[barlow1984]

Hi guys, well I'm back after a couple of years away from the forum, mostly due to a change in jobs. But anyway I'm back into SEO and web design for good now and keen to get up and running on my own.

One thing I want to ask is if you think that there is a market to train SEO out to the staff of small / medium (lets say more than 10 employees) sized companies to give them the fundamental strategies to build good solid, honest rankings? Obviously I'd charge the client for the training and hope to get regular income by charging for link bait articles.

There seems to be no one around doing this that I can see (at least in my local area), so either it's a pants idea or no one wants to impart their knowledge to other people!

Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks in advance

[Test-ok]

Welcome back, although I didn't know you were missing. lol JK

It's an interesting concept, This forum and others kinda already do that, just not in a structured way. Is your thinking to go from city to city running a 2 or 3 day seminar type of thing and charge the client? Assuming a client has a person they want schooled in SEO?
Personally I think it may be a hard nut to crack, unless you had a well SEO recognized name who was the teacher.
But then I may not be looking at through your eyes.

However it's always good to think out side the box.

[barlow1984]

I'm thinking more to give a client the option of either:

A) the traditional managed service route of £x per month and for that you get y.

Or

B) I can 1-2-1 or 1-2-many tailor a training session to their employees to understand what they do and the impact that has on SEO and give pointers of how to improve links, eg social media, PR syndication etc etc etc. In addition to retain an element of income I could provide monthly reports and some good quality articles for them to syndicate out or generate a piece of link bait.

Does that make a little more sense? When I've spoken to clients they seem pretty open to the idea, I never thought about being recognised in the field to be honest.

[tstolber]

I think there could be a market for this. Many companies are becoming more SEO savy and understand that it is a requirement.

The trouble is, as with any SEO training, it is very often out of date as soon as the materials are prepared. If you can use your SEO knowledge and evolve your training process as the industry develops then this could be good.

One thing I have done is create a document or presentation on any issues that are valid, of interest and worthy for any clients that ask, so I have the information for the question if it comes up in the future. This is perhaps a similar thing that you are thinking about, but you are looking at it in a more constructive way.

[JBacchi]

I agree with tsolber, by the time you get your powerpoint presentation together Panda/Penguin/something will have happened and you're out of date.

What about offering retainer services, like a lawyer, and be a consultant to their staff.

[DarrenHaye]

Originally Posted by JBacchi

I agree with tsolber, by the time you get your powerpoint presentation together Panda/Penguin/something will have happened and you're out of date.
.

Not sure I agree with this..

It's not particularly hard to stay away from panda or penguin.

A lot of practical SEO should still be relevant in the near future.

I think it's a worth while idea Barlow.. I guess you will just have to send out some feelers, see if there is much interest and take it from there.

I know from the forum there are business owners very interested in learning SEO for themselves, and if you can help fast track them through that process I'm sure that could well be something they would be interested in.

PS. Welcome back.

[joshz]

The basic principles of SEO rarely change. It would be worth it, IMHO to cover the basics and more long-term strategic methods.

[KernelPanic]

I agree that it can be a good source of revenue. I do classes often and clients always find value in the time spent. Often people will see all there really is to SEO and decide to hire the firm moving forward.

I insist on 3 hours minimum at my rate, no less. My classes start with a lesson on search engine history and important algorithm changes through the years. Keyword research, identifying important long-tails, on-site and off-site SEO will take us to about the end. Moving forward I encourage a 3 hour per month retainer to ask questions and get help when stuck.

I also have done 2 day classes and covered stuff in far more detail. Day 2 is hands-on where clients will do the on-site SEO under my supervision themselves and begin working to gain links.

I don't use traditional power point presentations so that's really not an issue

[Test-ok]

Yea but your in Florida where all those old people can't remember what they had for dinner the night before, you'll need to retrain them on a weekly basis, could be very lucrative in that area.

[terriwells]

Originally Posted by Test-ok

Yea but your in Florida where all those old people can't remember what they had for dinner the night before, you'll need to retrain them on a weekly basis, could be very lucrative in that area.

*snort* Heh, some of the old people down here are pretty smart! Many have time on their hands and stories to tell, while others are starting up new small businesses and using the Internet as an adjunct to their regular marketing.

You know, demographically speaking in general, marketing services to older clients really is a growth business these days...

[barlow1984]

Thanks for your thoughts on this subject. I'm glad that broadly everyone thinks that its worth pursuing.

My idea was really just what Josh said, go over the basic principles covering the onsite bits in detail and then work on link baiting and link building techniques.

I seem to be getting more and more interest because there just aren't people offering this sort of service, plus it's much more tangible for them rather than pay me £x per month and some magic might happen. The other thing is not being in a big city there is not many 'proper' SEO agencies neat me so it works well. By that I mean the jokers working on meta keywords and directory submissions and nothing else.

[corlif]

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