Looking for free writing and content development courses?
If you want to improve your writing and content creation skills, a few good courses can help you.
In this post, I’ll share a few free writing and content development courses you can take today.
Content Development and Writing Courses
Now, all the courses on this course are not directly to writing. But they all provide practical strategies to improve writing and content development.
1. Become a Better Writer With Daniel Pink
Daniel Pink is a bestselling author, who’s had 6 books on the New York Times bestseller list.
Pink shares his top writing tips in the HubSpot course, Become a Better Writer With Daniel Pink.
It’s a quick course but still packed with great advice, including;
- The value of a writing process
- The best ways to collect ideas
- The importance of writing practice
I wrote about some of the writing lessons in this post.
One of the inspiring parts of this course is that Pink shares his own writing struggles. (In his case, he hates first drafts.) This in itself is inspiring. If a bestselling author finds writing hard, so can we.
2. Conversion Copywriting 101
Conversion copywriting is the art of using words to get people to take action.
In Conversion Copywriting 101, Joanne Wiebe, the founder of Copy Hackers, gets experts in the industry to talk about writing copy that influences people’s actions.
Like the HubSpot course, this is short and to the point.
You’ll come away with practical strategies, like using online reviews to learn more about your target audience.
3. The Strategy of Content
Great content has a great strategy.
But how do you develop a content strategy?
Sonia Simone, one of the cofounders of Copyblogger, covers the key elements of content that, again, gets your readers to take action.
The Strategy of Content is a longer course with a 5-week syllabus.
You’ll learn:
- The importance of having your own website
- The framework of strategic content that motivates your reader to take action
- How to develop buyer personas
- Strategic types of content
Like many content marketing courses, the lessons in here can be applied to building your personal brand, too. One tip I especially liked was to become part of the community you’re trying to serve.
4. Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking
This one is great for creating persuasive content.
Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking is a Harvard course that’s available on EdX.
Here, you’ll learn how to identify the elements of persuasion in writing.
Rhetoric is made up of devices humans have always used to make their arguments more compelling, using modes of appeal like:
- Logos: appeal to reason or logic
- Ethos: appeal based on the authority of the speaker
- Pathos: appeals hinged on emotions
The one thing that stuck with me is learning to spot rhetoric in everyday life, like speeches or even social media posts.
Since doing this course, I’ve tried to use these appeals where they make sense. For example, if I’m writing an article about writing lessons I’ve learned, I’ll mention that I’ve been writing professionally for 15 years. In this way, I’m adding credibility to my advice.
Another example is adding a personal story to an article or presentation. Using the Pathos appeal might make your argument more persuasive.
During the course, you’ll learn to write a speech and opinion editorial.
5. Free Course on Introduction to Neuromarketing
Understanding human behavior is key for creating compelling content.
That’s the takeaway from the Free Course on Introduction to Neuromarketing from CXL.
It’s short but packed full of useful insights. The lesson that stood out to me what that every conversion on your site is because of human behaviour.
Applying this to writing, consider the kind of action you want you reader to take. What would they need to know to act?
6. Next Level 7
Great content shares three elements.
It focuses on:
- Audience: who are you creating content for
- Offer: what are selling/providing
- Copy: what are the words you’re using to convey the value of your offer
That’s the message from Brian Clark, the founder of Copyblogger in Next Level 7, a free email course.
The focus is to build an audience in the digital age. It’s Clark’s expertise. In this post, I covered how Clark grew Copyblogger from a one-man blog to 8-figure business.
7. Promote a Business with Content
This free course from Google Digital Garage focuses on earning attention for your business using content.
But you can apply the techniques to your personal brand.
Promote a Business With Content covers topics, like:
- Picking the right social sites
- Shooting video on a budget
- Writing content for online readers
They even include productivity tips for creating content, like batching your video shoots on one day.
8. Blogging Basics (FREE)
Blogging Basics is a free course on Skillshare.
Like the name says, you can expect to learn the basic steps of setting up and running a blog.
The courses covers:
- Blogging platforms
- Pages you should set up
- Creating content for your blog
Note: this is the one course on this list I didn’t take. But, it seemed simple and useful, so I included it here.
9. Writing for Social Media
Writing for Social Media is a free course from Berkeley. And it’s available on edX.
It’s filled with practical tips for writing online, including:
- Say one thing: leave the reader with one clear takeaway
- Start with a thesis statement: what’s the gist of the purpose of your post
- Different post types: choose from list, small stories, and more
One lesson I found especially helpful was the instruction to develop a mini creative brief.
In this document, you’d outline the purpose, context, and content of your post.
This course will help you be more thoughtful about content creation and writing for social media.
10. The Writer’s Workbench: 50 Tools You Can Use
Need help with the principles of good writing?
The Writer’s Workbench: 50 Tools You Can Use is a collection of essays from Roy Peter Clark, from The Poynter Institute.
This work is available in different formats. In addition to this free course, it’s also a book.
The tips are quick, practical strategies for writing better, like starting your sentences with verbs and nouns to create a “narrative energy and flow”.
These are guidelines you can use to improve your writing right away.
