I’ve spent the best part of a week looking into digital marketing courses and honestly I’m starting to think they’re not worth the zeros and ones they’re printed on. HubSpot, Digital Marketing Institute among many others … Every course I came across promised to be up to date, but once you peek inside, so much of it feels behind the curve. The marketing world changes so quickly and it seems impossible for a pre-packaged course to keep pace.
What struck me even more is that a lot of what these courses claim to teach can now be done faster and often better with AI tools. If you can already generate strategies, content ideas, and optimise campaigns with a few AI clicks, why pay hundreds or even thousands for lessons that might well be outdated before you finish them?
The only real value I can see is in the structure and accountability they give beginners, or maybe the sense of community and mentorship if the course offers that. Oh and a certificate of course. But beyond that, I’m so not convinced.
Has anyone here taken a digital marketing course recently that actually felt relevant? Or do you think the smarter play in 2025 is to just dive in and learn by using the tools?
I just want to invest what small funds I have into my personal development as wisely as possible!
@olivias I get where you’re coming from because I’ve been through the same cycle. I spent money on courses that promised to “shortcut the struggle” and walked away feeling like I’d just paid for someone to restate what I could have found free with a bit of digging. The shiny sales pages always make it sound like the missing piece, but once you’re inside it’s the same recycled advice and theory that doesn’t survive first contact with reality.
What really gets me is how courses never seem to prepare you for the chaos that actually happens. A module on “how to rank” is useless when Google decides to torch your traffic overnight. I learned more from one month of clawing my way back after an update than from the dozens of tidy checklists I’ve collected.
Part of me still wants to believe there’s a course out there that could be different, one that actually equips you for the messiness of online business. But so far it feels like most of them are designed to keep people buying, not building.
@terryhutchins It can definitely be frustrating, especially with the sheers volume of courses available. A lot of them do recycle material and it’s easy to feel like you’ve paid for a polished version of blog posts you could find for free. I’ve had that experience too.
That said, I wouldn’t write them off completely.
Olivia, The value for me has always been less about the specific tactics and more about the structure. Having a clear path laid out can save time, especially when you’re trying to build something while juggling work and family.
When I first stepped out of my corporate job and into FBA, a course didn’t give me all the answers, but it gave me enough of a framework to start moving in the right direction without wasting too much energy on dead ends.
AI is the proverbial “game-changer” (sorry, couldn’t resist .. lol), no question. But I think of courses and AI as complementary. A good course can provide context and strategy, while AI can help you move faster and test ideas.
On their own, neither one will build your business. It’s still down to doing the work, adapting when things change, and learning from your own numbers.
So I’d say if a course looks like it offers structure, accountability, or mentorship that fits your situation, it can still be worth it. Just don’t expect it to solve everything.
@terryhutchins yea it's not the best feeling when you've maxed out the credit card and feel like you're still at square one!
I do think structure is useful though, once you’ve been around for a while. I actually think structure can help even people with experience, if only to cut through the overwhelm. For me, it’s not about needing someone to tell me how to write a blog post, it’s about having a clear plan so I don’t keep second-guessing myself or getting lost in endless “what’s next” decisions.
If a course isn’t teaching you to work with AI, it’s basically a time capsule. In 2025, business AI adoption jumped, and marketing remains one of the most common gen-AI use cases.
McKinsey’s latest surveys show organizations using AI across multiple functions, with gen-AI usage exploding year over year. Translation: the value now isn’t “what to click in Tool X,” it’s prompts, measurement, guardrails, and workflow design that survive the next tool swap.
There is really something to it.
In fact, I noticed some time ago that even Authority Hacker had stopped offering their course.
These guys adopt and test several AI tools and create videos about them — which I’m sure anyone involved in online business would find valuable.
Just my two cents on the subject :)
Authority Hacker is new to me and it sounded a bit 'dodgay' so I did a quick bit of digging. It seems their Authority Site System Course became ineffective after Google's updates and in their own words
"I refuse to sell courses teaching strategies that no longer work reliably for most people."
At least they have some integrity but it leaves me wondering if I should even bother building a content site these days?
@michalb hey Mike ... it's all gone a bit crazy huh? Zooming out a bit I think, more and more, people are required to think less and less as AI takes over!
Why bother doing a digital marketing course when AI already knows more about all types of marketing than 99% of the rest of the human race!
All we have to do, is ask it.
[quote data-userid="3158" data-postid="3003135"]
their Authority Site System Course became ineffective after Google's updates and in their own words
"I refuse to sell courses teaching strategies that no longer work reliably for most people."
At least they have some integrity but it leaves me wondering if I should even bother building a content site these days?
[/quote]
@ritap Rita, you've pretty much zoned in on the crux of the matter :-)
There are still hundreds, if not thousands of digital marketing courses out there still teaching the 'old ways'. WA comes to mind 😝 Many here on the DMC are Wealthy Affiliate refugees ... for some the trauma has been too much to deal with 😆
Lyle and Charson would do well to heed the message in the quote above from Authority Hacker. Bravo!
Funnily enough Rohan I came across Wealthy Affiliate a few months ago and almost got sucked in. I've read some of the posts here in the Cafe about WA and it seems my decision to hightail it out of there was the right one.
Looking back, it definitely felt a bit 'cult-ish', which I think someone else here also mentioned. But it's the integrity thing for me that trumps all. It's not, but if my choice was between Wealthy Affiliate vs Authority Hacker then it's the Hacker every time purely because they have been honest with their users instead of flogging the proverbial 'dead-horse'.
We need more of this honesty in the make money from home space!