As the economy struggles to rebound, a lot of companies are cutting their advertising budget and even getting rid of their SEO teams. There is no question in my mind that doing the exact opposite is the way to go in these tough times. But you can’t always convince folks to spend money when they are hurting. If you are a small business and can’t afford to hire a company to do your SEO for you, you can always try to learn how to do it yourself. A lot of people ask me “who I get started with SEO.” There is no one size fits all solution here. You can always pick up books and take your time learning about search engine optimization. A faster way to do it is by purchasing a video course and going through it on a weekend. But my favorite method is attending a Search Engine Strategies training session.

Search Engine Strategies training sessions are one of the best ways to get an overview of what search engine optimization in just a few days. Moreover, you don’t have to worry about getting outdated information in these sessions. You get the latest developments and tricks in the SEO world from world class experts. These sessions are not cheap, but you learn here can help you save a lot of money in your business and set yourself apart from many of your competitors. Here is what you can expect to learn from Search Engine Strategies training sessions:

• Website Programming + SEO
• Keyword Research
• SEO Analytics
• Linking Strategies that Increase Rankings
• Social Media
• SEO In a Corporate Environment

SES training sessions are going to cost you a few hundred dollars but that’s only a small fraction of what you would be paying a SEO firm to optimize your site for search engines. And most of those services are overpriced anyway. You just can’t learn SEO any faster than by going to one of these sessions.

Your turn: will you be at Denver for SES training?

What do you know? It’s almost time for the next big SES in the East (SES 2009). It feel as if it was yesterday that I went to SES NY 2008. It was a great event, and this year’s event promises to be another great event. Here is what is on the agenda:

• Introduction to Search Marketing
• Successful Site Architecture
• Keywords & Content
• SEO Tools of the Trade
• Pay Per Conversation
• Lower Costs: Vertical Search
• Social Media Marketing for Brand Building
• Google Website Optimizer
• Duplicate Content/Multiple Sites
• Independent SEMs/SEOs
• Black Hat PPC
• Privacy, Intellectual Property & Trademark Issues

SES is a great learning and networking event. This year promises to be another exciting SES in my favorite city, NYC. I am personally looking forward to Black Hat PPC and Duplicate content sessions. Which sessions are you looking forward the most?

P.S. I’ve got a coupon that you can use to get 10% discount on your SES bill. Please sign up for my newsletter to gain access.

I just received an e-mail from Joel Comm about his Elevate! 2008 conference that will be held in Colorado. This conference is open only to 49 people and is expected to sell out soon. Basically, the legendary Joel Comm is going to teach you how he made his multi-million dollar business from ground up. I think any one who has been involved in the Internet industry knows Joel’s legendary status, but if you don’t know who he is, just Google him up. Or you can just check him out on Wikipedia.

I have personally been on a crusade against conferences that are a waste of time and money. But Joel is one of the good guys, and his no B.S. style is certainly different from anything you hear in other conferences. Elevate 2008 will be held in Colorado, October 24-26. If you can go, don’t miss it.

SES Chicago, Dec. 8-12 is going to come so fast, and the tickets are now available for sale. The focus of this event is on Semantic search, mobile search, and shopping search. I usually love SES as you can basically slack off for a quarter and get caught up with the latest developments in the industry (not that I suggest you slack off, but a lot of people do). Check out the stacked SES schedule to get a feel why you should go for this. It’s not a cheap conference, but a must attend for all SEOs.

SES Toronto is probably one the most underappreciated SES conferences that we have. For some reason, people prefer San Fran or NY to Toronto, which is fair enough. But if you have time & money to go to SES Toronto, you should definitely check it out. Here are the main topics for this conference:

• As with many other SES conferences out there, there is going to be a lot of talk about Web 2.0 and the state of business in a Web 2.0 world. Web 2.0 is one of the hottest topics out there. So it is going to be mentioned whether you like it or not
• There will be some talk about the Canada market, so don’t get surprised if this is your first time at a conference in a foreign country. These things happen.
• PPC and local/universal search will be the main topic of discussion for SES Toronto. Come to think of it, they have been in all SES conferences for the past year or so. Now that is going to be exciting.

In any case, it is going to be a very exciting show. Don’t forget the Expo hall as that’s where you get to meet some of the best SEM companies around the world. Have fun in Canada!