Where is the Benefit in Being an "SEO Guru"?

OK I have been making a full time income off the net for a quite a few months now (yes I know I'm still new to the game) and I have often thought about starting my own blog and building an online reputation about being well informed on topic like SEO, but I always seem to get caught up with my other projects that just seem to be so much more lucrative - and it got me on a rant on someone's blog about loads of people out there trying to be the next online "fill in blank" expert that has a blog and I ended up posting about it on DP which raised the question in my mind - why do the experts have their tell all blogs?

Do they seek recognition from the industry for their work and this is more important to them than money?

Do they believe there is more money in being an expert webmaster than running their other projects?

I mean I can see some of the benefits of being well recognized - you get interviews and speaking gigs at conferences. You can potentially brand your other site's further. Potentially push complementary products you offer, along with other affiliate products. I mean there is no doubt a lot of money in being an expert in a field relating to being a webmaster, but I the competition would also be fierce, I mean you are talking about competing with the best of the best. So for me I think it would just stand to reason that you'd get a much greater ROI by competition in lucrative but less competitive industries.

So then what is the primary motivation for people to move into this industry?

 

If you know a great deal about SEO, then you can make good money with it. But for that you should be having vast knowledge about seo. If you plan to develop and maintain your own website, then even a little bit of knowledge is a very good thing.

 

I'd steer clear of calling yourself a "guru". I've been making a full time living off the net since 2000, and I will ALWAYS be a student.

 

I'm not calling myself a "guru" by any stretch of the imagination. I'm a long way from it to be honest - I still spend most of my day reading up on other people's ideas, techniques and theories about internet marketing in general, and whilst I think I'm in a very comfortable position earning just over five figures a month I realise that are I'm also long way off guru status, or at least what I'd consider guru status - but at the same time I still have quite a bit to offer and have quite a few insights that and lessons that I have learned along the way, and I'm sure they would help a great number of people looking to replicate my success thus far.

Anyway this thread has nothing to do with me wanting to know how to get guru status or anything - I'm just struggling to understand why ultimately these eventual gurus decide to do what they do and share their wealth of knowledge and experience with others which for the most part seems only semi-lucrative and only invites more competition?

So why do they do it? Am I missing a big piece of the puzzle here?

 

Nothing wrong with calling yourself a Guru.

Building yourself up as a celebrity is just a way for you to sell more e-books and to charge 4000 dollars a ticket for speaking events.

 

1. yeah it good for their reputation. the better advice they give more people will believe him.
2. good for his business. if peopel think what he said is right but they dont know how to do it or no time to do it, they will hire them.
3. if you do know SEO, so you should know that this is one link of building traffics and back links so it's a must things you should do if you know about SEOs. ^^

just a few points from me though.

 

You are forgetting that SEO is not concrete. It is very dynamic and always changing. What some "guru" thinks he knows, could be 100% false 6 months down the road. By participating in the forums and realting my experiences to others actually helps me. It lets me check out different scenarios from other webmasters and see if and how they apply to things I "believe" I have learned. I don't see it as creating competition.

Just like there is nothing wrong with saying you have an SEO certification, right?

People that sell e-books and make their money speaking at events are charlatans anyways. If they were actually good at SEO, they wouldn't have to resort to things like that to make money.

I have no respect for anyone that calls themselves a "seo guru".

 

I wasn't specifically referring to "SEO" gurus, rather just gurus in general, but I can definitely see you point of sharing insights can often lead to deeper insights as a result of a collaboration of ideas etc, but I guess I'm more referring to those that essentially start blogs who have actually started somewhat of a business model off information supply in their particular field of interest whether it be Affiliate Marketing, SEO, AdSense, etc etc. Where is the benefit for them?

This is pretty much my whole put - except well worded... ... I just don't see the motivation behind people's decision to move into the blog/speaking/consulting industry... am I missing something - like is there something being gained by these "gurus" outside what had already been mentioned that I'm not really considering?

I mean I don't know if anyone that is an SEO guru is actually calling themselves that - most of them seem to be secure enough about their abilities that they don't need to claim the title. And I mean there are lots of high profile SEO's out there and I have no problems with associating the word "guru" with, but like I just said I don't understand their reasoning behind pursuing being a "guru".

I mean Rand Fiskin over at SEOmoz is a great example. He released his company's and personal earning not too long ago and he was personally making a reasonable living doing his SEO work for other companies and individuals. From memory it was something in the order of $40,000 - $50,000 over the year just gone. I mean that is reasonable money - and I'm sure he was making a few pretty little pennies on the side but I got the impression that for the most part he wasn't rolling in it - I could be wrong I mean I don't know the guy's finances.

That said in my honest opinion he has the knowledge and skills to be making a killing working on his own personal projects and it seem crazy to me that he not be focusing more on personal asset development than his consulting work.

That said SEOmoz had been trending towards a lot more side project development of late with their new subscription based services which I think is a great step in the right direction for Rand and his team. I wouldn't be surprise if in the coming year or two they completely dropped their consulting services to focus more on their in-house projects. Sort of more like what Aaron Wall has done with SEO Book.

 

Hmm.. as for the blog... I guess as long as you have readers and traffic, it doesn't matter what you write about.

I would just try to do what represents you. That's kind of the whole point of Web 2.0.. turning strangers into friends. By blogging about and writing things that relate to you and your knowledge is the best way to accomplish that.

If people like what you have to say... you're halfway there.

 

A SEO Guru makes a lot of money that's for sure

 

A student - yes .. thats the KEYWORD here .. I figured I will myself be a student as well as a teacher all my life : )


What benifits being a guru ?

Money
Respect
Both of Above

 

......

One The benefits of being a " seo guru " would be the lifestyle that comes along with be able to make a lot of money off of search and consulting. If you do it right, you can create a business that makes residual income off of SEO & SEM. Making money while your sleeping is good thing.

 

Call yourself anything you want. People will eventually see through to the talent - it's either there or it isn't.

Keep this in mind. The opinions of those who are actively developing websites will differ from the rest of the world who only wants to see "results". Business people tend to view things differently than those on the "inside".

You can produce results for your clients then they will have their own names for you.

 

Thats funny... that made me laugh. Its true...

One of our new SEO clients is so stoked on his SE positions he calls me buddy now when ever I call to touch base.

-- > Hey Buddy.

 

Sometimes there is more money in selling the shovels than actually doing the gold digging if thats what your asking.

 

Making money while you sleep isn't limited to SEO/SEM/AdSense/Affiliate/IM Gurus - you can do it running a site on anything and just having AdSense on it. You don't even need to sell a product. So why do people move into the webmaster services industry - so their MORE money to be made?

And I mean you talk about lifestyle - being a guru isn't exactly easy - you'd need to be on the cutting edge to just stay where you are let alone be ahead of the game. This is no easy feat with the volume of information that is added to the internet daily.

Don't get me wrong I'm not implying I want to be an SEO Guru - I was just saying I have considered it, but in my consideration I also consider - why would I want to be an guru of anything? Thus this thread - I'm trying to understand the mindset of many online gurus and why they are in the industry they are in?

Also like I said I'm pretty anti-"wannabe gurus" I think it is absolutely ridiculous for someone who earns less than $5,000 month with AdSense to run a site about becoming successful with AdSense. Same goes for Affiliate marketing. I think it is ridiculous for someone who doesn't command tens of thousands of unique visitors everyday to start an Internet Marketing blog etc etc. But that doesn't stop a plethora of people doing it every day - thus my mention of my little Rant that I went on.

Also I think TRUE gurus don't have clients... Or at least they don't have traditional clients - consulting for a Fortune 500 company is different.

That is true when the competition for the "digging" is greater than the "shovel selling" but in this case it is the reserve. The competition to be a online guru on any topic is super competitive - like I said - you are competing with the best of the best. I mean if people think they can outrank individuals like Aaron Wall or take on teams of SEOs like at SEOmoz or Search Engine Land then best of luck to them, and I mean at the end of the say you still need to be better quality than freely available information services like DP.

 

The piece of the puzzle you are missing is that many of these "guru's" run a company with employee's. They are not personally running all the new in-house projects or even doing all the work on their clients sites. In other words, they have the time available to blog, and doing so creates a reputation that gets them more work. The work is offloaded to their staff, with the "guru" directing them and managing the client relations.

 

It is nothing wrong if you are called as seo guru. It means that you are expert and certified in the seo industry and everybody is looking for you.

 

If you are well known as an SEO Guru that's good for you. It's good to hear that you're an expert and if you gain a lot of trust from your client you can earn more money.

 

LMAO - I'm not claiming to be, nor do I aspire to be an SEO Guru - LOL.

To be completely honest I'd say that my SEO expertise are definitely above average but are far from guru status. I'm really not embedded enough in the industry to ever really be a "guru". I say that because in my honest opinion if you are really looking to compete in the SEO guru field you really need to be doing the stuff day in day out - and I don't. Sure I work on SEO probably every week - but I make money from my own projects not from taking on clients and working on their SEO. So I don't ever think that I'd be in the position where I'd be a specific expert on SEO.

I'm not claiming to be an expert on anything - I'm really not - I was just finding that I was getting to a point where I felt my success would probably start turning heads if I was to make a blog and share my experiences. I mean I make 5 figures a month these days online. Sure this isn't as much as the big boys gurus out there but it probably is enough for people to go, "well at five figures a month he has to know a little bit of what he is talking about". But upon thinking about it I though well I'm making go money doing what I'm doing now, so what is the point of trying to become the next Shoemoney - I mean is there THAT much that can be gained from doing that?

That's why I started this thread called - "Where are the benefits of being an SEO Guru?" because I just couldn't understand why people did what they did what they did - being becoming industry "gurus".

I think this is interesting you mention this, because I'm actually looking at putting on my first employee very soon - and I imagine I will put another one very soon after and I think with two employs I will essentially be in a role where I don't do much more than read and manage people and projects - LOL. So maybe it is just a situation where they have moved up the food chain and are now managers so they feel that they have the time to contribute to a blog and get more recognition in the community...?

And I can understand why "SEO" consultants want to be seen as gurus because it gets them more business - but like I said I don't really think the good SEOs would spend a lot of time on other people's sites when there is so much they can make doing it themselves, but yeah I can sort of see the benefit for them? But where is the benefit for a guy like Shoemoney or John Chow who aren't really generating clients - even though they would no double make a few pretty pennies from their blogs (last time I heard they were both making $10,000+/month) from them - but again I'm sure they'd get a much greater return from investing their time and energy into other projects. So why do they do it?