We’re coming to the end of another holiday weekend here in the UK and, in true British fashion, it’s absolutely freezing cold.
Never mind – spring is still doing its thing bursting out all over…
But besides all that, we have business to discuss. Your business. Because I have noticed a worrying trend and I want to address – or counteract – it in this week’s newsletter.
It seems to be that every other shiny offer out there is now some form of software that promises frankly impossible things in 30 seconds flat. To be honest, I’m sick of it.
There is no such thing as software that spits out crispy notes for you, performs somersaults while siphoning in hordes of random strangers who will miraculously snap up your stuff or any of the other promises you and I see all the time.
So what’s the solution?
Empowering yourself with the real, fundamental skills it takes to create and scale a business online and off.
With that, I am sharing some great resources this week to help you do just that, some of which were made available because of the pandemic through the generosity of the course creators.
One of the best examples is this simply excellent course on business blogging which would normally set you back a cool 799 but is currently still available for nada here:
https://ahrefs.com/academy/blogging-for-business
In the Google Digital Garage you will find over 30 courses that cover the fundamentals of online marketing and more – two of them even have certificates of completion:
https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage/courses/category/digital_marketing
While in the Google Skill Shop you will find more advanced and product-specific courses:
https://skillshop.withgoogle.com/
Over at the Hubspot Academy there are 15 courses that also offer certificates with an emphasis on inbound marketing skills such as content creation:
https://academy.hubspot.com/courses?page=1
At Wordstream’s PPC University you can learn all about paid advertising and how to maximise it the right way:
https://www.wordstream.com/learn
And at SEMRush you can take their keyword research course which will only take you around an hour to complete:
If you’re a social media marketing beginner or need to brush up your skills then Constant Contact’s offering is just what you need:
For a highly professional branding course taught by a university professor, head over to EdX:
https://www.edx.org/course/digital-branding-and-engagement
And if you’re hungry for more, check out Neil Patel’s 21 resources for mastering online marketing here:
https://neilpatel.com/blog/21-resources-for-mastering-online-marketing/
It takes confidence to build and trust your own skills rather than some ‘magical’ software so, to help build that, here are ten more courses for nada:
https://coursesity.com/free-tutorials-learn/confidence
To enhance all of that, your TED talk this week is the wonderful Esther Perel talking about the routines, boundaries and rituals we all need right now:
