Complaint Review: Fabian Lim

This review is regarding Click Event’s SEO Certification course, instructed by Fabian Lim.

Why I am Writing This Anonymously?

Firstly, I want to address why am I writing this anonymously, or why am I writing this at all. I have been the receiving end of a potential legal action by the instructor himself. I’m also well aware of the Albert Tee saga, where potential legal action was used against Albert Tee for defamation reasons.

For personal reasons, I don’t want to be caught up in a potential legal bout. Hence I choose to write this anonymously, however, with accountability and responsibility.

I also want to make clear that this isn’t a defamation article, where it’s in no shape or form directed as any form of character assassination. I’ll also be proving back up my points made with empirical evidence, references to Google’s guidelines, and SEO authorities.

I’ll also be addressing the difference between online defamation and a product/service review.

Secondly, I’m writing this because the financial education industry, namely, stocks, investing, internet marketing, can be filled with gimmicky instructors and can be fraudulent at times. This can be observed with articles here, here and here. I’m writing with the public’s interest in mind.

There’s a quote by a famous psychologist: William James. He said this: Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. 

Hence, I decided to publish this article.

If an instructor wants to teach something and charge multiple thousands of dollars for it, I’m sure he or she got to back it up, through empirical evidence and results.

Now before I get into the review, let’s get to the issue of online defamation. The difference between online defamation, as opposed to a negative service or product review.

Online Defamation VS a Service or Product Review

So, what does the law in Singapore actually say about defamation? You can read:

• Defamation Act
• Singapore Legal Advice – Defamation and Defences to Defamation

I also publish this article with these sources in mind.

For the seminar attendees out there. Don’t be afraid to speak up or publish against your instructor. There is a difference between online defamation and a negative product review. Don’t be pressured by authority figures or your course mates.

There’s also the over justification effect. You don’t want to find yourself in a position in conflict something you paid thousands for initially. At whichever point you find yourself in a position where you felt the instructor under delivered, feel free to ask for your money back or refer your problem to CASE.

Can You Really Instruct SEO Without Showing You, Yourself Can Perform in SEO?

For the general public, who’s un-knowledgable about SEO. Search engine optimization basically means optimizing your website based on user queries on Google.

For Eg. If you typed in ‘Dog lessons in Singapore’ on Google, and your website popped out on the top results in Google, you would probably deem as having a search engine optimized website.

Keyword rankings are one of the main key performance indicators of an SEO campaign.

Some user queries are easier to rank for in Google. Some are not. SO, how do you generally determine the difficulty of user queries?

1) Search Volume

If I ranked for the word: “SEO Coach Singapore”. Would that determine that I’m good in SEO? No, that wouldn’t. That’s because ‘SEO coach in Singapore’ has a low search volume keyword, and quite possibly easy to rank for.

2) The Type of Keyword

Good keywords are keywords that have potential commercial value. These are keywords with terms included such as ‘Services’, ‘Classes’, ‘Training’.

SO! If You Were Good in SEO, Here are Some of The SEO Keywords You Would Ideally be able to Rank For:

‘SEO Singapore’
‘SEO Services Singapore’
‘SEO Company Singapore’
‘SEO Agency Singapore’
‘SEO Expert Singapore’

These are industry related keywords with high search volume and high commercial demand.

I used the Google keyword planner for this purpose. It’s free, you can validate this yourself.

Since I took it upon myself to further my SEO knowledge outside of the course, I learned how to track the rankings on a website. For this purpose, I use SERPLAB.UK. It’s free, you can try it out as well, and you can verify the results yourself.

Tracking ClickEvent’s Keyword Rankings:

Fabian Lim’s SEO Methods Taught In Class

Upon more research, I realized that out the methods taught in Click Event’s SEO Certification course aren’t aligned with Google’s Guidelines.

Students were taught how to create content on hundreds of long tail keywords, and publish them on pages. It’s an outdated technique. I’d also argue that the backlink acquisition strategy taught is outdated and isn’t up to par, with slight mentions of paying for links. (Which is against Google’s guidelines).

Needless to say, if the company had the rankings for SEO related keywords. They’ll be able to refute these claims. Or minimally be able to present a case that I’m a horrible student.

Was it all bad though? Not really. The course had the basics of SEO covered. It was the application of SEO techniques taught that I found out to be sub par/against Google guidelines.

Student Success Stories and Testimonials: Do They Matter?

Now, I’m also clear that ClickEvents has had student success stories and case studies, as advertised on their landing page.

The case studies on his student’s websites don’t disclose their keyword rankings or other forms of empirical evidence. Their testimonials also state that their student’s websites rake 4-5 figures worth of sales monthly.

We’re looking for empirical evidence, remember?

I’m not saying testimonials don’t matter? Yes, they do. However, it’s up to your judgment to judge the quality of those testimonials.

100% Money Back Guarantee?

When I attended the course, there was a 100% money guarantee back guarantee back option, within the first 30 days or so.

However, this option was easily deemed voided within a 4-6 months follow up sessions that the course provides.

Structure of Fabian Lim’s SEO Certification and Class Reviews

For the next 6 months, there was a monthly class review where the instructor analyses your website analytics and gives you feedback.

Here’s the problem.

If you had left the course during the 6 months period, you won’t be able to come for the feedback sessions. However, once the first 30 days money back guarantee period is over, your money guarantee back option is voided.

You might ask, why didn’t I leave the course initially and asked for my money back? That was because I wanted to stay for the reviews. It was part of the course right? I was being a good student. Successful students complete what they started.

I was also unaware at that point of time how to empirically measure the success of an SEO campaign.

Closing Thoughts

You might find that this is quite a harsh review.

It might even come off as one sided or biased. However, I did my research and don’t make any of the claims without backing up it with empirical evidence, as I’ve done so in this article.

I paid a good four thousand Singapore dollars to attend this SEO certification course and was potentially threatened with legal action. Hence, I decided to do my research on the law, and present my case with empirical evidence.

Yours Sincerely,
Keeping You Honest