Creating and running a successful blog takes a lot more work than you might realize. If you’re new to blogging, you might not know what to write about, when and how to publish it, or even how to market your website. These are critical processes that only touch on the surface of blogging. However, the right free blogging courses for beginners can make your work much more manageable.
We’ve chosen to stick with free courses in this article because you can access many excellent resources without paying a cent. These courses will help you learn everything that you need to run a successful blog without spending hundreds of dollars on “masterclasses” or books by blogging personalities.
👉 In this article, we’ll introduce you to our favorite free blogging courses for beginners and talk about what information they cover. Along the way, you’ll learn how to pick the right online classes for your needs. Let’s get to it!
📚 Table of contents:
- HubSpot Academy’s Blogging Course
- Udemy’s How to Monetize a Blog course
- Stupid Simple SEO Masterclass
- Email Lists for Newbies
- Social Media Marketing Specialization
- Udemy’s 30 Day Blog Transformation Challenge
- Legally Blogs
- Keyword Course
- Udemy’s 10 Free Blogging Tools course
- SEO Unlocked
1. HubSpot Academy’s Blogging Course
HubSpot Academy’s Blogging Course is divided into three lessons. The first part of the curriculum talks about why your business needs a blog and how it can benefit from it. However, you can skip right past that part and jump into the second lesson. It discusses how to create blog content your audience wants to read and how to structure it.
The rest of the course covers search engine optimization (SEO) fundamentals with a focus on guest posting. These lessons will show you how to use guest posts to get backlinks for your blog, making it easier for readers to find your content through search engines.
2. Udemy’s How to Monetize a Blog course
One of the biggest shocks that many bloggers face is that monetizing their writing is not as easy as they might think. There are a lot of ways to monetize a blog, but all of them require time and effort.
The How to Monetize a Blog course focuses on affiliate marketing. It teaches you the fundamentals of making money through affiliate links. Then, it walks you through the process of applying to Amazon Affiliates to start making money from your blog.
If you’re not interested in monetizing your blog using Amazon, this course also covers how to write engaging, SEO-friendly affiliate content and how to market it. In other words, you can learn the basics of how to grow your blog.
3. Stupid Simple SEO Masterclass
Generally, we recommend that you shy away from expensive blogging masterclasses. With so much information available online, it’s not always worth investing in a paid course. However, Stupid Simple SEO offers its SEO masterclass for free, which is right up our alley.
This course guides you through the basics of SEO, all the way to implementing techniques that should start getting your blog the traffic it deserves. The best part of the course is that it provides you with step-by-step instructions on how to research, publish, and market blog content instead of simply discussing theory. Therefore, you can actually put the tips into practice as you learn them.
The free masterclass also gives you access to a private Facebook group where you can ask for help from other members and discuss how the strategies work for you. Plus, you get to join in on monthly Q&As to answer any doubts that you might have. That’s a whole lot of value packed into one of the best free blogging courses for beginners available.
4. Email Lists for Newbies
Email marketing is something that you can’t overlook if you’re running a blog. Building an email list will enable you to keep in touch with your core audience, let them know when you publish new posts, and build a relationship with them.
Email Lists for Newbies walks you through the basics of setting up an email list. It covers choosing the best email marketing services (including free options), setting up signup forms, and creating welcome emails. Moreover, you’ll learn what not to do in email marketing, such as sending messages too often.
5. Social Media Marketing Specialization
Coursera is famous for offering free online courses from leading universities. You only pay if you’d like a certificate after completing specific courses. If you want to learn how to market your blog via social media, the Social Media Marketing Specialization course from Northwestern University will teach you the ins and outs of the most popular platforms.
Although the course bills itself as a “specialization,” it’s geared towards beginners. Social Media Marketing Specialization covers everything from the concept of social media to basic marketing strategies for each platform. You’ll learn which methods have worked for major brands. Plus, at the end of the course, you’ll put all your new knowledge into action by designing a social media marketing plan.
6. Udemy’s 30 Day Blog Transformation Challenge
The 30 Day Blog Transformation Challenge course is geared towards users who have been blogging for a while but are not getting the desired results. If that applies to you, this course will teach you several techniques to overhaul how you approach blogging.
In this course, you’ll learn how to plan and organize blogging ideas and how to create a content schedule. The course will help you optimize your article headlines so that they can get better engagement. You’ll also learn how to redesign your article structure so that it’s more user-friendly.
7. Legally Blogs
Legally Blogs is one of the most unique free blogging courses for beginners that you’ll find. While most courses focus on helping you set up and grow your blog, Legally Blogs talks about the legal aspect of blogging.
If you intend to monetize your blog, you need to think of it as a business. Running a business requires complying with certain laws, and blogging is no exception. In this course, you’ll learn about blogging copyright and the legal pages you need to set up for your website. The course also talks about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and how it impacts bloggers from around the globe.
8. Keyword Course
When diving into the world of blogging, one of the most critical skills to master is keyword research. Effectively chosen keywords are pivotal in driving organic traffic to your site. SEMrush’s Keyword Research Course, led by industry expert Greg Gifford, offers an invaluable deep dive into this essential area.
The comprehensive course is designed specifically for beginners and unfolds across several engaging and informative lessons. You’ll learn how to identify the most impactful keywords for your niche, utilizing SEMrush’s renowned tools. The course covers everything from basic keyword identification to understanding competitive keywords, ensuring you can strategically target terms that will boost your blog’s visibility.
9. Udemy’s 10 Free Blogging Tools course
You don’t need to use expensive tools and services to build and grow a blog. One of the great things about the internet is that you get access to a massive collection of free tools and services that can improve your website and optimize its content.
Among those tools, there are options to help you optimize blog titles, create graphics, schedule social media posts, download free stock images, and more. All of those processes are key to growing a successful blog, and the 10 Free Blogging Tools course will introduce you to free services you can use to carry them out.
For each service, the course teaches you how to use it and who can benefit from it. You don’t need to utilize all the tools within the course, but we recommend focusing on the ones that can most improve your workflow.
10. SEO Unlocked
Neil Patel is one of the most prominent “personalities” in the world of SEO. His entire brand is built around demystifying SEO and providing actionable tips and strategies for regular people.
The Neil Patel website is full of free SEO content and guides. However, if you’re new to SEO, we recommend starting with this 26-part course on SEO. The curriculum goes from the basics, such as what SEO is, all the way to new trends and automation tactics for your website. You can even download and use a “Personal Goal Worksheet” to keep your studies focused.
As far as free blogging courses for beginners go, this one is a must.
Why? Because without a good SEO strategy it will be very challenging for you to build up a steady stream of organic traffic, and it goes without saying, but without traffic, your blog is as good as dead.
Try these free blogging courses for beginners
If you’re new to blogging, we recommend diving headfirst into as many online courses as possible to learn how running a blog works. Free blogging courses for beginners are fantastic resources that will help you patch any gaps in your knowledge.
⌛ Every single one of these blogging courses is worth checking out. However, we recommend starting with HubSpot Academy’s Blogging Course and Udemy’s How to Monetize a Blog. Those two courses will help you better understand how to grow your blog and potentially make money from it.
Are you starting a blog soon? Check out our blog launch checklist to make sure you don’t miss any steps in the process, and then take a look at our best blogging tools for beginners to make sure you’re equipped with what you need.
