25 Online Marketing Courses That Will Make You a Better Affiliate Marketer

 Want to become better at affiliate marketing? Improve your skills by taking an online marketing course.

There is no shortage of useful, well presented and actionable information out there that can help you learn a new digital marketing skill set or help you dial in your game even better. 

After all, the better your marketing skills, the better you will be at driving traffic to your website.

But never fear: we’ll show you how to sort through the jungle of online marketing programs to find the one that is perfect for you.

How to Choose the Right Marketing Courses for You

Online marketing courses require an investment of some sort. Even if they are free or low-cost, you’re still investing your most precious resource: time.

So, before you just dance with the first good-looking gal at the ball, take a step back and really think about what you need from your course. 

• Would you be willing to pay for a course or do you prefer a free option? 
• Are you primarily looking to gain knowledge about Internet marketing as a whole?
• Are you looking to zero in on one method, like social, mobile, SEO, or paid traffic?
• Do you want/need some sort of formal certification?
• What level of expertise (beginner, intermediate, advanced) are you hoping to achieve from your course?
• Would you prefer a regular classroom environment or are you more comfortable learning at your own pace?

Once you know the answers to questions like these, you can start to sort through your options. 

Some of your biggest choices will be:

Free or Paid Courses?

There are plenty of great free or low-cost courses out there, but typically speaking, the best information comes from behind a pay wall. 

Free courses often offer some great and very useful information but you may find that if you're looking for advanced knowledge, you are better off paying for a quality course. 

General Info or Highly Focused?

If you’re just getting started, a broad-based, general style digital marketing course is probably the way to go. This will give you an idea of various types of online marketing.

However, if you already have a solid base but really want to dive into the minutiae of something like PPC, then a more specific course is what you need.

Informal Course or Certificate Program/Degree?

Are you hoping to gain a certification, diploma, or degree from your course? 

If you're doing these courses with the goal of bettering your affiliate marketing efforts, a certification is not going to be of much importance. But if you'd really like one, make sure to pick a course that offers this.

Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced?

What level of knowledge are you seeking from your marketing course?

Are you interested in learning advanced SEO techniques? Then sign up for a course designed for people who already have some SEO knowledge.

However, if you are a complete newbie, your best bet is a course that will hold your hand and guide you through the basics of online marketing. 

Live or Self-Paced?

Do you prefer a course with a real, classroom-like environment? You should opt for a live course in that case. While you will be studying from home, these courses will require you to log on for live sessions and finish your homework. In general, they are a bit more demanding.

If you would rather study on your own, pick a course that is self-paced. You can read and review the course materials when it suits you and can study at your own speed. 

25 Online Marketing Course Options For You

Once you have analyzed your needs based on the above requirements, you will probably have a better idea of exactly what type of course you want to do.

Below is a list of courses, divided into free and paid categories, as this is often the most important criteria. Within each of these categories, the courses are further divided into the type of marketing skills you will acquire upon completion of the course. 

Free Online Marketing Courses

There is no lack of quantity when it comes to free online marketing courses and programs. The real trick is finding the quality ones.

There’s nothing worse than investing the time and effort into a course only to finish it and think, “Well @$%*! I knew all of that already!” To keep you from throwing monitors through windows, here are a few free online marketing courses worth your time: 

General Online Marketing

1. Google's Online Marketing Challenge

Where better to learn about online marketing than from Google itself? This digital marketing course very comprehensively covers search engine marketing, search and display advertising, mobile, social, analytics and video. 

Level: Beginner

Cost: Free

2. Hubspot Academy's Inbound Certification

If you’re looking for a free course from a trusted online marketing source that covers all of the bases, then stop drilling; you’ve hit oil, friend! Hubspot will help you break into the world of online marketing with modules on everything from SEO to conversion optimization. Even better, once you get the basic course out of the way, there's a paid option as well.

Level: Beginner

Cost: Free

3. Diploma in E-business

ALISON is a great resource for free training in online business. The E-business course helps newbies understand the basics of online marketing and how to make the most of Google Adwords, Analytics, AdSense and more. 

Level: Beginner

Cost: Free

4. Affilorama Free Lessons (shameless plug) 

If you didn’t know it already, here at Affilorama we offer a pretty awesome online marketing course — all designed with affiliate marketers in mind.

When you join our site, for free, you get a wealth of actionable knowledge that will help you build your online business including: the Affiliate Marketing Quick-Start Guide, a downloadable Roadmap to Success and 120 video lessons on topics such as content creation, SEO, PPC and more. 

Level: Beginner

Cost: Free

 

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

5. AdWords Certification Exams

If you'd like to learn all the nitty-gritty of online advertising, Google's Adwords certification courses are an excellent resource. The courses are each designed for you to be able to study and take the certification exams once you're ready. I recommend having at least a basic familiarity with Adwords before attempting the exams. Each exam has extensive study guides so you will be well versed with Adwords fundamentals, search advertising, display advertising, mobile advertising, video advertising, and shopping advertising. 

Level: Intermediate/ Advanced

Cost: Free

6. PPC University

Best known for its AdWords campaign grader, Wordstream is one of the most popular names in paid search content creation. This course is free and perfect for beginners in paid search. Even seasoned pros can pick up a few lesser-known tactics. 

Level: Beginner/ Intermediate

Cost: Free

 

Search Engine Optimization

7. SEO Training Course

This Udemy course, instructed by Moz is the ideal starting point for SEO beginners. The course will take you through the basics of SEO strategies. It's also useful for understanding how effective use of social media can also influence search rankings.

Level: Beginner

Cost: Free

8. Advanced SEO: Tactics & Strategy

This Udemy course, also instructed by Moz is ideal for those who want to gain a deeper understanding of some tactical SEO methods. While the course description says it's suitable for all levels, I think this course will be more useful if you already have a basic understanding of SEO. 

Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Cost: Free

 

Social Media Marketing

9. Social Media Quickstarter

This Constant Contact course is the ultimate overview of what you need to do establish a presence for your business on the top social networks. Networks covered include: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and YouTube. There is also additional advice for blogging and online reviews. 

Level: Beginner

Cost: Free

10. Diploma in Social Media Marketing

Another ALISON course, this self-paced offering is perfect if you want to gain an understanding of the basics of social media strategy for your business. In addition to Facebook and Twitter marketing, the course also covers podcasting, blogging and email marketing basics. 

Level: Beginner

Cost: Free

11. The Fundamentals of Social Media Marketing

Created by social media management platform Hootsuite, this six-part course will introduce you to social media marketing principles, strategy, content marketing, community management, social advertising, and more.

Level: Beginner

Cost: Free

Copywriting & Content Marketing 

12. Internet Marketing for Smart People

When it comes to content creation and online marketing, you’ll be hard pressed to find people doing it better than Brain Clark and the team over at Copyblogger. The course is heavily focused on quality copywriting and content marketing, and how to bring it all together to improve your Internet marketing efforts. 

Level: Beginner/ Intermediate

Cost: Free

13. Copywriting 101

Another Copyblogger course. This one is available as a free e-book download, and it's the ideal starting point to understand what makes effective, compelling copy. If you're not a writer but want to improve the quality of your content, start with this mini course.

Level: Beginner

Cost: Free

14. Writing for the Web

Ever wondered how writing for the web is different to other types of writing? This is the course for you. Created by a user experience consultant, this Open 2 Study course, will give you an understanding of online reader behavior, how to structure web pages, how to write SEO-friendly content, and how to create effective, user-friendly content.

Level: Beginner/ Intermediate

Cost: Free

 

Google Analytics

15. Digital Analytics Fundamentals

Understand the core principles of Google Analytics and how to use it to measure and improve your website's performance with the help of this course from Google's Analytics Academy. When you develop a better understanding, there are several more advanced courses available as well. 

Level: Beginner

Cost: Free

Paid Online Marketing Courses

There are no lack of options when it comes to paid online marketing courses, either. You will find courses that can range from $20 to a few thousand dollars. Here are a few courses that you have to pay for, but promise a lot of bang for your buck. 

General Online Marketing

16. Internet Marketing Classroom

This Udemy course is perfect if you want an overview of how to set up a website and drive traffic to it with the help of Internet marketing. There are 10 modules and almost 300 lectures covering topics such as content creation, blogging, social media marketing, sales copywriting, WordPress setup, SEO, and more.

Level: Beginner

Cost: $127

17. Hubspot Academy's Contextual Marketing Course

This is ideal for you if you use Hubspot and want to learn how to personalize your audience's experience on your website. This self-paced course is broken up into four pre-recorded webinars and focuses heavily on using content and engineering the user experience. 

Level: Intermediate/ Advanced 

Cost: $500

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

18. Adwords 101: Get More Customers With Search Marketing

This reasonably priced Udemy course is a great starting point if you want to understand how to use Google AdWords to reach your customers. From creating your own campaigns and writing ads to seeing your ads live in Google, this course is a great starting point for AdWords newbies. 

Level: Beginner

Cost: $23

19. Bing Ads Essential Training

PPC isn't just limited to AdWords, of course. If you're interested in learning more about Bing Ads, this Lynda course will show you how to reach your customers across the Yahoo-Bing network. You will learn the difference between Bing and Google, as well as how to set up your campaigns, create effective ads, optimize your campaigns, and more. 

Level: Beginner

Cost: $19.99 - $29.99 monthly membership fee for Lynda.com.

 

Search Engine Optimization

20. SEO Fundamentals

This Lynda course is designed to be a beginner's guide to search engine optimization and how to increase your visibility on Google and Bing. In addition to an overview of SEO, the course also covers keywords, content planning optimization, the basics of technical SEO, and link building, as well as analyzing and measuring the effectiveness of SEO campaigns.

Level: Beginner

Cost: $19.99 - $29.99 monthly membership fee for Lynda.com.

 

Social Media Marketing

21. The Complete Social Media Marketing and Management Course

Take this Udemy course to learn what works best for success on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram. More than 98 lectures to help you build a community on the right channels and maximize social media marketing for your business.

Level: Intermediate

Cost: $25

22. Social Media Marketing Specialization

Learn how to create profitable social media strategies and grow your business with the help of this Coursera course created by Northwestern University. You will learn how to create and optimize social campaigns, grow your brand and create content that sparks conversations. 

Level: Intermediate

Cost: $59

 

Copywriting and Content Marketing

23. Marketing Writing Bootcamp

This 13-class course by Marketing Profs University is designed to be the ultimate course for you to become a better writer. From blog posts to social media, sales copy to email writing, this course promises to make you better at communicating your brand message to your customers.

Level: Intermediate

Cost: $595

24. Content Marketing Crash Course

Also from Marketing Profs University, this 11-part course aims to help you take your content marketing strategy further. The course is designed to give you an insight into understanding your audience and how to create content that interests them. 

Level: Intermediate

Cost: $595

Email Marketing

25. Email Marketing Basics

This Lynda.com course is also designed for beginners and will take you through the basics of building an email list, creating emails with valuable offers, sending emails and more. Lynda.com also has several other email marketing courses available.

Level: Beginner

Cost $19.99 - $29.99 monthly membership fee for Lynda.com

5 More Resources for Online Marketing Learning

Obviously, it's near impossible to list all the courses available online. So, here is a list of resources where you can find more courses and classes on online marketing to further your learning. 

1. Courses on ALISON

• Online Marketing
• E-Business Online
• Social Media Marketing

2. Courses on Coursera

• Digital Marketing
• Public Relations for Digital Media
• Foundations of Marketing Analytics

3. Courses on Lynda.com

• Content Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Lead Generation

4. Courses on Online Marketing Institute

• All courses
• Digital Advertising & Affiliates
• Mobile Marketing

5. Courses on Udemy

• Analytics and Automation
• Digital Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization

Hope you find this list useful to further your digital marketing skills. If you do sign up for any of these courses, be sure to come back and let me know how you fare.

If you have a suggestion to add to this list of online marketing courses, please leave me a comment and I will definitely check it out. 

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4 Ways to Marry Your Email Marketing and Website Optimization Strategies

Do you hear that? It’s getting louder. It’s the sound of millions of emails, targeted ads, and personalized web experiences fighting for relevance. Despite the noise, B2B and B2C brands succeed at delivering relevant information to their target audiences. According to Direct Marketing Association, for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return-on-investment is $40.56. But there’s a difference between threading the needle and really creating something.

In many cases, data is being used to deliver personalized email campaigns with fantastic results. The Aberdeen Group says that personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10%. With results like these, the motivation to test, segment, and personalize email campaigns will no doubt increase. However, the success of these incremental improvements to email marketing depends largely on the next steps customers take after engaging with your email. Whether you’re sending them to a specific landing page or inviting them to take advantage of a personalized offer on-site, the work doesn’t end in your customer’s inbox.

By looking at how you use data to improve email marketing from the broader perspective of your web or mobile experience, you can multiply the impact of your targeting. And it’s worth it. According to Steelhouse, using correct targeting and testing methods can increase conversion rates up to 300%.

Break Down the Barriers

Closing the data loop and breaking down the organizational divisions between email marketing and website optimization is increasingly common. Marketers are adopting this strategy, particularly as facts about open-rates on mobile come to light and digital teams unite forces. But any brand making a significant investment in email marketing will soon be throwing good money after bad without an optimized, personalized mobile experience. Eisenberg Holdings says that companies typically spend $92 to bring customers to their site, but only $1 to convert them. Instead, make your money count twice by investing in a strategy that combines data from email marketing with on-site behavior for a comprehensive approach to optimization.

According to EConsultancy, 64% of companies would like to improve their personalization, 64%, their marketing automation, and 62%, their segmentation. The key is to unify these three key areas for a strategy that will keep your communications relevant and your audience engaged. Here, I’m going to share four ways your website’s optimization strategy can enhance your email marketing efforts, and vice versa! Let’s get started…

1. Use Website Data to Validate Email Segmentation

Segmenting your audience for email marketing is not an uncommon practice. However, the segmentation of your website traffic is often treated as a mutually exclusive effort.

Try This: Use your website data to validate predefined segments for email marketing campaigns with a URL parameter. By doing so, you can find out whether your segments behave how you expected them to with metrics that look at their behavior from first click to exit.

2. Use Email Marketing Attributes to Create a Better On-Site Experience

The data from email and websites can interact in either direction. One leading travel brand worked with Maxymiser, a website and app optimization solution, on an email campaign designed to bring users to the site by converting email prospects with a featured destination that best reflected their preferences (either collected or expressed.) Using Maxymiser’s optimization solution, the brand selected 36 destinations to offer and used each one as a specific variant of the test.

Try This: Segment visitors who came from email and determine which predictive attributes will make their visit the best possible experience. In the above instance, the brand took the attributes generated by an email campaign and used them to test and target on their site—and you can too.

3. Map Email Engagement and CRM

With the right tools, you can map the unique identifier to a CRM file and target specific individualized content to that visitor.

Try This: The data-driven marketer (you!) could place an individualized identifier in the URL of an email campaign. You can also match up an individual from the aforementioned unique URL to segments or visitor groups defined in the CRM file.

4. Test and Target from Email to Landing Page (Mobile or Desktop)

Using your optimization solution, you can test custom content on your predefined email segments by redirecting them from email to a specific landing page.

Try This: Optimize both your emails and landing pages in a single test and combine your analytics for a clear perspective on your user’s behavior. This might be a particularly interesting test to run on a mobile landing page.

In Q1 2014, more email was opened on iPhones (38%) than all desktops combined (34%). You can be sure that these percentages have only increased in the last 12 months. With that being said, if you’re hoping to convert a visitor with email, you have to optimize your mobile landing pages. A website optimization solution like Maxymiser can run the aforementioned desktop landing page test on mobile as well. A unified optimization and email marketing team could easily work together to generate a rich tapestry of insights by segmenting email audiences and testing the optimal experience on desktop or mobile, depending on where the user comes from.

So, don’t just think about the connection between email marketing and optimization; plan for success by aligning your strategy with a multi-channel approach like the one I have described above. On the road to becoming a holistic digital marketing organization, the marriage between email marketing and website optimization is one of the most valuable steps.

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4 Proven Ways to Create Powerful Headlines

No one’s reading your content.
That’s exactly what you’re thinking because it’s been a week and no one’s visiting your blog, sharing it or commenting on it.
And it’s not like you’re still trying to work out how to get your post to line up with your social media followers. You know what they like, you know what they share, but you have a feeling you also know why no one’s reading your content.
It’s your headline.
And no matter how many hours you take crafting the perfect headline, you have no idea how to make it more powerful to entice readers. Even if your headline isn’t attention-grabbing, there are hacks that’ll help you get around this.
Why all the fuss over a headline? Because your headline is that important in your content marketing strategy.

Headlines Capture Your Readers

Most people will never read your post. Up to 80% of people will take one look at the headline and if it doesn’t capture them, there’s no way they’ll stay to read the rest of what you have to say.
Your headlines must:

• Cut through the social media noise
• Pique a reader’s curiosity
• Leave them wanting more

And what happens if the stars align and you have the perfect headline? It can make up to a 500% difference in your traffic.
Yes, headlines can make your post go viral.
So, how can you capture your readers with a tantalizing and attention-grabbing headline?

The One Thing You Need for Headlines

Let’s not overcomplicate this. First, your headline is only one piece of your content. Whether it’s a landing page, blog post, opt-in incentive or your email subject line, there’s just one thing you need to know to write your headline:
People are seekers. They come online to learn something or try to solve a problem. Your headline must fulfill that curiosity.
If you can do that, then people will click through and see what you have to say. But, knowing that it only takes one thing doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Here are four ways you can create powerful headlines that get read.

1. Use Negative Superlatives

How come your partner can tell you you’re beautiful every day, but the one time they mention an imperfection you’re all over them?
For some reason, our brains hold onto and remember all the negative things instead of the positive things. Our brains process and analyze negative experiences longer than positive ones.
And this is no different online. If you position your headline with negative superlatives – won’t, avoid, worst – you can attract 63% more readers.



Looking on BuzzSumo, you can see that using the word avoid in headlines can bring a lot of shares.

2. Use Numbers in Your Headline

A number in a headline makes it final. It creates a box around the idea and attracts people who want to open the box.
15 Unique Ways to Crack An Egg
Makes you want to see what those fifteen ways are, right?
What’s great about creating a listicle type post is that it will get shared more often than a non-numbered headline post.
What else does a number do to a reader?

• It makes it specific – People like to read something specific and that has boundaries. So, if the headline promises 53 ways, they have an idea of the length and what they’re getting into with the post.
• It allows for scanning – Believe it or not, people don’t read word for word; they scan content looking for the important things. And numbers create signposts that help them navigate and find the valuable content in your post.
• Our brains enjoy numbers – That’s right. We are genuinely attracted to numbers. It acts as an organizational system, and we all know people love lists.

But, does any number work for your headline? Not really. The best numbers to use are odd numbers. It’s been shown that odd numbers hold your reader’s attention more.
Steve Davis of Baker Marketing has a headline formula using odd numbers:
(odd number) (adjective) (mistakes/tips/insights/shortcuts) for (achieving/avoiding) (desired outcome/disaster)
As an example, 3 Ridiculous Mistakes People Make When Using Social Media.

3. Make a Promise

Remember, people are online to solve a problem or learn something new. Your headline can help them to their goal – if it makes a promise.
You can even make an almost crazy promise to your readers. You want your headline to shock your reader.
For example, marketer Neil Patel has an evergreen webinar and his promise is audacious and bold:

His headline is implying that you have the same tools as Neil had to create a multimillion-dollar company.
You see these promise-type headlines a lot on sales pages and landing pages. You only have a few seconds to get your visitor’s attention and entice them to follow your call to action.
And this is no different with your blog post headline. Jeff Goins also has a headline formula you can use:
Number or Trigger word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise
For example: 23 Unlikely Methods You Can Use to Find Clients on Instagram

4. Get Help From a Headline Generator Tool

We all know that crafting your own headlines is ultimately the best way, but if you’re struggling or have a bad case of writer’s block, there are headline generator tools and analyzers to help you out.
Let’s look at three of the most popular ones.

CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

The CoSchedule Headline Analyzer takes your headline and gives it several ratings and scores.
While this tool doesn’t generate a headline for you, it does help you create a converting headline that will entice readers and make them invest in your content.
Let’s look at an older Snaptactix headline: 10 Surprising Ways to Boost Website Traffic.


This headline gets an A+ because of its use of uncommon words, emotional words and power words.
CoSchedule also likes that this post is a list post and that the character and word count are a good length.
If you receive a low score, you can find out what metric is scoring poorly. For example, you may lack emotional type words and may need to increase those words in your headline.

Tweak Your Biz Title Generator

Do you want hundreds of titles based on a keyword? Well, the Tweak Your Biz Title Generator will give you over a hundred titles based on several categories.
Here’s what I get when I use the keyword work at home:



Not every result will make sense, but there are a lot of headlines that totally work and can inspire you towards a usable and engaging headline.
You can take an example – 8 Facts Everyone Should Know About Working From Home and modify it by:

• Using an odd number
• Using a powerful adjective
• Having a desirable promise

Based on those criteria, your new headline can be:
9 Overlooked – But Extremely Important – Facts You Need to Know Before Working From Home

Advanced Marketing Institute’s Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer

The Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer looks at the impact your headline will have on your readers.
Paste your headline into the box, select a category and submit for analysis. Looking at the headline we used for the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer, the results from this tool gives us some different ideas about the headline.



This headline is more suitable for health food markets than content marketing businesses for some reason.
But, that doesn’t mean your headline isn’t effective. It will still resonate on social media, according to CoSchedule’s ratings.

Make it Easy on Yourself

While your headline is important, so is the content. And, as you know, you should spend 80% promoting what you created and 20% creating it.
So, if you’re fretting over the state of your headline, you can use our free headline tool that will help you out in a pinch. Just enter your name and email address to get instant access to 8,834 proven and tested headlines:

Or, use a tool like the Tweak Your Biz Blog Title Generator to see hundreds of potential headlines quickly.
You can also dive deep and analyze a headline with the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer or the Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer.
Or, if a formula is something you enjoy using more, take a look at the two formulas in this post to help you craft that perfect headline.
And no matter if you use a headline formula, tool or template, understand that creating a headline is important, but it shouldn’t take up all of your time.
Over to you – tell us what is your favorite method for creating engaging and powerful headlines?

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