High Rankings SEO Seminar heads to the Twin Cities

Jill Whalen and her posse will be heading to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis & St. Paul) March 15 – 16 with her High Rankings® Search Engine Optimization Seminar. The seminar will take place at the Crowne Plaza Northstar in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, MN.  This band of merry makers is a virtual who’s who list from the seo sem world.  Just take a look below at who the instructors are.

Jill Whalen, of High Rankings is an internationally recognized  search engine optimization consultant and editor of the free search engine marketing newsletter.  She specializes in search engine optimization, SEO consultations and seminars. Jill’s handbook, “The Nitty-Gritty of Writing for the Search Engines“ teaches business owners how and where to place relevant keyword phrases on their Web sites so that they make sense to users and gain high rankings in the major search engines. Great to have you coming to the Twin Cities Jill. See you in Chicago. dt

Matt Bailey is the founder of SiteLogic, a web marketing consulting company. He leads seminars and teaches companies how to use their sites more effectively and to build a web business by applying common sense sales and marketing techniques. He is a specialist in interpreting web site statistics into practical usability. Thanks for the presentation Matt. Let me know when I can steal your next one. dt

Christine Churchill, Key Relevance, was a member of the founding Board of Directors of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). Christine serves as the Associate Editor for e-marketing-news with Mike Grehan and is the Chairman of the Dallas-Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association (DFWSEM). And a lot more accomplishments but I have to save room to ask her,  Colorado or China? dt

Scottie Claiborne,  owner of Right Click Web Consulting,  is also the facilitator of the Successful Sites Newsletter. She is a speaker at the Search Engine Strategies conferences and the High Rankings Seminars as well as the administrator of the High Rankings Forum. You’ve always been a great source of info. Keep the content coming. dt

Karon Thackston, says on her website, Marketing Words, “Hello! I’m Karon Thackston, President and CEO of Marketing Words, Inc. Being a business owner myself, I understand the struggles you face when it comes to promoting your company and maintaining your clientele. Together, you and I can increase your advantage.”   Great intro Karon and I think your url marketingwords.com says it all. I like the you and I by the way! dt

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Danny Sullivan recognizes growth of seo sem training and certification

In Danny’s recent blog post SEM Certification & Training Courses at the Search Engine Watch Blog he states “The move toward offering certification and training in search marketing is accelerating”.  Now I doubt Danny’s been reading my blog but even if he has, he certainly realized the importance of training long ago.

In fact he is the original sem seo certification and training evangelist, wouldn’t you agree? Yes, others have offered free advice on forums but Danny started Search Engine Strategies back in 1999. Here’s from their description “At this unique one-day event, you’ll learn the ins-and-outs of search engine marketing from top experts in the field”.  In addition to that Danny has been writing about search engines for more than 10 years and will add to that at Search Engine Land. 

So what’s the big deal you ask? Well in my article, Shhhh!….the dirty little secret about sem seo certification, for Marketing Pilgrim’s SEM Scholarship contest I gave 4 practical tips and my first one was “Practical tip #1 – Whenever Danny Sullivan speaks, listen, whatever he writes, read”. If Danny’s writing that sem seo certification and training is accelerating then we should definitely pay attention. One way to do that is to subscribe to this blog’s feed. ;)

Danny talks about the “Certification Pathways” from Search Engine College, SEMPO’s webinar for those thinking about getting into search marketing, Starting a Career in Search Marketing and their new online training at SEMPO University. He also discusses the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) SEM Certification, the Incisive Media training after SES Chicago and of course Bruce Clay’s SEO Toolset, which I also mentioned in my article.

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Search Engine College (SEC) offers career jump starting sem seo certification training

SEC Certification Pathways is a series of bundled courses that prepare persons who want to jump-start their career path in the fast-paced search engine industry. They are designed to ensure students are immediately employable upon completion.

I’ve blogged several times about Search Engine College and interviewed Kalena Jordan in order to take a closer look at SEC in part I and part II. They’ve just released their new SEC Certification Pathways. The three “tracks” they offer; Certified Search Engine Optimizer, Certified Pay Per Click Marketer and Certified Search Engine Marketer. You can learn more about the sem seo certification training they offer here. Here’s what graduates receive.

12 months access to our online classroom area.

Downloadable Adobe PDF lessons to keep.

Access to regular lesson updates.

12 months access to our online quizzes and final exam.

Search Engine College Seal of Certification in your chosen Pathway.

Search Engine College Certificates of Training (hard copy certificates) in each subject studied for display on your wall or with your resume.

Permanent access to our SEC Lounge containing extensive search engine marketing resources, employment opportunities and exclusive industry discounts for SEC students.

A discount coupon towards future courses.

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Matt Bailey explains the What and the Why at Marketing Logic

Matt Bailey of Site Logic’s recent post at Marketing Logic examines the shortcomings of the US educational system as posted on the Church of the Customer Blog.  Matt went beyond those shortcomings and discussed issues within the search engine marketing community explaining the magical formulas for success that many seem to  seek.

There are no magic formulas that will equate to long term success. Read the writings of any great author, scientist, philosopher, and they will all agree. Success is not an accident. Success is based on the individual’s will and drive to succeed. This is why I cannot teach easy formulas to long-term success in search engines and website sales – they don’t exist.

Matt knows of what he speaks. He has shared his knowledge at  Search Engine Strategies, The DMA (Direct Marketing Association) Conferences,  and at American Advertising Federation events and is an instructor for the Direct Marketing Association’s SEM Certification program and High Rankings® Search Engine Marketing Seminars. Matt goes on to explain, “There is a difference between knowing the WHAT and the WHY” and I recommend you read WHAT he has to say.
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Fresh Egg announces first SEO Intern Training graduate – Rebecca Kelley

When I first blogged about Fresh Egg’s SEO Intern Training Programme I commented “this internship is a great shot for someone”.  Little did I realize that I would find blog fodder to continue this story. Of course when I heard that Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz had sent Rebecca to this training I had to follow the story.  After all how many people could say they’ve had the opportunity to learn from such seo luminaries as Rand and Ammon Johns? Well now Rebecca can say that since she passed the training program “with flying colours” according to Ammon.

She’s now also the first (and so far only) SEO practitioner in the world to have worked with both Rand Fishkin and myself, and to have learned from both. It will be interesting to watch her future career and see what she does from such an interesting starting point in her first year in this industry. Of course, it comes as no surprise, I’m certain, that Rebecca came through the training and graduated with flying colours.

Rebecca obviously enjoyed the experience and I’m sure she got the most out of it. Here’s what she had to say;

This experience was very valuable for me because it gave me an opportunity to learn SEO from someone other than Rand. Rand is a fantastic teacher and has taught me all I know about SEO, so to learn under a different perspective was fascinating in that it sometimes forced me to approach tasks differently than what I’m used to, and it also gave me a stronger understanding of why Rand does things a certain way.

You can read more about this at the Fresh Egg blog and Rebecca will be no doubt going into further detail at the Daily SEO Blog when she gets back and gathers her thoughts. Congrats Rebecca, not only looking forward to what you have to say about the SEO Intern Training Programme but also looking forward to all your future posts.
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SEM SEO training programs offered by Global Strategies International (GSI)

There are plenty of sem seo training programs available these days and deciding which one to blog about is no easy task. One thing I look for when determining which program to blog about is who the instructors are and who’s behind the program. That’s why I couldn’t pass up letting everyone know about Global Strategies International’s training program.

Bill Hunt, co author of “Search Engine Marketing Inc. : Driving Search Traffic To Your Company’s Web Site“ is the CEO and founder of Global Strategies International (GSI).  In the book Bill shares the tips and techniques he’s learned working with numerous large search engine marketing (SEM) projects for clients such as AT&T, IBM, Intel, The Hartford, and Zurich Financial. You can learn a lot just by reading the book so imagine what you can learn at the sem seo training program.  The training program includes;

Module 1: Understanding Search, Your Website, and Your Market

• SEO 101
• Keyword Research and Planning

Audience: Anyone involved in SEO within the organization

Module 2: Optimizing Your Website

• Developing Search Friendly Content
• Algorithm and Technical Consulting

Audience: Site Manager, Developers and SEO specialists

Module 3: Measuring Success and Ensuring Future Success

• Measuring Success and Workflow

Audience: Managers and Key Stakeholders

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Search Engine College sem seo training innovations reviewed by Cre8pc’s Kim Krause Berg

I’ve stated several times on this blog that I do not endorse one sem seo training program over another.  That being said one thing that I think everyone should look at when determining which sem seo training program to take is to look at the instructors.  Are they recognized in the industry? Have they presented at the major conferences? Do they have a specialty or niche within the seo sem world? Also because the sem seo world is constantly changing, what are they doing with an eye towards the future? 

Well Kim Krause Berg gets to those questions and more in her post at the Cre8pc Usability and Holistic SEO blog.

An earlier interview with Kalena Jordan about Search Engine College can be found in a two parts series, part I and part II here.  Kalena spoke eloquently and passionately about Search Engine College and what they offer students and the sem seo community in general.