Does anyone know of a good online course or certificate program in Social Media or Search Engine Optimization Marketing? These skills are becoming more sought-after in the marketing profession. An Internet Marketing program might also work, depending upon the courses. I know Ashworth and Penn Foster have such programs, but the courses don't really cover SEO or Social Media.
Not exaclty SEO/SEM but very closely related. A certificate in Web Analytics: http://www.tech.ubc.ca/webanalytics/details.html I worked in this field for a time and it is very interesting and fast moving. Much better career choice than Web Design, IMHO. For instance: If you are interested in the career field of Web Design/Web Development you might only be looking at demand. To make an intelligent assessment, you need to look at supply and demand. Yes, there is demand for web-developers, but the supply seems to be off the scale. Web developers are not a dime-a-dozen, but a dime-a-gross. Take a look at this thread, note that it is common for people to expect web-developers - especially new web developers - to work for $0.00 and hour. That's right, web developers are often expected to work for free. http://seeker.dice.com/olc/thread.jspa?threadID=9273&tstart=0 I can go to rentacoder and hire all the offshore web developers I want for $2 an hour. There are also a lot of 15 year old web developers who are actually quite talented. Don't take my word for it, take a look at the insane low-balling yourself: http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/DotNet/default.aspx? Do you really want to compete with that? Take a look at this salary survey. http://techtoil.org/wiki/doku.php?id=salary_survey#web_design_0_-_30_hour Good luck, Cory
I noticed that UC Irvine Extension and University of British Columbia Continuing Studies Department have a partnership for this program. Interesting! http://unex.uci.edu/certificates/it/web_intel/
I found a program at the University of San Francisco that looks good. You can even view a few sample lectures. http://www.usanfranonline.com/Home/Content/SanFrancisco/
6K, that's beer and alcohol money. lol If you register for all three parts on the program it will be 5K.
I found two places you might want to look. One is Full Sail University. They offer both a BS and an MS in Internet Marketing http://www.fullsail.edu/ The other is Rassmussen College. I believe they offer both an AS and BS in Internet Marketing http://www.rasmussen.edu
Indeed, Rasmussen offers both the AS and the BS in Internet Marketing; however, only the AS in Internet Marketing is available online.
For SEO, start with Google Analytics. The test costs $50.00. The International Webmasters Association (IWA) has a Web Business Cert that runs ~$400 or so. This cert can even include an elective called "Understanding WordPress". True story: the UBC/UC Irvine web analytics programs are both available over the web. A grad program recently making noise is taught online by University of Virginia, and called eMarketing. Costs around $6,000. Maybe consider joining the eMarketing Association. They also teach online courses. I've heard rumors about upcoming social media certs, but nothing solid just yet.
