CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Digital Marketing, Ad Copywriting, Digital Journalism, and Digital Project Management.

DETAILS

Remember when people cared about website hits? Now that that's over, we can focus on tracking the website metrics that can drive sales, engagement, and traffic.

In this class, we'll cover the plethora of web analytics data available today, and how you can use those metrics to build a multifaceted digital strategy for your brand or business. Through weekly assignments using Google Analytics, you'll learn what to look for in analytics reports, what the data means, and how you can use your findings to improve your online initiatives.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Read an analytics dashboard
• Gather information about your site visitors from analytics data
• Identify your best performing Internet marketing channel
• Understand your lead generation or sales funnel
• Know what drives conversion to improve results

By the end of class, you will have:
The ability to analyze your data and a firm understanding of its impact on your business.

Note: We recommend students have access to Google Analytics to get the most from assignments. Email us with 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

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. Youu'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

CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Copy Editing.

DETAILS

Learn how to easily spot and fix problems as they exist in your professional and personal writing.

By generating in-class writing samples and editing them, you'll learn how to proofread and edit your own work. We'll also study advanced proofreading techniques and learn how to develop checklists that ensure your work is error free, every time.

In class, you will learn how to:

• Identify and replace weak verbs
• Eliminate unnecessary wordiness at the sentence level
• Write graceful comparisons
• Understand nominalizations and how to root them out
• Avoid the passive voice

• 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

This intensive course is designed for writers, editors, and bloggers who want to produce more content to advance their career and add to a body of published work. Class will operate like a writer’s workshop. Each week you will turn your ideas into a fully-executed article fit for publication, and you’ll create the pitch letters to match.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Draft a pitch an editor can't turn down
• Understand the audience of a publication – and tailor your article accordingly
• Discover which magazines, websites, and blogs are most freelancer friendly
• Understand the difference between a good idea and a good article
• Edit yourself and manage tight deadlines

By the end of class, you will have:
A service or how-to piece, an arts and culture review, a profile, a metro section piece, an editorial, a business or news article, a personal essay, and multiple pitch letters.

Students from this class have been published in:
The New York Times, Portfolio, The Village Voice, The New York Observer, Pregnancy, Fit Pregnancy, and Real Simple.

DETAILS

We live in the golden age of young adult literature, with young people buying books at the fastest rate in decades. Think Hunger Games, Twilight, or Harry Potter. YA novels are now respected as important money-makers at publishing houses, and they win honors such as the Printz, Newbery, and National Book Awards.

The goal of this class is to finish your YA or middle grade novel in 12 weeks.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Write a proposal that doesn't end up in the slush pile
• Evaluate what topics are teen cliches, and how to stay away from them
• Know whether or not you need an agent and, if so, how to get one
• Write for teens without being condescending
• Evaluate your story arc for a teen audience

By the end of class, you will have:
A complete first draft of your YA or middle grade novel.

Students who have taken this class have published with:
Simon & Schuster, Razorbill, Viking, Random House, Simon Pulse, and Grosset & Dunlap, and sold 4-book deals to Penguin and 2-book deals to HarperCollins.

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

WHEN: July 30, 2013

WHERE: New Yorker Hotel, 481 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10001

DETAILS

In this intensive course, join fellow editors, writers, and bloggers to learn how to implement SEO writing techniques immediately to ensure your content reaches your intended audience. We'll cover how to improve your organic page ranking to drive traffic to your website, the anatomy of a search engine, and link-building techniques to maximize the visibility of your content.

Students will conduct keyword research to analyze their audience and develop a search strategy for increasing page views.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Identify your audience and conduct keyword research accordingly
• Use Google Trends and the Google Keyword Tool to understand keyword densities
• Use social networking sites to distribute your work and build your authority for search engine ranking
• Apply techniques for effective tagging
• Navigate through the ever-changing landscape of Search to maintain visibility

By the end of class, you will have:
The skills to use keyword research and analysis to drive traffic to your blog or 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

CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Copy Editing.

DETAILS

Remember sixth grade English class? We don't either.

Get a grammar refresher and learn the rules that matter and those you can break. This course will help you navigate best grammar and style practices to produce clear, concise and engaging copy for editorial, business, or creative writing.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Understand the various parts of speech
• Make sure your subjects, verbs, and objects agree
• Ensure that punctuation serves the sentence
• Craft a perfect sentence
• Define of exactly what style is and why it differs from style guide to style guide

By the end of class, you will have:
Training in the fundamentals of grammar to improve your current and future writing projects.

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

DETAILS

In this course, you'll learn how to create successful events from conception to completion. You'll discover how to think, plan, problem solve, and produce like a professional event planner.

Through weekly assignments, you'll write essential event documents including production reports and timelines, proposals for strategic collaborations and partnerships, and new business presentations. This class will follow the process of planning an event from beginning to end.

In this class you'll learn how to:

• Create production documents including production reports, timelines, budgets, and event recaps
• Develop invitations, advertisements, calendar listings, and media alerts 
• Create and manage an event budget
• Write effective sponsorship decks
• Think creatively to build strategic collaborations

By the end of class, you will have:
The skills to create successful events for a brand, business, or client.

CERTIFICATE Use this course to earn a certificate in Copy Editing.

DETAILS

Remember sixth grade English class? We don't either.

Get a grammar refresher and learn the rules that matter and those you can break. This course will help you navigate best grammar and style practices to produce clear, concise and engaging copy for editorial, business, or creative writing.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Understand the various parts of speech
• Make sure your subjects, verbs, and objects agree
• Ensure that punctuation serves the sentence
• Craft a perfect sentence
• Define of exactly what style is and why it differs from style guide to style guide

By the end of class, you will have:
Training in the fundamentals of grammar to improve your current and future writing projects.

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

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 Copy Editing, Digital Journalism, and Ad Copywriting.

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. Students will also have the opportunity to get a clip published on About.com.

WHAT Conference & Workshop

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

DETAILS

With the proliferation of smart mobile devices, marketers have more access to consumers than ever.

In this course, you'll learn how to conceive, implement, and manage a mobile marketing strategy. We'll examine the growth of the mobile marketplace, from text messages to apps to the rise of HTML5 as the next web standard. We'll also cover how to use analytics to determine where to focus your mobile efforts to maximize engagement with your branded content.
 
In this class, you will learn how to:

• Optimize content and email marketing efforts for mobile devices
• Use analytics to determine where to focus mobile efforts
• Understand the anatomy of a mobile landing page
• Know when to use text message (SMS) and multimedia message (MMS) campaigns
• Audit a multi-faceted mobile strategy

By the end of class, you will have:
A thorough understanding of mobile marketing and a campaign strategy.

DETAILS

Great public speakers aren't born; they're trained.

In the first part of this course, we'll focus on nuts-and-bolts tips and techniques for becoming a more confident and competent public speaker. In the second part, students will be assessed on their abilities to apply the learning to specific presentations and coached to address areas of improvement.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Captivate and engage an audience
• Use "Power Periods" and oral techniques to project competence
• Walk, gesture, and position your body to convey strength
• Interact with displays, notes, and PowerPoint presentations
• Come up with customized ways to improve your own personal public speaking style

By the end of class, you will have:
The skills to speak confidently and with authority to engage any audience.

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

DETAILS

Over the last decade, we've seen an unprecedented surge of interest in public relations that is creating an incredible abundance of PR jobs in firms, corporations, non-profits, and consulting.

In this course, learn how to break into PR, enhance your skills, and develop PR programs. You'll also find out everything you need know to get that all-important first job.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Develop a targeted, tactical PR plan that generates results
• Write dynamic biographies for yourself, your clients, and your associates
• Execute a targeted media outreach program geared to the needs of your client
• Draft attention-getting media pitch letters
• Distribute a news release

By the end of class, you will have:
A tactical public relations plan, a corporate biography, and a news release you can use in job interviews.

• 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

• 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