What do Web site marketing and promotion industry leaders say about the Academy?

• Michael Campbell, Nothing But 'Net, Search Engine Commando, Vault of Search Engine Secrets and Search Engine Positioning Reports
  "If you want expert search engine advice, without paying a fortune, then this software does exactly what you need." Read Michael's complete recommendation.
  
  
• Andy and Mike Mindel, WordTracker
  "These guys seriously know what they're talking about and I look forward to knowing them an extremely long time." Read the Mindels' complete recommendation.
  
  
• Brent Winters, President of First Place Software, developer of Web Position Gold
  "I was surprised to see many tips that I'd never seen published anywhere else...." Read Brent's complete recommendation.

When determining which online training course to take, you have several important things to consider, beginning with whether you can trust that the course material is up to date and accurate.

Let's look at some important considerations.

• How up to date is the course material?
• How much material is provided in the course?
• How qualified are the instructors?
• Does the course offer students the opportunity to interact with leaders in the industry?
• Do they offer certification and, if so, how meaningful is their certification?
• Do you have to purchase a software program in order to take the course?
• Does the company offer independent study courses, if you want to save a little money and don’t need an instructor to walk you through the course and answer questions?
• Is the company focused on the search engine industry?
• Does the company send representatives to related conferences in order to keep up with what’s happening in the industry?
• How visible are the company’s representatives?
• What do past students say about the courses?

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• How up to date is the course material?

  If the course material isn’t updated every single month, it’s out of date. Simple as that. This industry changes almost daily, and if the company isn’t keeping up with those changes, the course will be useless.
  
  All course material at the Academy is updated at least once a month. Not only that, but the material is updated by Robin Nobles, who has personally taught over 1000 students about search engine positioning strategies, has written two books on the subject and is currently working on a third.
  
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• How much material is provided in the course?

  Does the course offer more than six or eight simple lessons? Does it offer search engine charts? The latest tips for the search engines? A glossary of terms? Software guides? Doorway page templates?
  
  The Academy’s Essential Foundations in Search Engine Strategies course contains eight lessons, is over 300 printed pages long, and features all of the items listed above, plus an engine-by-engine recap, helpful URLs for the industry, dummy pages and a test server if you don’t have your own site, and more.
  
  The Academy’s Advanced Search Engine Marketing course contains eight lessons, is over 500 printed pages long, and features over 36 major search engines and directories. It offers specialized information in over 30 categories, the addendum information that’s contained in the Essential Foundations course, and a chart on how the engines and directories are related.
  
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• How qualified are the instructors?

  Have all of the company’s instructors completed both beginning and advanced courses? Have they also worked in the industry?
  
  All of the Academy’s instructors are highly qualified, having completed their education, then gained valuable experience by working in the industry.
  
  Not only that, but Robin Nobles was the first online instructor in search engine positioning strategies. She’s personally taught well over 1000 students in her online and onsite courses, workshops and seminars.
  
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• Does the course offer students the opportunity to interact with leaders in the industry?

  How "interactive" is the course? Are there bulletin boards for you to post questions and enter into discussions with other students? Are there chat sessions where you can meet leaders in the industry and learn from their experience?
  
  The Academy has a series of bulletin boards for both beginning and advanced students. Expert moderators monitor the bulletin boards and offer suggestions, start discussions, and encourage participation.
  
  Also, the Academy has an intense chat schedule offering between four and six chat sessions every week. These sessions are led by leaders in the industry on a variety of topics, including chats pertaining to particular engines, cloaking strategies, chats for newbies, chats for professional positioners and more.
  
  After each chat session, a transcript is posted, so students can access the transcript if they aren’t able to attend the session.
  
  What if students want a chat session on a particular topic? All they have to do is ask.
  
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• Do they offer certification and, if so, how meaningful is their certification?

  Many online training courses can be taken for certification purposes, meaning that participants can become certified in those strategies. But, the true value of that certification depends on whether it’s "given away" to everyone.
  
  At the Academy, certification is earned if the student completes all of the course requirements within a specified period of time. These course requirements include completing all lessons and turning in homework; actively participating in the course; participating in a certification project where the students prove their skills; taking an online quiz; and, taking an online final exam and scoring at least 80 percent.
  
  Academy students can also earn university Continuing Education Units through the University of Southern Mississippi, if they choose.
  
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• Do you have to purchase a software program in order to take the course?

  There are several software programs on the market that can make a search engine optimizer’s life much easier. However, before those programs can be of any benefit, the optimizer needs to understand basic search engine positioning strategies. So, "requiring" a student to purchase a software program, when that software program can possibly be confusing and make it more difficult to take the course, isn’t advisable.
  
  The Academy’s courses don’t come packaged with a software program. Students are encouraged to learn the concepts first, and then apply those concepts when working with software, if desired. Students can also test drive software programs before buying them. They're asked to download a trial version of WebPosition Gold in order to check their rankings throughout the course. And, they?re given the opportunity to download free trial versions of Keyword Density Analyzer (GRKda) and Search Engine Optimizer (GRSeo).
  
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• Does the company offer independent study courses, if you want to save a little money and don’t need an instructor to walk you through the course and answer questions?

  The Academy offers independent study versions of both their Essential Foundations and Advanced courses. Also, Advanced students can purchase continued access to the course material once the course is over, so they can keep up with the latest changes in the industry. The Academy also offers one-time downloads of their popular course material, for those who want to save even more money in this tight economy..
  
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• Is the company focused on the search engine industry?

  If the company is focused on too many unrelated areas, you can bet that you won’t get the quality or quantity of information that you’d get from a company whose entire focus is on the search engine industry.
  
  Another consideration is whether the company is composed of full-time people who are devoted to the search engine industry or part-time people who work in online courses in their spare time.
  
  The Academy of Web Specialists™ has one focus only: search engine positioning. The Academy is operated by full-time professionals who are only interested in that one focus.
  
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• Does the company send representatives to related conferences in order to keep up with what’s happening in the industry?

  Some companies are in the business of providing courses, and that’s it. They aren’t worried about making contacts in the industry or attending workshops to further their education. Keep in mind that information is power, and the more contacts a company makes, the more information it will glean from those contacts. That valuable information can then be passed on to the students.
  
  The Academy considers it very important to send representatives to related conferences, and it does so as often as possible. The company has formed liaisons with leaders in the industry such as First Place Software, GRSoftware Inc., Planet Ocean, IP Delivery Software, WordTracker, PositionPro, Search Engine Watch, Searchbutton, Inc., Position Solutions, and more.
  
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• How visible are the company’s representatives?

  Are you constantly seeing articles that are written by a representative of the company? Do you see their names on conference brochures? Do they know enough about the industry to have written and published books on the topics?
  
  When considering a training company, you want someone who knows what he or she is talking about. Having published articles or books or speaking at conferences shows the knowledge, credibility and visibility of the company’s representatives.
  
  Both the Director of Marketing, Terry Plank, and the Director of Training, Robin Nobles, have written numerous articles on the subject of search engine positioning that can be found across the Internet.
  
  Robin Nobles writes monthly columns for Planet Ocean’s newsletter, one of the leading publications in the industry. Her articles have also been published by WordTracker, Marketing Tools and Internet Newsroom.
  
  Robin Nobles has authored three books: (1) Web Site Analysis and Reporting (co-authored with Kerri-Leigh Grady); (2) Maximize Web Site Traffic: Build Web Site Traffic Fast and Free by Optimizing Search Engine Placement (co-authored with Susan O'Neil, published September 2000, available on Amazon.com); and (3) Promoting Your Web Site: Internet Search Engine Strategies (published December 1998, out of print)..
  
  Both Terry and Robin have been principle speakers at numerous conferences on search engine positioning and Web marketing. In fact, Robin facilitated a session at Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Conference in Dallas in November 2000.
  
  Robin keeps the course materials up to date. So, you can see that the research she does for her articles and books, plus the information and knowledge she gains from working with leaders in the industry, can assure Academy students of the best training program on the Web.
  
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• What do past students say about the courses?

  Do the testimonials presented at the company’s Web site actually refer to existing instructors and existing course material? If not, the testimonial doesn’t adequately reflect what you’d experience in the course at this point in time. Some companies post numbers of students or past testimonials that actually refer to a course taught by an instructor who is no longer there.
  
  Listed below are a few current testimonials from Academy students, and you can click here to view other testimonials.

  "I would like to express my thanks to the Academy for compiling these so thorough lessons. I am so happy to have the privilege of reading this subject matter, as it is one of the most exciting breakthrough assignments that I have been given in this industry. I am happy to find that there are still elements of web production to challenge my mind and test my skills in a cognitively sophisticated way. The practice of optimization has rekindled my intrigue for this industry and inspired me to reach for new heights in my profession. In short, I am so very happy to be a student of the Academy!"
  
  "I feel your course is the best thing that I have invested in on the web and will be taking the advanced course."
  
  "Your students are lucky to have a program led by Robin Nobles, your Director of Training. Robin is a pioneer in this industry, possessing an ethical expertise unmatched in the positioning field along with an unvarying commitment to her students. From Robin I learned how to put 20 years of marketing experience to work in the new field of search engine optimization and the results, I am thrilled to say, are a new career and a new company. Thank you, Robin. I couldn't have done it without you."
  
  "I can honestly say your course is the best money one can invest if they want to understand the crazy world of S/E positioning. I would recommend it to anyone interested in getting found. Your response times to my questions have been phenomenal, which really helped things progress. Trying to take in all this web positioning info is like drinking from a fire hydrant, so all the help from Jacquie and Robin made it that much easier. I look forward to the Advanced class."

Search engine positioning is too important for the success of your online business to leave it to chance. Go with the experts, the ones who keep their fingers on the pulse of the industry: the Academy of Web Specialists™.

Then, once you’ve learn those valuable "how to" strategies, keep your knowledge up to date by subscribing to top-notch publications like Planet Ocean’s Search Engine News and Michael Campbell’s Internet Marketing Secrets.

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