I just joined a new organization called the SMA-NA (Search Marketing Association of North America) and wanted to let folks here know about it. It's a group of high level professional SEOs (people like Ian McAnerin, Ben Pfeiffer (Phoenix), Debra Mastaler, etc.) who would like to see greater representation of the industry and band together for certain benefits like discounts, health insurance, access to tools, knowledge bases, networking, etc. Right now, a professional level membership is $250 for 1 year from the inception date (which is probably 1-2 months out). I'm not affiliated in any way with the organization other than to support its goals (and by being a member), but I thought it might be of interest to people here. Also, if you are joining the SMA-NA this week, I'm personally going to be giving out free links from the SEOmoz blog and the SOCEngine directory to anyone who joins up (and e-mails me with their signup). There's more complete details at http://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=330 Thanks!
Ian and Debra are both friends of mine, and I know that they are doing things fr the right reason. Ian certainly has put a lot of effort, at great cost to himself to get this much needed organisation up and running. Randfish, that is a great offer, and very generous as well.
Thanks OWG, I'm a little dissapointed by the lack of response so far, but I did get an e-mail from Ian noting that near 200 folks are on the waiting list to sign up and we'll probably have 50 full members within the next 2 weeks. Definitely exciting stuff.
Well done Brian I was just about to post a link tot he site lol. That will teach me to read the whole of the thread before posting.
I believe there is also an SMA-EU - http://www.sma-eu.org/ I've met several of the members and they are currently a relatively large organization as compared to the NA division.