chiyo - 6:41 am on Sep 17, 2000 (gmt 0)

Hmm,

Not being nasty, but the value of a SEO may actually decline in future rather than increase.. Rather than being on the verge of being well paid, it has already reached its peak.

Why?

You've got a budget to promote a site. What do you put your money in? It may be better to pay for clicks, pay for banner ads or better placement (google model for ex) on search engines and pay for review on Yahoo and Inktomi and Looksmart and all the others than pay for a "traditional" SEO. The former may well be a MUCH cheaper and maybe evem more effective way of getting the expeosure what you want.

Using the term SEO may be a bad move. Every month it has got harder and harder to optimise sites to give them good exposure on the SE's. SE's know SEO's are well paid, and thought,- well why can't we get some of that loot - after all its OUR SE. Fair enuff... so they charge for submission, and they create complex algos that change at will, and are difficult to optimize, and now you can pay to get top placement even on Google.

If i was trying to make a lot of mony in this game, I would immediately stop calling myself a SEO.

I would broaden my skills to become a specialist in On-line exposure. (OLE)! or something like that. Someone who can get companies want they want, in a world where a narrow defination of SEO will get us nowhere fast.

Not meaning to spoil the party above, but think the optimism of optimization may be a bit misplaced (:-)