9 Free Online Courses to Launch Your Work-at-Home Career

By Joseph Nyambura                
Last updated on January 18, 2021  
online training

When you buy something through one of the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Do you want to make money working online from the comfort of your home? Well, that is possible.

There are so many jobs that you can do and get paid on the internet.

 Some of these jobs include transcription, doing surveys, programming, writing, marketing, proofreading, graphic design, mystery shopping, and many more.

Earning an income from online work is not something you just start anyhow. You need to learn the right skills so that you can deliver what clients want.

Taking online courses is one sure way of learning about lucrative online working and gaining the necessary skills.

There are so many online courses; some are free, while you will need to pay some amount of money for others.

If you are just getting started, you might want to consider enrolling in the free courses discussed below.  But first, let’s discuss the importance of online classes.

How courses can help you kick start your online working career

Taking online courses is not a waste of time, more so the free ones. The benefits include;

1) You gather the necessary skills

Online courses introduce you to new knowledge of how things are done and how to get paid.

You get to learn how to apply the skills, market your services, attract clients, and grow your business.

Without taking a course, you might not know how to go about all this comprehensively. 

Free courses might not be as comprehensive as the ones whereby you have to pay. However, they let you know what exactly you should expect in a particular field.

2) You can get a certification

Some free online courses, like this one, offer you a certificate after you complete the exam. A certificate is essential as you can use it to apply for online jobs. 

It is an indication that you gained certain skills, and an employer can trust you to get the job done. 

3) You can get free tools 

Sometimes, you can be given tools for free to implement the skills that you have learned. This is great as some of these tools are expensive.

Usually, these tools are expensive, and that’s why you should take advantage of free courses and tools.

4) You can learn at your own pace

Some free online courses like this one allow you to learn at your own pace. This means that you can take as much time as you want to learn a new skill.

Whether you are a parent, student, or full-time employee, you can take up the course during your free time.  

Read on to discover some free online courses that will help you jumpstart your work-from-home career.

Free work at home courses

1)Hubspot’s Email Marketing Course

If you want to learn about email marketing, this course is worth considering. It has been created by HubSpot, one of the leading platforms that teach digital marketing. 

This course will teach you about creating effective email marketing strategies. You will learn how to manage contacts, segment email deliverability, and doing an analysis. 

Even better, you will be provided free email marketing tools to practice what you will learn. With this skill, you can grow your business and those of your clients. 

For email marketing to work, you need to execute it so that the people you send emails to can trust you. This is precisely the knowledge that this course by HubSpot will enlighten you on. 

This course contains nine lessons, 28 videos, and nine quizzes. It takes 3:18 hours. 

2) High Impact Business Writing by Coursera

In this course, you will be taught how to write in a way that impacts business positively.  This will involve how to articulate your thoughts and write to ensure that readers can understand.

Use of the appropriate writing styles, formats, and modes of communication are also skills that you will acquire.

Furthermore, you will get guidance on how to identify and correct grammatical errors and how to revise business documents.

Writing is very crucial for businesses today. They need professional documents for marketing, communicating to customers, and also attracting investors.

You could get hired to write publications, eBooks, courses, press releases, and so much more.

It will take about 4 to 8 hours to complete this course.

3) Introduction to Programming in Java, MIT OpenCourseWare

Do you have an interest in programming? Then this would be a perfect course to hone your skills. Programming is a well-paying online job that you can do from home.

This course aims to equip learners with the skills necessary to create software that can solve real world problems. It will introduce you to software engineering.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers this course in January. It takes four weeks to complete it. 

4) Crash Course In Infographics with Easelly

Communicating using infographics is also another high sort after skill by many organizations today.

This course by Easelly will teach you how to generate and present ideas visually. It will also equip you with knowledge on how to select the best templates for your design needs.

Moreover, you get to learn information gathering techniques from credible sources and design using Easelly. 

You can do and earn money online telling stories and concepts using infographics. This is a one-hour long course. 

5) A Crash Course in Data Science by John Hopkins University 

This is a technical course that will teach you about data science and big data.

You will learn about terms in this field and why big data is beneficial for many organizations today. 

 Organizing and managing data science projects are other essential aspects that you will take away from this course

Even better, this course prepares you on how to become a data scientists’ manager and what this job involves.

It is a one-week long course that is concise, straight to the point without the fluff.

 In this digital age, data science skills are on-demand, and you could earn five figures or more. You can become a data scientist manager and work from the comfort of your home.

6) Transcription: Seven-Lesson Mini-Course to Jumpstart Your Transcription Career

Have you ever thought of becoming a transcriptionist and do not know how or where to begin? This course by Janet Shaughnessy provides a firm foundation on this.

You will learn what transcription entails and how to do it effectively, package yourself well, the tools to use, and how to attract clients. 

Included in this course is how to tell if the transcription is a good fit for you.  

7) Google Digital Garage

This should be one of the courses that you should consider enrolling in if you want to learn digital marketing, data and tech, and career development. 

It’s a free course that enables you to learn and improve your skills in the areas mentioned above. You learn at your own pace, meaning that you can take the time you need to understand a concept.

There is usually an exam at the end, and you will get a certification if you pass. 

8) Free Amazon FBA Starter Course

Selling on Amazon through the FBA program is also another lucrative online business that you can start today. 

This is a 9-lesson course that teaches you the right steps to start selling on Amazon, how to choose the most profitable inventory, and how to benefit from this business. 

It also enlightens you on how to treat Amazon as a business. 

9) The Beginner’s Guide to SEO by Moz

Search Engine Optimization is also a highly sort after skill, and this free course is just perfect for beginners who want to start their career in this field.

Moz explains what SEO is about, all the significant aspects, and how to do SEO. This course is self-paced, and you can take it at any time you want

Many companies today are looking to rank top on search engines. Therefore, they need SEO experts, and if you become an expert in this, you could make a decent living working from home.

How to work from home 

After you acquire knowledge to get you started, how then do you work from home?

Working from home is very beneficial as it offers a lot of flexibility. You can create a work-life balance. 

However, it requires a lot of discipline. Your bosses or clients you are working for are not close to you to check how you are working. 

Due to this, some people get sluggish and fail to deliver results on time. Such habits are not the best when you want to earn money online. Nobody wants to work with people who cannot keep time.

Below are some tips that can help you work effectively from home:

  • Create a routine

To become productive, you need to create a routine. This routine indicates what you do from the time you wake up to when your day ends.

For instance, you can start by probably working out, take your kids to school and start working. A routine helps you not to waste time deciding how you should carry out your daily duties.

  • Avoid distractions 

Most online jobs require your attention and concentration. When working from home, it is straightforward to get distracted. 

The people you live with, televisions, phones can interfere with your concentration. You can avoid this by being disciplined enough.

You can also dedicate a specific room in your home as your office. Let everyone you live with know when you are working so that they do not disturb you. 

  • Always communicate effectively with your clients 

To effectively meet the expectations of your clients, you need to maintain effective communication with them.

Listen to what they need to be done attentively, read through the documents they send to understand how best to serve them.

Where you don’t understand, get more clarifications from them. By doing this, you will avoid frustrating your clients and yourself. 

  • Get the necessary tools

Working online means that you will need an internet connection and digital gadgets such as smartphones and computers.

It is always best to install high internet speeds.

If your work involves making long-distance calls, you will need to install mobile applications such as Skype and Google Hangouts, among others. 

How to get clients after taking free online courses

Most of these free online courses will teach you how to get clients. Note that it will be up to you to apply that knowledge. 

Otherwise, you might just be stuck with your skills if you do not make the necessary efforts to find customers. 

One way to market your services is by coming up with a website and creating a portfolio. You need to show people what you can do so that they can hire you. 

If, for instance, you study graphic design online, you can showcase some of your work on your website. 

You can also join online freelance platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr. These platforms connect freelancers to potential clients. All you need to do is sign up, learn how the platform works, and find clients. 

Connecting with people who earn through similar skills as yours is very important. There are social media groups that are dedicated to particular fields.

 Such online communities can help you learn how to rate your services, attract customers, and create a thriving online business. 

Getting your first client might not be easy. But if you market yourself intensively, you will start getting gigs. 

Once you start getting customers, you need to offer quality services so that they can refer you to others. Excellent services will also enable you to retain customers. 

Conclusion 

There you have it! You now know some of the courses that you can take online and start working from home.

The key to benefitting from these courses is concentrating on the study materials' content to understand and implement what you learn. 

If you are a beginner, you might have the best skills, but you can become excellent at it with practice.

When you have studied the materials and got some necessary skills, get started, and look for clients. 

About the author

Joseph Nyambura

I started this website to help bloggers by sharing everything I’ve learned in the past decade working as a professional digital marketer, web designer & developer. I help passionate bloggers like YOU start and supercharge their own glossy blogging journey and enjoy the flexibility to work from home. I will help you master content creation, making money, and build an audience blogging online.


{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

A simple free step by step guide to start a successful blog in 2024

Want to start a blog, but feeling overwhelmed? This step-by-step email guide will help you:-

  • Plan & Set Up your blog
  • Launch your blog
  • Grow your blog traffic
  • Earn your first income 
  • Faster without any blogging experience!

Enroll in the free email course now!
You will get one short email per week. You can unsubscribe anytime.
>