Hi Jill,

I have just subscribed to your newsletter; you stated you would be happy to answer my questions, so I thought I'd try you. I hope you can help. And just so that you know, it's heavily appreciated.

Well I've been coming across ads and people claiming they can make you successful online in 15 minutes to five days etc. Some may be right and some wrong, but I figured I'm going to give them a try. I wanted to know what your views on such offers are.

I am looking to start an SEO company in the UK. I am looking to set up a call centre and take on work in order to optimize sites for clients. At this stage I am learning HTML, and have started Dreamweaver tutorials. After which I intend to go to a SEO training course.

The company offering the SEO training course claims their teachers optimise sites for clients, hence they will teach you the same skills. I wanted to know whether in your opinion it would be possible for me to be able to optimise a client's site after going to one of these courses. What sort of info should they offer in order for me to be able to do this? Would I need heavy working knowledge of websites, i.e. know HTML thoroughly? Or do you think I should outsource all the SEO work to a company, and if so how do I choose the right company?

I am sorry for the lengthy email, I know it is asking a lot, and if you do not have the time to offer such advice, I would understand. On the other hand I would greatly appreciate your professional opinions.

Thank you.
Kind regards,

Nadeem

Jill's Response

Hi Nadeem,

Thank you for your questions and the opportunity to update and revise my "No Quick Fixes" article. It doesn't specifically address your questions, but it's got a similar theme. I originally wrote it back in July of 2000 and have updated it a couple of times since then, the last time being May of 2004. Reading through it to see if it answered your questions, I realized that since it talked way too much about Meta tags and submitting to search engines (both of which are mostly useless), it needed a complete rewrite.

Before I get to the article, I do want to briefly address your specific issues...

Whether it's search marketing or any other business that you want to get into, no person, book, website, or seminar can make you successful; not in 15 minutes, 15 days, or even 15 years. Only *you* can make yourself successful, and it can only happen through hard work, dedication, and creativity. Resources and teachers can point you in the right direction, but being successful is an ongoing, lifelong process that can't be taught. Success comes from doing and -- surprisingly enough -- from making a whole bunch of mistakes along the way. So stop reading those get-rich-quick websites, and start trying your hand at doing stuff. The worst that will happen is you'll have a few mess-ups along the way. As long as you learn from them, then you're on the right track.

As to opening up an SEO company after taking an SEO training class, I am having a difficult time imagining any class that could get you up to speed quickly enough to own a company that gets paid to optimize other people's sites. Even our own High Rankings Seminar is just a start. You simply can't learn SEO in a few days. You have to try things, see what works for you and what doesn't, and then adjust from there. Since results can take time, you won't even know if you're really good at SEO until you've been practicing it (hopefully on your own sites or on those of your friends) for at least 1 year, if not longer.

So please, don't even think about becoming another in a long line of get-rich-quick SEO people. The world is already way too full of them!

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