Which personal branding courses are there, and what do they cost?
The main options are short video courses on LinkedIn Learning and Udemy, university courses on Coursera you can start free, and creator-run cohorts that cost $99 a month to $700. Below is what each course's own page showed on 5 November 2026. The list is in no order and ranks nothing.
One caution on currency: Coursera and Udemy showed us prices in Indian rupees, because they price by the visitor's location. We give the figure the page showed and its currency rather than guess a US price; open the page from your own country to see yours.
| Course | Provider | Price and billing basis on the page | Length and format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Branding: Stand Out and Succeed | Coursera, University of Michigan (Cheri Alexander and Marcus Collins) | "Enroll for free"; included with Coursera Plus | 4 modules, 1 week at 10 hours a week, self-paced video with 4 assignments |
| Introduction to Personal Branding | Coursera, University of Virginia (Kimberley Barker) | Included with Coursera Plus | 6 modules, 7 hours, self-paced, 2 assignments |
| Transform Your Personal Brand | LinkedIn Learning (Madecraft and Kelli Schutrop) | Subscription; the page offers a 1-month free trial and shows no price when signed out | 1h 7m of video, released 29 Aug 2023 |
| Personal Branding on Social Media | LinkedIn Learning (Jennifer W. Jessie) | Subscription; 1-month free trial offered | 37 minutes of video, released 6 May 2019 |
| Build a Personal Brand that Will Propel Your Career | Udemy (Hilary Sutton) | One-off purchase: ₹449 in a sale, ₹799 list; or Udemy's subscription | 9 lectures, 49 minutes, updated September 2025 |
| Personal Branding Master Course | Udemy (Team RonDi) | One-off purchase, ₹3,419 list | 60 lectures, 8 hours, updated March 2024 |
| Personal Branding: From Audit to Action | Udemy (Jon Barnes) | One-off purchase, ₹4,099 list | 8 lectures, 2.5 hours, updated March 2025 |
| Ship 30 for 30 | Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole | $99 today, then $99 a month from day 30, through the AI Writing Skool membership | Live cohort 18 Jan to 22 Feb 2027, 11 live sessions with replays; 30 days of publishing |
| 1 Day LinkedIn Masterclass for Builders | Maven (Joel Hansen) | $700 USD, one-off | One live session: 3 hours plus a 30-minute Q&A; the 6 Nov 2026 date showed sold out |
| The Marketer's 3-Week Personal Branding Cohort | Maven (Maria Ledentsova) | No public price; the page shows a waitlist | 3 weeks, live co-writing sessions plus recorded lessons |
| Literally LinkedIn | Lara Acosta | No public price; closed for enrolment, waitlist only | Not shown while closed |
Some pages are stale. Alisa Cohn's Maven course still lists sessions on 23 and 30 September and 10 and 21 October with no year, so ask before you pay for a cohort whose dates you can't place.
What does a course really cost per hour of teaching?
Divide the full price by the hours of teaching you get, and count every billing cycle until the course ends. Two worked examples from the USD prices above:
| Course | Arithmetic | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Joel Hansen, 1-day masterclass | 3 hours + 30 minutes = 3.5 hours; $700 ÷ 3.5 | $200 an hour of live time |
| Ship 30 for 30, joining on 5 Nov 2026 | $99 on 5 Nov, then $99 at roughly 30-day intervals (about 5 Dec, 4 Jan, 3 Feb) to stay a member until the cohort ends on 22 Feb | 4 x $99 = $396 |
The Ship 30 dates assume a 30-day billing cycle, which is our reading of "$99/month starting in 30 days"; the page doesn't list charge dates. Joining nearer January cuts the count. Its page also says the course "used to cost $800 on its own", which is the seller's own comparison.
Refund terms differ just as much. Maven course pages say students can get a full refund up until the halfway point of the course. Ship 30's refund needs you to finish the 30-day programme and all assignments and send in your 30 pieces. Coursera's subscription page mentions a 14-day money-back guarantee for the annual plan only.
How do you judge a personal branding course before you pay?
Check five things on the course page itself. Most of the differences in the table come from these.
Point 1 matters more than it looks. LinkedIn's creator mode update page says the on/off toggle was removed in March 2024 and profile hashtags in February 2024, while members keep the same sharing tools and analytics. A course that tells you to "turn on creator mode" is out of date on that point. Ratings help less than you would hope: LinkedIn Learning only accepts ratings from non-anonymous learners who have completed at least 40% of a course, which says nothing about whether the advice still works.
If a coach would suit you better than a course, our sibling post compares hiring a personal branding coach with doing it yourself.
What can you learn free instead of taking a course?
Most of what the short courses teach about LinkedIn settings is in LinkedIn's own help pages, free, and dated. Three to read this week:
Make Follow your main button
LinkedIn's follower settings page explains, for desktop: Me icon, Settings & Privacy, Visibility, then Followers under Visibility of your LinkedIn activity. There you choose who can follow you and turn on Make follow primary.
Read what creator mode became
The creator mode update page lists what moved: your About section sits at the top of your profile and the Follow button can be primary.
Check whether you can add a custom button
LinkedIn's custom button page says the feature is available only to a select group of Premium Business, Sales Navigator and Recruiter Lite subscribers. If you have it, options include Visit my website and Book an appointment.
For the writing habit itself, our 30-minute-a-week LinkedIn personal branding system for founders covers what to post and when. For where to post, see personal profile versus Company Page.
Which kind of course fits which goal?
Match the format to what you are missing. The pairings below are our suggestion, based on the formats each page describes.
| If you are missing | Look at | Deciding fact from the page |
|---|---|---|
| A clear statement of what you stand for | Coursera's Michigan or UVA course | Michigan has you write an elevator pitch and brand story; UVA a mission statement. Both can be started free or with Coursera Plus |
| A habit of publishing | Ship 30 for 30 | 30 days of publishing in a live cohort |
| Feedback on your LinkedIn writing | A live Maven workshop or cohort | Live sessions; refund up to the halfway point |
| A quick overview for under an hour | LinkedIn Learning or a short Udemy course | 37 minutes to 1h 7m of video |
| Nothing but time to post | No course | LinkedIn's help pages and a weekly writing slot |
Once you are posting each week, Siela's Social Media agent can post in your voice on the cadence you set, from your own LinkedIn and X accounts, with "show me every post first" as an option.
What should you do this week?
Write down your one goal
Positioning, publishing habit, or feedback. Pick one row of the table above.
Run the five-point check on two courses
Note the last-updated date, cost to finish and refund rule for each.
Do the free LinkedIn settings first
Follower settings and the creator mode page, before you pay anyone to explain them.
Publish one post before you enrol
If you can't find time for one post this week, a course with 30 days of publishing will be hard to finish.
Frequently asked questions
Are personal branding courses worth it?
A course is worth it when it gives you something you can't get free: live feedback on your writing, a deadline that makes you publish, or a structured exercise you'd skip alone. If you only need to know LinkedIn's settings, its help pages cover them. Check the cost to finish and the refund rule before paying.
Is there a free personal branding course?
Coursera's University of Michigan course showed an 'Enroll for free' button on 5 November 2026, and both university courses are included with Coursera Plus. LinkedIn Learning courses offered a one-month free trial. LinkedIn's own help pages on followers and creator mode are free with no sign-up.
How long does a personal branding course take?
On the pages we checked, lengths ran from 37 minutes of video on LinkedIn Learning to about 10 hours over a week for the Michigan course on Coursera, 8 hours of Udemy video, and five weeks for the Ship 30 for 30 live cohort running from January to February 2027.
Do personal branding courses give a certificate?
Many do. The Coursera courses list a shareable certificate you can add to your LinkedIn profile, LinkedIn Learning offers a certificate of completion shown in the Licenses and Certificate section of your profile, and Maven course pages list a certificate of completion. A certificate shows you finished, not that your brand improved.
What should a personal branding course cover?
At least three things: how to state what you're known for in a sentence, a publishing routine you can keep, and current platform settings. Check the last-updated date, since LinkedIn removed the creator mode toggle in March 2024 and older courses may still teach it.
Sources
- Coursera: Personal Branding: Stand Out and Succeed (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Coursera: Introduction to Personal Branding (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Coursera Plus (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Learning: Transform Your Personal Brand (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Learning: Personal Branding on Social Media (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Udemy: Build a Personal Brand that Will Propel Your Career (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Udemy: Personal Branding Master Course (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Udemy: Personal Branding: From Audit to Action (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Ship 30 for 30 (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Maven: 1 Day LinkedIn Masterclass for Builders (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Maven: Alisa Cohn, Build Your Personal Brand (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Maven: The Marketer's 3-Week Personal Branding Cohort (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Lara Acosta: Literally LinkedIn (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Updates to Creator Mode (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Manage who can follow you settings (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Add or remove a custom button (checked 5 Nov 2026)