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.