As small business owners trying to make our way on the web, and as webmasters trying to save and make a buck here and there, it’s good to know that there are some resources out there to give us a basic education on how to do more advanced webmaster stuff, all online, mostly for free.
It will be hard, but I’m going to try not to repeat any resource I’ve referenced in my blog before. Call me on it if I do and i’ll replace it with another goodie.
BigNoseBird.com, part of the Really Big network can give you a wide education on everything from site promotion to HTML and server side includes. And if you can’t figure out the answer from their resources, you can always post to their bulletin board.
And if you’re stumped about the priciples behind internet marketing and site promotion, you really want to check out sitesell.com – they have free trials… I know you have probably heard of Ken Evoy’s site before, but you should give serious consideration to, at bare minimum, taking them up on one of their trial offers. Even if you can’t afford some of their other products yet, it’s really helpful to take a look at the trials – they give you information you may not have considered before. There’s a longer review here.
Ever want to become certified at some IT specialty, for your own uses? Freeacademy.com is your answer. You can sample a course for free, then there is a low registration fee to continue. I’ve used them before and you can pass real accredidation course with their program. Don’t even think about paying $2000 to learn stuff that’s free, or nearly free, online.
Before I tell you the last one, I have to talk about LearnThat.com first. You can teach yourself all kinds of things here, and I have.
With that out of the way, let me ask you something.
Have you ever been sitting in front of Outlook, Flash or Photoshop and thought – if only I could get an intermediate or advanced guide to this?
CCT Global gives out a free CD with all kinds of courses on it, you only pay for the shipping. If you only want one or two courses, you can download them free right off their site. Just click on samples – but remember – you’re not allowed to use these to make course of your own for sale.
Here’s a quick list of what they’ve got -
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft FrontPage
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Word
Internet Explorer
Macromedia Director
Macromedia Flash
PageMaker
PaintShop
QuarkXPress
Adobe Fireworks
Adobe Go Live
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Image Ready
Adobe Photoshop
PC Foundations
HTML
Lotus Ami Pro
Lotus Freelance
All downloadable in html or PDF and/or other formats.
Having this kind of knowledge can really help your free traffic efforts – you won’t have to hire a programmer to do basic things for you unless you’re too busy, and understanding how to apply minor fixes will take big headaches out of your day.
Get some free continuing education. It’s worth it.
