DETAILS

There’s a world of publishing opportunities available to food writers in print, websites, blogs, and review sites. The key is knowing where to look for assignments and how to make the most of opportunities.

In this intensive class, we’ll review online and print publications where you can pitch your work –- and how to land assignments that will get attention from foodies. You’ll learn the anatomy of a successful food piece, how to conceive of story ideas, and how to create a portfolio. We’ll discuss steps to build authority in the food writing community, including creating a food blog or website, and how doing so can leverage your personal brand.

Students will leave class with the confidence to kick-start their food writing career and a complete portfolio of articles.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Create a portfolio to showcase your work and build name recognition
• Read a food magazine or website with a critical eye
• Draft a pitch that gets an editor’s attention
• Adapt your writing to different platforms
• Position yourself as an authority

By the end of class, you will have:
A complete portfolio including a news product, interview, profile of a food personality, restaurant roundup, travel piece, and food blog entry.

Students who have taken this class have been published in:
The NY Daily News, The Boston Globe, Time Out NY, the Village Voice, Relish, Vegetarian Times, Clean Eating, Edible Queens, and more.

CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Copy Editing, Digital Journalism, and Ad Copywriting.

Enroll now -- just 2 seats left!

DETAILS

Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, almost anyone can publish content online. The trick is getting people to read what you write -- and pay you for doing it.

This course will show you how to write, edit, and produce engaging online content.

We'll discuss how to thrive in a high-tech medium with the editorial skills you already have. We’ll highlight the main differences between writing and editing for the Web versus print. We'll also talk about the trends in online journalism and what they mean for professional writers and editors.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Understand the basics of usability including rules to follow when creating your site
• Navigate your blog presence
• Use message boards, social networks, and online communities to find sources
• Come up with interactive elements for your Web content
• Understand emerging trends, including online video, social networking, and microblogging

By the end of class, you will have:
The skills to write engaging Web content that connects with readers and expands your audience.

DETAILS

Learn how to connect with other bloggers via social media efforts, continue to maintain your blog so search engines rank its relevancy, and how to write for the search engines.

We'll also review how to use your blog to leverage new career opportunities -- be it speaking on a panel, publishing an ebook, or consulting for major brands.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Read analytics reports and interpret key performance indicators
• Use effective tagging, SEO writing, and responding to comments
• Integrate social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube) 
• Monetize your blog through ads, sponsorships, affiliates, and digital products by packaging your overall brand
• Leverage your blog toward a larger platform, such as publishing, speaking, and consulting

By the end of class, you will have:
An understanding of how to use analytics to improve your content and a content plan for increasing traffic and exposure.

The online classroom has several components:

• Lessons: Learn new skills through video-based lessons
• Discussion: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via IM and video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

DETAILS

Note: We recommend using Adobe Dreamweaver to complete assignments. You can download a free 30-day trial at adobe.com. Email us with questions.

CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Social Media Marketing.

DETAILS

This class, designed for marketers, bloggers, community managers, and anyone wanting to learn the ins and outs of social media measurement, will show you how to set up tools to measure your social media activity and make sense of the data you collect.

You'll learn how to sift through web analytics, Facebook Insights, and Twitter mentions in order to develop a comprehensive reporting and tracking system. We'll look at free and paid tools so no matter what your budget, you will have a strategy to measure results.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Know which metrics matter to your brand
• Use web analytics to measure social media efforts
• Make use of the latest tools for measuring Twitter and Facebook
• Use shortcuts to measure and monitor your online activity
• Develop a social media measurement report

By the end of class, you will have:
A social media measurement report of your online activity and a comprehensive strategy to monitor and measure your social media efforts.

Admission Requirements:
Students should have access to web analytics and at least one social media presence.

The online classroom has several components:

• Lessons: Learn new skills through video-based lessons
• Discussion: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via IM and video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Ad Copywriting.

DETAILS

In this class, you'll learn essential copywriting terms and techniques. If you're already working as a writer or copywriter, you'll learn from a new perspective while you complete creative assignments to expand your portfolio. Class will mimic working in an ad agency to build a varied portfolio.

Class will also include two visits from a graphic designer who will show you how to render your work into professional-looking, portfolio-ready ads.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Work with graphics and photos to make a complete ad
• Write benefit-driven headlines and body copy 
• Write for various advertising media: print, collateral, web, outdoor, and direct mail
• Write and work from a creative brief
• Jumpstart your ad portfolio and look for jobs

By the end of class, you will have:
Experience drafting copy in a fast-paced environment, and polished ad writing examples to include in your copywriting portfolio.

The online classroom has several components:

• Lessons: Learn new skills through video-based lessons
• Discussion: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via IM and video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Digital Project Management and Social Media Marketing.

DETAILS

DETAILS

Food blogging has launched careers. Just ask Julie Powell, who's used her food blog to land a book deal and the film Julie & Julia. 

In this class, we’ll review the fundamentals of food writing including establishing tone, sensory details, and highlighting taste. We'll also discuss ways to apply these to the successful launch or update of your own food blog. 

We’ll cover the tenets of blogging strategy so you can use your food blog to join an online community, position yourself as an authority, and land writing jobs at food publications. 

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Craft an engaging, clear blog post optimized for search 
• Develop a mission statement and theme for your blog
• Integrate photo, video, social, and interactive media into your content strategy
• Use your blog to land writing jobs for food magazines, websites, and publications 
• Build connections with other food bloggers through link sharing 

By the end of class, you will have: 
A food blog complete with a mission statement, posts, and a content plan.

The online classroom has several components:

• Lessons: Learn new skills through video-based lessons
• Discussion: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via IM and video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Digital Project Management.

DETAILS

In this course, you’ll complete a comprehensive SEO audit of your current website and develop a strategic plan to get your website to the top of search engine results. You’ll also learn how to measure and sustain your marketing efforts to continually improve your search engine optimization program. 

Advanced techniques included in the coursework include using location-based metatags to ensure that your content can be easily found and using analytics to track the effectiveness of your strategies. You’ll learn how to integrate web tools with your site, analyze the effectiveness of keywords, and complete assessments of your bounce rate and entrance and exit paths. We’ll discuss how to use social media strategies and other tactics to manage your online reputation management. You’ll also learn about recent changes in search strategy spurred by Google + and Google’s new Panda and Penguin algorithm updates.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Use keyword tools to determine the most effective keywords for your content 
• Implement link strategies that widen your site’s reach
• Use the Google suite of tools to work with your site: Analytics, Webmaster Tools, Keyword Tool
• Perform an SEO audit and a competitor analysis
• Understand how search algorithms function

By the end of class, you will have:
A comprehensive strategic plan to continue to measure and develop your search engine optimization expertise.

Admission Requirements:
This course is recommended for people who have a working knowledge of SEO techniques or have taken SEO Writing. Apply with a note to explain your interest in this topic and your previous experience.

The online classroom has several components:

• Lessons: Learn new skills through video-based lessons
• Discussion: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via IM and video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

DETAILS

From Glamour to Good Housekeeping to theknot.com, women's magazines and websites are among the most lucrative and high-profile markets. In this intensive workshop, you will learn how to wow editors with the stories they want (and need).

Each week, you'll produce a different story, each a type of article that is a mainstay at women's magazines and websites. You'll also workshop pitch letters, editing them to perfection to ensure they get read by editors. Your goal in this class is to pitch articles immediately after workshopping them. The pieces that you will complete include a short service piece, a Q & A, a health article, a personal essay, a long service piece, and a human interest piece (an "as told to" or narrative).

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Write in the voice of the magazine or website in which you want to be published
• Know which sections are easiest to break into and are most "freelancer-friendly"
• Find sources
• Rewrite and self-edit
• Connect with other writers in the industry

By the end of class, you will have:
A complete portfolio of publishable articles that will impress any editor.

Students who have taken this class have been published in:
Real Simple, For Me, Woman's Day, Self, Seventeen, Pregnancy, Fit Pregnancy, Everyday with Rachael Ray, Cooking Light, and Redbook.

The online classroom has several components:

• Lessons: Learn new skills through video-based lessons
• Discussion: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via IM and video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Ad Copywriting.

DETAILS

From information gathering to shopping to wanting to connect or be entertained, more and more of our daily interactions take place online. This class will focus on the craft, style, and strategy of writing compelling brand copy for the web.

Through weekly assignments, you'll learn how to carry concepts past headlines, recreate real-life sensations online, and craft copy that lingers in the consciousness long after the user has left a site. Copywriters new or seasoned will find techniques to move effective communication from the printed page to the Web and mobile devices.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Write benefit-driven web copy that's both engaging and succinct
• Create copy for social networks and curated content for branded communities
• Talk with art directors about new digital options
• Figure out which media (traditional or new) is best for your marketing message
• Adapt your style for social media messaging, mobile content, or a proper landing page

By the end of class, you will have:
Experience (and portfolio samples) to apply to web, mobile and social media copywriting.

• Lessons: Learn new skills through written lessons
• Discussions: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via IM and video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

DETAILS

The online classroom has several components:

• Lessons: Learn new skills through video-based lessons
• Discussions: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via IM and video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Digital Marketing, Ad Copywriting, and Social Media Marketing.

DETAILS

If you don't come up at the top of a search, your audience may never find you.

This course will teach you how to use SEO and search marketing, social media, and digital outreach methods to drive traffic to your website. You'll also learn how to optimize your sites for search engines and how social media exposure and links can leverage more exposure on Google and other search engines.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Understand the difference between SEO and SEM
• Determine the most important factors of search rankings
• Report on web traffic and keep your website code clean
• Reach out to bloggers and other webmasters to have them link to your site
• Manage SEO and social media projects

By the end of class, you will have:
An understanding of the factors that can get your website to the top of search engine results, and how to use social media and search marketing to drive traffic to your website.

• Lessons: Learn new skills through video-based lessons
• Discussion: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via IM and video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

DETAILS

Writers and editors need to create and edit content online, but thanks to advanced content management systems, you don’t need programming knowledge to do it.

Whether you are looking to implement a content management system, or CMS, for a personal project or need to get up to speed for your job, this class will give you hands-on experience working with WordPress and Drupal, two of the leading content management systems. You'll learn and practice the standard features you’ll encounter in any content management system.  

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Navigate WordPress and Drupal
• Make the most of the features of a WYSIWYG editor
• Prepare and publish online content, incorporating links, photos, keywords, and related content
• Use shortcuts and additional features to get the most out of a CMS
• Understand the differences among content management platforms, and how to know which is right for you

By the end of class, you will have:
A thorough understanding of how to navigate a content management system and experience creating, editing, and publishing content.

CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Digital Marketing and Public Relations.

DETAILS

Learn how to build and manage qualified distribution lists in a way that engages your users -- without spamming them. We'll discuss how to design email templates to best support your brand while including and following the proper legal disclaimers. You'll also learn how to use analytics tools to monitor campaign engagement and effectiveness as well as ways to respect your users’ privacy while introducing them to your products or services.

In this class, you will learn how to: 

• Create and manage distribution lists, including resources for mass mailings
• Evaluate optimal time, date, and frequency to decrease unsubscribes and increase your open rate 
• Develop and execute copywriting and design techniques, including subject lines
• Integrate social media tools into email campaigns to function as a part of your overall digital strategy
• Prevent blacklisting from servers

By the end of class, you will have:
An email campaign designed to build traffic and increase sales.

The online classroom has several components:

• Lessons: Learn new skills through video-based lessons
• Discussion: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via IM and video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

DETAILS

In this intensive workshop, limited to 12 students, memoirist Kelly McMasters will help you hone your story arc, character development, setting, voice, point of view, level of diction, and every other element of your manuscript. Each week you will receive detailed feedback as you work toward polishing your sample chapters or manuscript for submission to agents.

By the end of class, you will have:
At least three polished sample chapters ready to submit to agents with your book proposal.

This class is purely workshop-based and does not contain written lectures.

Admission Requirements:
Students should come to class with a working manuscript. Apply with a letter of interest and writing sample.

• Discussions: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

 WHAT: Explore challenges and opportunities impacting technologists

Have a question? Email us at events@mediabistro.com or call (212) 547-7867.

DETAILS

SemTechBiz 2013 is the most authoritative conference on semantic technology for enterprise computing professionals. It covers every major technology and application are you'll need to know. Click here to go to the SemTechBiz site for the complete program.

CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Ad Copywriting.

DETAILS

• Lessons: Learn new skills through video-based lessons
• Discussions: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via IM and video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

DETAILS

In this class, you will learn how to manage the tricky process of writing a nonfiction book from an instructor who has overseen the development of nonfiction titles of all kinds, including memoir, narrative journalism, self-help, social and political issue, business, and narrative nonfiction.

Find out where to start, how to stay motivated, how to write for a specific audience, and how to establish a powerful voice. You'll get guidance while receiving invaluable feedback on your writing. Class will be a combination of lectures and weekly manuscript workshops.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Research your topic efficiently and effectively
• Create a dramatic structure that makes your book a page turner
• Find and sustain the right voice
• Distinguish your book in a crowded marketplace
• Navigate the publishing industry

Students who have taken this class have published:
Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff (Penguin), The Creative Girl's Guide To Having It All: How to Brave the Odds and Make Your Way in a Creative Career (Perseus/Running Press), Something New: Wedding Etiquette for Rule Breakers, Traditionalists, and Everyone In Between (Simon Spotlight), Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams (Ballantine), and Read My Hips (Harmony)

The online classroom has several components:

• Lessons: Learn new skills through written lessons
• Discussion: Join a weekly live, interactive discussion via IM and video
• Assignments: Complete homework and receive instructor feedback
• Forums: Exchange resources, meet peers, and ask your instructor questions

DETAILS

You’ve mastered writing and editing for publications. But can you crop and resize photos, navigate a content management system, or understand what makes a great user experience?

Thanks to improvements in computer software and content management systems, you don’t have to be a web developer or tech person to create dynamic digital content. Through assignments and discussions, you will learn how to think past the written word and create content that is multi-dimensional and editorially relevant, uses the web to its full potential, create stories that have social media campaigns built in, and increases your value as an employee.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Navigate and create content in a basic Content Management System, such as WordPress
• Crop, resize, and optimize photos, create graphics, and enhance static text through basic HTML/CSS
• Understand what makes a user-friendly website and how to create UGC contests that maximize and enhance your social presence
• Know which web technologies to follow and which to ignore
• Measure effectiveness and revenue potential through traffic and user engagement analytics

By the end of class, you will have:
A thorough understanding of how to conceptualize, articulate, and execute digital content that enhances your site’s editorial mission and is technologically sound.