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Top 40 Useful Sites To Learn New Skills

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Learn New Skills

The web is a powerful resource that can easily help you learn new skills.  You just have to know where to look.  Sure, you can use Google, Yahoo, or Bing to search for sites where you can learn new skills, but I figured I’d save you some time.

Here are the top 40 sites I have personally used over the last few years when I want to learn something new.

  1. Hack a Day – Hack a Day serves up fresh hacks (short tutorials) every day from around the web and one in-depth ‘How-To hack’ guide each week.
  2. eHow – eHow is an online community dedicated to providing visitors the ability to research, share, and discuss solutions and tips for completing day-to-day tasks and projects.
  3. Wired How-To Wiki – Collaborate with Wired editors and help them build their extensive library of projects, hacks, tricks and tips.  Browse through hundreds how-to articles and then add to them, or start a new one.
  4. MAKE Magazine – Brings the do-it-yourself (DIY) mindset to all of the technology in your life.  MAKE is loaded with cool DIY projects that help you make the most of the technology you already own.
  5. 50 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do – While not totally comprehensive, here is a list of 50 things everyone should know how to do.  It’s a great starting point to learn new skills.
  6. wikiHow – A user based collaboration to build and share the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual.
  7. Lifehacker – An award-winning daily blog that features tips, shortcuts, and downloads that help you get things done smarter and more efficiently.
  8. 100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time – Today, knowing how to use Google effectively is a vital skill.  This list links out to enough Google related resources to make you an elite Google hacker.
  9. Instructables – Similar to MAKE, Instructables is a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others as the tackle new projects and learn new skills.
  10. Merriam-Webster Online – In this digital age, your ability to communicate with written English is paramount skill.  And M-W.com is the perfect resource to improve your English now.
  11. Lumosity – Learn to improve your memory by playing a series of fun and educational brain training games.
  12. 100 Skills Every Man Should Know – Another compilation article with instructions to help you learn new skills.  This one says it’s geared for men, but I think most of these skills are applicable to women as well.
  13. 5min Life Videopedia – Lot’s of great tutorials and DIY videos.
  14. HowStuffWorks – Knowledge is power.  While this site isn’t exactly geared to help you learn new skills, it contains so much useful information that you’re bound to learn a skill or two while you browse.
  15. StumbleUpon – A collective set of recommendations from thousands of hours of searching by web users who share your interests.  It’s basically a recommendation engine.  Users add to this engine by providing their personal recommendations on what sites are worth your time.  If you select topics and tags of interest like ‘Self-Improvement‘ and ‘DIY,’ you’ll be learning new skills in no time.
  16. Work.com – An extensive directory of how-to guides for beginning entrepreneurs.
  17. Howcast – Hosts professional how-to videos as well as how-to wiki tutorials.  Howcast combines user ideas with the expertise of professional studio video to deliver what is nothing short of amazing, informative content.
  18. VideoJug – The video content on this site covers a variety of topics including informative ‘How To’ and ‘Ask The Expert’ films that guide you step-by-step through everything and anything in life.
  19. MakeUseOf – A booming daily blog that features cool websites, computer tips, and downloads that make you more productive.  Lot’s of insightful tips and tricks to learn.
  20. WonderHowTo – This site is focused on one clear organizing principle: aggregating and linking to truly great, free how-to videos from which you can learn new skills.
  21. SuTree – Another useful aggregator of how-to videos from all around the web.
  22. Zen Habits – The ultimate productivity and self-improvement blog.  Zen Habits is about finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives.  It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, and find happiness.  Lot’s of learning material here.
  23. Academic Earth – Online degrees and video courses from leading universities.
  24. About.com Videos – Another solid collection of how-to video tutorials.
  25. PCWorld How-To – Lot’s of useful tutorials and guides related to fixing and modifying computers and other electronic gadgets.
  26. Spreeder – This site is focused on teaching you one new skill:  speed reading.  And it does a great job of doing so.
  27. Woopid – Watch free technology training videos.  Get help and answer your computer and gadget questions with thousands of video tutorials for PCs, Macs, and various software applications.
  28. DIY Network – A go-to destination for rip-up, knock-out home improvement projects.  The site offers expert answers the most sought-after questions regarding creative projects for DIY enthusiasts.
  29. Scitable – A free science library and personal learning tool that currently concentrates on genetics, the study of evolution, variation, and the rich complexity of living organisms.  The site also expects to expand into other topics of learning and education.
  30. All Recipes – A complete guide to recipes and cooking tips.  If you’d like to learn to be a better cook, this site is for you.
  31. 43 Folders – This site is more about inspiring you to follow-through with your goals than it is about learning new skills.  But I think following-through with your goals is a skill.  Most people never quite get there.
  32. Dumb Little Man – Another awesome productivity and self-improvement blog hosting lots of useful information.
  33. iTunes U – Hundreds of universities — including Stanford, Yale and MIT — distribute lectures, slide shows, PDFs, films, exhibit tours and audio books through iTunes U.  The Science section alone contains content on topics including agriculture, astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, ecology and geography.
  34. American Sign Language Browser – Teach yourself sign language online.
  35. BBC Languages – Teach yourself a new spoken language online.
  36. Delicious Popular DIY – Lots of popular DIY articles bookmarked by users from all over the web.
  37. Khan Academy – Over 1200 videos lessons covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance.  Lot’s of educational material to help you learn new skills.
  38. The Happiness Project – Learn the skills necessary to create happiness in your life.
  39. How To Do Things – Another solid collection of how-to tutorials.
  40. ShowMeDo – A peer-produced video-tutorials and screencasts site for free and open-source software.  The large majority are free to watch and download.

Also, check out these books for more ideas on pertinent life skills:

Photo by: vramak

Comments

  6. Awesome as always ..That’s the reason why i always wait for your next post…Thank you so much..I feel like most of the things i were looking for has been finally found.

    Reply

  8. @All: Thanks for the kind remarks. I’m glad you all are enjoying this list of useful sites to learn new skills. Honestly, these sites teach some truly insightful lessons and skills. So check them out and dig around a little.

    Have a great week. 😉

    Reply

  9. How in the heck am I supposed to get anything done today? 🙂 Thanks for the list. Lots I’ve already seen, but quite a few are new. It will be fun to explore.

    Reply

  11. What about http://www.TED.com ? I love that site for all the informative and brilliant talks offered via video! Not so much for learning new skills, but great for expanding my mind and knowledge base.

    Reply

  12. There are some great sites on here like MAKE magazine and Hack A Day, but ehow has to be one of the most useless sites ever created. The whole thing is filled with how to’s written by people who can’t do anything except make a list. The only thing worse is howhub.

    Reply

  18. That is quite the list. A few of those site I go to frequently and some I’ve never heard of. It should keep me busy for a little while.

    Thank you for the valuable resource.

    Reply

  19. Great resource. This is not the first time I have bookmarked something on this site. Well done.

    I love the concept behind some of those sites. The one’s that stood out for me were:
    Hackaday
    Videojug
    ShowMeDo

    I agree with Krystle that TED.com could have been included on the list as well. But you had to pick 40. These 40 could keep someone busy for a very very long time.

    Thanks again for the thoughtful post. I look forward to the next one!

    Justin

    Reply

  22. I sure love resources to self-teach. I don’t know if you ever hit that moment in your life when you realized “nothing I learned in high school or college is helping me out right now,” but I did.

    This is a ton of stuff, but what has the highest quality information? I know the majority of stuff on sites like ehow.com is not well thought out and rather unhelpful. Every once in a while I’ll find something useful, but most of the time I’ll find things like “want to learn japanese? go to the library and find a book on japanese for free!”

    It would rock if you could highlight the top couple resources.

    Thanks bud.

    -Joe

    Reply

  24. Good list! I love the iTunes lectures! Reid Hoffman of Linkedin, John Chambers of Cisco, are just a few you can find. I can’t believe that they have them for free.

    Reply

  26. Really, ehow as #2? They are nothing more than a content farm seeded by Demand Media that uses a bunch of black/gray hat SEO techniques to get good rankings. I have never come across an article on that site that was even half as helpful as some of the other sites listed.

    Reply

  28. As a domainer I keep a library of sites like these to help write content for my “howto” domains and mini-sites . You’ve just helped make that library larger. Thanks!

    Reply

  32. thanks for sharing the sites!

    the photo struck me for a while. which is more serious — the facial expression or the chests? 🙂

    Reply

  35. I just happen to go into this side and i think it is really interesting. im definitely going to read through all the pages as i can see that im already inspired.

    Reply

  38. Thanks alot man. Between your list and Stumble Upon, I’ll be busy for a while. I only recently found stumble. Thats what led me to your page. Good job! Cool ink, I guess thats you up there

    Reply

  42. I’d like to suggest http://muchenough.com as well.

    At Much Enough you can read or create a detailed how to, and also arrange to meet online in a live video chat room to discuss specific details of a project if desired.

    Enjoy.. D

    Reply

  45. wow! this is absolutely great! thanks for the effort in creating such helpful post! it will most certainly help me in my becoming a VA venture. 🙂 have a great day!

    Reply

  47. I have been through to a few of the sites you have recommended, I was amazed by the fact that there is so much ideas out there that I have never encountered in my entire life. Thank you.

    Reply

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