7 Places You Can Learn New Side Hustle Skills For FREE
Do you want to know what one of the most daunting thoughts that goes through my head when it comes to starting a side hustle?
It’s am I good enough to start a particular side hustle? Meaning do I have enough know how to start a build a certain side hustle successfully.
This is one fear that has held me back in so many situations that it’s actually cost me money and it may be doing the same for you. When I should have pushed forward with things I find myself holding back.
So why does this happen?
Their are actually a couple of reasons this happens but the main reason is knowledge. We feel that we don’t know enough about a given topic to actually get started. Recently I’ve been working to banish this fear and take more action.
Knowledge should not be a consideration when it comes to starting your side hustle and improving your financial situation, so in this article I’m going to share 7 FREE places I’ve been using to get the knowledge I need to start my side hustle now.
So if money is a bit of an issue for you to get your side hustle started because you don’t have the knowledge quite yet then read on.
1. Udemy
One place I’ve been finding a lot of great free training is Udemy.com. If you’re not familiar with Udemy it’s site that has thousands of courses that allows you to learn everything from travel hacking, personal development, to social media marketing.
Now I should mention not all of these course are free, in fact many of them will cost you to join them, but this doesn’t mean you could join a few of their free ones to get started learning.
Side Note: Udemy tends to do a lot of promotions and I’ve been able to pick up $200 courses for $10. If their is a course you want to join and it cost a lot just keep an eye out for any new promotions when they come out.
How To Find Free Courses On Udemy
To help you get started go to Udemy.com and click on the topic and then a subtopic that you are interested in. In my case I chose Design and Web Design. Look at the picture below.
From here scroll down the left hand column and you will see a section on course pricing. Simply click on the FREE tab. In this case I found 48 free courses under web design. Look at the picture below.
2. Webinars
Another place I’ve gone to lately to gain more knowledge is webinars. Over the last few months I’ve been on several webinars to learn new skill from blogging to running Facebook ads.
It seems as if a lot of marketers and online professionals are now offer webinars these days however depending on your market some may be hard to find. I came across a webinar on Facebook Advertising the other day because I was subscribed to someones email list.
How To Find Webinars To Attend
Finding webinars can be a little bit harder depending on the market you are in, so here are a few tips I recommend you do find them.
Side Note: Buyer Beware webinars do offer some great information but know that a lot of times they like to pitch some kind of product or service at the end but a lot of times they may give a reduced price at the end.
- Seek Out Leading Experts & Join There Mailing List. When I wanted to learn about Facebook advertising I did my research and found the best person in the industry. From their I joined their mailing list and because I did that I was invited on one of their webinars shortly after.
- Do A Search On Google. Another way to find webinars is to do a search on Google. However what I suggest you do is search people or topics and then type the word webinar or free training after it. This doesn’t always yield the best results but it’s worth a shot.
- Join Groups And Find Your Audience On Facebook. A lot of online marketers have been promoting their webinars on Facebook to get the word out. However a lot of times you won’t see them unless you join groups or follow others in your niche. I say this because a lot of people who promote webinars on Facebook will target specific groups to open up their webinars to.
3. Free Opt In Giveaways
Another place I’ve had some great luck with is opt in giveaways. Opt in giveaways are offers you get for joining someones mailing list. These can often provide huge value, just look at this offer from David Siteman-Garland from The Rise To The Top.
I actually opted for this offer from David and his cheat sheet gives the exact 7 step plan he uses to build online courses which is really insightful.
If you look to the right of this article at the top of the side bar you will see an opt in offer I created for readers which shows you how to find and validate a profitable side hustle. This is just one way I’m providing value and helping others start a side hustle.
How Find Opt In Offers To Join
Finding a good opt in offer can be hard find if you don’t know where to look so here are a few suggestions to help you out.
- Start With A Search In Google. Type in the topic you want to learn about and see we what the results show. If you know an expert in the field put their name in the search bar as well. Below is search I did when I was looking for how to do Facebook advertising.
- Click On The Results and Do Your Research. From here I clicked on the first result and below is what I found.
4. Podcast
Fourth on the list of free places to look for new side hustle skills is podcast. Podcast have become more mainstream lately and you can learn a lot from them. I subscribe to several different podcast and I’ve learned a ton from them.
Chances are if you have an iPhone or another smart phone you’ve likely listened to one or two episodesof a podcast, however I will show you how to find shows that will teach you a lot .
How To Find Podcast That Will Teach You New Side Hustle Skills
- Sign Up For iTunes & Download The Podcast App. If you have an iphone or other smart phone download the podcast app. From here just do a search for the topic you want to learn more about. A while back I was learning a lot about the Amazon FBA program and I actually turned to podcasting to learn more about it. If you want to learn more about this check out my interview with Chris Guthrie here. So I did a search for Amazon FBA and here is what I found.
- Research The Different Podcast. From here I came across different podcast that talk about this topic such as The Amazing Seller Podcast with Scott Voelker. This podcast covered everything from helping me find my product to listing it on Amazon. Below is a picture of the podcast I subscribed to.
5. Free Guides
Another place I like to go to learn new skills are free guides. The great thing about these free guides is that they can give you wealth of information when you’re just getting started.
Free guides are similar to free opt in offers however these don’t require you to put your email address in order to get the free information. Over the years I’ve come across some great free guides that have helped me do everything from SEO to podcasting.
Now you might be wondering what the difference between a blog post and a free guide is and the difference is value. A typical blog post might be 500 to a 1000 words, a free guide will likely be around 5000 words and go into much greater detail on a topic.
How To Find Free Guides
To find a free guide simple do a search in Google with the topic you want to learn about with the words free guide at the end of it. In the example below I did a search for SEO free guide. Below is what I got back as a result.
In the results I got back two guides back, one from Moz.com and the second from Quicksprout. I’ve actually read both guides and they are both written very well.
6. You Tube
I’ve also found You Tube to be an incredible source of free information to learning a new skill. As I’ve been mentioning I’ve been learning a lot about Facebook advertising and You Tube is full some great videos that teach how to do this.
However one thing I like to do as I mentioned earlier is I like to find the top person who teaches a particular topic and follow everything they do. For example, I did a search for how to do Facebook ads Rick Mulready and here is what I got.
As you can see I found tons of great videos that I can watch by Rick, and better yet this also has one other big benefit as well. I also know that Rick has a course that teaches newbies like me how to do Facebook ads and by watching his free videos it will help me gauge whether or not I should purchase his course.
From here I also like to subscribe to their channel on You Tube as well to stay updated on any new content they might have as well.
7. Take Action & Learn
Finally, the last way I like to go about learning a new skill is to take action and learn. No matter how much knowledge you have on a topic nothing will prepare you better than actually taking action and doing it.
I feel this is the fastest way to something new and where I learn the most at. In 2008 I wanted to start my own blog and did tons of research on it before I pulled the trigger but what I realized was that I’m never going to know enough unless I just try.
QUOTE: Taking action almost always trumps knowledge because even if you know everything about a given topic but you never put it into action you’ve still accomplished nothing.
So here are a few steps you can take to get going right now and learn the most about your side hustle.
How To Get Started
- Learn Enough To Get Started. The first step is to learn the basics and put that plan into action. In my case I’m learning the basics of Facebook advertising from a mentor I’ve found online.
- Try It Out On Yourself First. Next I’m going to test out and try some Facebook advertising on my own. This will help me learn the basics on how things work.
- Find Someone You Can Help For Free. The next step is to find someone you can help for free. At this point it’s not about making money but rather proving that you can do the job.
- Evaluate And Learn. Finally, the last step is to evaluate what went right and what did not and then improve. From here simply rinse and repeat.
Final Thoughts…
Now that I’ve shared different places you can learn new side hustle skills for free you should never be able to make the excuse that you don’t know enough. I know I’ve personally made this excuse for the longest time and I’m glad I took action because I would have never learned all the great things I know today.
More than that I would have never made the income I have earned as well. What’s great about all of these methods is that I’m not just learning one thing and that’s it. I’m almost always continuing to learn new things and push myself to that next level.
As you can tell I’m now learning about Facebook advertising. I plan to do a lot with this on my own personal stuff and possible even provide this service to clients at some point as well. I’ll be talking more about this in later blog post so make sure you subscribe to my mailing list to stay up to date below this post.
So what side hustle skill are you trying to learn right now? Share your thoughts and comments below.
