Originally Posted by skrinkladoo

Nope. I wouldn't sign-up either, here's why (just my 2 cents)

In another life I played the role of SEO, I was good enough to get several 1 word terms to the top of Google, AOL, (at the time heavily influenced by DMOZ) - MSN (via looksmart) and Yahoo via the directory.

In this other life ...
In early 2000's I was in Boston for a major SEO Conference (aka SES), I remember in an open discussion listening (and speaking) to the random group dream up the SEMPO concept. The concept at that time was revenue raising based. I was NOT interested in it back then - my guess without even looking, I wouldnt be interested in it today.

That other life ended for a reason, its complexity and time dedication has increased 100 fold.

Originally Posted by Jdoughs

I have absolutely nothing I want to share about my business with other SEO's. I have been offered trips to shows and meetings, but asside from wanting to meet the people I allready deal with, I have nothing to gain by going.

What i do works, works better then 99% of the other people who attempt the same, why in the hell would i strive to mingle with those people. Talk about clouding my existing proper judgement and base.

Networking, by classical definition is nothing a successful search engine marketer wants/needs to do. Unless he/she is in the infancy of it and needs to network to build information, and/or build links, there is just more to lose then gain.

Now people who sell services or rely on SEO's traffic or the SEO industry in general, well fuck OF COURSE they see the value to stuff like this. When you say "networking" to me (or any SEO) the first thing that hits my head is building a network of links, and passing proper power onto target url's, not selling products or services.

I won't sell my knowledge, why would i pay to give it away. (**as an arguement to the networking angle**)