E-Courses to Get The Creative Juices Flowing

Well, if you are reading this today, that means you’re probably at work. And if you’re at work the Friday of a holiday weekend, you probably aren’t feeling that productive…at least not that productive for The Man. Hard to feel invested when The Man is on vacation.

That doesn’t mean you should spend the day playing solitaire or checking Facebook again (and again and again…). If you have been thinking about starting your own small business or blog, I’d like to suggest two E-Courses I just took through A Beautiful Mess, a great blog that gives me lot of inspiration for daily life.

Dream Job E-Course

A little insight… I found myself having a slightly existential crisis last week. Was Mark the Occasion Designs going the direction I wanted it to go? What was the direction I wanted anyway?? I searched online for articles that would help facilitate an internal conversation and stumbled upon this gem, Dream Job E-Course, the first course produced by two very busy creative ladies.

This self-paced course provided me with thoughtful anecdotes and facilitated questions that helped me fill a notebook full of inspirational thoughts and specific directions. In the end, I was able to come up with six goals (two major, four minor) for the next 12 months, which I further divided down into monthly (and for June, weekly) goals. This has made all the tasks necessary to run a small business seem much more manageable.

I really wish I would have found this blog before I made my business my full-time gig, but I still got LOTS out of it. My plan is to return every two to three months to make sure I’m staying on track.

Blog Love – An E-Course for Bloggers

While I think your average bear should take one e-course a month (give it time to process!), I jumped right into the Blog Love e-course, too. I truly enjoy writing and love the creative outlet my blog gives me, but I was afraid that I didn’t have a good focus. Now I have one!

[boxparagraph]Mark the Occasion Designs’ blog is a lifestyle blog that focuses on ways to make the most of every occasion. I will inspire the reader to add a little something special to all the events in their lives, big and small. The blog will teach us that not every effort needs to be grand to make a big impact, being green can be luxurious, and buying local is a great option when possible.[/boxparagraph]

What do you think?

While this course doesn’t get into analytics, SEO, or other industry jargon, it does help you create lists and lists of appropriate content and focused direction. Great content is half the battle for a successful blog, so I think this will be a great help.

If you still want lessons in SEO, may I suggest following the HubSpot blog? This is one recommended by my most techy friends, but it still seems understandable to me.

Given the reasonable prices of both of these e-courses, I’d suggest them even if you are just considering a creative business or writing a blog. They will help you figure out your direction, even if that direction is work for The Man and enjoy your weekends.

Now go enjoy that afternoon and daydream, but daydream productively!