10 Free Courses to Learn Content Writing

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch

(Updated.)

Going back to a question on my Facebook page that says, how can I start to be one of those content writers?

It is a broad question.  “You can always start searching online. There is a lot of training on the internet,” goes my answer. She answered again asking how.

I gave her a link to a MOOC list.  I was guessing that she needs to know what content writing is.  This also gave me an idea – What about creating a list of free online courses for content writing?

For now, I will give this list of free online courses that will be updated from time to time.  Some of the courses include content writing in their syllabus because it goes hand-in-hand with content marketing, SEO, advertising, social media, etc.

Feel free to visit the links below to learn!

1. Free Content Marketing Certification Course. This is from Hubspot Academy.  It is specifically about content marketing but effective writing is included in the syllabus. There are 11 lessons and an exam.
2. The Strategy of Content Writing.  A free course from Coursera from the University of California, Davis.  You can get a certificate for a fee.  There are materials, quizzes, and forums. It is an interesting course by Sonia Simone and Brian Clark from Copyblogger.
3. Writing for Social Media.  A free course from EdX by the University of California, Berkeley.  It is a course about effective and engaging content for social media.
4. Become a Better Blogger. A course by Andrea Goulet Ford about creating quality content for blogs that you can utilize for your business.
5. SEO Training.  A free training course by Udemy about Search Engine Optimization that can help you in creating effective online content and managing your social media activities.
6. Secret Sauce of Great Writing. The course will help you write blogs, books, and business writing. It’s a free course by Shani Raja, an ex-Wall Street Journal editor, who will teach you about simplicity, clarity, elegance, and evocativeness. She calls them ‘ingredients of good writing.’
7. Essentials of Writing Content. This course by Girijan Raghavan will help you learn about the required attributes to become a content writer.  No certificate of completion for this course.
8. Content Marketing: Blogging for Growth.  Eric Siu of Single Grain will teach you to create content not just for the sake of writing content, but for attaining your goals or objectives.
9. Professional writing.  This MicroBachelor’s Program by Arizona State University will teach you how to craft your writing to meet the needs of varied audiences, how to decide on what to include or not include in your writing, how to use the invention, research, drafting, revising, and editing in your writing, and many more.
10. Content Marketing Lesson: How to Generate Content Ideas. This free lesson will teach you techniques on how to research and uncover an idea and expand on it whether you’re doing it alone or with a group.

This is an updated version of the previous post.  It intends to help you kickstart your content writing skill. Start now!

“LEARNING IS NOT ATTAINED BY CHANCE, IT MUST BE SOUGHT FOR WITH ARDOR AND ATTENDED TO WITH DILIGENCE.” ―ABIGAIL ADAMS