Marketing Consulting Blog

Just a quick note to let you know I'm in the process of developing a weekly one hour SEO teleseminar series with some of the industry heavyweights that should begin sometime in August. Stay tuned for the lineup and sign-up information. This promises to be a doozy! If you are one of the lucky ones to get signed up and attend the entire series, the knowledge you'll gain will be tremendous and extremely profitable. I hope to "see" you on the calls as they progress.

If there are burning SEO questions you'd like answered, please submit them below in the comments section. We'll be sure to address them pronto!

More to come . . .

PS--I'm also working on some SEO training videos to compliment the book used in the recent training seminars. These will eventually be available for purchase on a site yet to be determined. If you'd be interested in becoming a beta tester for the videos, let me know in the comments section below.

First off, I would like to apologize for not posting much of late. I've got a LOT of coals in the fire at the moment, but that's no excuse not to share something worthwhile every now and again.

Here's the thing: as many of you know, I've been teaching SEO classes here in Louisville while trying to attract some students in other locales, and the feedback has been great thus far. I am in the process of taking the book I wrote for the classes and turning it into an e-book to possibly sell online. I'm at a little crossroads as to how to best go about that in order to:

1) Gain the most exposure for the consulting firm
2) Educate people to the point they could do their own SEO campaign if they so desired or help them realize that SEO is not a one time event or an easy process (it's very time consuming!)
3) Encourage people to spread the word about the book and the firm while also not shorting the consulting firm's long term viability (i.e. don't give away the milk in order to sell the cow)

In order to achieve those objectives, I've been wrestling with the following scenarios:
A) Give the book away and encourage people to pass it around because that would generate the most buzz and increase awareness of the firm rather quickly

B) Develop and/or obtain videos, podcasts, and other material to include with the book to sell online at various price points (each package would be a little different). Currently, I'm thinking price points of:

• $67 for just the book and one or two other related e-books
• $97 for the book and several other related e-books
• $197 for the book, videos, podcasts, and other related e-books

There might be a ten day introductory period at launch for each package where each is $20 off to gain some momentum, but then everything would settle into the price points outlined. If the response is great enough, those price points may increase, too.

It's tough for me NOT to charge something due to the fact that I'm giving away "trade secrets" so to speak. Yes, there are a lot of SEO books sprinkled throughout the market, and some of them are free (even some good ones), but I believe this is a little different from the other stuff out there (it's very hands on and specific about what to do to be successful).

One theory suggests that if you give something of great value away, you get it back two fold. Another theory suggests that it is unlikely the people who would be buying one of the e-book packages would subscribe to one of the SEO subscription packages offered by my firm as they are more interested in doing everything themselves. I see both sides of the coin, and the business side of me says "you HAVE to sell the thing for money somehow," while there is another part of me that says "you'll make more in the long run if you give it away, and the firm will be recognized as a viable resource for many years to come."

My question to you is: what would you do and why?

Please let me know by commenting below or e-mailing info@smbconsultinginc.com, and no reply is a bad reply--I'll share some of the best responses in a week or so and again as the time gets closer to sell or give the book away. I'm going to stew on this for the next month or so. I appreciate your input in advance.

Just a quick reminder note that SMB Consulting will be providing the second Search Engine Optimization training class this coming Thursday, June 14, 2007 from 9 AM until 4:30 PM at the McConnell Technology Training Center off Industry Blvd. here in Louisville. It's the same material as the first class so it's not too late to learn SEO from the ground up. The class is very hands on, too.

If you're interested in attending the class, there are a few spots still available. Please e-mail info@smbconsultinginc.com for more details or to sign up. Registration is $650 for the first person and $450 for each additional person you bring which includes all training materials and lunch. All you have to do is show up on time--we've got you covered with pens, highlighters, computer lab, and a customized textbook.

Hopefully, we'll see you in class this week or in one of our upcoming out of town sessions. The next sessions will take place in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Nashville, and possibly St. Louis so if you live in one of those locales, shoot us an e-mail so we can begin to iron out the details for the classes.

For more information on SEO or the training material, you can visit the SEO section of our main website at http://smb-seo.com.

On Thursday, SMB Consulting hosted a SEO Training Seminar/Bootcamp at the McConnell Technology Training Center off of Industry Blvd. here in Louisville. We had six attendees that seemed to really enjoy the class especially the hands on nature of it. Analyzing keywords seemed to generate the biggest "ah-ha" type of moments, and spying on competitors provided some eye opening information that is sure to help with the optimization efforts moving forward for everyone. One area that didn't seem to matter as much is the history of search engines (beginning of the class) so less time will be spent on that as things progress.

One thing I personally learned is to combine the workbook with the textbook I generated for the class. I apologize to those that attended this particular class for the confusion the two books seemed to cause. I thought it might be better to have a separate workbook in order to go back and perform some of the tasks without having to weed through a larger book, but I was wrong and the updated book has the contents of both. The new book has been e-mailed out to everyone in the class so please contact me if you did not receive one.

We're having another SEO Class on June 14, 2007 at the same location (visit http://mttc.org for more information and a map) from 9 AM to around 4 PM. There are a few spots open if you (or someone you know) might be interested in attending. Get more information about the class by visiting the SEO training section of our website (http://smbconsultinginc.com/seo-training.html). We're also planning SEO Training in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Nashville, and St. Louis should you live in one of those locales and have an interest in learning how to optimize your website for the search engines.