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OMS 23-City Tour and Virtual Summit – Registration Discount of 20%
August 17 — San Francisco, CA

The Online Marketing Summit 23-City tour and virtual summit are coming to you! Learn from industry experts and thought leaders of Kodak, REI, DuPont, Jack In The Box, Cisco, and Yahoo!. Join your marketing peers as they share ideas, hear from expert practitioners, and learn best practices in social media, search, email, analytics, and more…
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SES San Francisco – Registration Discount of 20%
August 16 – 20 — San Francisco, CA

This year, SES is moving to San Francisco. Learn the ins-and-outs of search engine marketing, including website optimization, link building tactics, pay-per-click advertising, and landing page testing. Their expo floor will have 100+ companies to help you grow your business, and will offer networking events and more…
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Social Media for Business Bootcamp – Registration Discount of 10%
August 20 – 21 — Mumbai, India

Social media is no longer a buzzword – it has become an integral part of our everyday lives. Given the rate at which social media is spreading today, marketers can no longer ignore this revolutionary medium – both B2C and B2B. If you want to leverage social media marketing for community building, online sales, brand promotion, and B2B lead generation, you will not want to miss this bootcamp…
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Integrated Marketing Summit – Registration Discount of 20%
August 24 – 25 — Chicago, IL

The Integrated Marketing Summit (IMS) has invited over 25 speakers from around the U.S. to cover 15 topics, two keynotes, and three next-day hands-on workshops for professionals looking for additional educational and support. IMS is the signature summit for marketing, advertising, and PR professionals in both B2B and B2C markets throughout the U.S. IMS provides actionable insights, expertise, and cutting-edge information in a convenient, affordable one-day educational format. And the best continues, with next-day, hands-on workshops presented by leading practitioners…
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Integrated Marketing Communications in a Social Media Age – Registration Discount of 10%
August 30 – 31 — Singapore
September 2 – 3 — Hong Kong

Through a showcase of best practices from and of global brands including HP, InterContinental, KFC, LG, Unilever, Nike, DBS, FairPrice, Volvo, and Bank of Philippines, this two-day conference will equip marketers with strategies and insights to funnel core messages with conviction and consistency. Find out how you can capitalize on social media and integrate it seamlessly with offline channels to engage consumers and combat message dissonance. Grab this opportunity to acquire insights through best practices that will propel your brand up and above the rest…
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Social Media for Businesses Bootcamp – Registration Discount of 10%
September 10 – 11 — Delhi, India

Social Media is no longer a buzzword – it has become an integral part of our everyday lives. Given the rate at which social media is spreading, marketers can not ignore this revolutionary medium, both for B2C and B2B. If you want to leverage social media marketing for community building, online sales, brand promotion, and B2B lead generation you may not want to miss this bootcamp…
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SES Hong Kong – Registration Discount of 20%September 13 – 14 — Hong Kong, China

SES brings its world renowned learning experience and thought leaders in the search engine marketing field to Hong Kong. Organized and programmed by the SES Advisory Board and SearchEngineWatch.com, the program will be packed with sessions covering PPC management, keyword search, SEO, social media, local, mobile, link building, duplicate content, and much more…
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PPC Summit: Search & Social Media Success – Registration Discount of 10% – Additional Early Bird Discount of 25% Before August 31
September 21 – 22 — Los Angeles, CA

Are you struggling to generate qualified leads using search marketing and social media? Attend PPC Summit Presents: Search & Social Media Success where the top minds in search engine marketing and social media will gather to teach best practices, lessons learned, and case studies that outline “The Top Strategies to Improve Your Search & Social Media Marketing Results.” Leading industry experts will offer profit-boosting solutions for social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook; search engine optimization, search marketing: Google AdWords, Microsoft AdCenter, Yahoo Search; quality score; keyword targeting, landing page optimization, and much more…
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Social Search Optimization Bootcamp – Registration Discount of 10%
September 24 – 25 — Delhi, India

Social search optimization is the name of the game. Over the last decade, typical SEO techniques have become commoditized and are today highly competitive. With the convergence of social media (along with real time and local search) with SEO, once again there is an opportunity to sustainably grow one’s business using social search optimization. Whether you are interested in promoting your brand or generating online leads and sales, social search optimization can be your answer…
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Go Back to School with SEMPO Atlanta at Emory University – Free for SEMPO Members
October 1 — Atlanta, GA

SEMPO Atlanta is hosting its first half-day educational event, featuring a line up of nationally known industry experts across a variety of advanced SEM topics: Dave Szetela (Clix Marketing), Stephan Spencer (Covario), Matt Bailey (Site Logic), and Adam Proehl (Nordic Click Interactive). Each speaker’s topic presentation will be followed by Q&A during session breakouts on advanced PPC, SEO, analytics, and social media. A networking breakfast and lunch will be provided…
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Search Marketing Expo – SMX East – Registration Discount of 20%
October 4 – 6 — New York, NY

SMX East covers all of the search engine marketing topics: SEO, paid search advertising, analytics, local, mobile, and much more. You’ll find programming to match your needs, whether you are a beginner or SEM expert, work at (or with) an agency, or manage search marketing in-house…
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International Search Summit – Registration Discount of 20%
October 28, 2010 — London, England

The International Search Summit is an event dedicated to international and multilingual search marketing. Now in its third year, the event focuses on the issues and challenges facing search marketers targeting a global audience. Delegates will hear from some of the leading experts in international search and social media…

But this isn’t the case with many in the community even though that is the perception. Some of those that are examples of using search for good are; Seobook.org The Nonprofit’s Guide to SEM, SEO Refugee’s charity link meme, Search Engine College free charity site courses, GrayWolf’s v7ndotcom Elursrebmem St. Jude’s fundraiser and Jennifer Laycock at Search Engine Guide leveraging the carcrahser.com seo contest as a milk bank fundraiser.

In the most recent search for good projectDeric Loh, APAC Regional Search Marketing Manager at Soho Square in Singapore has won the $3,500 Market Motive PPC Scholarship with his paid search marketing plan for a non-profit agency. Market Motive is allowing each of their faculty members to give away one scholarship to its certification courses for the upcoming semester. Market Motive offers web-based internet marketing training and certification programs from bestselling authors and established industry professionals through videos, webinars, conference calls, and 24×7 Q&A.

The non-profit agency Deric chose was Smile Train which helps children with unrepaired cleft lips and palates. Smile Train’s mission is to provide free cleft surgery for millions of poor children in developing countries and to provide free cleft-related training for doctors and medical professionals. Deric said he chose Smile Train because, “I wanted to help these young kids who are unfortunate. I learned about Smile Train by reading Avinash Kaushik’s blog and his work in helping that organization.”

At Soho Square Deric manages the search marketing, paid and organic, for clients across Asia Pacific. Deric said “I first got started in search engine marketing developing websites and wanted to have my sites found in the search engines. I tested a lot of tactics, even ‘black hat’ tactics, which can get a site banned. I actually reported one of my sites to see how long it would take Google to ban it.” Deric added, “ Now I only use white hat tactics”.

Deric said he liked search marketing because of the constant changes in the industry. “I was thrilled to learn I had won this competition and am excited about learning from the world class faculty at Market Motive.”

Here are other Singapore SEMPO members;

Mr. Wayne Eo
Managing Director & Chief Internet Strategist
OOm Pte Ltd
Optimal Online Marketing

Mr. Adrian Tan
Director
clickTRUE Pte Ltd

Mr. Rif Chia
Director & Principal Consultant
Easy Business Needs

Mr. Shi Heng Cheong
Director
Finggle Pte Ltd

Mr. Jason Chew
Project Manager/Consultant
JasonChew.Net

Mr. Manoj Aravindakshan
Director
On Target Media & Marketing

Mr. Leonard Tan
Search Marketing Director
PurpleClick Media Pte Ltd

Tour Provides Opportunity for SEMPO to Learn about the Local Market and Promote
the Search Industry in Asia SINGAPORE–(Business Wire)–

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), www.sempo.org,
today announced that it will hold a series of events in connection with ad:tech
Singapore, June 9. Singapore is the first stop on a three-city Asian tour that
SEMPO is undertaking to foster the awareness of search engine marketing and
connect professionals in the region with Western markets. It will also provide a
rare occasion for search industry executives to network with local search engine
company representatives. Other stops include Beijing on June 12 and Mumbai on
June 15.

With the goal of creating a better understanding of search and its role in
marketing, the SEMPO delegation, which consists of Jeffrey Pruitt, SEMPO
Chairperson, Bill Hunt, SEMPO Board of Director. Motoko Hunt, Chairperson of
SEMPO Asia, and Paula Hunter, Director of Operations for SEMPO, will host a
number of evens. For more information about SEMPO’s Asia tour, visit

http://www.sempo.org/public_groups/asia/sempo_asia_tour/

SEMPO events in Singapore, all being held at the Suntec City International
Convention Centre, include:

* Seminar with presentations by representatives of search engine companies,
SEMPO and other organizations involved in the state of search, SEO, SEM and
social media
* Press conference
* ad:tech networking party with SEMPO representatives, delegates and sponsors

“Although SEMPO has had an active Asia Committee for some time, this is our
first official SEMPO Asia tour to spread awareness of SEMPO as a global
organization,” says Jeffrey Pruitt, SEMPO chairperson and the leader of the
SEMPO delegation. “We’re looking forward to networking with Singapore’s SEM and
SEO industry leaders and meeting the local media.”

For details about SEMPO’s Asia tour, visit
http://www.sempo.org/public_groups/asia/sempo_asia_tour/ or send an email to:
Asia-tour@SEMPO.org.

About the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)

SEMPO is a global non-profit organization serving the search engine marketing
industry and marketing professionals engaged in it. Its purpose is to provide a
foundation for industry growth through building stronger relationships,
fostering awareness, providing education, promoting the industry, generating
research, and creating a better understanding of search and its role in
marketing.

Representing thousands in over 30 countries, SEMPO has more than 850 members. It
represents the common interests of companies and consultants worldwide and
provides them with a voice in the marketplace. SEMPO’s education and outreach
initiatives are funded in part by Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, Superpages.com, ABC
Search, SMX and Search Engine Strategies. For more information, or to join the
organization, please visit http://www.SEMPO.org.

SEMPO
Jamie O’Donnell, + 415 606 5914
pr@sempo.org

Copyright Business Wire 2009

Motoko has her own blog and is an editor at Multilingual-Search.com. She speaks around the globe at industry events such as Search Marketing Expo (SMX), Search Engine Strategies (SES), Internet Conference, Net Marketing Forum and others. She is also a co-chair/co-host of the Search Engine Strategies Tokyo Forum.

Motoko has worked tirelessly to promote SEMPO in Asia and will be part of the SEMPO Asia Tour in June. The SEMPO Asia tour will visit Beijing, Singapore and Mumbai. The purpose of the tour is to “Increase the awareness of the search engine marketing in Asia, and to increase the visibility of SEMPO in the region as a non-profit and worldwide Search Professional organization through the sessions and press conference in each location.”

In her interview with Li Evans of Search Marketing Gurus for the Women of Internet Marketing series she responded to a questions about her accomplishments by saying “Hmmmmm, I haven’t received any awards or anything.” Well now you can add that to all your other accomplishments Motoko. Hats off to a classy, gracious and all around fun person, Motoko Hunt!

Enrollment during November reached peak levels as a broad spectrum of agency, in-house and etailer marketers registered for courses. “These professionals know they are going into the New Year with the competitive advantage of high-end SEM knowledge,” says Terry Plank, dean of SEMPO Institute. “As they complete their courses, they can immediately put this knowledge into practice to better serve clients and achieve greater success.”

Simon Heseltine, one of the first to complete the Fundamentals course writes about his experience on his blog Search Engine Tigers. Keep in mind this was early in the process and things may have changed.

All in all, its not a bad start for the SEMPO institute. I’d like to see them do some randomization in the questions, and maybe implement and external testing / maximum amount of retakes policy. Then the certificate of completion will actually mean more. As for whether I’ll recommend that the rest of my team take it. I will, but probably in a month or so, when some of the kinks have been corrected. I’ll also be signing up for the advanced courses when they become available.

Finally, why aren’t the sem seo associations like SEMPO, SMA-NA, SMA-UK, SMA-EU and others taking a stand on sem seo certification or training? Maybe they should develop their own certification or training programs. Rumor has it some may be in the works.

Well I guess it wasn’t a rumor since SEMPO, a global non-profit organization serving the search engine marketing industry, has announced their online distance learning program for search marketing professionals at SEMPO Institute. The initial cirricula includes SEM Fundamentals, Advanced SEO and Advanced Search Advertising.

After they pass a series of “rigorous tests” the participants will receive a “certificate of completion” for the course. Course fees have not yet been determined but SEMPO notes the fees “are expected be competitive with similar programs”. What those similar programs are is anybody’s guess but I imagine some of the programs covered in this blog might qualify.

“The time is right for SEMPO to not only advocate best practices in search marketing, but also to provide intensive training in these practices for our fast growing sector of the interactive marketing economy,” says SEMPO President Dana Todd.

Amen to that Dana. We’ll be watching closely to see the reaction from the sem seo community. I imagine these courses will be very popular only because the are provided by the largest search engine marketing association in the world.

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Q: When did you start Search Engine College?
In May 2004. You can read our press release about the launch.
 

Q:Why did you start Search Engine College?
We recognized a gap in the market for an online training facility where persons could learn search engine optimization techniques and other search engine marketing subjects from experts in the industry. The concept of SEC was initially thought of by my husband, (now SEC’s Director of IT and Course Development), who noticed how often I was receiving and answering the same questions from confused webmasters about how to make their sites search engine friendly. My husband suggested that I make my replies available to everyone by creating an online course for newbies about search engine marketing. He introduced me to Moodle Open Source course management software as a way of delivering the material (moodle.org).Over the years, I had also been asked regularly if I knew of any online institutions that offered courses in search engine optimization. I didn’t, so I got together with some industry colleagues and Search Engine College was born. Now anyone with a PC and an Internet connection can go and learn this stuff for themselves, no matter where they are in the world.

Q: Why did you choose to offer a certification?
There has been debate within the search industry for nearly 10 years about the lack of industry-regcognized certification for search engine optimization and related skills. We have watched with concern as hundreds of inexperienced or dodgy SEM companies start up each year and dupe unsuspecting clients out of thousands of dollars and devalue the reputation of the search industry due to their unethical and unprofessional tactics. There are many unscrupulous SEO firms in operation that rely on the ignorance of webmasters and simply spam the search engines for short-term results, take the money and run before the spammy tactics catch up to the client. Associations like SEMPO (SEMPO.org) offer an industry and trade organization for professionals in the search industry, but not accreditation for SEM firms. Although they do display a code of conduct for members, as they state on their home page, membership in SEMPO is not a guarantee of a particular firm’s capabilities, nor does it signify industry approval or disapproval of their practices. Apart from the recent efforts made by SEOPros.org there is still no widely recognized industry Certification for search engine experts!

I would say a large percentage of SEM start-ups or in-house SEO/SEMs make genuine mistakes, have a lack of experience and use out-dated retro spam techniques to optimize web sites, not realizing the penalties they could attract for their employers/clients. THEY are a major target market for Search Engine College. We feel it is the rampant lack of education in the industry that is the most damaging and the most preventable, not the SEOs using black-hat methods or the unethical SEM firms. Those type of companies will always exist. But ignorance can be curbed via education. That’s why we started SEC. No risky search engine optimization techniques or “spamdexing” methods are taught in our online classes. Only ethical and acceptable methodologies are taught, based on the webmaster guidelines published by the search engines themselves. Although it is still early days, we would love to see Search Engine College certification recognized industry-wide in the near future.