Welcome to 2016! I hope you enjoyed a bit of time off, drank too much yummy drinks and ate way too much delicious food, because if you were able to do that, it means you were surrounded by friends and family, and that's all that matters as we ring in the New Year.

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If, like me, you're ready to kick off 2016 with a bang, then you're gonna love what I've got in store for you! Below you'll find the top five courses you need to kick off 2016 the right way.

5 Courses to Take in 2016

#1: Kindle Launch Plan by Nick Loper

I'm a huge fan of Nick Loper's. If you don't know who he is, then check out his awesome site, www.sidehustlenation.com and check out the podcast. He interview's people that are doing different side hustles… with some great case studies to give you your own ideas!

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But, that's not what this course is about. This course is focused on how to launch a book on the Kindle platform and make a cool $1400 in 30 days. I've taken the course myself and Nick teaches some tried and tested methods to allow you to do just that.

If you're thinking about writing and launching your first Kindle book in the next few months, then Nick's course is what you need once that book is written.

You can grab Nick's course for $10 until January 11, 2016.

#2: Getting Started with Email Marketing by Allyson Van Houten

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I'm currently taking this class on Skillshare and am loving it. If you've just started using Mailchimp and are in the middle of setting up with your email marketing, this course is for you.

Allyson Van Houten, Mailchimp's Product Marketing Lead is teaching you how to setup your first email marketing campaign. You don't have to be using Mailchimp to do this course, but it definitely helps when she's chatting about the types of features and functions you can do inside Mailchimp.

The course will take about about 5 hours to complete with the end result an awesome email campaign. What I love is that once you've been through the course, your assignment is to simply upload a screenshot of your completed email campaign and Allyson and her minions will review it for you. I love getting feedback!

By the way, you have no excuse to NOT do this course, because it's absolutely free!

#3: Pimp Your Profile by Lise Cartwright

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Yep, I'm recommending my own course, but hey, it's my blog and the course is completely relevant if you're looking to kick off your side hustle on sites like Upwork.

While the video's still reference oDesk, the content is still completely relevant in terms of setting up your profile the right way. The video's will be updated over the next two months, but if you don't wanna wait until then, I recommend grabbing the course now.

It's on Udemy and you can grab it for $10 until January 11, 2016 too.

#4: How to Write a Killer Magazine Article Pitch by Grace Bello

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If you're heading down the path of freelance writing and want to actually get paid some decent money for your work, then pitching your article ideas to magazines is a great way to get paid well and get your foot in the door to some great opportunities.

I've taken this course myself and love the way Grace goes about teaching how to write a pitch. You could modify it as well and use it to pitch to clients too.

She also covers what makes a great story so that you can decide on what you will submit to a magazine, and whether you need to make any tweaks to the story before submitting your pitch.

I think one of the great things about this course is that Grace is constantly updating the community on what's working for her, so that you can adjust your own pitches accordingly.

The course is definitely worth checking out if you want to get your foot in the door with some high profile magazines.

#5: Guest Blogging Blueprint by Joel Widmer

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If you're looking to increase your presence online, then guest blogging is a great way to achieve this. I've taken Joel's course and it is one of the most comprehensive courses on how to find the right blogs to pitch to and how to write your guest blog pitch.

He provides templates so that you're not sending emails off blindly and goes so far as to show you how to come up with topic ideas to pitch, so that you can make sure your email will get read and that your guest blog pitch will be accepted.

You could also use some of Joel's tips to apply this to any email pitches you send off to potential clients as well.

This course is available on Udemy for $10 until January 11, 2016.

But don't stop there. If you're checking out Udemy, then make sure you check out their New Year Sale, where ALL COURSES are $10 until January 11, 2016!

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Let me know if you decided to take any of these courses, I'd love to hear how you find them.

If you want to receive blog posts straight to your inbox as soon as they are published, sign up to Postmatic below. Let me know what you think of this option too.


Lise Cartwright
Lise Cartwright

Founder of Hustle & Groove and your creative business strategist. If you want to get notified of new posts just like the ones you see here, then make sure you join the awesome H & G community — Join Now!

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