I love knowledge.  I love plans.  I like finding what other smart people have done, and copying their methods.  Standing on the shoulders of giants, and all that.  I’ve never met a mailing list that I didn’t sign up for.  Promise me all sorts of secrets?  All I have to do is give you my email?  Well, here you go…

Unfortunately, in the modern age, it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.  Maybe this was always so, but now the volume to sift through seems infinite.  One regular feature of the blog will be me inflicting some internet course on myself, and reviewing it for you.  Even if you don’t pay money for the course, you are spending your time & energy.  So, knowing what is valuable and what isn’t is important.

I recently received an email promoting the course Blank Page to Best Seller.  This is a free (other than your time and email) course that teaches you how to self-publish a book and make tons of money.  This is a free 4 video series with a downloadable pdf ebook.

A little googling reveals that Chandler also sells a course on how to publish an ebook (for $600 or $2000 depending on the level).  Most of the reviews I found were glowing, but by people who sell the course through affiliate links.

Chandler Bolt is our guru, because apparently he and his buddy slapped together 60 page book on productivity while snowboarding in Thailand.  Said book made Amazon’s best seller list- topping David Allen for some time.  As Chandler admits in the first video, the books is all the best bits of productivity wisdom he found from other places.  He argues that he is adding value by presenting only the best bits of wisdom.  The reviews on amazon are mostly positive, though you do find the stickler or two (or 10 ) who mention the massive amount of recycled content and lack of attribution in this book.

Chandler has a ton of books on Amazon.  Many are “guides to” cribsheet versions of his books, available for free.  I’m intrigued by a cliff notes version of a 60 page book, so of course I downloaded it.

Video 1 (~ 15 min):

The tone rubs me wrong from the start.  You can be a shitty writer, turn out a mediocre product, and make thousands a month?  That’s your opening?  Seriously??!!  What happened to craft?  As I mentioned, he eventually puts forth the argument that his selection of the the best productivity information is adding value, but the whole first half is who cares if you are a bad writer?  Is this merely a motivational speech designed to encourage those with low self-esteem?

I can’t bring myself to watch the second video or read the guide yet, so this will be a “to be continued…” post.

So, has anyone taken an internet course they found extremely useful?  Was it free or paid?  How did you go about deciding to commit the time and/or money?  I’d love to hear about people’s experiences in the comments.