Category Archives: education/training

April is Certification Month at Search Engine College

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SEC-laptop-2014-colourAfter receiving several emails from students who missed out on our Study Month promotion last year, we have decided to introduce a new promotion for April 2015, based around Certification.

Several of you liked the idea of Study Month, but as existing subscribers, couldn’t really take advantage of it. You suggested that we should offer a discount on our Certification Upgrades, so that existing subscribers wouldn’t feel left out.

We heard you! After negotiations with our staff and stakeholders, I’m thrilled to announce that during the month of April 2015, you can purchase a Certification Upgrade for just USD 147.50 per course – that’s 50 percent off!

The best news is that the discount will apply regardless of whether you upgrade one course or several to Certification. So if you’ve been thinking about switching over to Certification, NOW is your chance.

Just as a reminder, Certification is for current subscribers who want to benefit from tutor supervision and receive formal, industry-recognized certification following completion.

If you wander over to our Swipe Checkout, you can beat the crowds and sign up for the discount right now. If you prefer to use our 2Checkout / PayPal shopping cart, you’ll need to enter Coupon : 50OFFCERT to get the discount.

Once you sign up, we’ll shoot you an email to confirm the course you are upgrading. Remember, the promotion ends 30 April, so don’t postpone and miss out. Add a reminder to your calendar if you’re forgetful like me :-)

See you in class.

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Common Questions Asked at SEO Job Interviews

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hiring-staff2Based on conversations I’ve had recently, many of my students and blog readers are either seeking a new job in the SEO field or looking to switch existing SEO gigs this year.

Inevitably, the subject of potential interview questions will arise. How exactly should you prepare for a SEO interview? What type of questions can you expect to be asked? Will they be highly technical? Scenario-based? Or will they be all about your past experience? In a nutshell, how will you know the type of SEO knowledge benchmark a new employer is expecting you to meet?

Well, wonder no more, because online training provider EDU Pristine has collated a series of the 13 most common SEO interview questions (and answers!) to help you brush up before you walk into that nerve-wracking interview panel.

The questions are pretty solid, apart from Q9 — most SEO pundits agree that the Google Sandbox has failed to be a thing since the advent of Everflux indexing — and Q10 which is ambiguous, depending on your personal interpretation of the term Search Engine Marketing.

So study up and go get that new SEO gig.

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2015 Digital Marketing Workshops Announced

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IITP-logoAs most of you know, I run a series of face-to-face training workshops in conjunction with the Institute of IT Professionals (IITP) across various locations in New Zealand.

The current topics include:

  • Introduction to Search Engine Optimization (full day)
  • Social Media Marketing for Business (full day)
  • Using Google Analytics to Increase Website Traffic and Conversions (half day)

The IITP have recently published their 2015 Workshop Schedule, so if you are based in New Zealand and want to book a place at one of these events, now’s your chance. I’ve got 14 workshops scheduled so far, but more are in the pipeline, so it’s going to be a busy year!

I’m aware that a number of you missed out on a workshop last year due to logistical reasons. Keep in mind that if your location or preferred date isn’t listed, you can contact the IITP directly via the “Available other times On Demand or In House” link listed under each workshop and request an event to suit you.

If you would prefer a tailored training session and/or have a large group of staff wanting to take the same course, the IITP can also arrange in-house workshops to suit your particular requirements.  These training sessions allow staff to focus on specific internal web site issues without revealing intellectual property or commercially-sensitive information to other attendees.

We are also testing demand for running a Gaining More Conversions from Google AdWords style workshop. If this is something of interest to you, please let me know in the comments so we can add it to this year’s line-up.

I’m looking forward to seeing some of you at one or more of these workshops in 2015.

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How to Earn a Full Time Income as a Part Time SEO Consultant

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course-image-smlThe last couple of months have been super busy for me. I’ve been working on my first online course for the Udemy platform and it’s finally published.

My first Udemy course is called How to Earn a Full Time Income as a Part Time SEO Consultant and it teaches you how to create your own portable business by taking advantage of the huge global demand for search engine optimization skills. In the lessons, I show you how to harness automation and passive income to reduce your working day to 5 hours or under, without sacrificing a full-time income.

The course builds on the principles explained in the Bonus Lesson of our SEO 201 course at Search Engine College and comes with a full range of downloadable tools, templates and resources to ensure you can hit the ground running.

If you have ever wanted to earn a full time income, working part time, then this course is for you.

See you in class!

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Fast Five in Search – Week 51, 2014

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fast-five

 

So it’s nearly Xmas and 2014 is drawing to a close. Most of you will already be on vacation, which means you have more time to read longer articles and editorials rather than just skim the blog post headlines like you usually do, right?  With that in mind, this week’s Fast Five consists of 5 in-depth articles and recent blog posts that are a bit meatier than the usual pieces I link to. Enjoy!

Here’s this week’s Fast Five:

1) 26 Ways Brand Succeed With Social Media Marketing by Debbie Hemley via Social Media Examiner. A nice round up of how some well known brands are leveraging social media to spawn higher levels of engagement. Take note and see if you can replicate some of these ideas into your own social strategy for 2015.

2) Technology, Self-Promotion and the Death of Public Relations by Shane Paul Neil via Technorati. Having completed my undergraduate degree with a major in Public Relations, this article – joyfully declaring PR to be dead – leapt out at me. Has technology killed off traditional corporate Public Relations and sent spin doctors to the unemployment queue? Best read it to find out.

3) Smarter Education: The Rise of Big Data in the Classroom by Lindsay Rothfeld via Mashable. If technology has killed Public Relations, it has injected new life into education. This written piece (and accompanying video) looks at the role technology plays in the modern-day classroom and how it is contributing to lower school drop-out rates in the U.S.

4) A Brand New World in Which Men Ruled by Jodi Kantor via New York Times. Keeping with the theme of technology and the impact it has had on education is this fascinating editorial delving into Stanford University’s pioneering class of 1994. The class churned out a very large number of (mostly male) tech graduates who each established or contributed to dot com success stories, including Netscape, Yahoo, WhatsApp, Google, PayPal and Facebook.

and finally…

5) Brands That Have Been Naughty and Nice on Social Media (Infographic) by HootSuite via Marketing Land. Well I couldn’t avoid Xmas forever! Here’s a fun Infographic from the clever team at HootSuite that ranks some of the big brands as naughty or nice, depending on their brand sentiment and popularity on social media during 2014. I won’t give too much away, but it looks like Santa won’t be visiting General Motors or US Airways this year. Oh dear.

Have a joyful, safe and memorable Xmas dear readers. I’ll catch you next week for the final Fast Five for 2014. santa-sack

*Image courtesy of Threadless.

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