Let me start off by summing up this entire post in one sentence for those of you busy actually doing some productive shit today (which I usually am):
This “community” is fucked and way too wrapped up in its own communal and deluded level of self importance and needs to get a life.
For those of you who have been asking, here is the truth on why I haven’t blogged lately… I don’t want to be known as an “SEO blogger” or as an “SEO rockstar” because frankly, being associated with the SEO “community” these days is an embarrassment at best and a liability at worst.
The back-biting, the personal laundry being aired in what is now laughably supposed to be a professional environment, the regurgitation, the constant top list reruns no one gives a shit about but everyone aimlessly “Sphinns”. It’s a joke. It’s sad. I’m bored out of my mind.
I don’t care what the ratio of female speakers – or male speakers – at the latest conference is. I don’t care what the latest Cuttlet rage is (Matt has canonical errors! Matt said paid links are bad! Matt commented on my blog! Matt pissed at 10:32 a.m. PST!). I don’t want to know the top twelve ways to bore the living shit out of an experienced SEO/marketer. And I certainly don’t care who your boyfriend is fucking (or who you think is trying to fuck him).
If you want the truth, I will give you the truth. Three quarters of the people you idolize and want to grow up to be like barely make a living on their own or couldn’t at all. Most of the people you read regularly are smoke and mirrors. Some speakers are given subsidies to speak at conferences, not because they refuse to come without it, but because they can’t afford to without it.
Some of the top bloggers spend their days showing clients success reports that show they’ve moved from #22 to #18 for “custom baby stroller wheels” because they can’t handle clients in the high dollar, high competition sectors (and unlike those with real talent they don’t refuse to take clients on in those topics because they could [and do] make more in those sectors as affiliates/on their own).
But there you are – wasting your day following the latest drama from a what is mainly a bunch of talentless hacks. Why the hell should I waste my time outlining my affiliate business plan (which I didn’t guess on, but actually implement with success) to people who won’t even read the whole thing, but will vote it up on Sphinn and then never act on it.
Most people don’t experiment anymore. Most people don’t innovate anymore. And even if they do, they get less attention then the drama king in desperate need to regain the self worth that was taken from him in high school when he was picked last for dodge ball and was purposely tripped in the lunch room and uses you to feel good about himself. In one small, insignificant sector of the blogosphere he’s (or she’s) important. And they live for it. They need it. The define themselves with it. And the convince you to waste your time feeding it.
I’m done with the industry drama. If I want baby mama drama, I’ll watch Maury. Most of the rest of this “community” seems to be content being the Drama King’s (or Queen’s) bitch. Rock on… it leaves less real competition for me.
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{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
**golf clap**
I love it! Maybe this’ll shut some of them up!!
Way to tell it like it is Rae! I know how you feel. There are way too many kids and dumb asses in the SEO community.
I think it was very well said, alot of shit has been thrown around the “community” lately. I did sphinn this story both for LuLz & also cause I thought it was a good conversation that needed to be had with the community at large.
** holding up middle finger to people who missed the point **
wtf is a “lulz”
@streko I had to look it up too… according to wiki it means: “lulz: “lulz” is a corruption of LOL. lulz is often used as a noun — e.g. “for the lulz” (”for laughs”).” [Source]
But I actually didn’t mean this to be a laugh at other the expense other people. I don’t think the situation of this “community” is funny – I think its sad/pathetic/disappointing.
Ok. I sphunn it but it was desphunn because it wasn’t supposed to be sphunn and now I feel like shit for having liked it. I swear to god we’re screwed no matter what the hell we do.
A much-needed slap in the mouth to the “SEO Community.”
I do hope you’ll continue blogging, though. You’re certainly not just another “SEO Blogger” – this post is perfect evidence of that.
Rock on.
Just to clarify I don’t think the current state of the “community” is funny either. I would like to see people stop all the in fighting, bickering and worrying about status & get back to doing what matters. I said i did it for the lulz cause I thought, the conversation might get heated because rae was calling people out.
Totally unrelated question – everyone who has not guest posted on my blog has an unlinked name… am assuming I overlooked adding a way to edit your profile and add your url to it in my new site design? Let me know if that is the case so I can fix it.
Girl, you don’t need this, you Rock.
You’re doing a good job so go get some job done.
Community is a strange concept and the ROI is questionable (go read the “Community building and organizing” part).
Been that way forever, as I recall. I get comments on my blog with personal expose stuff about various people all the time… scandalous stuff… very colorful. Who cares. Lucky for me the posters usually sit on their IPs so blocking works.
I will say, though, that if this stuff is true, what your reading is black and white compared to the colorful version! Haha.
Show me a community (whose members have belly buttons) that doesn’t devolve into useless backbiting and cross promotion, plus behind-the-scenes “I’m ok you’re ok” cliques. I dare ya. It’s just the way people are.
I have to agree with John Andrews here, take a look at the Web 2.0 crowd, totally self-absorbed…VERY VERY cliquish. It’s the reason I can’t do to many of those groups because they act all high and mighty.
People can say this is a “bitch slap to the SEO Community” but I think its more of a reality check. :)
Great post! I’m pretty new to the SEO field and I’ve certainly had many of the same feelings about some of the stuff I see happening. It often seems like I’m back in high school.
My hype and BS filter has certainly been fine tuned though. I thought I’d seen a lot of spin working as a journalist, but it’s even worse within the PR & marketing business.
Perhaps you’ll start a trend where everyone tries to one-up each other with their own “bitch-slap the SEO community” articles. I’m working on mine now… :P
Fuckin hilarious, I especially like the part about the custom baby stroller wheels.. What I can’t handle is how stuffy nosed this industry can be to everyone that doesn’t have the title of “seo rockstar” Either you’re in on the in crowd, or you’re out.. Some people are just busy making money and doing shit for clients, and don’t have time to play.
I guess you’re right though > less competition.
Fucking Awesome Post
Being a fairly new SEO to the industry, I expect to never be in the “cool crowd”, that’s okay. SEOsphere visability has nothing to do with SEO ability.
Yes, great post.. Too bad SEO isn’t the only industry where this is so common.. There are some industries where these issues have been going on for literally generations.. And will continue to do so.. I get my entertainment just sitting back and watching..
And yes, I sphunn it because it should be read, and then desphunn it out of respect.. Sort of cool that Sphinn is busted enough that you can even do that at all..
Rae, this is my first post on your blog and I’m guessing not the last. I don’t know what category I fall into on your scale there, but I do participate in the “Community” in an effort to learn as much as I can as fast as I can. That’s also why I read this post.
I try to read at a couple different places, including SEOBook, but I don’t have time to actively participate everywhere, so I follow some people on Twitter and I comment mostly on SEOmoz.
I think that’s where some of the perceived cliqueiness comes from. Since most people have lots of work to do most of the time, they either don’t actively participate or they participate in very few places. I don’t personally know any of the people who are also commenting, so I wouldn’t consider myself to be a part of a clique, but I can see how it could be perceived that way.
I’m not saying that cliques don’t exist. I have definitely noticed that some people go out of their way not to respond to things that I have to say, and I have felt like an outsider looking in at certain points, but I’m a little late to this game, so I feel like I need participate as part of my effort to catch up to all of you vets.
Wow! – This is great stuff. I had no idea how bad I sucked at this stuff until just now.
Top 10 things I just learned!
1) Drama = Attention
2) Start back-biting other SEO wannabes
3) Regurgitate an old top 10 list
4) Sphinn something – Anything!
5) Stalk Matt Cutts more closely
6) Get out the smoke & mirrors
7) Don’t post BS unless you’re going to hype it
8) Grovel for conference speaking subsidies
9) Seek out clients who need to rank for obscure keywords
10) Have an affair & make it public
Bonus! – Fake it ’till you make it!
The decline in the behavior in the industry can be directly attributed to the advent of easy cms’s for the masses. It used to be that flying under the radar and being discreet was an honorable trait in the community. Now everybody with a wp install seems the need to shout from the mountain tops “hey look at me! I can click post!”
Rants are funny. Rae, it sounds like you’ve been reading too many blogs and forums and not enough articles. As far as the drama goes, maybe we can create a forum dedicated to dirty laundry and keep it out of the comments (and blogs like this one).
Rae, I meant “posts” like this one, not your blog as a whole. No disrespect.
it’s 11:17am Matt Cutts thinks this is interesting:
http://www.playbackstl.com/content/view/7882/234/
i DO understand the obsession with Matt Cutts, he is after all the voice of Google for the SEO.
lmao.. i don’t understand all the SEO rockstar stuff though, does speaking about SEO to a bunch of SEOs actually get you clients?
however it is the nature of the beast, the beast being the internet, and it’s perceived anonymity, cowards will say things on the internet that they would not say to those same people’s faces, people will assume things about you based on their limited knowledge, unfortunately we can’t display IP addresses on each post.
FYI.. this was the first blog of your i read, (i think), then i read your blog about BBGeeks.. this one.. exemplifys what you are ranting about.. the other one, shows your intelligence and keen business saavy.
Too bad our “community” can’t all be like your other blog post.
Hey Rae,
a great post about this industry and what the industry suffers from. There should be more people that are willing to tell the truth and to accept the truth instead of following the old line “Fake it until you make it” and never be able to make it. Great, go on doing and following your way like our old friend Frank Sinatra says: Its my way!
I wrote a very similar post about a week ago, and I have you to thank for it. I appreciate the advice you’ve given, and am working hard on developing sites that make me money!
Rae this post was refreshing.
I like you now.
Dude, woah, nice! I checked a poll on my blog today, entitled ‘what do you want me to write about?’ The topic of ‘SEO’ was winning out. My first thought was, “why?”
Okay, so people know backlinks are good. People know that keywords are good. But I’m not an expert. My only SEO post was a definition of backlinks and how to go about tracking them. (Open your Wordpress dashboard!) With all of the other ‘rockstars’ (to be a rockstar, don’t you need to play an instrument? I mean, I’m sorry. There’s nothing musical about ’search engine optimization.’ It’s not even fun to say.) out there, why do you care about my particular opinion? This blog isn’t even about making money.
And what is up with people and lists? Do people love lists so much? I could swear that before the internet, actually putting time into developing content for magazines and novels and such did not involve the 12 ways to get thinner by spring! method of title writing. I’m especially urked at the people who write 101 lists, with item number 101 as ‘make a 101 list’. Why!? Who wants to sit down and think of 101 things that relate to each other individually? The human brain can connect multiple concepts together. I can use sentences. I don’t need bullets.
And bullets are ugly.
Rae I disagree with you.
I like bulleted lists!
no wait – was this a post about SEO, or about a bunch of trolls inhabiting the island of Sphinn?
Rae, you are my new favorite person on the web. Thanks for making my day.
Nice post,
Am sure every body learned something from it