Online courses are a minefield, aren’t they? 

You feel like you’ve got a bit of a skills gap and a course might help. You Google a few, and find something that sounds pretty good. Or maybe you’ve heard recommendations and wonder if it’s time to try the training that all those people speak so highly of. 

You check out all the details. You won’t need to sell a kidney. The testimonials intrigue you.  Did they make them up? Is it really THAT good? All those people who say they earned their course fee back before they’d even finished it – are they for real? And how realistic is that? Are they an exception to the rule, or could that happen for you, too?

We know exactly how you feel. We’ve taken a few online courses in our time. The one I paid £40 for in some bargain basement sale to celebrate the course creator’s 40th birthday. Never even downloaded the first module. Wouldn’t even know how to log into it now. It’s probably expired anyway. Then there’s the course I very nearly didn’t buy due to cold feet, but which actually made a really significant impact on my working life. I went back and bought a second follow-up course for three times the price, in fact.

Thing is, we know you’re loath to part with your cash on a course unless you’re sure it’s going to be worth it. We know you’re worried that we won’t teach you anything you don’t already know. We know your hard-earned is exactly that; hard-earned, and that unless an online course actually helps you achieve your goals, it’s a waste of time and money.

We also hate some of the gimmicky marketing stuff that’s out there trying to sell you a dream. The coaching programme that leaves you feeling like a mug for signing up to something that promised the earth but left you underwhelmed. The webinar that lured you in with the promise of teaching you the secrets of earning a six-figure income, but which locks you into a barrage of emails that you don’t have time to unsubscribe from. That’s not our style. (We’re more likely to sign you up to a monthly newsletter and then never get round to writing the second one…)

If it helps, we started our course by accident. I interviewed someone for an article I was writing (this one) and she commented that I was living her dream life: she wanted to write for a living. She’d been such a brilliant interviewee that I jokingly offered to teach her everything I knew. She held me to it, and fleshed out a course outline of all the things she wanted to know about how to break into freelance writing.

I ran that first course in January 2015 for her and a handful of fellow freelance journalists who’d also asked my advice on pitching – I’m one of those annoying people who LOVES pitching ideas to editors and the incomparable buzz of getting a commission, then feels a bit deflated when I realise I have to write the sodding piece.

Since then, we’ve run our course for around 120 students. We’re not natural boasters, but the results our students get are pretty phenomenal. It’s standard for journalists to crack new markets and earn back their course fee with a juicy commission before we’ve even parted company, and we’ve helped lots of newbies achieve their first national byline and start making a living with their words. We’re talking dream publications, too. Glossy mags and national newspapers. (Check out our testimonials for more on that. We promise we didn’t make them up.)

We’ve also got a lively little Facebook community of past students who cheer each other on and make us laugh every day, which you get access to when you sign up for one of our courses. (And that student we started the course for? She became a successful freelance writer and – although we can’t take any credit for this bit – she’s now a successful novelist with two books to her name. So she’s living my dream life and I might ask her to teach me everything she knows…)

So, if you’re thinking of signing up for February’s Muse Flash: Cracking Pitches course but have the kind of reservations we’ve mentioned above, ping us an email. We’re more than happy to answer any questions you might have, and we can even put you in touch with past students who’ll give you an honest appraisal of whether it’ll really work for you. We won’t even blackmail them.

Above all, though, don’t let your doubts hold you back from taking your pitching to the next level. If you invest your cash and your time with us, we won’t take it lightly. 

We promise we’ll make it worth your while.