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Oooh you're back! Lookin good. Have you lost weight? Yes, that was a compliment designed to butter you up for my next question. Subscribed to my feed yet? :-)

You may remember that Search Engine College launched a free search engine marketing training initiative last year for charities and not-for-profit organizations worldwide.

If you missed it, we’re offering 25 charities per year the opportunity to learn search marketing skills at no cost, to help them make the most of their limited marketing budgets.

Our 3 latest recipients of free search marketing courses are:

1) UK Connect – the communication disability network, works to promote effective services, new opportunities and a better quality of life for people living with aphasia. UK Connect want to improve the marketing of their training and consultancy with a view to setting up more services around the UK. This will allow them to have a wider impact on those living with communication disability.

2) Christchurch Women’s Refuge -New Zealand’s first and foremost social change agency dedicated to preventing violence against women, young people and children. Their mission is to create a society where all women, young people and children live life free from violence.

3) The Prisoners’ Aid and Rehabilitation Society – PARS is a not for profit assisting prisoners and their families with reintegration & rehabilitation issues throughout New Zealand. Prisoner reintegration is an area that can be difficult to market effectively. A Search Engine College marketing course offers PARS the chance to maximise their publicity and positive social message.

Those are three very worthy not-for-profits and we are delighted to be able to offer their staff a free course.

If you know of a charity or not-for-profit that might benefit from a pro-bono course, please encourage them to get in touch and spread the word by linking to this post.

Thanks!

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On behalf of staff and tutors at Search Engine College, I’d like to offer congratulations to our most recent graduates.

All students named below have successfully completed a course at Search Engine College and attained official certification status (requiring a passing grade of 70 percent or higher.)

Search Engine Optimization 101

• Travis Plunk
• Sarah Taylor-Salamaca
• Julie Gilbreath Otten
• Louisa Misrahi
• Gwen Lombardi
• Dave Lobo
• Kate Rickard
• Victoria MacGregor
• Jyl Weeks
• Larry Clark

Search Engine Optimization 201

• Mary Kaufman
• Mohammed El Hakawati
• Louisa Misrahi
• Dominique Neveling
• Dave Lobo
• Midulapriya Sundararaman
• Craig Bollig
• Asher Elran
• Bill Montaruli
• Larry Clark

Pay Per Click Advertising 101

• Louisa Misrahi
• Dave Lobo
• Patrick Bugeja
• Debbie Naugle
• Asher Elran
• Adam Traver
• Larry Clark

Pay Per Click Advertising 201

• Julie Chaloner
• Megan Ball
• Louisa Misrahi
• Dave Lobo
• Rob Gibbons
• Victoria MacGregor
• Asher Elran
• Larry Clark

Web Site Copywriting 101

• Megan Ball
• Steven Morris
• Louisa Misrahi
• Bill Montaruli

Web Site Usability 101

• Julie Chaloner
• Dave Lobo
• Kevin May
• Larry Clark

Link Building 101

• Justin T. Gerald
• Asher Elran

Copywriting for PPC 101

• Alexander Bruce

Certified Search Engine Optimizer

• Steven Morris
• Debbie Naugle
• Bill Montaruli

Certified Search Engine Marketer

• Julie Chaloner
• Megan Ball
• Louisa Misrahi
• Dave Lobo
• Asher Elran
• Larry Clark

Well done everyone! Please contact your tutor if you haven’t yet received your hard copy certificate, Status Page or certification seal.

Also, don’t forget to join become a fan of our Facebook page and follow our Twitter profile @secollege for College announcements such as lesson updates, press releases, new courses, events and milestones.

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If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you would have seen that Search Engine College launched a free search engine marketing training initiative earlier this month for charities and not-for-profit organizations worldwide.

If you missed the announcement, we’re offering 25 charities per year the opportunity to learn search marketing skills at no cost, to help them make the most of their limited marketing budgets.

Our 3 latest recipients of free search marketing courses are:

1) National Heart Foundation of New Zealand – a not-for-profit, non-government organisation that funds research and promotes heart health in order to reduce the rates of cardiovascular disease in New Zealand.

2) Centre for Alternative Technology – a UK based organization offering solutions to some of the most serious challenges facing our planet and the human race, such as climate change, pollution and the waste of precious resources.

3) Honoring Emancipated Youth (HEY) – HEY’s mission is to strengthen and connect San Francisco’s systems of support for Bay Area foster care youth so that all youth emancipating, or “aging out” of the foster care system can enjoy a healthy transition to adulthood.

Those are three very worthy not-for-profits and we are delighted to be able to offer their staff a free course.

If you know of a charity or not-for-profit that might benefit from a pro-bono course, please encourage them to get in touch and spread the word by linking to this post.

Thanks!

——————-

Like to learn more about SEO? Download my free SEO lesson. No catch!

As we posted earlier this week, Search Engine College has launched a free search engine marketing training initiative for charities and not-for-profit organizations worldwide.

We’re offering 25 charities per year the opportunity to learn search marketing skills at no cost, to help them make the most of their limited marketing budgets.

Thank you to everyone who tweeted and blogged about our offer, word has spread very quickly and we’ve been inundated with requests from all over the world!

As well as announcing the recipients as they are decided, we’re going to publish a small blurb about each recipient charity/NFP and a link to their web sites so you can learn a little more about them, spread the word about their charitable work or maybe even get involved yourself.

Our first recipients of pro-bono search marketing courses are:

1) Sandblast and the Free Western Sahara Network – Sandblast works in support of the forgotten Saharawi refugees.  The UK charity evolved out of a 14-year relationship and involvement with the Saharawi refugees in South West Algeria.

2) Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council (EVOC) – is a local organisation, which helps to support, develop and promote the interests and work of voluntary and community organisations in Edinburgh, Scotland.

3) Science Alive – a non profit organisation in Christchurch, New Zealand, focusing on science and technology education.

That’s 3 down and 22 to go – congratulations to you all!

If you know of a worthy charity or not-for-profit that might benefit from our courses, please direct them to this post, or tweet it to spread the word.

As you may have heard if you follow me on Twitter, Search Engine College has now enrolled students in 45 countries.

We’re thrilled that so many people around the world have benefited from our courses, but we’re also aware that many small businesses and not-for-profit sites don’t even have a marketing budget, let alone a budget for training like ours.

So to make it easier, we’ve decided to offer 25 charities per year the opportunity to learn search marketing skills at no cost, to help them make the most of their limited marketing budgets.

We’d like to extend an invitation to any registered charities interested in taking online marketing training (regardless of global location) to get in touch. We’ll choose up to 25 charities at our discretion and send them a coupon for one of their staff to take a self-study course of their choice to the value of USD 295.

Courses are available in the following disciplines:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Pay Per Click Advertising
• Link Building
• Web Site Copywriting
• Article Marketing
• Web Site Usability
• Copywriting for PPC

When contacting us, please use the phrase “charity training” in your email subject line or comments field and include your charity registration number if you have one. Please also include a sentence or two about what course would best benefit your charity and why.

To prevent fraudulent claims, we will be screening charities via sites such as CharityNavigator.org and the Better Business Bureau (or the equivalent outside the U.S.) to ensure they are legitimate. We’ll be announcing the beneficiaries one by one as we distribute the coupons.

If you know of a worthy charity or not-for-profit that might benefit from our courses, please direct them to this post, or tweet it to spread the word.

Thanks!

UPDATE: Because of the popularity of our pro-bono course initiative, we’ve had to add a couple of conditions to the offer. To qualify for the offer, your charity / NFP organization needs to:

1) Have a web site.

2) Have been incorporated at least 12 months ago.

3) Be listed on CharityNavigator.org, the UK Charity Commission, the NZ Charities Commission or the equivalent in your country.

4) Not have any religious or political affiliations.

Thanks for your understanding and co-operation.