Tell someone about Search Engine College and make some money

Mr Happy is happy

So, two things happened today that prompted this post.

The first one was an email from a student who had friends and colleagues interested in the course she was taking via Search Engine College. She wanted to know if we had an affiliate program so she could refer people in exchange for a commission if they sign up.

The second thing was a conversation I had with another mum at my son’s school who suggested that because I work on the Internet, I should “look into affiliate programs” as she had heard they are a great way to market a web site.

Both of these things made me realize that I’m obviously not very good at marketing. Because Search Engine College already HAS an affiliate program. We’ve had one for over 5 years in fact. But if one of our own students didn’t know and someone I chat to every day didn’t know, then I’m obviously not promoting it well enough. That’s a big marketing FAIL right there.

So, for those of you who didn’t already know, guess what? Search Engine College has an affiliate program.

It’s actually a pretty generous one – 15% commission on any new registrations, a USD 2 sign up bonus and a USD 50 performance bonus when your commissions reach $1,000. We pay out at USD 200, so if a student referred by you registers and pays for our Search Engine Marketer Pathway (currently priced at USD 1,495.00), your commission would be USD 224.25 and you would automatically reach the minimum payment threshold with just one sale.

Provided you are already a student, you can even use your affiliate link to purchase future courses. By doing this you will receive a 15% commission from your own orders, indirectly providing you with 15% off the purchase price of any course.

Convinced yet? Convinced but worried it will be a time suck to get going? Don’t be. Once you login, you can grab text links, banner code and other marketing tools for fast integration into your site, email signature or blog. We’ll send you step-by-step instructions if you need them, but truly, it should only take you about 5 mins to slap up a link.

Whether it makes you rich like Mr Happy in the photo here, or whether it just pays enough to cover your daily coffee is up to you. But give it a go and let me know what you think.

 

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Search Engine College Courses Eligible for NZTE Reimbursement

Some very exciting news came through email today.

If you are a privately owned New Zealand business with less than 50 staff and you take one of our Search Engine College courses between now and the end of September 2010, it appears that you *may* qualify for reimbursement of 50 percent of the course fee (up to a maximum of NZD 250 including GST) via the NZTE’s Management Training Assistance Scheme.

I say *may* at this stage, because I am fairly sure our courses qualify but NZTE is unable to offer pre-approval of courses or applicants for this scheme so you will need to make the final decision yourself on whether to apply. I am currently awaiting confirmation from NZTE as to the likelihood of our courses qualifying so will update this post when I have more information.

Important dates:

This scheme covers management training courses or workshops:

* booked and paid for between 1 June 2010 and 30 September 2010 and;
* attended between 1 July 2010 and 30 September 2010 and;
* for which applications for reimbursement are received between 1 July 2010 and 31 October 2010.

General eligibility criteria:

The Management Training Assistance Scheme is open to the owners/operators, and managers of small and medium businesses that meet the following criteria:

* Are privately owned (by an individual or individuals)
* Have few, if any, specialised managerial staff
* Have less than 50 full time employees (30 hours is considered full time)
* Are commercially trading
* Are not part of a larger business enterprise

The following are not eligible:

* Not-for-profit entities
* Charitable trusts

But never fear, charities and NFPs can apply for our free online training initiative instead.

Please note that NZTE will reimburse applicants after their application has been lodged and assessed by them and approval and payment of the claim will be at the sole discretion of NZTE.

Perhaps you’ve been thinking about taking one of our but needed an extra incentive? Well now’s your chance. We offer courses in the following disciplines:

  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Pay Per Click Advertising (e.g. Google AdWords)
  • Link Building
  • Web Site Copywriting
  • Article Marketing
  • Web Site Usability
  • Copywriting for PPC

So if you’re a qualifying New Zealand business and want to take advantage of the Management Training Assistance Scheme to save yourself NZD250 on our courses, you’ve got less than 3 months to do it. That’s right, the cut off date is 30 September 2010.

So don’t leave it too long. Enroll today, have some fun learning how to better market your web site online and save yourself some cash.

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Search Engine College fee increase delayed by 48 hours

Just a quickie – due to time constraints with the updating of our 2Checkout shopping cart with the new course fees, our course pricing increase has been delayed for 48 hours until midnight on January 31. The shopping cart will reflect new pricing as of 12.01am on Feb 1.

So  this means that for the next 48 hours, you can enroll at Search Engine College for 2008 prices!

It seems word has spread via Twitter too, we’ve had a record number of enrollments this month – more than in any previous months since we launched Search Engine College back in 2004.

Don’t be left out! Join the cool kids, enroll today and save.

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Last Chance to Enroll at SEC for 2008 Pricing

In case you missed the announcement in this month’s newsletter, we are increasing course fees at Search Engine College at the end of this month.

Perhaps you’ve been thinking about taking one of our Search Engine College courses but needed an extra incentive? Well now’s your chance. We’ve been holding back increasing our course fees and haven’t changed them for three years. But due to pressure from our distributors and maturation of the online education market, we’ve decided to increase our fees in two week’s time by an average of $100 per course.

So if you want to enroll at our current pricing, you’ve got two weeks to do it. That’s right, our new course pricing will take effect on 26 January 2009. So don’t leave it too long. Enroll today at 2008 pricing and save yourself some cash.

So come join us at Search Engine College. We believe learning is meant to be fun!

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SMX Sydney Discount

SMX SydneySearch Marketing Expo (SMX) is coming to Sydney for the first time this April and the anticipation is already building. The speaker line-up alone is enough to make jaws drop:

* Danny Sullivan, Editor in Chief – Searchengineland.com
* Frederick Valley, Adwords Evangelist, Google Inc.
* Gord Hotchkiss, President & CEO – Enquiro
* Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience – Google Inc.
* Rand Fishkin, Director – SEOmoz

As one of the sponsors of the conference, my team and I at Search Engine College are particularly excited to see what Danny and his hardworking local crew (Hi Barry!) have planned for their first SMX event Down Under. It will also be the first time we’ve ever exhibited at a major search conference so we’ve been in preparation mode for some time. Our exhibition fees include a booth but not fit-out or marketing materials and there’s a lot to organize!

The great news is that as sponsors, we’ve secured an exclusive discount that we can pass on to Search Engine College students and readers of this blog, PLUS we’ve also scored a free conference pass to one lucky blog reader. But more about the free pass in a later post. In the meantime, if you’re planning on attending SMX Sydney and you haven’t registered yet, today’s your lucky day. Below is a coupon code that will give you 15 percent off the full conference ticket price:

SMX08-SECVIP

I’m not sure when this coupon is set to expire, but I got the impression that it was a short-term deal. So go and register, quick!

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