Reading blogs like this one teaches you a lot, but in pieces. A course teaches blogging in order: niche, setup, writing, traffic, email, money, each building on the last, from someone who has already made the mistakes. Some of the best courses are now free from companies that want you to use their tools later, and the paid ones cost less than a month of hosting.
These are the 10 best online blogging courses for beginners in 2026, free and paid, chosen for being current, practical, and taught by people who blog for a living. Updated October 2026: courses that have not been updated in years were removed and replaced with free courses from Ahrefs, HubSpot, Semrush, and WordPress.org.
Blogging Courses Compared
| Course | Price | Length | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blogging for a Living (Udemy) | Paid, often under $20 on sale | 13.5 hours | Complete A to Z |
| Blogging Masterclass (Udemy) | Paid, often under $20 on sale | 3.5 hours | Quick, structured start |
| 7 Day Blog Challenge (Udemy) | Free | 1.75 hours | Getting a blog online fast |
| Launch Your Blog (Create and Go) | Paid | Self-paced | Lifestyle and Pinterest blogs |
| Learn WordPress | Free | Many short courses | Mastering WordPress itself |
| HubSpot Content Marketing | Free | About 6 hours | Content strategy and a certificate |
| Ahrefs Blogging for Business | Free | 5 hours | Growing traffic with SEO |
| Semrush Academy | Free | Several courses | SEO and keyword research |
| Blogging Course (Coursera) | Free to enroll | 4 hours | Business blogging basics |
| Authority Hacker | From $99/month | Membership | Serious site builders |
1. Blogging for a Living (Udemy)
Theo McArthur\’s course is the most complete beginner course on Udemy and is still updated (most recently September 2026). Across 13.5 hours and 142 lectures it covers choosing a niche, platforms, domains and hosting, setting up WordPress, writing posts, adding a shop, analytics, driving traffic from search and social, monetizing with Amazon, digital products, and ads, and building an email list. Rated 4.6 by nearly 5,000 students.
What you get:
- 13.5 hours, 142 lectures
- Niche to monetization in order
- Updated September 2026
- 4.6 rating, 29,000+ students
- Lifetime access on Udemy
Price: Paid. Udemy list prices vary; sales bring it under $20 most weeks.
2. Blogging Masterclass: How to Build a Successful Blog (Udemy)
Formerly titled Blogging 101, Brad Merrill\’s course is the most popular blogging course on Udemy with nearly 59,000 students. It is short and organized: mindset, choosing a topic and content strategy, naming and branding, domain and hosting, WordPress setup, content ideas and writing, SEO and social media basics, email list growth, and monetization, in 3.5 hours. Pick this if the 13-hour course feels like too much.
What you get:
- 3.5 hours, 85 lectures
- Clear, to-the-point structure
- 58,000+ students, 4.4 rating
- Covers strategy through monetization
- Lifetime access
Price: Paid. Usually under $20 on Udemy sales.
3. How to Start a Blog: 7 Day WordPress Blog Challenge (Udemy)
Zac Johnson\’s free challenge walks you through getting a WordPress blog online in a week: hosting and WordPress, theme setup, first post, about and contact pages, a mailing list, a pillar page, and promotion. It has not been updated since 2017, so the WordPress screens look different now, but the sequence is still right and it is free, with 42,000 students.
What you get:
- Free
- One task per day for seven days
- Covers the full setup sequence
- 42,000+ students
- Dated screenshots
Price: Free.
4. Launch Your Blog (Create and Go)
Alex and Lauren built Avocadu and Create and Go into six-figure blogs and teach the lifestyle, health, and personal finance blogging model: WordPress setup and design, branding and images, finding your voice, writing content, email marketing, affiliate marketing, and Pinterest traffic, which is their specialty. It suits bloggers in visual niches where Pinterest still drives traffic. Pricing changes with promotions, so check the course page.
What you get:
- Lifestyle and visual niche focus
- Pinterest traffic strategy
- Email and affiliate monetization
- Taught by full-time bloggers
- Part of a larger course ladder
Price: Paid; see the course page for current pricing.
5. Learn WordPress (WordPress.org)
The official, free training site from WordPress.org has dozens of short courses and tutorials: the block editor, the site editor, themes, plugins, SEO basics, performance, security, and WooCommerce, with learning pathways for beginners and online workshops. It will not teach you niche selection or monetization, but it is the best place to learn the software you will use every day, and it is always current.
What you get:
- Free and always up to date
- Beginner learning pathways
- Block editor, themes, plugins, security
- Live online workshops
- Official WordPress.org training
Price: Free.
6. Content Marketing Certification (HubSpot Academy)
HubSpot\’s free certification course covers the strategy side of blogging: content planning, storytelling, writing blog posts that rank, repurposing content, promotion, and measuring results, in about six hours of video with quizzes and a certificate you can add to LinkedIn. It is aimed at marketers but applies directly to anyone building a blog for a business.
What you get:
- Free with a certificate
- Content strategy and planning
- Blog writing and promotion
- About 6 hours of lessons
- Business-oriented
Price: Free.
7. Blogging for Business (Ahrefs Academy)
Tim Soulo of Ahrefs teaches the course I recommend most for the traffic problem: why blogs fail, keyword research (demand, traffic potential, difficulty), finding content ideas with business value, matching search intent, writing content that earns links, promotion, and outreach, with guest interviews from Noah Kagan and others. Five hours, 40 lessons, free, no sign-up.
What you get:
- Free, no sign-up
- Keyword research and search intent
- Content that earns links
- Promotion and outreach
- 40 lessons, 5 hours
Price: Free.
8. Semrush Academy
Semrush Academy offers free courses with certificates on SEO fundamentals, keyword research, content marketing, link building, and using Semrush itself, taught by well-known SEO practitioners. The Content Marketing and Keyword Research courses are the ones for bloggers. Pair them with a Semrush trial to practice on your own site.
What you get:
- Free with certificates
- SEO, keyword research, content marketing
- Taught by industry practitioners
- Short, focused courses
- Practical with Semrush tools
Price: Free.
9. Blogging Course (Simplilearn on Coursera)
A short business-blogging course on Coursera covering platform selection (WordPress, Blogger, Wix), adding a blog to an existing site, creating or outsourcing content, content calendars, promotion through social and email, and measuring performance, in about four hours. Free to enroll; a certificate costs extra. It is basic, but a reasonable structured overview for someone blogging for a company.
What you get:
- Free to enroll
- Platform choice and setup
- Content calendars and outsourcing
- Promotion and measurement
- About 4 hours
Price: Free to enroll; certificate paid.
10. Authority Hacker
Authority Hacker (Gael Breton and Mark Webster) taught thousands of people to build authority sites with The Authority Site System, and their training has evolved into the AI Accelerator membership: structured courses on building and growing sites with AI and automation workflows, a skills library, weekly office hours, and a large community. It is the most expensive option here and aimed at people treating a site as a business rather than a hobby, but their free podcast and blog remain excellent starting points.
What you get:
- Membership with structured courses
- AI and automation workflows for site building
- Weekly office hours and community
- 14-day refund on annual plans
- Free podcast and blog
Price: From $99 per month billed annually.
Which Course Should You Take?
- Never blogged before: Blogging for a Living, or Blogging Masterclass if you want it short, plus Learn WordPress for the software.
- Free only: Ahrefs Blogging for Business for traffic, HubSpot for content strategy, the 7 Day Challenge for setup.
- Lifestyle or Pinterest niche: Launch Your Blog.
- Building a site as a business: Authority Hacker.
Before you buy anything, decide what to blog about and choose a domain name; most courses assume you have. And remember a course only works if you publish: finish the setup lessons, then write while you learn the rest. Our guides on on-page SEO and affiliate marketing cover the two topics courses most often rush.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are paid blogging courses worth it?
The Udemy courses cost less than a pizza on sale and save weeks of piecing things together, so yes for beginners. Expensive courses ($500 and up) are only worth it once you have a working blog and a clear goal for it.
Can I learn blogging for free?
Yes. Ahrefs, HubSpot, Semrush, and WordPress.org together cover setup, writing, SEO, and strategy for free. What you lose is a single ordered path and a teacher to ask.
How long does it take to learn blogging?
The basics in a weekend; the skills that bring traffic (keyword research, writing for search intent, promotion) take months of practice. Expect six to twelve months before a new blog earns meaningfully.
Do I need a course for WordPress?
Not a paid one. Learn WordPress from WordPress.org is free, official, and current, and hosts such as Bluehost include guided setup.
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