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August 19, 2019

LinkedIn Learning Review 2020 – Worth

the Monthly Subscription?
by Dragan Nikolic

LinkedIn Review by ThematoSoup

The article has been updated to include 2 of the most popular and comprehensive
LinkedIn Learning Paths. We use aFliate links, so we may get a little commission if
you decide to join LinkedIn Learning using the links in the article.

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at

death.”― Albert Einstein

In our quest to better ourselves, we must constantly evolve and keep learning. Up
until a century ago, learning was only for the privileged and wealthy. Nowadays,
learning resources are much more easily available. Besides formal education, there
are numerous free and paid online courses you can take and one of them is
LinkedIn Learning.

Today, we’ll take a look at this learning platform, its history, the pros and cons and
see how it stacks up against some other paid online courses out there.

LinkedIn Learning Cost

For the US and available as a Premium subscription, LinkedIn Learning
costs $29.99 a month.

If you decide to buy an annual subscription, LinkedIn Learning costs $299.88 per
year. This means you get 2 months for free if you choose this plan.

The subscription gives you access to all courses, which you can watch at any time
on your phone. You get access to certiOcates once you pass a course and oPine
access to courses for when you’re on the go.

The LinkedIn Learning plan gives you the features which are also available in the
standard LinkedIn Premium subscription:

InMail (to contact and message anyone on LinkedIn)

Ability to see who viewed your LinkedIn proOle
Ability to see who else applied for the same jobs as you

Once you factor in that the competitors such as Udemy and Coursera charge per
course, you will quickly go over the price of one monthly payment for LinkedIn
learning. You are essentially only limited by time. Know much you can watch and
learn within a month.

Another thing worth mentioning is that you get some Premium LinkedIn account
features with the Premium LinkedIn Learning account. A normal Premium LinkedIn
account costs $29.99 and upwards monthly, so you get two for the price of one.

What is LinkedIn Learning?

You’ve heard of LinkedIn by now. It’s the largest platform for professional
networking. It’s the social network to go present yourself as a professional and Ond
colleagues and potentially land a job.

LinkedIn Learning is the network’s platform for online courses, launched to help
LinkedIn members educate themselves and better their careers.

The platform was launched in 2015 when LinkedIn acquired Lynda.com, the famous
online learning platform. Subsequently, all of the courses available on Lynda now
became available on LinkedIn Learning as well.

Similarly to Udemy, LinkedIn Learning is a paid platform. It has more than 13,000
available courses which you can attend on-demand. You get certiFcates after
completing courses and taking tests. You can showcase these certiOcates on your
LinkedIn ProOle.

Review – How Does LinkedIn Learning Work?

Let’s say that you want to give the platform a go and Ond useful courses to attend
right away.

You can do this in three ways:

1. You can choose a certain topic, for example, sales. Once you put that in your
search bar, you will Ond relevant courses. Note: there are tons of courses, so
take your time to choose the right one before you get started.
2. Choose a speciFc tool or software you want to learn. For example, you can take
a look at specialized Excel or Photoshop courses. If you need a certain tool for
your next job, this is a great way to pick up on something relevant to get a
promotion or a new position. Be mindful of the course release date to Ond the
most recent and relevant information here.
3. Perhaps the most interesting way is called Learning Paths. Just as its name
says, this learning method lets you take a path towards a certain Oeld of
expertise. For example, say that you want to get started with content marketing.

Learning Paths will suggest courses in copywriting, SEO writing, content promotion,
etc. It can’t give you a degree in digital marketing, but Learning Paths is a great way
to quickly get up to speed in certain Oelds where no formal education is available.

Once you’ve found a course you want to attend, you’ll get the following information:

Course diFculty
Course length
Date released (especially important for software and tool courses)
The number of viewers
The number of members who like the course
The content which you’ll learn upon course completion
What’s included in the course (Oles, quizzes, type of access, certiOcates, etc.)
Companies where most viewers work
Course description
Skills covered in the course
About the instructor
Related courses

All of this may seem overwhelming, but it’s great information. Once you take a look
at a few courses, you can use all of this info to choose the right one, which we’ll
discuss in a minute.

All the videos come with transcripts, which is particularly handy if English is not
your native language and you want to pick up on some new terminology. The
transcripts also allow you to quickly make notes as you highlight the words within
them.

Let’s take a look at the two most valuable LinkedIn Learning Paths for Growth
Hackers:

A: Become an SEO Expert

B. Become a Digital Advertising Specialist

A: Become an SEO Expert

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has probably become the most essential digital
marketing tool for every company that promotes its business online. The more
competitive the market becomes, the more business owners become dependent on
this tool. Thanks to it, you can easily build brand awareness and a strong
relationship with your leads and clients, become more trustworthy as a business
and improve your search engine rankings.

Millions of web users search for numerous queries a day hoping to get an answer
to their questions or solutions to their problems. By optimizing your website with
the best SEO practices, you will have the opportunity to appear as one of the top
suggestions in the result pages of Google or any other search engine.

To become an SEO expert means to learn how to increase the quality of your
website by making it load fast, easy to use and navigate. With Become An SEO
Expert LinkedIn Learning Course, you will learn how to put your business or the
company you work for ahead of the competition, turn more prospects into clients,
and increase sales.

To become an SEO Expert, you need to complete the following courses:

1. SEO Foundations
A huge percent of modern consumers look for products and services online by
searching for different key phrases on search engines. Once you learn the
techniques and fundamentals of SEO that the instructor David Booth covered in this
3h 36min long course, you will be able to increase your website rankings, get more
clicks and web traFc.

You will get familiar with the basics of this digital marketing tool, learn how to read
search engine result pages, research and optimize your website pages for
keywords. Then, you will also Ond out how to analyze the quality of your content,
deOne your audience, style, topics, and angle, and incorporate links into your
content.

Every SEO expert should know how to measure success and progress, promote
content via social media, optimize e-commerce sites for search, and conOgure
websites for mobile use to expand reach. Thanks to its expertise, David will make
sure you take advantage of all the beneOts SEO offers.

2. SEO: Link Building in Depth

The importance of links for Search Engine Optimization is of great importance
since they play a major role in how Google ranks pages of websites. Thus, if you are
eager to learn what a high-quality link is from an SEO perspective and how to select
and incorporate good links, Peter Kent will teach you all.

In just 1 hour and 7 minutes, you will Ond out how to improve your search engine
rankings by building strong links. You will make a difference between real and fake
links, learn how to avoid problematic links and analyze incoming links to a website.

You will get familiar with local pages and directories, social networking links, and
paying for links vs. baying links. Working with bloggers is also among the other
things that this course covers.

3. SEO: Keyword Strategy

To understand SEO well, you need to understand the keywords Orst. They are the
vital foundation of your digital marketing efforts. When you learn how to use the
right keywords, your website will get higher search engine rankings and more web
traFc.

The author of this Keyword Strategy Course, Matt Bailey, will help you understand
how keywords work. You will learn where to Ond them and how to create your
keyword list with the help of different management tools. Find out how to examine
keywords demand, use long-tail keywords, phrase patterns and plurals, organize
keywords data, and apply keywords to your website.

What’s more, in 4 hours and 21minutes, you will be able to create successful PPC
ads with different keywords, interpret data and understand searcher intent. Matt
will also show you how to measure keyword competitiveness and keyword insights
to improve your marketing efforts.

4. Marketing Tools: SEO

The way how Google ranks websites changes continuously. Therefore, you need to
be up to date with the latest SEO changes to stay ahead of your competitors. There
are numerous tools on the market that will help you not lose track of the latest
changes regarding Search Engine Optimization.

Marketing Tools: SEO is a 1h 47min long course by Brad Batesole that presents the
top trending tools that will help you evaluate, monitor, and improve the overall SEO
of your website.

You will Ond out which are the tools that will help you measure performance, spy
competition, and make improvements. Once you Onish watching this course, you
will understand the importance of Google Search Console, Screaming Frog SEO
Spider, Keyword Planner, etc.

Use these tools to set your own SEO goals, structure data, generate a sitemap, as
well as to get page insights and reports.

5. SEO: Videos
Just because videos don’t often rank on universal search, it doesn’t mean that you
shouldn’t optimize them. On the contrary, by applying smart SEO practices, you will
get more views and higher rankings on video search. The SEO expert Ian Lurie will
guide you through the SEO: Videos Course and show you the fundamentals of
smart video optimization to increase views and engagement.

You will Ond out which are the best ways to improve the visibility and descriptive
text of your Vimeo, YouTube, and other videos. In only 1 hour and 7 minutes, you
will understand the factors for higher ranking and establish the proper video
hosting service. Also, you will learn how to deal with negative comments, interpret
video analytics, and create your channel.

6. WordPress: SEO
Improving the SEO of your WordPress website is crucial for driving more web
traFc. WordPress is SEO friendly since the code it generates follows the best SEO
principles. However, we can always do something more to increase visibility and
website rankings.

Now, you are probably wondering what may that be. If you take the WordPress: SEO
Course guided by the instructor Patrick Rauland, you will learn about some keyword
strategies and SEO factors. In only 1h 15min time. You will Ond out how to focus on
basic setup and usage scenarios and how to use the All in One SEO Pack and Yoast
SEO plugins.

Finish this course and be able to import SEO content, add social info to posts and
pages, conOgure XML sitemaps, redirect Google Search Console errors, and build a
reusable import Ole.

7. Local SEO
According to Google, 46% of searches are local. It means that almost half of the
users search for given key phrases trying to Ond local businesses. Local SEO
Marketing helps local businesses to promote their services at the exact time web
users are looking for them. That’s why Local SEO is of great importance since it
helps businesses that offer different local services to be easily found by web users
by ranking higher on Google.

By taking the Local SEO Course by Brad Batesole, you will learn how to achieve
maximum visibility and drive more web traFc to your website. You will get familiar
with different tips for evaluating and optimizing your website, on-page content, how
to research effective keywords, and verify your company’s listing with Google.

Once you Onish this 2 hours and 31-minute course, you will be able to set up Google
My Business page and integrate links and reviews. What’s more, Brad will teach you
how to understand your competition, so that you can always take a step ahead.

8. International SEO
It is quite important to learn, understand and do an International SEO if you have an
audience abroad and want to expand your website presence to a foreign market.
International website visitors are situated in different locations and speak different
languages. Therefore, you need to develop a good strategy so that you can easily
convert them into clients.

In his course, International SEO, David Booth will show you how to determine the
target market and optimize your website the right way. You will learn about the
technical elements of this kind of SEO, and the practices you should use to inform
search engines who you want to target.

The importance of backlinks, international content strategy, keyword research

based on local competition, and several SEO tools are also among the other things
that you will get familiar with, in only 1 hour and 59 minutes.

B: Become a Digital Advertising Specialist

The days when people read newspapers and magazines are long gone. Now we live
in a digital era where the whole world is online. We scroll down our Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram proOles several times a day. This creates great opportunities
for businesses to reach a larger audience, target speciOc social users on different
locations and tell brand stories.

These are only a few of the reasons why digital advertising has become an
essential part of every business marketing strategy. By creating ads on social
media channels, you can target an audience who is interested in the services you
offer. When you reach the right people with the right message, you can easily
convert them into clients and increase sales.

What’s more, unlike with traditional marketing, with digital advertising, you can
easily keep track of the success of the ads and get measurable results. This
enables you to tell whether your social media marketing strategy is good or not.

With Become A Digital Marketing Specialist Learning Course, you will learn the
basics and technical subjects of digital advertising. By getting familiar with the
essential concepts of this form of advertising, you will become a digital advertising
specialist and be able to create a strategy that works for your business.

Becoming a Digital Marketing Specialist incorporates the following courses:

1. Online Marketing Foundations

With the Online Marketing Foundations Course by Brad Batesole, you will learn how
to promote your business online with the right strategy that will engage and convert
potential clients. He will explain today’s digital marketing techniques in simple
terms. Thus, you can create social media campaigns on different platforms on your
own.

In 4 hours and 43 minutes, Brad will show you the components of the digital
marketing landscape, the characteristics of an effective website, and the
fundamentals of a conversion funnel. You will Ond out how to identify conversion
goals, choose a successful domain name, and responsive design.

This course also covers measuring website analytics, SEO, email marketing,
content marketing, mobile and iniuencer marketing. Once you Onish it, you will
understand how to connect with communities on social platforms. Then, you are
ready to create your Orst message and display ads.

2. SEO Foundations
People constantly search for different keywords online. When they want to travel,
they search for agencies and vacation packages, and when they are hungry they
search for nearby restaurants. A huge percentage of web users also use search
engines to purchase different products and services. However, will your business
pop up in these search results?

The SEO Foundations Learning Course by LinkedIn will help you use the advantage
of search engine optimization (SEO). Thus, you can increase your website visibility
and search rankings. The instructor, David Booth, will help you master the basics of
SEO, keyword research, and search engine results. You will learn how to optimize
your website pages, code and site structure, and nontext components.

What’s more, in 3 hours and 36 minutes, you will understand how to attract the right
 traFc to the right pages on your website. Also, this course covers linking your
content, social media promotion, content analysis, local SEO, e-commerce
optimization, and mobile conOguration.

Thanks to SEO Foundations Course, you will be able to measure SEO effectiveness
and progress which is essential in creating a powerful marketing strategy that will
bring you results in the long-term.

3. Content Marketing Foundations

Developing a unique brand voice and creating content that kills is essential in
today’s digital marketing world. The competition is huge, so you need to represent
yourself in the best light possible and create a message that will make your
audience engage and convert. The right content strategy creates trust, encourages
conversions, and cultivates loyalty.

With the Content Marketing Foundations Learning Course, you will learn what
content marketing is, and discover its fundamentals and concepts. Thanks to the
help of the instructor Dayna Rothman, you will understand how to create a buyer
persona, develop a brand voice, write, edit and design content. Moreover, you will
also learn how to set goals, promote your content on different channels, track
performance and measure your content marketing efforts.

In only 2 hours, you will be able to create your content plan. Craft the right content
strategy for your business and be ahead of your competitors, convert more leads
and increase sales.

4. Growth Hacking Foundations

Marketing tactics constantly change. What worked in the past may not work now.
That’s why you need to keep up with the current, popular strategies that will help
your business grow. Growth Hacking is a new technique that helps marketers
produce low-cost strategies that bring more clients and increase sales.

By taking the Growth Hacking Foundations Course, you will Ond out how to build a
growth team, identify your clients and map a client journey. The instructor, Brad
Batesole, will show you how to generate ideas, survive growing pains, and
recognize growth opportunities. In just 1 hour and 36 minutes, Brad will teach you
how to fuel your growth by using SEO, advertising, social media, iniuencers, etc.

When you Onish this course, you will also understand how to track your growth
process and measure its successfulness.

5. Learning Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a powerful management system that helps
marketers in managing marketing tags without being dependent on IT or web
departments when adding or altering snippets. It is simple and easy to use, so
marketers can operate it without relying on the help of developers.

Learning Google Tag Manager Course can be of great importance for your
business. Once you learn how it works, you can take advantage of all the beneOts it
offers. You will discover how to work with accounts and containers, Google
Analytics, built-in tags, and variables. The instructor, Corey Koberg, will also teach
you how to work with control versions and create triggers. During this 1 hour and 22
minutes long course, you will Ond out how to debug bags and use HTML tags as
well.

6. Google Ads (AdWords) Essential Training

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an advertising model that helps you increase your website
traFc. With Google AdWords, you can increase brand awareness and reach a larger
audience. Thanks to the Google Ads (AdWords) Essential Training, you will
understand how Google AdWords works and learn the PPC fundamentals. This
course will teach you how to deOne your clients and marketing goals.

The instructor, Brat Batesole, will show you how to set up an account, research
keywords, create campaigns, and write advertisements and text ads. Then, when
you set up your Orst ad, you will learn how to use AdWords reporting and Google
Analytics to track performance.

What’s more, Brad will also show you how to optimize ads to get more clicks.
During these 3 hours and 8 minutes long course, you will understand the basics of
ad extensions as well. Once you Onish it, you will be able to create effective PPC
ads on your own.

7. Building an Integrated Online Marketing Plan

One of the most common pitfalls businesses face is not having a clear marketing
strategy. To be successful, you need to take a holistic approach. The Building an
Integrated Online Marketing Plan Course will show you what to focus on, how to
create an effective plan, and much more in 2h and 21min time.

The expert, Matt Bailey, will help you deOne who you are as a business. However,
you will also understand where your business and your client’s needs align. You will
Ond out how to create your value statement, identify customers, and measure
lifetime value and loyalty. Also, deOning marketing goals, creating content, and
building a long-term content calendar are also some of the things that this course
covers.

What’s the best social media platform to share your message and promote your
business? Is it Facebook? Twitter? Maybe Pinterest? Matt will help you Ond out. You
will learn to think like a publisher. Once you combine the right message with the
right channel, you will then get successful results.

8. Learning to Write Marketing Copy

With such a huge competition out there, you need to tell a story that will sell your
brand. That’s why marketing copies exist. Their purpose is to get the reader to take
action, and that’s what all business owners Oght for.

The Learning to Write Marketing Copy Course focuses on writing copies that tell
stories the right way. With the help of Ian Lurie, you will learn what copywriting is
and get familiar with its different types. Learn how to draft on paper, write
headlines, sell pages, and rewrite copies.

In 1 hour and 51 minutes, you will also Ond out how to manage a copywriting team,
develop a brand voice, and use an editorial calendar.

Some of the minor courses are valuable, too. I recently took a look at the lesson
called PowerPoint for Teachers by Faith Brill. Coming in at just over 37 minutes, you
may consider it too short for an actual lesson. But the amount is just right for
someone who’s never worked in PowerPoint. I just wanted to get acquainted with
the most used tools and features.

Faith Brill is one of the main educators at LinkedIn Learning and she takes a topic
that we all think we’re too familiar with – PowerPoint.

She puts a new twist on this Microsoft OFce tool. Faith teaches us how to make
presentations into excellent learning tools, instead of slides with bullet points that
most people simply ignore.

Another good example of a starting course is UX Foundations: Style Guides and

Design Systems. Taught by Chris Nodder and lasting for 1 hour and 40 minutes, this
course is a must for anyone who wants to get started with user experience from
scratch.

You’ll learn the basics of style guides and design systems, deOne your audience
and voice. As part of your learning path in UX, I strongly recommend taking this
course.

If you want to do something for the better of your company, you can take the course
titled Human Resources: Strategic Workforce Planning. The title may seem
complicated, but it’s all about providing practical value – teaching you how to
manage a company in case you’ve suddenly lost an important member of your
company management.

Taught by Wayne Cascio, this 47-minute course is a must for anyone looking to
deepen their knowledge of human resources management.

If you’re looking to brush up on your soft skills, what better person to learn from
than the COO of Facebook?

In Option B: Building Resilience, Sheryl Sandberg and psychologist Adam Grant talk
about how to build resilience in the face of adversity.

It’s only 20 minutes long but it has been seen well over 280,000 times so it’s worth
dedicating your time to it.

Quality of the Courses

The courses I’ve personally listened to are of high quality. In terms of the speakers,
the content and the quality of the video materials. Not all courses are perfect and
not all will give you the same quality of content.

The one major downside to LinkedIn Learning is that how much you can do with it
depends entirely on yourself. Learning Paths will give you some guidance on the
best choice of courses, but you will have to do a lot of digging on your own.

There are thousands of courses available and you may run into Ove of them on
sales prospecting, for example. It’s up to you to do research and pick up the best
one.

Final Impressions
The good side of LinkedIn Learning is that you get a wide selection for your money
and that you can try it out for a month for free before committing to a subscription.
LinkedIn Premium features are worth it if you’re an active job seeker. The courses
are good quality and Learning Paths can be extremely useful in pursuing a new
career.

The courses range from 5 minutes to 10 hours and there are some great, but also
some not-so-great instructors, so Onding the right course can take a bit of time. The
good thing is that you don’t buy courses, so you can go over as many as you want.

LinkedIn Learning is a great option if you’re already on LinkedIn and actively

searching for a job, and you could beneOt from learning new skills and Premium
account features.

If you’re actively looking for new courses to learn from and to add certiOcations to
your LinkedIn proOle, you should try the LinkedIn Learning platform.

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 Bio  Twitter  Facebook  Latest Posts

Dragan Nikolic
Co-founder at ThematoSoup

I am a co-founder and editor at ThematoSoup, sharing marketing best

practices, tips on how to simplify your online business and make it
more manageable.

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4 comments

Dragan Nikolic
April 27, 2019 at 21:21

I’m located in Europe (so don’t mind the prices in EUR) and I’ve recently seen two
LinkedIn Learning Plans:

Basic
Premium

Seems LinkedIn offers a Learning plan without the Premium Features. The
features mentioned in the article such as InMail, the ability to see who’s viewed
your proOle and the ability who else applied for the same job as you.

The LinkedIn Learning plan is called “Basic” and it’s priced at €14.99 (for the yearly
plan), which translates to $16.75 a month, or €18.49 for the Premium yearly plan.

REPLY

Paulo
April 29, 2019 at 13:46

Hi Dragan,

Nice article. Thank you :)

I tried everything but I can’t Ond the “LinkedIn Learning” Basic Plan for 14.99€.
Can you please give me the link or a way to Ond it?

Thanks again.
Paulo

REPLY

Dragan Nikolic
April 29, 2019 at 16:38

Hey thanks for your kind words, Paulo.

I don’t know your location, maybe the plans appear for certain regions only.

You could try visiting this link https://linkedin-

learning.pxf.io/c/1287912/459107/8005.

It works for me. Tell me if you succeed.

(If it doesn’t work, try using a VPN)

REPLY

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