Want Viral Video? Hire a Spamtastic Certified YouTube Pro!

Every day my spam folder reveals a wonderful cornucopia of new online mischief. Today's gem offers an "Unstoppable Traffic Explosion" enabling me to take advantage of "A Wall-To-Wall Stampede Of Red Hot, Hungry Prospects Melting Your Hit Counter."

Wow! I mean, the moment I read that I knew that our Business Development guys would be positively salivating over the idea of "red hot, hungry prospects" reading all about I-COM's internet marketing services! Certainly this was a proposal that couldn't go wrong because the sender is, apparently, a "Certified YouTube Pros." I mean, this guy's so good that he's not just a pro, he's more than one! He's "pros"! Fantastic! We're all going to be millionaires in a week!

There's only one problem with this email (actually, there's more than one, but there's one major one I want to address) - how do you get to be a "Certified YouTube Pros"? As far as I know neither YouTube or Google offer a certification on YouTube Marketing. I can't think of any university or NVQ programs for it either. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, the only certification you can get involves passing a Google Adwords exam to become a certified Google Adwords Professional. We have several of those here at I-COM. I'm sure they'd be chomping at the bit to get certified to send out spamtastic unsolicited emails about how to create a successful viral marketing campaign (which, no doubt, would begin with sending out more spamtastic, unsolicited emails).

We see websites and emails and have even received phone calls from numerous people claiming to be search engine optimisation specialists who are "certified" by Google or who have a special relationship with Google. All of these claims are either exaggerated or blatantly false. No SEO certification from Google exists, although you can trust that a Google Adwords Professional will be able to run a successful Pay-Per-Click campaign.

If anyone tells you that their Google certification is anything other than an Adwords Professional qualification then run a mile because all they'll do to your website is damage it.