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As I spend more time blogging and trying to make social media an actual career I am starting to consider what types of skills I could improve upon by taking some continuing education courses. Many years ago when I was young and had no children I started college with grand dreams of an illustrious career doing medical research. I took fascinating courses like electron microscopy (okay, *I* thought it was fascinating!) and worked my butt off as an undergraduate lab slave to graduate summa cum laude with a degree in Microbiology. I quickly realized, however, that graduate school and 80 hour work weeks were not really conducive to having kids. Not only did I want kids, I wanted to be a Stay At Home Mom. Yup, my illustrious career in medical research was given up for play-dough and poopie diapers. I wouldn’t trade those years for anything but now that they kids are in school all day, continuing education classes are looking more and more appealing so I have started doing some research. What types of courses will benefit a blogger trying to make a career out of social media? Here are some continuing education classes that I have looked into and what I hope to learn from each one:
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Continuing education courses for bloggers
1. Internet Marketing There are a few key concepts that I am really weak on like SEO optimization and key word insertion and all sorts of other things that the big Google search engine uses to see if my blog is worth showing someone in a topic search. Doesn’t really matter how well I write if no one stops by to see it, right?
2. Photography Before I tackle this one I need to save up for a new camera but I have a book on Food Photography that I have started reading. A huge portion of marketing yourself to a company is showing off your projects with great photos. Lighting, colors, and setting are all important but without a good camera I think I can only go so far.
3. Creative writing: After a few years of blogging I sometimes feel like I am writing the same things over and over and need something to get the creative juices flowing. If I am going to continue writing as a career I need some inspiration.
4. Business Administration Courses: If I am going to run my blog as a business, I need to take some business courses. From what I have seen, business administration courses teach people various areas of business such as accounting, finance, marketing, etc. Unless you want to get nabbed by the IRS, remember that your blogging profits and expenses need to be tracked and reported just like in any other business.
5. Computer training courses: I cannot tell you how many times I have had to play with the HTML of my blog only to completely freak out when I look at all those <div> and <br> things that I have no idea what to do with. I would like to learn enough basic HTML and coding language that I can fiddle with my blog’s code without having a nervous breakdown!
I have seen a number of Social Media Marketing programs popping up in the last year and would love to have some sort of degree or certificate to make myself stand out among the millions of blogs popping up all over the place. When clients see that I have invested time and money into continuing education programs I hope they will realize that I am serious about my career in Social Media Marketing. And remember to list any continuing education classes you take on your resume! You never know where your life might take you and keeping your resume updated is always a smart move!
Have you considered any continuing education courses to improve your blogging skills?
Are there any specific topics I should make sure to learn about?
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Diane is a professional blogger and nationally certified pharmacy technician with two teens, one husband and more pets than she will admit to. She has a BS in Microbiology but left her career in science to become a stay at home mom. Years of playing with LEGO and coloring with crayons had her craving a more grown up purpose to her life and she began blogging full time. She currently deals with emotional teens, suburban politics, and middle aged metabolism while sharing her opinions in an honest and down to earth fashion on her blog.
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