Have you noticed how many online groups are offering their members some kind of help with SEO lately? As part of ‘keeping my finger on the pulse’ I’m signed up to a number of online newsletters. Only a couple of them are actually for SEO. The rest are a variety of marketing, writing and other online business groups. All of them at some point have run articles about SEO.

The latest really surprised me: American Writers and Artists Inc. (AWAI) just ran an article called “7 Steps to a Winning SEO Strategy.” Alarmingly, in the middle of a fairly basic description of SEO strategy, they’re offering a Web copywriting intensive that will make you a “working web copy specialist after only three days of training.”

I’d be the first to admit that good writing skills are essential to good copy, but I really don’t think you can learn everything you need to know to be a good SEO writer in three days. Heck, after working in the field for two years it took me a couple of months to decide whether or not I knew enough to go out on my own as a fully-fledged SEO writer.

Companies that promote these kind of schemes in any niche are, in my opinion, doing a great disservice to their profession. There’s a lot to be said for experience and the kind of knowledge you can only get from immersion in a certain subject. I don’t think you can’t learn enough about anything to actually work in the field. And if you’re going to learn something, doesn’t it make a lot more sense to learn from someone who specializes in that particular niche?

What do you think?