It’s pretty safe to say that blogging is a widespread profession nowadays. For many, it’s even a very lucrative one. Depending on the niche, you can rake in a small fortune if you’re running a quality blog website with impactful content. Even adding a blog section to your business website can boost traffic.
How to keep a blog running well, though, is not exactly an easy thing to learn. There are a lot of things you should know, from SEO to affiliate marketing and backlinking. And not everyone has a friend or family member who can show them the ropes.
Luckily, there are plenty of online resources that can help you out in case you don’t have anyone to teach you. Online courses are likely the most easily available option for you. E-learning is quite a large industry nowadays, expected to be worth $325 billion by 2021. Therefore, it should be pretty easy to find a blogging course that suits you.
So, we’ve established that blogging courses are easy to find, but what makes them worth your time and money?
Here are some pretty compelling reasons why you should consider taking an online blogging course.
Blogging Courses Are Especially Beneficial to Beginners
Out of all people who can get something from these courses, absolute beginners are the ones that benefit the most.
The finer points of blogging can be terribly confusing if you lack any prior knowledge of the industry. If you’re an absolute beginner, you probably don’t even know what you should learn first. It’s a fairly complex topic overall, especially in today’s highly competitive and ever-changing business world.
This could leave you feeling confused and frustrated. Not knowing where to start may even compel you to reconsider your desire to become a blogger.
However, an online blogging course can point you in the right direction knowledge-wise. There are tons of courses designed especially for people who don’t know the first thing about it. Such courses gradually cover topics in a way that makes the most sense for people completely out of the loop.
They Provide You with Support from Experts
Online courses are usually held by people who have spent loads of time blogging successfully. They know the ins and outs of the scene, what to do to solve specific problems, and are usually well-aware of changing trends in the field.
This makes them excellent sources of blogging wisdom. Whenever you encounter a problem or need something explained, the chances are that they are the ones who can help you out. If you opt to take their course, they should be available to you whenever you have some questions.
Therefore, you can rely on these blogging gurus to aid you throughout your course. However, the benefit goes beyond that.
By taking their course, you can establish a connection with them. This can come in handy in the future in case you need a hand when you start managing your own blog. You’ll also join a community that can support you whenever you need tips and advice.
Blogging Courses Save Time You Would Spend Learning on Your Own
There are so many resources for running a blog out there, from CMS to plugins. While many of them work great, there are just as many (if not more) that are a waste of your time and money.
If you don’t have a plan and are randomly testing every option, you will make little to no headway. Furthermore, you’ll probably become frustrated and unmotivated.
By that token, blogging courses save you a lot of time. They tell you exactly what software you should take into account and what to dismiss. You’ll get pointers for all the right templates, SEO tactics, plugins, and more.
If You Pay for It, You Will Likely Stay Motivated to Finish It
How often does it happen that someone starts a free course or class only to drop out after a while? It can be because they’re bored with it or maybe they couldn’t find the time to attend it.
It’s a simple matter of self-motivation or better yet, finding a reason to keep going. Because you’re not really losing anything, you may feel that leaving a course is not such a bad thing. At least that’s what we tell ourselves.
As a result, we miss out on all the knowledge we could have gained by seeing a class through to the end.
On the other hand, paying for a course will probably drive you to complete it. There’s a clear objective that will motivate you to keep going. You want to get your money’s worth, after all, so you’ll likely stick around.
It’s a neat psychological quirk that experts call loss aversion. We generally feel worse about losing something, and we will put more effort into trying to avoid losing than trying to win or gain something. That can be a powerful motivator, especially if you’re prone to giving up.
Blogging Courses Can Help Change Bad Practices
It’s important to note that blogging courses are not only for beginners. Tons of people who’ve been running a blog for a while often sign up, too. Most of the time, that’s because they have difficulty managing their website or increasing their blog traffic.
More often than not, these problems come from bad practices that bloggers have been unknowingly implementing.
By signing up for a blogging course, more experienced attendees can learn about what they’ve been doing wrong all this time. They learn about their mistakes and how to correct them, which usually leads to improving the state of their blog.
Taking a Blogging Course: Worth the Investment
Assuming you’ve opted for a credible source, taking a blogging course is definitely worth the time (and money, if it’s a paid course). Not only will you effectively cover all the basics, but you will also have access to experts from whom you’ll be soaking up invaluable wisdom.
On top of that, you’ll save a lot of time by directly learning about the best practices of blogging. Additionally, you’ll be able to solve all the problems you’ve had with your blog that have been causing you a great deal of trouble.
If that isn’t enough to convince you that you should take a blogging course, not much else will.