I’m a big fan of self-teaching. There is so much information available now on the web, and in libraries, that you can teach yourself just about anything you desire to know. (Within limits, of course.) And, being self-taught can sometimes save you money over paying for experts.
But, self-teaching has its drawbacks, too:
- It is not as efficient as receiving training from an expert.
- You will spend a lot of time sorting through conflicting data and ideas and evidence, sometimes winding up following the wrong advice.
Like a lot of people who blog and operate a website, I have tried to teach myself how to do it. But, after doing this for about two years, I decided it was time to try some professional help.
So, at the beginning of this month, I signed up for Aaron Wall’s popular SEObook Training, at a cost of $100/month. I had resisted doing this because I thought the price would be hard for me to justify. But, after not getting anywhere on my own, I finally decided to try it.
I am glad I signed up. Within 30 minutes of signing up, I felt like I had gotten my money’s worth for the first month. Aaron pointed out several problems with my site (too many topics, needs a separate home page highlighting best content, needs logo instead of plain text, need to use links to categories to flow page rank, etc). I learn something from his site everyday. The forums are outstanding, and have great advice not only from Aaron but from lots of other true experts. Detailed advice, not hand-waving words.
Hence, if you blog, I encourage you to try Aaron’s training program. (Note: if you sign up through this link, I get a commission on the sale. So, if you are determined that you don’t want me to do that, you can search for SEObook and signup from the Googled-link. I won’t lose sleep over it. I like money, but I believe in Aaron’s program regardless.)
But, the main point, regardless of your profession or the area you want to learn in, is that it can be worthwhile to pay for expert advice. I know that we recently talked about this, but, given how much people are holding back because of the economy, I thought it worthwhile to bring it up again.
Again, I am not against self-learning: in fact, I love it. But, it pays to recognize when it’s not the best way for you to learn.
I have considered going through the Personal MBA book list but haven’t had the chance yet to get through all of them. Good point on when NOT to do self-teaching. Sometimes it can only take you so far. Thanks for the reminder!
You are so right … I finally got around to ordering the Streetwise books you mentioned to me a long while back … the details of LLC operation were just too much to try to figure it all out from online reading. The Streetwise books are great, BTW
Glad you enjoy the Streetwise books. I think they’re very useful. I wish they were available in some sort of electronic format so I can keep them with me as a reference, but otherwise, I’m very pleased with them.