On October 1st, I’m having a teleseminar (seminar by phone) about WordPress SEO. This seminar will help you improve your blog SEO by improving your search results rankings and increasing search traffic for the right keywords. It is specific to the WordPress blogging software on a self-hosted blog.
I introduced the seminar yesterday and presented some interesting survey results. I stressed that this is not a seminar for beginners, but rather for bloggers with some existing knowledge of SEO.
Today, I want to share with you some more details about the seminar and survey. Let’s take a look at some more survey results first.
Here’s What You Had to Say
One of the questions I asked was a text question where the respondent could type in any answer instead of choosing from a list. The question was: What would you expect from such a seminar that would justify the cost? This came right after I asked a question about how much an SEO seminar should cost. Here were some of the unedited responses to this question, each one followed by my thoughts about it:
Explaining basics of SEO, how it works, how it has changed, how it will continue to change
That’s a tall order and is a little more theoretical than what I’ve got planned. I want to offer techniques and more “nuts-and-bolts” ideas. However, I will be going over some of what has changed in SEO because people don’t often realize they’re working with outdated SEO information.
I think this is barking up the wrong tree, Micael. Here’s the flaw in the original survey idea. You asked what they wantt. But they don’t really know what they need, so they answer with a quick three-letter thing that sounds mysterious. Most small blogs won’t benefit nearly as much from SEO ‘tricks”, as they would from consisten writing of value.
I see the point of this answer, but I disagree with the main idea that you don’t know what you need. You do know: you need to place higher in search results and you need more search traffic. And I’m not talking about “tricks.” I’ll be covering specific tools and techniques that are 100% ethical and legal. Consistently compelling content is your number one goal as a blogger–there is no question of that. SEO for lame content will not help you. That is a different (but related) matter. This seminar is about SEO.
The nitty gritty details that I haven’t been able to learn myself already…
I think some of this “nitty gritty” is going to come from knowing exactly what to do with a specific tool, rather than just knowing that you should use a certain tool or that you should know certain information. Since this is pretty much a DIY kind of crowd, knowing the best resources will also help in this area.
SEO tips and tricks on how, where and why to do certain things, possibly an adaptable outline (1,2,3 etc), information on the best tools to use, the highest impact actions, etc. - and fun
I think as you see the topic outline below you will agree that we’ll have this covered. But you want… fun? 
I’ve been teaching people software and web design stuff for 8 years, and have consistently been one of the highest-rated instructors. That doesn’t happen if you’re boring! I love this stuff, and my excitement will show! We’ll have a good time.
Detailed step-by-step instructions and pointers to best free/cheap SEO tools.
You can absolutely expect both of these in the seminar, yes!
Lots of *specific* information, preferably with citations supporting the claims made.
I’m going to try and cram as much specific information into the seminar as I can, but one thing that will really eat into our limited time is if I have to read off a bunch of URLs. Everything I present in this seminar will be backed up by other reputable sources, except where we’re in uncharted territory. In that case, I will be sure to let you know that you are dealing with speculative information at your own risk.
Many of the responses were along the lines of wanting specific, step-by-step information. I’ll go into the specific of what the seminar will cover shortly, but first, I want to talk about cost.
Cost Comparisons and What they Mean
I’m providing a lot of information about this seminar, and I’m doing this for a very important reason: I want you to understand what you’re really going to get out of this WordPress SEO Teleseminar. Now I want to bring up some cost comparison issues. This seminar will not be cheap, but nor will it be outrageously expensive. I want to take a head-on look at costs.
If you want a personal consultation with me, one-on-one, you can get 30, 60, or 90 minutes of my time for $150 an hour with the click of a button. In this situation, 90 minutes of my time costs $225. This rate is not unreasonable, and though it isn’t the cheapest, it is similar to other blog consultants who operate at my level of experience and skill.
This WordPress SEO Teleseminar is 90 minutes of my time for less than $225. How much less? You’ll see soon. Stay with me, because I haven’t even presented the topic outline for the seminar, and I want to go over each topic with you. But before I do that, let’s look at the cost of other SEO seminars across the internet. There’s not much other than live events or information products. The live events I found were reasonably priced, for the most part. The problem with them is that you have to travel, which triples or even quadruples the expense, when you take air fare and hotel stays into account, not to mention time away from the office and family.
However, for what it’s worth, here’s what I found as I did some research:
$895 for a day: http://www.sebb.com/FAQs.htm#cost
$799 for a day: http://www.highrankings.com/seo-classes?gclid=CJPmmI3N7pUCFQNfFQodLTkgeQ
$495 for 3 hrs online http://www.upfrontseo.com/html/search_engine_optimization_tra.html
When you take out the introductions and lunch and other breaks, you’re not really getting a whole day’s worth of training at the day-long events. Maybe 5 hours at the most. That comes out to $179 per hour for the most expensive of the bunch. $225 for 90 minutes with me all to yourself seems pretty good, doesn’t it?
And consider this:
None of them are specifically about WordPress SEO.
But the Remarkablogger WordPress SEO Teleseminar is not going to cost $225… it’s going to be far less. Before I reveal the price, let me show you what you will get.
What The Seminar Covers
- Your SEO Toolbox - What to Use: There are many SEO tools available. Many are free, some cost money. Some will save you time, too, and these are what I’ll focus on particularly. These tools will help you understand what your competition is up to and how you stand among your peers and your market.
- SEO a Post Step by Step - Tools and Tactics Explained: Basic keyword research is not a part of this seminar, but per-post keyword research and in-post optimization factors are. Many people already know what SEO plugin(s) to use with WordPress, but do you know what settings they should have or how to best use them for each post?
- SEO Your WordPress Theme: Going into a higher level than posts, we’ll now talk about the overall context for each post: page design and blog design factors. We’ll talk about what to let Googlebot follow and what to block. We’ll talk about permalink structure (it will be more than just saying use pretty permalinks). We’ll talk about hidden opportunities and time-saving gems that automatically help your SEO efforts for no additional work.
- Off Page Factors - Backlinks and PageRank: This is the hard part about SEO because you have less control over it. There is also a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation about backlinks and PageRank. What strategy you pursue here has everything to with your size. Advice for larger sites doesn’t apply to blogs. Learn what works for blogs so you can start building up quality backlinks, which will increase your PageRank and your traffic.
- Q&A Session: In order to make sure we have enough time to cover the topics, Q&A will be at the end of the seminar. You will not be muted during the seminar, but I may tell you that we’ll wait on a question you raise until Q&A. The seminar is scheduled for 90 minutes, with about 15 minutes for Q&A, but we’ll go longer if need be (which means you’ll get more for your money than you had originally thought–and it’s not like I talk slow!).
What Else You Will Get - Recording and Info Packet
A copy of the entire seminar will be yours to download: a $24.99 value at no charge
The seminar will be recorded and each attendee will receive a download link to get their own copy. There will be no extra charge for this, it is included in the price. Why? Because I don’t want you madly scrambling to jot down notes and have you miss something. I want you to engage fully with the presentation and just listen. You’ll get your very own copy of the seminar, which means you can take notes later at your own convenience. You can play the seminar over and over for yourself in order to retain key information or even as listening instructions while you perform an SEO task in WordPress. When you enter the conference call, you will be notified that the call will be recorded and you will press a key to give your assent to being recorded. If you do not wish to be recorded then do not register for the seminar.
I may make portions of the seminar available in the future as a product or incentive, but no specifics about you or your blog will ever be revealed. I want you to be able ask questions and get answers in complete confidentiality.
Info packet sent to you after the seminar - a time- and attention-saving convenience
After the seminar, along with the recording, you’ll receive a download link for an information packet. This will be a PDF containing all the links and citations from the seminar. This way, we don’t have to use up precious time and attention during the seminar trying to spell out URLs and all that.
How the Seminar Works
Once you register your spot, you’ll receive an access code via email and the seminar phone number to call in to. This number will not be toll-free, so your normal long-distance charges may apply. You will save money in long-distance charges if you have Skype or other internet VOIP phone service. Instructions for how to join the call will be included in the email you receive. I would suggest getting in and getting comfortable a few minutes in advance. The seminar will be recorded, so if you have to bow out for a moment (or Skype misbehaves), you don’t need to worry about missing anything.
Money-back Guarantee
There is no risk to you in taking this seminar. If you fail to see how what you learn in this seminar could help your blog get better rankings and PageRank, you can have your seminar investment refunded, period. No questions asked, no bullshit.
Only 12 10 Spots Are Available
Like I said, I’ve been teaching people for eight years. I know how many people are too many. How are you supposed to get individual attention to your questions and issues if there are over fifty people who all want to ask questions? So there are only going to be 12 lines available for the call. In live training, a low student/teacher ratio is ideal for maximum attention, learning, and retention.
A small group means I’ll be able to address your individual concerns. Each attendee gets personal attention from me. You’re not going to be ignored in the crowd. You can be a wallflower if you want to, but you will be able to fully engage and get full attention in this small group. Everyone will be able to ask questions
The way these phone seminars work is that there are several modes the presenter can choose. For a large seminar, I can mute all the attendees and relegate them to the role of listener only. But I want us to have a real discussion, and be able to dive into questions in a more personal setting. The Remarkablogger WordPress SEO seminar will be set to allow anyone to speak at any time, just as if we really were all in the same room together.
Those who reserve their spot will have an excellent experience, but you will have to move fast before they fill up. I will not be adding additional spots and spoil the experience for those who hustled and signed up first just so I can make a couple extra bucks. That’s not how I roll. This is all about the information and the experience.
Register Your Spot Now
Safely and securely register for the Remarkablogger WordPress SEO Teleseminar, taking place on October 1st, 2008, at 8:00 PM Eastern, and running for at least 90 minutes.
You will get step-by-step info on how to SEO a post…
You will get detailed information on how to SEO a WordPress theme…
You will be able to ask specific questions and get the answers you seek…
You will receive a complimentary mp3 recording of the entire seminar…
You will receive an info packet with links to resources discussed in the seminar…
There are only 12 10 8 7 6 5 seats available, so register now:
Registration: $127
If you have trouble seeing or clicking on the button in your email or reader, please click here to go to the post on the blog, thanks!
19 Comments
Still do not see the price.
How much less?
Rich, clicking the buy button will take you to a page where you will see the price, and exactly how much less.
Hi Michael
The paypal link is lingering forrrrrrrrrever. I want to purchase a seat but I won’t be able to attend so I feel selfish but we really want to seo our blog as seen here :http:www/pinpbalm.com/blog
Is there another way? Thanks
Ok see I was a smart one and I clicked on the buy now to see what the price was and I was absolutely shocked to see that it was $129 (or close to).
I cannot afford that. My site doesn’t nearly make enough for that to be a valuable investment. I would maybe like to download the teleseminar after it is completed for $24.95 as that is more in my price range.
For me SEO can be old and outdated…but that is only because I am part of the web 2.0 revolution where only 10% of my traffic comes from search engines and over 70% from referring sites (like from leaving comments).
Good luck with your teleseminar
@Lulu & Henriette - Email has been sent to you.
@Ryan - Sorry this isn’t for you at this time. I may make portions of the recording available, but you’ll miss out on the ability to ask questions if you’re not participating in the live event. When you think about the long-term benefit you’ll get from this, and the fact that increasing search visibility and search traffic means you’ll likely earn more than you now do, $127 spreads out pretty far. Say you benefit for a year after: that means the seminar only cost you about $0.35 a day. That’s spare change, buddy.
Ryan, don’t you think it looks a little odd for someone managing a site called Smarter Wealth to not be able to afford a seminar that’s not even $200? You might want to be a little more careful with your comments in the future for your own sake. You may have hurt yourself with that one. One thing I didn’t mention in the posts was that the more advanced a person felt their existing knowledge was in SEO, the more they thought the seminar should cost. The majority of survey respondents thought that $120 - $250 was fair. These people know the value of this sort of thing. All the other SEO seminars that I found online cost more than mine when you break it down, and it’s all right there in the post in black and white: almost $180 per hour. If I charged for my seminar at that rate, it would be $270! I think $127 looks pretty reasonable next to that. Unless you didn’t read the post, I don’t see how you could be “absolutely shocked.”
Haa haa, I knew this was going to be good for a laugh … in the sense that one of the reasons I don’t enter this segment of the market is that the population is saturated by the ’something for nothing’ crowd. Everything on the ‘Net should be free … or maybe even pay me to look at it
I won’t be able to sign up for this go ’round, but not because of price … this looks like a heck of a bargain to me.
I did stop by however to offer some suggestions/observations about how you handled the survey, Michael. I did feel many of the questions were ‘forced’ in order to swing the results the way you wanted them. I suggest more choices or more open-ended questions in the future. The “How much would you pay” question is a good example. You neglected to have a response for “nothing” … I’d rather invest a couple hundred in PPC …. as just one example.
It’s true that the majority of blogs are not getting all the SEO ‘juice’ they should.
It’s true that all blogs need traffic, and if properly monetized can make more as traffic builds.
Those two truths do not add up to the conclusion that “Every blog can benefit from SEO consultation/optimization.”
A reader ‘bought’ bu a 10 or 20 cent Google click, already proven to be targeted and motivated _may_ be worth much more than an ideal, “I want for free” surfer who was attracted from a social networking site because of SEO optimization.
Not trying to criticize what you are doing here, just suggesting from a business (ROI) standpoint that just because SEO traffic is ‘free’ traffic, it may not be worth the price.
No matter the price, its a little shady not to tell us in the actual post. Having to click through to Paypal? Not up to the quality experience I expected from you.
Disappointing, actually.
Wayan, I’m surprised that you would find that shady somehow. I can’t even begin to tell you how many product pages I’ve seen that do not display the price until the buy button is clicked. And these are not fly-by-night operations, but well-known products by famous experts (StomerNet is the first one that comes to mind).
This is just a standard practice, and there are excellent reasons for it.
However, if you feel this way, then I can only assume that others do, as well. And since even the slightest perception of low quality is anathema to me in this effort, I feel that I must take this into account and act on it even if I don’t see it that way myself (because this isn’t about me).
So I will change the post and display the price in it. Thanks for taking the time to leave me a comment about this and bring it to my attention. You certainly didn’t have to, but I appreciate it.
Michael,
Thanks for the consideration. Funny enough, I’ve been thinking about your two posts over the last day (shows your overall attention ownership, eh?) and I have to say that not showing the price was the last straw on what I felt was an over-over the top sell for your seminar.
You usually are very succinct in your posts (today’s on 7 steps is a great example) and yet to sell this seminar you fell into the over-sell tactic. You sold so hard that by the end of the first post I was just past interested. By the second I was annoyed you were teasing so much, and when the price was hidden.. well I’ve said my piece on that.
What these two posts do remind me of is the TeachingSells emails - the ones with so much yapping about what I could get out of it that I was turned off on the whole concept.
Or look at it this way. Those that would pay $100+ for your seminars are probably already loyal readers of your blog (I am, daily). You don’t need to sell us that hard. Nor do you need to spend 300 words telling me how you came to your price. (That would be a good post by itself).
What you can do is tell me about the seminar, tell me you’ll run it better than anyone else (start prompt, don’t allow late comers, send me a recording of it for personal use) and you’ve sold me. If I had a WP blog, I would take your course (have MT and Drupal).
In fact, I would tell Ryan to take your course because a healthy site should get more than 10% from search. And if you knew a quality blogger who did MT or Drupal, I’d love to know them.
But not if they needed 3,000 words to tell me (yeah, just counted both posts).
This comment is long enough already.
Michael,
Currently, my blog makes no money, and if you happened to read my last blog you would see that money is FAR from the top priority for my blogging. Nonetheless, I am THRILLED to be paying what I consider a totally reasonable amount to learn the things I need to learn from a REAL “Pro.” To me, this seminar is not just about “making money;” if it were, I would NOT have signed up. To me, it is a growth and learning experience to make me a better blogger…and I, for one, can’t wait!
Thanks,
Rita
Michael,
One more thing: to the “naysayers” about not posting the price…once you go to sign up, before you hit “pay” the total price IS revealed! You can still back out if you think that the cost is “unreasonable.”
Rita
@Wayan - Your point about the price was well-received, but on this I disagree with you 100%. Feel free to unsubscribe. I fully expect to lose people as I shift over to a products-based business. Teaching Sells is the most exemplary program in my experience with internet marketing. If you think that they–or I–oversell, you are underexposed to information product marketing. I take the comparison to Teaching Sells as the highest compliment you could pay me.
@Rita - Thanks for the kind words! I think I might have to quote you!
Thanks for the chance to participate. I understand some of the comments above and I wouldn’t be put off by Wayan’s open and honest input. In fact, I think that the compliment you may be missing is that you can sell this product without having to oversell.
I am signing up for the class today because of your blog SEO expertise, not your copywriting skills. I am a daily reader and I know that it will be a great value. The price is fair and I am looking for ideas with my new blog at http://www.bootstrapacademy.com.
Michael,
Does that mean I have to give you back the $20.00 you mailed me to say something nice?
lol - I truly CAN’T wait!
Rita
@Steve - Yes, I see what you’re saying and that is something to consider. “Overselling” is such a subjective concept. When does selling become overselling? I’ always selling my consulting services through the posts I write and there’s no real “push” in those. But when a specific product comes online, it has to be presented and sold as a product.
Doing this on a blog is an interesting challenge. It’s still kind of new thing. Some folks are doing a great job with it, but most are not. In time, I will have some great tips for everyone in this regard.
Thank you for registering! I’m stoked that you’ll be attending!
@Rita - Shhh! (LOL!)
@Dave - I found your comment in my spam filter and un-spammed it. First of all, thanks for your comment! That’s very thoughtful feedback and I appreciate it. I think you’re right about the “all or nothing” mentality. Shifting a focus to offering products like from the other kind of consulting that I used to do will cause me to lose some people and gain others.
The survey questions were quite deliberate but also very revealing. They were absolutely designed to create a pricing context in which to understand the seminar price.
Open-ended questions are great for feedback, but they’re harder to quantify and un-chartable. I really wanted the charts to be able to show them. More questions make the survey longer, and long surveys have a way not getting completed.
This is the first survey of its kind I have done, so I’m really looking forward to taking what I’m learning and doing the next one!
Michael,
I keep reading the responses here and am wondering, “why so much negativity?” I don’t feel in the slightest bit “taken” or “misled.” Your nay-sayers seem to know a tremendous amount about what they do or don’t need. Obviously, your seminar was not meant to attract those people. There ARE new bloggers, myself included, who DO need information, presented in a forum that is accessable and allows for questions.
To the nay-sayers: offer me what I need to know about WordPress and its tools for FREE on a phone call. Give me 90 minutes of your time. Follow it up with a recording, so that I can listen, and not miss things by taking notes. Allow me to ask the questions I’d like after the information is presented. I may very well take you up on the offer! So may many others. Pony up or let those of us who wish to learn make our OWN decisions about what something like this is “worth.”
Thanks,
Rita
@Rita - I have a bulldog in my corner!
Who knows what the reasons are people have? Some feel they are genuinely trying to help what they feel is a mistake. Some may be jealous at the success of others. Some are just cranky!
I welcome all comments, positive or negative. I will always be in favor of letting the comments “on the air” unless they’re not contributing anything useful to the discussion or they violate my comment policy. Negative comments give me chance to address objections (and sometimes disagree with them).
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