How to Pick Up SEO and Overcome Imposter Syndrome – Marcus Neo

The SEO/ internet marketing industry is filled with quick rich schemes.

Ever seen one of those annoying ads that are filled with quick rich promises of ‘double your stock account in 10 days’, ‘make money and travel the world’ or ‘say this one line and change your life’ promises.

Picking up the right digital marketing skills can land you gigs like:

SEO as a Skillset

I’m not against purchasing programs and have unfortunately paid a lot of my own money in SEO coaching and courses, of which some I didn’t apply (due to moral ethical issues and some effectiveness reasons).

However I regretted taking advice from the wrong people and looked up to the wrong people.

Eventually, I went on to consult businesses in Singapore as an SEO specialist. I helped businesses get found on search engines, maximize their digital profiles through search engine optimization.

There IS a huge difference between selling spammy eBooks versus a useful skill set: optimizing websites to get found on Google. Good SEO is a huge economic value added to companies.

How to Pick the Right Digital Marketing Courses

Through the years, I invested in courses with prices higher than a person’s full time monthly pay. There are good and bad ones. Some of these gurus are featured in multiple newspapers, magazines and etc
.
However, a lot of times their material is cringe worthy, copied, disappointing and under delivered. I refunded quite a couple of them, guilt free. Hence, I encourage you to be diligent, do your homework and differentiate the bad ones from the genuine ones.

Names of Their Successful Students – Browse Their Successful Websites

In the digital marketing industry, gurus often claim they made their students millionaires. You want Google-able results.

You should look for case studies, on how they invested in this one stock, their investment decision process, lost or made money and some form of evidence of their investment track record or strategy.

Scammers don’t welcome transparency or open discussions. They’ll throw in complicated terms, use complicated jargon, threaten legal action or use whatever in their swindle playbook to get there.

Make Sure The Program You’re Considering Joining has Customer Service to Get Technical Support

You want to make sure the course you’re signing up for has great customer support systems in place.

This can come in the form of
● Follow up coaching sessions
● Student networking meetups and etc.
● Email follow ups
You want to make sure that your course you’re signing up for has some sort of support in place whether it be through live meetups, phone or email.

Find The Best SEO Course – Don’t go For Cheap Courses

Okay, let’s talk about PRICE!

Programs can’t be dirt cheap all the time. That’s because of the cost to produce, location and time effort spent to compile all the information.
In my experience, it’s better to invest the right amount of money on an amazing SEO course than paying cheaply for a half produced one that gets you nowhere.

You should make sure you’re getting your money’s worth for that one subject matter.

This is the same philosophy with services. You can hire a cheap SEO firm that uses black hat SEO, provide shady link building by buying shady links, or you can invest in a SEO consultant that is realistic about optimizing your website on Google.

Search on Google Page Two

Take your instructor name and Google them. You’ll find the bad ones popping up on review websites and forums.

I’ve met ‘internet marketing’ gurus who are extremely afraid of ruining their reputation from ONE negative review. If you’ve got results for yourself and tons of other clients and students, then why be afraid at all? Every good product in the world has a negative review. So why be insecure about it?

Ultimately, there are good courses and bad courses.

The bad eggs shine a negative light on the good guys in the industry: people that spend years, thousands of dollars mastering their craft.

Imposter Syndrome

Growing your small business, freelancing and earning a profit may scare you. This makes some people feel like a king, and others a fraud. The thought of charging for your services cripples people.

However, it’s necessary for yourself and the company so that at the end of the day, you can service your clients better.

When you come from that mindset, you’ll free yourself up to charge what you are actually worth, and invest those profits to build better products and services for your clients.

Revolutionary entrepreneurs are the ones that create kick ass products and services to better serve their clients. Think Steve Jobs and Richard Branson. They are both billionaires in their own right and yet, they are always innovating their companies, aiming to better serve their clients.

How to Charge what You are Worth: Mindset Shift

I used to have this crippling mindset of charging for my digital marketing services.

Should I truly be charging for my services?

Firstly, by getting compensated rightly for my work, I get to serve my clients better. I get to invest in books, videos and training courses to advance my knowledge, serve my clients and students better.

If you make a profit, I can hire someone else to produce nicer videos, create premium products and services, rent a nice classroom for students, and more.

When you make a profit, you have the resources to not have to do everything yourself. That’s the right mindset to grow your small business. That’s how you move up the value chain as well: gaining skill sets in time management, people management, hiring, building systems, being a leader, etc.

Yes, you should also be in entrepreneurship for profit. If you’re not in this to make a profit, then you shouldn’t be starting a business. However, it’s not only just about making money and freeing up my time. It’s about improving the end product.