Best Content Writing Courses For Freelance Writers (2024) (2024)

Getting started with content writing is sometimes challenging, but content writing courses can give you the knowledge and skill to earn more money.

Making a living, and a good one, as an online freelance content writer is possible. However, to do so, you need some basic writing skills and knowledge of the content writing world. Content writing courses can give you that.

Content writing is more than just having solid language and grammar skills. You also need to know how to communicate with your audience. You must know how to reach an online audience with engaging and compelling content. If you are looking for content writing courses to help you deliver this to clients and build an income through online writing, here is everything you need to know.

Content Writing Vs Other Writing

There are generally three basic categories of writing. These include:

• Fiction writing — Fiction writing includes stories, novels, screenplays, short stories, poetry and prose.
• Non-fiction writing — Essays, opinion articles, newspaper articles, most business writing, press releases, biographies and other factual pieces make up non-fiction writing.
• Content writing — Content writing has a goal of conversion, or making the reader perform an action, and can include all types of digital marketing, including blogs, social media posts, landing pages, website content, reports, ecommerce descriptions and other types of online copywriting.

The main differentiator between content writing and, say creative writing, is that content usually drives a conversion. The definition of content writing is:

Creating blog posts, social media posts, articles, ebooks, guides, and any type of content that’s published online.

Many different types of content fall under the digital marketing auspice. This involves several factors, including:

• Writing content i.e blog posts, articles, social media posts
• Planning a content strategy
• Understanding search engine optimization
• Applying SEO techniques to the writing
• Knowing how to write to a specific audience

With content writing, companies want to convert readers into customers, newsletter sign-ups or new contacts. Quality content helps them reach that goal. In this article, we explain more about what does a content writer do?

Top 11 Content Writing Courses

To make an effective content writing business, you need solid writing skills, but you also need to understand digital marketing, search engine optimization, and content strategy planning. All of these are skills that you can learn with content writing courses such as these:

1. Writers Work

Writers Work provides courses and training for new writers to kickstart their freelance careers. As well as providing training and courses for new writers, Writers Work also acts as a job board where writers can pick up work. This platform allows beginners to submit their work to publications and sites and apply for writing jobs. Freelance writers can use it to find online clients and get paid, all while working from home.

Writers Work costs a one-off fee or monthly subscription, giving writers access to all their courses, training, and jobs posted to the job board. With long-established partnerships with the most popular writing companies, Writers Work gives all users access to apply for available freelance writing jobs. Read out Writers Work review.

2. LinkedIn Learning Free Content Marketing Courses

When you’re launching a content writing business, you may not have the funds to invest in a paid course, but LinkedIn has a number of free content marketing courses you can take. These are video courses without tests or quizzes, but they can give you the information you need to successfully launch your new business.

Later on, when you can afford it, LinkedIn Learning offers content writing courses covering topics like copywriting, social media marketing, content strategy, and blogging. It’s also a good choice if you want to pitch the cost of a course to an employer as they’re probably familiar with LinkedIn already.

That said, it’s worthwhile paying to take a LinkedIn content writing course. If you complete the course, it’ll award you with a certificate that you can use on your LinkedIn profile. This will help you stand out in the eyes of employers.

Read our LinkedIn Learning review.

3. Masterclass

Masterclass specializes in offering online courses about topics like music, creative writing, and the arts. However, it’s also started offering business and marketing courses. You can learn about sales and persuasion from author Daniel Pink and about creativity and leadership from journalist Anna Wintour.

Couple these courses with Masterclass offerings about business storytelling from the likes of Malcolm Gladwell. These courses are relatively affordable and produced to a professional standard. You can also watch them on your lunch break using the Masterclass app.

Read our Masterclass review.

You brush up on general writing skills and learn some basic content marketing techniques via classes from SkillShare. These cover many different topics including the staples of branding, storytelling, and creative writing.

These courses are also are self-paced, so you can learn appropriate skills on the side of a day job.

5. Content Marketing Masterclass

The Content Marketing Masterclass on Udemy not only teaches writing skills, but it also helps new content writers understand copywriting, SEO, marketing, and overall content creation. It outlines the cognitive buying journey and how a freelance content writer can guide people along that path.

6. Content Strategy for Professionals Specialization

This course from Northwestern University is on Coursera. Content Strategy for Professionals Specialization teaches freelancers and other content marketers how to generate ideas that will resonate with a target audience. It also teaches how to understand that audience to better use written content to bring the right emotions and action to the forefront.

7. Become a Freelance Copywriter

For new freelance writers, this course will teach how to build a business from the ground up. If you already have writing skills, this focuses on the mechanics of building a freelance business instead of the “how to write” tips you might find elsewhere. Sign up for Become a Freelance Copywriter to get the skills you need to fast-track your new freelancing business.

8. Copywriting Secrets – How to Write Copy That Sells

The goal of online content creation is to convert, and conversion often means selling. Copywriting Secrets – How to Write Copy That Sells will show you how to write content that gets the desired action from the site’s reader.

This content writing course includes finding your voice and writing ideal copy that speaks to your audience. Copywriting is a good skill for any writer as it’ll help you sell more of your products or your clients’ products and services.

9. Content Is King: Writing Killer Content for Web And Marketing

If you need to learn how to write web content, this is where to start. Remember, this type of writing is different from fiction and non-fiction writing for publications. You need to learn how to write for the web, how to edit for the web, and how to convert with what you write, and Content Is King will show you how.

10. The Strategy of Content Marketing

Content marketing strategy is just as important as content writing skills, and the Strategy of Content Marketing course on Coursera will teach you how to develop and implement your online marketing strategy. It will also discuss metrics to analyze to see if your content and marketing strategy are working.

11. Writing Tools & Hacks: Copywriting, Blogging and Content Writing

Writing Tools & Hacks gives you the tools and apps you need to improve your copywriting and content writing. This course teaches you how to write efficiently, create effective headlines, and use tools already available to you to improve your writing and its conversion. It also tackles how you can keep fresh ideas flowing at all times.

12. Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals

You cannot be successful with a content writing online business if you do not understand SEO, and this online course will teach you the fundamentals of how to optimize your online content to appeal to the search engines. This science can be hard to master, but the Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals course will outline it all for you so you can confidently offer optimized content to your clients.

The Final Word on Content Writing Courses

Content writing courses can help you fill in the gaps in your understanding of online marketing and writing for the web. Whether you need to learn more about SEO, targeting and reaching an audience, technical writing, or working as a blogger, you can find a course that covers the topic.

Take advantage of these online courses, and launch a successful content creation business to put your writing skills to work. After taking a course in content writing, you could apply materials by writing for content mills. That’ll give you a chance to get paid for learning on the job.

From there, you can easily find a content writing job or build a business as a content publisher.