Cheers.

Thanks for your post. Please, read the editorial policy for the Web log by clicking the About link at the top of this page. If the addled goose’s comments make you uncomfortable, unhappy, or downright angry, please, stop reading the Beyond Search comments. Heck, I don’t read some of the information the goslings create. Some of the articles honk me off, and I host the content.

Stephen Arnold, March 1, 2009

It is that SEO is a skill few understand -yourself included- and fewer can actually do properly. Because there are no boards to pass or licenses to get, anyone can call themselves an SEO.

This creates confusion -which you suffer from- because many people (yourself included) do not have the skills to separate the wheat from the chaff. I can go buy seojoe.com tomorrow, that doesn’t mean I’m at all qualified.

In a job market where the top people can make well into 6 figures a year and anyone can claim they do it for a living, is there any surprise there is a large amout of noise? Of course not.

And yes, many of these people are unqualified and some are scam artists.

That’s not a function of the job, that’s just part of being in the race of humans.

Did you do anything in this post to reduce the noise? No, you just created more. You’re bitter because these people understand things you don’t, so rather than acknowledge their years of effort and study, you deride them and their profession to protect your own ego.

Sad.

Yeah, the intellectual immolation continues apace.

>”I stand by my view of search engine optimization is a scam to get traffic”

Blissfully ignorant people always stand by their delusions. I can “stand by my view” the earth is flat, that would neither make it true nor make me not a moron.

I surmise you are a child of the me generation. Your personal opinion trumps reality because your fragile ego can’t handle that you’re not the center of the universe.

Now that we’ve had our fun hurling meaningless insults, are you willing to talk address the substance or do you prefer hide behind straw men hurling invective about that which you are ignorant?

Yep, ad hominem and from a person who does not shrink from posting an email address as “youare@amoron.com”. I stand by my view of search engine optimization is a scam to get traffic without focusing on content. I am proud to be an addled goose, but I am not sure “intellectual coward” is on target. I surmise you are a child of the entitlement generation. SEO is carpetbagging in my opinion. Content, dear youare@amoron.com. (And what an interesting email address you included with your thoughtful post written when you were calm, cool, and collected.) In my opinion, the address suits well the ad hominem approach in your comment. Here’s my formula for effective SEO: [1] Follow the Google Webmaster guidelines. [2] Create substantive content. [3] Update frequently. [4] Write clean code. No SEO seminar needed either.

Stephen Arnold, February 19, 2009

I’ll paypal, Aaron $100 for you to get a free month on his site. You spend just one hour per work day for a month reading his forum and participating in the discussion (bringing your years of knowledge to the table) and then post what you learned.

Make a post at the end of the month about the current state of SEO and -specifically- about you preaching to Aaron about “carnival tricks” vs quality content.

If you can (with a straight face) still stand behind the nonsense you’ve written in this post, I’ll paypal your favorite charity another $100.

If, on the other hand, you disabuse yourself of your ignorance, you agree to, make a public apology, send me back my $100 and donate $100 to the charity of MY choice.

You’ll never do it. You’re an intellectual coward.

>I, Aaron Wall, am an addled goose. SEO is a way for content free sites to game the indexing systems. Content, Aaron Wall, content. Not tricks, spoofs, and carnival tricks.

Stephen Arnold, you have beclowned yourself.

Preaching to Aaron Wall about content shows you for an absolute ignorant fool. – Do you not realize Aaron made his -first- million in sales of A BOOK.

Last I heard that was content.

If you knew anything about the man to whom you are speaking you’d know that he talks about quality content and brand building ad nauseum.

No wonder you love Dvorak… You take complete ignorance of your topic, wrap it in sanctimony and call it thought….

And you preach to others about content – HA!