in training, invest in yourself and motivate yourself in doing better.
No matter what’s the reason why you’ve opened a blog, it’s time to use it as a tool to showcase how good you are and how professional you are.
If you follow my advice on how to become a better blogger and enroll in the courses I’ve recommended, you’ll be able to master your creature and showcase your leads to what you’re capable of!
Want To Remember It? Pin It.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that we may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.
