A interesting piece I read the other day about SEO training. I thought I would add a few thoughts and observations

SEO Training: Small is the New Big:
“Are these smaller conferences/seminars competition for SES and Pubcon? Yes and no. SES runs multiple conferences world wide and I believe there will be just one Pubcon conference this year in Las Vegas. Bigger conferences are attractive to companies that want to send their people to a venue with a broader selection of topics and others enjoy them for networking and prospecting.
There’s a tremendous demand for SEO/SEM education these days and staffing is an issue as well. Big conferences are useful the first 1-2 times, but after that, the information may seem redundant to more experienced search marketers. A smaller, more hands on event with legitimately top practitioners could be very appealing.
For conferences like SES and ad:tech, the speaker selection process is an interesting alchemy that uses a combination of popularity/friends/expertise and I think many repeat attendees are tired of the sales pitches and lack of practical, hands on information.”

I have been to a variety of SEO and Affiliate shows in the past year from SEO pub com to Search engine Strategies to Affiliate summit and
I agree with some of the above comments. It seems I now go to these shows for the networking and to talk to vendors vs anything else. The sessions are up and down from too much focused on beginners to off topic to I’m just not interested in this.

The quality of the presentations are also up and down. you just never know what your going to get. I guess I’m spoiled from my corporate days of presenting and training.

I think the market is changing where there is a need and a desire for smaller more directed training classes. The costs are high at this point averaging $2500-$5000 for two days of training. If you think about that and add in the costs of travel, lodging, other expenses you could purchase about two days of consulting at over $200 an hour.

A typical client fits into mainly one or two categories:

• Selling their own product or service- small business owner, retail, direct mail reseller or other

• Affiliate marketer- selling other peoples goods or services

Most clients have web sites and have tried pay per click marketing, creating landing pages, promotions and other web promotions.

If I pay an SEO for three days to come to my office and sit down and examine my website, my promotion and my failures and craft a plan of attack and work by my side to walk me thru how to achieve greater success- isn’t that of more value?

I don’t have to share my info with others in an audience and I get one on one focus on my problems and my ideal results.

Afterwards maybe one hour a month of phone/web cam consultation or email support.

I think the problem is SEO’s are spread wide and thin thru the United States I’m sure if you live around San Jose or San Francisco you could probably throw a rock and hit an SEO or if you live in Las Vegas people will volunteer to come to your location but if your in Salt Lake City, UT or El Paso, Texas it could be a problem

I see SEO consulting following the path of Tech Consulting- building firms of people certified in SEO (yes I know that doesn’t exist and if it did you would have to re-certify after every google update) and following a plan of success to help clients in their local areas. Moving from one off seminars to local seminars driving business to local consulting firms set up to support a variety of web customers. Who’s to say one day when a small business wants to hire an SEO they don’t go down to the local Shoemoney Consulting office

Tags: SEO, Southwest SEO, Affiliate marketing, SEO conferences

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, sem, seo, southwest seo

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