I’ve fought political battles over SEO many times. Do meta keywords matter? How much do they matter? Should we use this or that strategy for getting higher rankings (common phrases or long tail phrases, a few keywords or many)? There are all sorts of philosophies out there. I felt a little famous when a friend pointed out my blog is everywhere in the search engines for affiliate marketing terms…because honestly I don’t monitor it at all. I don’t have time to worry or care. I just write. In fact, I don’t write in my blog enough.

I interviewed a few people at Affiliate Summit and we have some different camps when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization). One group believes in formulas and exactness in getting ranked (a systematic approach). The other focus primarily on writing high quality, useful information for PEOPLE and arrange it so search engines can easily find and index it (site structure). Talk about formulas and their eyes glaze. (Can I name drop here? Rosalind Gardner, Colin McDougall, and Will Reynolds fall at various spectrums in this camp).

Personally I think there are some formulas or deliberate ways of going about writing that work. However, I’m not *that* detail-oriented (or I’d still be a web developer not a marketer). The actual implementation can take the joy out of writing for me. That’s what cheap labor is all about, right? let them handle the details (be the editors). In fact, I’d love to have a detail slave (there are people whose minds work like this I’m told) go through my blog and add links and format it and make it all look good for me. I need a blog editor, not as in a WYSIWYG editor or tool, but as in a real live person. I guess I know I’ve arrived as a writer if I get my own editor.

What SEO strategy more closely defines your philosophy? Are you a technician (you control the details to the desired outcome) or a creator more concerned about the overall affect (you set everything in motion and let the rankings continue to build)?

[tags] affiliate marketing, internet marketing, online marketing, search engine optimization, SEO, SEO blog [/tags]

The Online Marketing Blog posted results from their recent reader polls. Remember these are SEO geeks and they are most likely SEO agencies. I’m going to put the top answer to each and some commentary.

What do you like most about your search marketing job? (67 answers)
You are truly appreciated for your expertise and contributions (21%)

Note: Money wasn’t one of the top reasons. People like to make an impact. Building a reputation was next, which is related to this idea.

What is your favorite marketing conference? (56 answers)
Search Engine Strategies (46%)

Note: Affilliate Summit came in last with 4% (though it is more specialized and this is an SEO crowd, not a crowd of affiliate marketers).

What is the primary purpose of your blog? (54 answers)

To publish/share my ideas (35%)

Interesting enough getting the significant SEO benefits of a blog was dead last on the list at 6%. Again, this is from SEO folks (SEO agencies it looks like) who are savvy and could benefit from the marketing and SEO. Sharing openly is a HUGE part of blogging. In its best form it’s not a one-sided relationship (getting links, getting business) but a giving/contributing one. I love the community-building aspect of blogging as well. Has someone you don’t know ever hugged you because of your blog?

I talked with Danny Sullivan at Affiliate Summit about how people read things into your blog and make assumptions (like that a particular post was about them, excluded them, etc when in reality it had nothing to do with them. Chris Knudsen says that’s part of the reason he pulled back on blogging).

What are your most common reasons for discontinuing a client relationship? (64 answers)

Client is too difficult to work with (53%)

Yes, once again money again wasn’t a factor. Getting paid well is a side benefit but if the client is difficult to work with it doesn’t matter.

Mat Siltala‘s SEO blog rocks. I wish I had more time to read it. It’s full of insightful, original thoughts on search engine optimization. We all need to keep on top of it if we’re on the web. So just read his blog. He also posted about social media press releases on EplanIt.

Also check out Chris Bennett of 97thfloor. Here’s a great example of his expertise in this post about directory submission sites. These are must-read SEO blogs.

If you live near Provo Utah, stop in for a free SEO Presentation at Corporate Alliance. It’s on Thursday, January 18th at 9:15am. It will be given by Joshua Steimle (someone I’ve always wanted to meet), who owns MWI, a Utah SEO firm.

The free 20 minute presentation is titled: 10 Search Engine Optimization Tips Anyone Can Implement.

Einstein’s Bagels will be served at 9 a.m., and the presentation will begin at 9:15 a.m. and will have a question/answer session afterwards.

No need to RSVP and everyone is welcome. Corporate Alliance is in East Bay at 746 East 1910 South, Ste #2, Provo, UT 84606. They are a great organization for small business owners.

My friend Christer has started aggregating my blog on Utah SEO Planet. I’m with some great company there. The only thing is, it makes me feel like such a talking head.

SEOmoz is an excellent blog (and is going on my blogroll) about search engine optimization (SEO). They win the award for being gutsy by posting their year end financial statements on their blog.

They have a lot to be proud of. The post has over 80 comments with advice, congratulations, and questions. They started last year with $3,500 in the bank, 4 employees and 12 clients. The next year (2006) they had $64k in the bank, 9 employees, and 25 clients.

I’ve always maintained that it’s easier to be transparent if you don’t have anything to hide. My respect and trust in them went way up after reading it. What they gained seems worth the disclosure. That would make a great blog post (any post-blog confessions or regrets?).

The feel I get is that their business is a vibrant community, one that would be fun to work in. Just look at how many of them blog and comment!
My friend Carolyn was trying to decide how much information to reveal about her $100 business experiment. I don’t know that I’d have the guts to post my small business earnings. I’m curious if any affiliates have done this.