Basic literacy was once an uncommon thing. Most people could neither read nor write. At first it was just the clerics (the bible writers, etc.) that had the gift. But then wealthy and influential folks of all sorts got hold of it, and they used it for their gain and bestowed it upon their children. From there it slowly became available to the masses, under the direction of church and government. It was packaged and sold as the "gift of literacy", but they just needed literate people to do the more menial kinds of jobs that were being created within and by the Literate World.

You can see how this change, while necessary to permit the continued development of civilization, made the upper crust a little nervous. There was now an eager, bright new class just beneath them, occupying pivotal roles in goverment and industry. And then you can bet there were plenty of scared clerics and bookkeepers, when finally the great equalizer language was offered down even to the lowest dregs of society.

This is sorta what is happening with SEO right now, I believe. What was once an esoteric science, practiced by just a few, has become common knowledge to webmasters and is trickling into the mainstream, via such discussion conduits as blogging. More and more people are authoring content in various ways and for many, many different reasons. Every day, more of them discover the importance of links and the power of their blogrolls.

Like the frightened upper-class in a pre-literate society, I think it will be a bad idea to sequester yourself on an ever-diminishing slice of the SEO Hocus-Pocus Pie -- whether you do it just for your own sites or offer services to others. I think a lot of people feel like they have gray hats on right now. The core principles of search engine optimization, as regards making pages, links and meta data, are out there for everybody. SEO is being taught in kindergarten. That's not necessarily a threat.

Look what savvy marketing folks did with all those millions of poor, ambitious people when they saw they could read...