How to Get a Lynda.com Free Trial

As we explained in our article on how much Lynda.com costs, you usually have to pay for Lynda.com in order to use it. However, when you sign up for the first time, you can get a free trial for 10 days. After that time period is up, though, you’ll be charged the regular rate for the plan that you chose. 

If you decide that you don’t want to use Lynda.com during this period, be sure to cancel your account to avoid being charged. We’ll go over how to do that in our How to Cancel Your Lynda.com Account tutorial.

How to register for a Lynda.com free trial

1. Go to www.lynda.com in your web browser and click Start a Free Trial in the upper-left corner.

   

2. You will be taken to a screen where you will be asked to choose which subscription plan you want.

   

   Click Start Your Free Trial below the plan that you want. We’ll be picking the “Premium Annual” plan, since we want to show off all of the cool features of the eLearning website.

3. You will begin the process of creating your account on the next screen. If you have an account on LinkedIn (the website that owns Lynda), you can click Connect with LinkedIn at the top of the form to log into your LinkedIn account, and use the information from it to create your account.

   

   If you’d prefer to do things the old-fashioned way instead, click in the boxes shown in the screenshot above and type in:

   – Your first name
   – Your last name
   – The name of your organization (optional)
   – Your email address
   – A password to secure your account with
   – A copy of the password that you chose

   When you have entered all of this information, click Continue.

4. On the next screen, you will have to decide how you would like to pay for your membership after your free trial is over. “Credit Card” should automatically be selected; if you wish to pay with the online transaction service PayPal instead, click the button next to “PayPal”, click the Check Out with PayPal button, log into your PayPal account, and confirm your purchase.

   

   If you want to pay with a credit card instead, click in each of the boxes and drop-down menus shown in the screenshot above and type in or select:

   – Your name as it appears on your credit card (it should already be filled in)
   – Your credit card number
   – The month and year that your credit card expires
   – Your credit card’s security code (click What’s This? for help finding it)
   – The country in which you live
   – Your address and (optionally) your unit number
   – The city in which you live
   – The state or territory in which you live
   – The mailing code for the area in which you live

   When you’ve entered all of this information, click Submit.

5. On the next screen, you will be able to review your order. If any of your billing information is incorrect, click Edit and repeat step 4. Otherwise, click Complete My Order.

   

6. Once your order is complete, click Create My Recommendations to start finding courses that you might want to take.

   

7. You will be brought to a screen that will display some general categories for courses on Lynda, as well as some specific topics that courses in that category will cover. Click the check box beside a category or topic to select or deselect it.

   

   If you’re looking for something in particular, click in the box with the magnifying glass and type in some key words. Lynda will come up with some similar-sounding topics as suggestions; click one to add it to your preferences. When you’re done, click View Recommendations.

   

8. You will be taken to your list of recommended courses; we will discuss how you can take them in our How to Take Lynda.com Courses tutorial. You can get back to this screen by clicking your name in the top-right corner and then clicking Recommended.

   

In the meantime, congratulations on signing up for a free trial, and enjoy discovering new things to learn!