9 Free Courses for eCommerce Professionals

As an ecommerce seller, chances are you know your stuff – buying and selling. But let’s face it, while the principals of brick and mortar commerce have basically stayed the same throughout the years, the world of online commerce changes literally everyday. Ten years ago did you think strange sounding terms like “search engine optimization,” “Pay-per-click” or “Google AdWords” would mean anything to you?

And the learning curve doesn’t just apply to advertising. Before ecommerce, unless you put out a catalog, you had no reason to photograph or write up a nice descriptive paragraph about your merchandise. These days, a badly lit photograph or a description lacking in flair can mean the difference between an item in your shopping cart and one in your competitor’s.

The times they are a changing, all right. So that’s why we put together this list of 10 free courses ecommerce sellers can take to brush up on the essentials:

Facebook Marketing

An Hour a Day – Facebook pro Mari Smith goes beyond the basics of Facebook “like” pages to show you how to create a vibrant and profitable Facebook page for your brand in just – you guessed it – an hour a day. (Free workshops require a book purchase.)

Twitter

Tweet Twins – If you’re still of the “What’s that Tweety bird thingy where everybody tells each other what they’re eating for lunch?” school of thought, then you aren’t yet leveraging Twitter for increased sales. 

Blogging

31 Days to Build a Better Blog – ProBlogger Darren Rowse is known for ProBlogger.net, his everything guide to successful blogging no matter what you blog about. He’s launching his next 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Course on April 1, so get signed up for the challenge!

Photography

Planet Photoshop – Most pictures are touched up, but for a beginner trying to learn the most popular image editing software can be like learning Sanskrit. These step-by-step tutorials take the pain out of discerning the “vector” from the “raster” layer.

Websites

HTML Tutorial – No matter what you do on the internet, you are likely to turn into HTML from time to time. These tutorials help you with the basics whether you’re adding a hyperlink to your blog or building an applet. Don’t be caught short!

General Business

SBA Small Business Training – With a beleaguered economy, the government is interested in small business success, too. Find free online classes on starting and managing your business, paying your taxes, and even how to win government contracts.

Accounting

Accounting Coach – Learning everything you ever wanted to know about counting beans, for free! For ecommerce sellers this means learning about new terms like nexus, and concepts like when and how to pay sales tax collected.

Copywriting

The Netwriting Masters Course – The premise of this free course is simple. “Write better. Sell more.” Now there’s something any ecommerce seller can get behind.

Advertising

The Google AdWords Classroom – Take these free online tutorials straight from the Google’s mouth (well, website) and even work toward Google AdWords certification.