Online Courses That Helped Grow My Business

The early days of starting my business involved a massive learning curve.

I graduated from UW Milwaukee with a Bachelor’s Double Major in Graphic Design + Journalism. I officially started Studio 29 Photography in July of 2010, and within a few months, things exploded.

I was booked for weddings and had multiple sessions during the week, but my income leveled out after a few years. I knew it was now time to invest in myself & the business to grow and reach my new goals.

So I took a handful of online courses. Before I signed up for these online courses, I had never taken a business class in my life.

Fast forward several years, when I started THIS blog. I was getting the page views and the ad network income, but I wanted more.

Once again, I needed to think differently about my marketing, client outreach, audience building, and making better business decisions that supported my personal and business goals.

So, once again, I took a handful of online courses.

I owe a large portion of my success in both of my businesses to these amazing online courses!

I was a perfectionist at my craft and what I had to offer, but I knew, wanted, and needed to invest in myself & my business…

Online Courses That Helped Grow My Business

1) The Serial Method

Nicole Culver created this course. It is a binge-worthy online course that will teach you how to create content that will attract your current audience AND a new audience. The premise of the series is THE NEW WAY to attract a wildly engaged audience. Many bloggers are frustrated by the algorithm changes on Instagram/Facebook and are in need of the know-how for creating content that attracts an engaged audience.

2) Creative Live

You can find courses on Creative Live for any photography and any level! I highly recommend this site for beginners & well seasoned creative entrepreneurs.

3) Pitch it Perfect

Taught by my favorite creative Californian Podcaster in the world, Julie Solomon. I cannot say enough positive things about this course. I binge-watched it! This course took me only two days to complete. The course is easily digestible, and I started implementing what I learned immediately! I have since re-watched the 5 modules multiple times, and I am active in the Facebook group included in the course. Julie gave me the confidence and guidance needed to reach out to specific brands & I have booked several high-paying contracted jobs. The Pitch it Perfect course has easily paid for itself, time and time again.

4) Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing is an online affiliate marketing course. It’s a comprehensive, step-by-step tutorial on how to earn money through affiliate marketing with your blog or internet business. It’s a self-paced course, so you may start anytime and continue as long as you want. I completed the course in early 2017, and I highly recommend it!

5) Instagram 180:

[update: course closed Jan 2021]Taught by the brilliant Jasmine Star. This course helped me change my Instagram from just a pretty gallery of images to book the most amazing clients, get our work published worldwide, and save on marketing dollars! I use and understand Instagram completely differently, and I am so happy I invested in this course. Once I started using Instagram wisely, I started attracting the right followers & engaging with my dream customers. This course paid off in less than a week because I get a fair amount of traffic to my blog from Instagram & I book A TON of photography clients from Instagram.

Will these online courses work for You?

If you do the work! I’ve bought plenty of courses, and regretfully, there are some that I never finished or finished but never implemented. My advice to you: if you’re going to buy the course, immediately carve out time to go through it! And as you are finished going through it, immediately implement it! I like going through a module, stopping, doing exactly what the course instructed me to do, and then moving on to the next module. Do not skip modules – even if you think you may have the “gist” of it. Course instructors take the time to create each module of a course because each module stacks upon the previous one. It may take a while, but trust me, if you learn AND implement what you’ve learned, you will have results!

Have you taken any online courses? Which ones have helped you grow? These online business courses changed everything for me, and I hope one or more might help you!

Thank you for supporting House Fur and all of the creatives that have helped me through my business journey.