Coursera - How to learn from the best Universities for free

From watching TED Talks, to reading books, to asking lots of questions - I've always been passionate about personal development and learning about new and wonderful things. Sometimes, well often, the barrier of cost can get in the way when it comes to doing an accredited course, especially if your employer won't pay for it. The prospect of your own hard earned cash going on a course that you are unsure will benefit you may further reinforce you not to do the course, so, what happens - nothing. You continue reading, watching Ted Talks and generally procrastinating about doing some sort of course that in actual fact you will never do, because, you can't afford it!

Well, let me introduce you to Coursera, one of the best personal development tools I have used in a long long time that allows and enables you to learn at your own pace across multiple devices.

Maybe you didn't get a formal and orthodox education in the area of work you are now in (I have a BSc degree in Creative Music and Sound Technology but have worked in Digital Marketing for the last 9 years), or you want a refresher of a subject you did study, or you just simply want to learn about a new subject all together - Coursera is brilliant and I encourage you to check it out.

10 Great Marketing Talks you should watch

As all who know me will attest, I love watching great talks. They keep you motivated, inspire and help water the seeds of new ideas, evolve your knowledge, spark debate, and give you the reassurance that someone else out there is thinking along the same lines as you; or challenge your current way of thinking!

Below are ten short marketing-related talks that have inspired and educated me - if you haven't watched them before they are well worth checking out.

I won't ruin the talks by summarising what these talks are about - "an image (or video) is worth a thousand words" - watch them yourself and you will find out.

Enjoy.

Digital Marketing - What's it all about

This is a time where digital is booming. The last 5 years has seen an exponential increase in Digital Marketing spend; be that on media such as Search, Display, Social Media, Email, Affiliate and let's not forget the many analytics and database analysis tools which (should) be the backbone to any Digital Strategy. More brands are starting to migrate a larger percentage of their marketing budgets from traditional media to digital....

But Why? Obviously the below points really depend on the actual activity but generally..