12 Free & Paid Blogging Courses You NEED to Take

Note: If you have been redirected to this page after clicking on a link referring to Elite Blog Academy or Ruth Soukup, it is because Elite Blog Academy is no longer offered as a stand alone course, and I do not recommend the membership that has taken it’s place. Please see the list of courses (both free & Paid) that I do recommend below (updated June 2023):

There is a lot to learn when it comes to blogging, from getting set up, creating content, promotion, social media, and email marketing, the list never seems to end. Blogging courses can help you to shorten the learning curve.

But figuring out which course to take that will ensure you actually learn something and that the course is worth the investment of your time and or money can be tough.

Below are the best blogging courses I’ve taken (though I’ve taken far more courses than are listed below), they were well worth my time and in the case of the paid blogging courses, well worth my money.

Just so you know, this post may contain affiliate links. Meaning I receive commissions for purchases made through those links, at no cost to you. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. You can read my disclosure policy for more info.

If you’re curious (or in a hurry):

Free Blogging Courses to Start with:

The following courses do not cost any money but will help you to get up and running. It will also help you better understand the basics of all those blogging concepts you hear about and dive deeper into in other courses.

1. How to Start A Blog: From Idea to First Blog Post

When I started a blog I used someone’s tutorial on how to start blog. And it got me from having no blog to having one set up. However, the tutorial didn’t really explain why I was doing what I was doing to get things set up. I didn’t understand what the steps taken were actually doing. It also didn’t tell me anything about what to do once I was “set up”

This meant that when it came time to move my blog or website from one hosting service to another I have no clue what needed to be done or what was involved.

Now that I’ve started several sites and moved them around, I do know what’s going on. So when I decided to create my own free “how to start a blog” tutorial. I wanted to make sure include explanations on why everything was the way it was. So you could really understand and have full control of your blog and website.

If you’re wanting to start a blog but don’t know where to start and are left with more questions than answers after reading other “start a blog” tutorials then, sign up for my free course, Start a Blog: From Idea to First Post.

2. Grayson Bell’s WordPress Course

Now, my course tells you what to do to get set up with WordPress and why you do what you do to get set up. However, I’d be lying if I said that WordPress didn’t have a bit of a learning curve. And rather than create my own sort of WordPress orientation course and recreating the wheel, I figured I’d just share Grayson’s from iMarkInteractive’s course.

Grayson is a WordPress Guru. If you’re in any blogging-related Facebook Group chances are you’ve seen his name thrown around.

He is awesome and decided to be extra awesome by creating a FREE WordPress course to help you get over the hump of learning WordPress.

I wish this course had been around when I’d started my blog. Because I kid you not it took me 6 MONTHS to figure out how to do a drop down menu. Turns out all you had to do was drag the menu item to the right. SIX. FRIGGIN. MONTHS.

So get yourself used to WordPress without headaches, do yourself a favor and just go ahead and sign up for Grayson Bell’s free WordPress course at iMarkInteractive.

3. The Blogger Breakthrough Summit (free)

The Blogger Breakthrough Summit takes place at the beginning of each year and is free to attend while it’s live. Giving you free access to each session for 24 hours after it airs.

If you want access for longer you can join the Blogger Breakthrough Summit Membership for just $9/month.

Free & Paid Email Marketing Courses

Email marketing is a great way to connect with your audience and better yet is a channel you own, unlike Instagram or Twitter which could change their algorithms (a la Facebook) any day. These courses, some free, some paid help you to grow your email list and teaches you what to send them too.

4. Email Marketing Membership

The Email Marketing Membership from copywriting rockstar Liz Wilcox is a monthly membership that helps you to craft engaging and high converting emails to your list on a regular basis.

Each week you’ll get access to a new template complete with a breakdown of the why & how behind it, so you can make it truly yours.

Liz also offers monthly Q&As and ideas on what to send your list. Right now it’s priced at just $9/month which is a great deal if you have trouble emailing your list regularly.

Learn More About Email Marketing Membership

5. Love Your List/ Little List Big Profits

Love Your List by Kate Doster, has completely transformed my approach to email marketing and the results I get from it.

Email marketing has since become my most profitable activity for my business.

You can learn more about Love Your List here.

Paid Blogging Courses to Help Monetize Your Blog

If you’re looking to learn about blogging courses chances are you’re trying to make some money blogging. These courses help directly with earning more. One of my favorite ways to monetize is with Affiliate Marketing. I love that you set it up and it continues to make money months and years down the road.

6. Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing

I actually bought Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing before I bought Elite Blog Academy, but I didn’t truly implement everything from it until I was taking Elite Blog Academy.

It’s all about affiliate marketing, as you might’ve guessed. And while Ruth Soukup, the creator of Elite Blog Academy does go into affiliate marketing it’s not one of her main income strategies. Michelle from Making Sense of Cents on the other hand earns over $50,000 a month from affiliate marketing.

Michelle knows what she’s doing and she has a great course to teach you how you can start earning money with affiliate marketing.

Before I took the course I would get an affiliate sale once every blue moon, if that. Since then, I now make money from affiliate marketing every single month usually hundreds if not over a thousand dollars.

Want to learn more about the course? Check out my full review of the course.

Buying Tip: Michelle will occasionally do a sale, the maximum discount you’ll typically see is 20%, so if you see it on sale for 20% off, grab it, it’s the best price you’ll get.

7. Affiliate Marketing Video Course

I’ll be honest there is only one reason I bought this course from Matt over at MoneyLab after taking Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing and that is to learn how to do Google Analytics for better tracking of my affiliate links.

Ironically, not long after I got this course I got Lasso a plugin Matt co-created, which actually automatically does this for me.

So if you want to set better affiliate marketing strategies that require data I highly recommend you get this course.

FREE & Paid Blogging Courses to Legally Protect Your Blogging Business

8. Straightforward Business Starter

This is a free course I put together, because I found a lot of people didn’t really understand what it meant to register as a corporate entity and how to do it. It was knowledge I took for granted having worked on business formations when working at a law firm.

Straightforward business starter, helps you with understanding legal entities like LLCs vs sole proprietor and what they mean in terms of protecting your personal assets.

Plus, it’s free. Check it out.

9. Cover Your Assets: The Ultimate Guide for the Legal Side of Blogging in the U.S.

This eBook, helps you to understand the legal issues that can come up when you’re blogging. That way you can better understand what actions you need to take to protect your blogging business.

Check out the guide, Cover Your Assets: The Ultimate Guide for the Legal Side of Blogging in the U.S. here.

10. Website Legal Templates

These are paid templates, written by an attorney and includes a privacy policy, terms and conditions, and disclosures/disclaimers. Things that really every website needs.

Where they stand out a little bit is:

• A. they’re affordable for people that can’t yet afford to hire an attorney.
• And B. they’re super simple:

The way it works is you just fill out a form and then it will pre-populate your information into the template.

After you watch an explainer video that is may be 10 minutes long. It goes through and explains each section of the template. That way you understand it and can customize it to your needs. Because maybe you need to take something out that doesn’t apply to you. Or you just want to tweak something to match what you want the rules of your site to be. They’re awesome. You should go get them.

If you don’t have a privacy policy or terms and conditions and stuff on your site, you should get them.

Get the Website Legal Templates Bundle (value=$300+) for just $197

FREE & Paid Courses to Amplify Your Blog

11. SEO BootCamp

SEO Bootcamp, so this one I actually have not taken yet. It’s by, Mike the creator of Stupid Simple SEO, which is an SEO course that I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about.

He has this free SEO Bootcamp course and as of writing this I haven’t taken it but I plan to. Because SEO can be hard and it’s one of those things I think bloggers shy away from at first.

However, it can be a great way to amplify and get consistent traffic to your site. If you can find your site in favor of the Google gods, traffic abounds. So check out SEO Bootcamp, it’s free, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

12. Pinterest Traffic Avalanche

When I bought Pinterest Traffic Avalanche, I’ll admit I didn’t have super high hopes, I’d bought a lot of Pinterest courses and strategies and ebooks in the past and while I’d learned a lot I hadn’t actually seen a big increase in my traffic to my blog.

In the month after taking this course traffic to my blog increased by over 40%. Which is why this is the only paid Pinterest course I’m recommending here. Though make no mistake, you do have to do the work. If you are willing to put in the time and do the work, this is a great course.

Bottom Line on Blogging Courses

There is a lot to learn when it comes to blogging and even more to learn if you hope to earn some income from your blog. I definitely recommend taking advantage of free blogging courses and resources to start, but once you can afford to invest in other blogging courses, you should.

They are paid courses for a reason, they are extremely valuable and will provide you with a return on your investment, but only if you’re willing to put in the work.