New Course: Conquer Your Fear, Improve Your Career

We’re proud of all of our SitePoint courses, and judging from the positive student response we’ve had, you guys are pretty happy with these online education resources as well. We’ve been fortunate enough to work with some incredibly talented and accomplished teachers, so the bar has been set pretty high when it comes to sourcing topics for new courses.

With that in mind, we’re especially excited to bring you our latest course, which aims to address the greatest fear that’s common to us all:

[SIZE=“4”]Fearless Public Speaking and Compelling PowerPoint with Greg Ferenstein[/SIZE]

It’s a well-worn cliche that when asked to rank their greatest fears, many people put the fear of public speaking ahead of the fear of death. The liberal use of this finding doesn’t take anything away from its core truth: we’re all scared to death of getting up in front of a group of people and giving a speech or making a presentation!

If you’re in the web development and design industry, you might be content to get by on your dev or design skills alone. However, whether you’re a JavaScript genius, a PHP pro, or a WordPress wizard, sooner or later you’re going to need some PR skills. Whether it’s giving a presentation as a freelancer to secure that big client contract, presenting to hundreds (or thousands) of people at a conference, or simply addressing a small group of your peers, you need to develop some basic public speaking skills.

So why should you choose to learn this key skill set through our online course? Well, Greg Ferenstein is himself a sought-after public speaker, author, and educator. As an author, he writes in the areas of technology, business, and politics. As an educator, he designs college curricula which help improve teamwork, communication, and technological skills. He holds a Master’s Degree in Mathematical Behavioral Sciences, and has made past contributions to CNN, Mashable, Fast Company, and The Huffington Post.

So, to the course details:

* [[B]Fearless Public Speaking and Compelling PowerPoint with Greg Ferenstein[/B]](http://courses.sitepoint.com/fearless-public-speaking)
* Starts: 31st January 2011
* Sessions: twelve structured lessons, with three live webinars
* Cost: $29.95
* [Sign up for Fearless Public Speaking and Compelling PowerPoint here](http://courses.sitepoint.com/fearless-public-speaking/purchase)

Full details of the course—including a video of Greg sharing more information on what to expect and a [URL=“http://courses.sitepoint.com/fearless-public-speaking/outline”]lesson plan—are now available.

No matter what line of work you’re in, or what your personal passion happens to be, the ability to communicate effectively in front of an audience is a highly desirable skill. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not about being an extrovert, being “good with words,” or being a natural entertainer. Greg will show you that, with a combination of good technique and a lot of practice, anyone can do it!

The course will cover:

[LIST]

[]communication skills
[
] an introduction to modern PowerPoint
[] using pictures in presentations
[
] organization
[] evidence
[
] brevity
[] making your first presentation
[
] PowerPoint tips
[*] adding some spice: style, humor, and memorization
[/LIST]

It all kicks off on Monday January 31, so sign up now because with the across-the-board appeal this course has, we are expecting to have to close enrollment early to keep the class size reasonable!