How would you guys like an accredited IM course

No ... well, I'd imagine that WSO's are really (intended to be) bought by people who want to make money, and be self-employed, and build up their own business, rather than by people who want to use the imprimatur of an "awarding body" to get a job.

For it to have any value, on the basis you suggest, I'd think the credentials, status and authority of the awarding body would be a very substantial part of what would matter. Nobody wants to be like those "doctors" who turn out on examination to have a PhD in naturopathy or nutrition from a correspondence school of which - "(in)conveniently" - no trace can be found 10 years later. I'm just saying ...

I don't see how an accredition would get any respect. The internet changes so often that how would you know that the information learnt was still relevant in 2 years. I think in the IM world people don't respond or care so much about simple knowledge, people care about results.

no this is definetly a bad idea - i got burned on one of these courses - who would pay for free info - thats not right -

Owen if you could hit the right buttons this would actually work. I remember when I first wanted to learn internet marketing I was looking into colleges to teach me(i.e. internet marketing degree, courses, etc). I think alot of people think like that. Unfortunately, the people in this room are more seasoned, so, your concept may not apply to them. In summary, I would assume there is a huge market for what your proposing. More people seek validation than not.

Please Note: I am assuming you can create the right accreditation to entice your target market.

Test, test, test

Owen,

It seems like you are "fighting" for this idea. It feels, to me, that you are either in love with the concept, OR, we are soon to see some sort of WSO from you offering up an accreditation for some form of IM studies.

MY opinion is, you WILL find a market among the younger Warriors, the teens especially, who will spend the 6 months to earn "something" which gives them credibility in the marketplace.

HOW many of these are there? Who knows? But, IF your idea takes off, and you are one of the first to offer up something, and it proves valuable to those who buy the thing...then you probably don't need our opinions anyhow.

I get the feel, but I could be wrong and reserve the right to be so...that this is something already in the works and you are just testing the waters or sending up trial balloons.

One thing about the WF, you'll get a whole bunch of opinions, but, in truth, you only get answers when you ask people to put money on the table for whatever concept you have in mind.

A vote with a wallet is worth 1001 opinions.

But, that is just my opinion.

gjabiz

PS. I'm offering my mentorees a "certificate of authenticity" (frame optional) when they complete my one year program. That plus a 100% money back guarantee if they DON'T reach their goals seems to be working...but I'm sure they are signing up just for the beautiful Certificate (on burnt parchment) they will hang on their walls to show they survived a year of me yelling at them.

There is an accredited IM course I stumbled upon lately. They said that online lectures will commence on November 22, 2010.

Though I'm still thinking of applying.

The link is here:

Internet Marketing Master's Degree : Full Sail Online

I left the computer support arena because I was tired of value being tied to "certifications" and being "accredited".

Guess what, I ran circles around most of the guys with the fancy certs because I did something they refused to do, connect with my clients as real people with real problems to solve.

I have no need to be accredited to be self-employed and love life.

Ultimately Owen, I don't think you understand the WSO buyer mindset and your idea will most likely flop.

A majority of the buyers don't want nor desire accredited coursework material. They want to learn how to make money immediately.

The moment you say 6 months of coursework in your sales letter, you will have effectively lost 95% of the buyers.

Like others have said, it seems like YOU think this is a cool idea. And perhaps it is to some people.

Me? I dropped out of college. I don't give a flying crap about credentials when it comes to running a business online.

I have outsourced to both "accredited" and "nonaccredited" people in various ways (graphics, writing, etc.) and i have found the quality of work to be the exact same by both groups.

Unless your people are looking for jobs (which that is not this market here), you won't find much traction inside the WSO forum.

Rob

In my opinion, an IM certificate wouldn't be worth the paper it was printed on. Nowadays, dozens of universities are offering IM certificate courses. It's nothing more than a clever way to extract thousands of dollars from the gullible masses. A company isn't going to hire you because you have an IM certificate. Besides, most of what those courses teach can be found online for free if you know where to look.

David Jackson

You can already get a full certificate from University of San Fransisco for $7000 in Internet Marketing.

It's an expensive piece of toilet paper.

CEUs are for people who want jobs or need to maintain professional licenses.

Owen, one of the FIRST fundamentals in ANY marketing, internet or not, is to understand your buying market and create products that they WANT (not "need"). Based on this alone, I am not sure you really have a solid grasp on marketing in general. Gaming search algorithms and driving traffic is NOT marketing. It's a technical function based on certain aspects of online web services, search providers, etc... Most people don't even get that in this business. Getting visibility for your website is NOT "marketing". It's a form of "advertising", which is a subset of marketing.

You're assuming a correlation that doesn't necessarily exist. Not only in equating knowledge with skill, but in something more fundimental.

A company that hires anybody for SEO services wants performance, not a warm fuzzy feeling because someone has an official certificate to show.

Very well put, Michael.

~Bill

accreditation is not really a ideal solution for internet marketing because it doesn't really say a lot. In internet marketing it all about connecting to your client/customers and most really don't care about being accredited, they care more about making money. Accreditation is mainly about status and most marketers care more about making money not certificates. I would say that if you have a great products or service to offer and it's done well people will flock to you product or service because it works not the accreditation.

David

You can already get this many places - and it means nothing. Google even has an accreditation program for Adwords "professionals". You just have to manage a certain volume of spending for a certain amount of time and pass a test and then you are an accredited adwords professional. I had this for myself and my company when I was running a big SEO firm. Its all crap. Like most certifications. It just means you showed up. Thats not impressive to savvy customers and the ones who are impressed by it, would be easily impressed by any number of little tricks you could show them.

As many have said, credibility is a big problem. It is even becoming a problem for REAL universities. Much less fake ones or dudes on forums dreaming up certifications. Bottom line, creating some fake certification is not creating real value for anyone. Go make a real product or be an affiliate for one.

Anybody know how the program is at fullsail? How much is that degree program? Is it an undergrad or master's study?

If you feel that strongly about an idea that will be marketed to the very people posting negatively in the informal survey thread, by all means, test test test the remaining (non-responding) portion of the market with a launch.

But you need to understand that enterpreneurs, trail-blazers and people who march to the beat of their own drum have no need for an accredited course of any kind in any subject.

As far as IM accreditation goes, there is no educational body that is useful or is able to confer this upon us. Very much like the wizard of oz filling a mythic need of bravery, IMO.

I take everyones opinions into consideration, but for the 26 who would not be interested, there are still 11 who are, I will test the water and see how it comes out.

Its all about giving it a go, thanks to everyone. All of your points are valid, I suppose there is no yes or no answer, the proof is in the pudding!

Regards
Owen

I voted NO, but if you believe in it then give it a go.

My gut instinct tells me it won't work, but by all means prove me and others on here wrong.