This list of beginner friendly short courses will help you to get into the swing of things. Short courses are a great way to get your foot in the door of a career you may have been slightly hesitant about. You can build a better career with just these or even help you with your freelancing gigs.
- Video editing
- Photography and image editing
- Digital marketing
- Web design
- Web programming
- Data science
1.) Video Editing Courses
You don’t have to be an expert to make a high-quality video. It only requires a little knowledge and a lot of creativity. In order to transform your ideas into a masterpiece, you must arm yourself with all the required equipment and knowledge. To learn how to edit your own production, from color correction to rotoscoping, look for classes that may introduce you to these topics. Learn to enhance the raw footage you record from your phone or any camera and adjust each aspect to the concept of your visual story.
Make a video you’d be proud to show the world. You may monetize you videos in YouTube or a offer your video editing services as a side hustle.
Learning to use programs like Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects will significantly aid in your filmmaking. There are plenty of tutorials online that can show you step by step on how to use these applications. You can even start editing videos on your phone using apps like CapCut and InShot. The best part is that these apps are free and have no watermarks. Another free vide editing software you can download that does not have watermark is DaVinci Resolve.
Try looking in to these YouTube channels for Video Editing tutorials:
- CapCut Video Editing Tutorial by Justin Brown – Primal Video
- InShot Tutorial by Collin Michael
- DaVinci Resolve – COMPLETE Tutorial for Beginners! by Justin Brown – Primal Video
- Cuts & Transitions 101 by RocketJump Film School
2.) Photography and Image Editing Courses
Do you have a good SLR camera? Or maybe a phone with a HD camera? Perhaps it’s time to put it in good use. Photography is a great gig. A skilled photographer can be compensated well especially those who can edit raw images according to their client’s needs. You have a wide variety of subjects to shoot like people’s portraits, products for sale, outdoor sceneries, and more. These shots can be sold as part of your photography service or can be used for advertisements.
You can start with equipment such as tripods, studio lights, and light boxes. Many of these equipment can be purchased online at a good price. But first you must practice and understand the science and lighting behind a good picture.
To edit an image, we recommend using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. There are free alternatives to image editing software such as GIMP. But free software may only provide practical solutions and not professional ones. So it’s still highly advisable to try learning Photoshop and Lightroom.
You can learn more about how to operate an SLR/DSLR camera, lightning techniques, and image editing here:
- Photography Basics in 10 Minutes by David Manning
- Learn Off-Camera Flash in 10 Minutes! by SLR Lounge | Photography Tutorials
- Basic Lighting Techniques by DayfloLighting
- DIY Product Photos – Easy, Cheap and Good-looking by Luke Ayers
- Photoshop Tutorial for Beginners by Vince Opra
- Lightroom Tutorial for Beginners by Ed Gregory
3.) Digital Marketing Courses
The marketing environment has been changed by the digital era. Online platforms are getting more and more funding. Consumers and companies are now more connected than ever thanks to the internet and mobile technology, making it possible to bypass the norms in traditional marketing. This creates new opportunities and propels content planning, analysis, and development to the top of the marketing field. Fundamental concepts in digital marketing and analytics are also becoming more and more crucial for industry experts.
The beauty of digital marketing is that it’s available for everyone. It does not have to be exclusive to degree holders and those who work in the corporate world. You can easily look for free courses or tutorials that can equip you with a global or local scope of marketing strategies.
One of the easiest platforms where you can practice your marketing skills is Facebook For Business. If you already have a Facebook page for your business, Facebook offers ways not just to boost your page’s popularity reach, but it also helps you target the right audience. You can select to target a wide range of demographics such as location, gender, or age groups.
If you have a website or an online store, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is your best bet to get organic traffic. Google Ads is also a powerful tool that can help you reach more prospect clients and visitors as it promotes your website to people inline with their online searches.
Other things to learn in digital marketing are social media advertising, email marketing, content marketing, ecommerce strategies, and Influencer partnerships. Google Analytics and Google Search Console can also help website owners and developers better understand their site’s performance and rank.
Here are links for free tutorials on some basic things you’ll need for digital marketing:
- Digital Marketing 101 (A Beginner’s Guide To Marketing) by Adam Erhart
- NEW Facebook Ads Tutorial for Beginners by Andrew Ethan Zeng
- How To Use Google Ads by Metics Media
- Google Analytics, Ultimate Beginner’s Guide by Ranking Academy
- Intro to Google Search Console – Search Console Training by Google Search Central
4.) Web Design Courses
Building a successful business requires having an online presence, whether you’re working on your own website or someone else’s. Nowadays, customers can find almost all the information they require online by simply searching for your name or keywords associated with your sector. Making your website appealing and interesting is essential to bringing in new clients and enhancing your company’s reputation.
Basic understanding of HTML and CSS is a good prerequisite to this skill. You can learn both for free in W3Shools. It’s also useful to have basic knowledge in image editing with Photoshop. But of you don’t have the budget for a Photoshop license, you can try a free image editing software called GIMP.
Getting familiar with WordPress is also essential as it’s the most used Content Management System in the world. With it you can create websites from the ground up, make e-commerce stores, and even make articles that are inline with your business.
Here are some YouTube channels that teaches basic web designing and image editing:
- Website Design With HTML And CSS by Easy Tutorials
- WordPress Tutorial For Beginners by Create WP Site
- How to use GIMP – Beginner Tutorial by Kevin Stratvert
If you want to take this skill further, the next step up is to learn web programming.
5.) Web Programming Courses
Would you like to create a website or an online shop? Learn how to create functioning, interactive web pages by writing good code and including all the necessary elements. There are numerous software programs available for bringing your design files to practice. While accessing and storing them successfully, hone your data management skills. Develop your programming skills and become proficient at handling databases and putting web designs into life.
The good thing about web programming is it’s still one of the most in-demand jobs in the world. You can work from home with this skill set and even offer your services as a freelancer. There are many digital nomads who are freelancing as web programmers since this job only requires a laptop and internet.
To learn web programming, you can start with PHP as your programming language and MySQL for your database. Both can be learned for free in W3Shools too. These languages can give your WordPress knowledge a boost.
Getting a grasp in PHP and MySQL programming will take patience and a lot of practice. Here are video playlists that can get you started:
- PHP by TheNewBoston
- MySQL by TheNewBoston
- PHP With MySQL Tutorial For Beginners by Simplilearn
Python Programming
Python is another popular programming language and has been a good addition to the skills of software developers career-wise. It is one of the easiest languages to learn and really in-demand right now for work. Not just for web programming, it is a language that can do a lot such as for data science, software development, mobile apps, and many more. So if you don’t know where to start in your programming journey, Python is the way to go.
- Python for Beginners by Programming with Mosh
6.) Data Science Courses
Data today is what determines a market’s potential. Data analytics provides understanding of current consumer behavior and is essential for social media performance and website traffic. Data collection and conversion can produce insights that lead to a rise in revenue. Data handling is correlated with making informed business judgments. Professionals employ this ability to create graphics that successfully convey their findings to stakeholders and communicate with their target audience.
Data science is more of a creative work than technical. So if you’re thinking that this topic might be too technical for you, try giving it a shot first.
Here is a free tutorial on data science that can give you an in-depth insight and how to practice it for work:
- Learn Data Science Tutorial – Full Course for Beginners by freeCodeCamp