Wendy at SparkPlugging (formally e-Moms At Home) is today launching a new learning area called SparkPlugU.
Drawing on the expert writers that write for the Sparkplugging blog network they have put together a variety of short courses on different aspects of working at home such as business and productivity.
Courses will be available in a variety of formats including live classes and self paced classes and will be repeated at different times of the years.
What immediately stands out to me about SparkPlugU is the affordability of the courses on offer.
While many such sites charge hundreds (and thousands) of dollars for this type of information Wendy has worked hard to keep the prices of courses down.
Courses are also more bite sized than others out there with some as short as a 1.5 hour session and the longest extending over 4 sessions (1 hour each).
The price and bite sized modules makes a lot of sense to me as they mean you’re not committing yourself to months of ongoing training with a ‘mega-course’ but can pick and choose modules that you need and fit them into your busy schedule.
The quality of teachers is excellent and I’m thinking of signing up for two of them myself (I’ve put a * beside them below).
Courses that are Currently Enrolling include:
- Diversify Your Income Workshop – $39.95 (includes 3 hours over 3 sessions)
- Write Press Releases to Grow Your Business* ($19.95 for a single 1.5 hour session)
- Organize Your Home Office for Maximum Productivity Workshop* ($19.95 for a 1.5 hour session)
- Introduction to Starting a Blog Network ($19.95 for a 1.5 hour session)
- Fearless Financials – Getting Past Stuck ($39.95 for a 3 1 hour sessions)
- Podcasting Bootcamp – Strategy Through Implementation ($39.95 for 4 sessions)
* these are the two that I’m most looking forward to
Wendy tells me that more courses will be added in coming months. The best way to be notified of when they are added is to sign up for their newsletter (you get a bonus Internet Business Guide – outlining 18 internet business models – when you sign up to this).
Having taught with Wendy on panels at conferences previously I am excited by what she and her team are building at SparkPlugU – hope to see some of you in class!
Good luck with SparkplugU Wendy :)
Topics of the courses seem to be interesting ones!
I like them being bite sized too! You can pick and choose just what you need to learn!
I’m thinking about taking the blog network one!
Awesome setup and I can’t wait to sign up for a course. I trust her 100% to actually help and teach without the BS!
you have broken link on the newsletter link darren. :)
Good luck Wendy….Also, I still think your new name is great. I actually think about it every now and then.
The Masked Millionaire
oh and i wish i had a good english, i would apply for the same classes as you too. i think i’ll take some english class first lol
*oot – congratulation to your 50k mark of feed readers count. this is the highest ‘personal’ blog i’ve ever seen with so high number :)
Thanks Darren & everyone!
I have wanted to do something like this for SO LONG. Some people think I should be charging more, but honestly, in my heart I want to make our classes accessible to as many people as possible. I know what it’s like to start out with next to no resources, and this really is what I feel I was put on this planet to do. :)
Darren, like I Twittered earlier, Sparkplugging wouldn’t be where we are today without your support! I heart you! :)
Wendy said> and this really is what I feel I was put on this planet to do.
This .. AND: Making all the rest of us better people (which you do such a great job of!)
Ok .. now lets figure out how Sparkplugging can acquire iVillage :-)
How lovely! I know Kelly personally and know that she’ll do an awesome course on podcasting. :-)
Congrats Wendy! & Hi Darren,
Looks great. And you are right, these are very affordable and will serve to help a lot of folks!
Can I point out a wee typo?
The first course is Diversify(not diversity)
That makes for a whole other talk show;
Diversity – Your Income Workshop(I can hear it now:-)
Seriously, congrats and thanks for providing this service!
~Karen
Those training courses look very interesting and designed to equip online entrepreneurs with key knowledge and skills for success.
Without a doubt, investing in one’s own business acumen brings long-term benefits and gives a cutting-edge advantage to your activities.
I wonder, Wendy, whether you plan to launch any courses specifically aimed at helping online businesses effectively target non-blogging blog readers and to reach offline customers?
(I am one of this apparently rare breed)
I’m an author at Sparkplugging and have known about this for a while, and I’m *still* totally excited to see some of the classes listed and am so ready to sign up for them. Podcasting, here I come!
I think this is a very good idea. I saw the website through Wendy’s twitter before seeing this post. I was thinking if it’s a few hundred bucks then I would only sign up if there’s one that really really interested me, but I was surprised by how affordable this is. I think it’s a very good idea because this way, you are not forced to just pick one that you like and stay committed to that one. Instead you can pick and choose from the topics that you want to learn. Some real universities are like that more than the others, but the flexibility is definitely appreciated.
This looks like a pretty good resource to have, thanks for writing about it…as i surely wouldn’t have known about it otherwise.
The price as well as the length of the modules is definitely something that would be useful for a lot of people, myself included.
When Wendy went live with this I got the tweet and was amazed at what she was offering at such a low price. I can’t wait to try the press release course. They don’t exactly teach blogging and social networking and Wendy gives it to us. Love it!
It’s also relevant to what she talks about when she says brand yourself and sell it. People want what you have to offer and look, she packaged it perfectly and we want it! Bravo!
I’ve been reading the Sparkplug CEO blog for a while now, and I enjoy and appreciate the down-to-earth and “real” (for lack of a better word) culture there.
Look forward to exploring the classes.
Im thinking of taking my boatload of blogs, and turning them into a cohesive network of similar topic minded blogs.
My flagship blog is a vgetarian blog, but i also have a Chicago blog, a biz blog, a fashion, and myspace blog.
I’m thinking i should brand them all and make them all green, to coincide with my flagship blog, Groovy Vegetarian.
So instead of just a Chicago blog, it could/would be a green Chicago blog, covering eco friendly within the city of Chicago.
So i will look into Wendy’s “blog network course” above. Sounds right up my alley.
Though I’m not a work at home mom (or a mom for that matter), this is definitely up my alley. I want to have my business started before we start a family and its nice to have additional resources.
I’m thrilled to be on Wendy’s faculty for this. If you plan to attend the blog network course, feel free to find me beforehand and ask any questions you’d like me to answer in the course.
I will be taking the course on press releases, thanks for making the courses affordable.
I’m geeked about being on the SparkplugU Faculty and can’t wait to teach the Podcasting class starting up next week.
Podcasting took me from nothing to everything. I think it’s one of the keys to reaching the widest audience possible.
Thanks for plugging us!
We need more bloggers like you.