I spent over $32,427 on online writing courses

Hi Reader,

I’m a writing course junkie.

Years ago, I paid for creative writing classes at the Irish Writers Center in Dublin.

Since then, I’ve paid for online writing courses about copywriting, SEO, blogging and the craft.

Here’s what I found out.

Document what you learn.

Taking a writing course and doing nothing with it is procrastination in disguise.

Writing up your learnings as blog posts, articles or social media posts can pay dividends in unusual ways.

I took several business writing courses to upskill for a new corporate job back in 2015.

I paid for them on LinkedIn Learning. Back then, it was called Lynda.

I wrote about the course on a personal blog.

One day, a friend at work said he stumbled across my review. I checked my web stats and was surprised to see thousands of people read my review each month.

The LinkedIn Learning team invited me into their affiliate program, and I quickly earned $1000. That paid for the course… and then some.

Reframe premium writing courses as an investment

It’s a big decision, whipping out your credit card and paying a couple of $ for a course.

The first premium course I bought was from Jon Morrow. His course cost $2000. That was a lot of money to pay for a course from some random guy I’d met on Twitter.

I typed in my credit card details, thinking, “I can’t afford this!"

But… the course helped me learn how to write online and sell digital products.

I met Jon a few years later in Austin, Texas, as part of his mastermind and worked with several of his clients.

Use what works, discard the rest

I try to apply one or two strategies from a writing course I like.

As an example, I used an odd writing strategy David Sedaris teaches in his Masterclass.

(Sedaris recommends writing a daily journal like a scene from a novel and then using the results for non-fiction.)

However, I don’t expect a writing course to always deliver the goods… no matter how accomplished the teacher is.

For example, technical writing courses date… fast.

Many of the SEO courses I’ve paid for are out-of-date post ChatGPT or flat-out wrong.

I all but ignore the SEO writing gurus, no matter what they’re flogging these days.

Pick a writing course to solve one problem

A good course focuses on a specific problem and helps students solve it. I took a YouTube course from Pat Flynn.

His course is concise and focuses on starting a YouTube channel. I used his course to improve my YouTube scripts.

Community beats any lesson

The online course market is saturated. People don’t need another few hours of video to scrub through on x2.

And some writing courses from online gurus are nothing more than upsells for an overpriced premium offer.

But…

Buying a writing course is great for forming connections with other students.

You can connect with people at or on a level above you and collaborate on creative or business writing projects.

That’s more valuable than half a dozen hours of video.

Some students from courses I’ve taken started their own writing businesses. I worked with a few of them on several profitable projects over the years.

I’m considering launching an affordable community for writers on a budget who need more support. If you want to learn more about early bird pricing, reply to this email.

Write on,

Bryan Collins