It's Time to Get Respectable!
by Mike Banks Valentine
Count the times you have seen those ads online screaming,
"SUBMIT YOUR SITE TO SIX MILLION SEARCH ENGINES FOR FREE!"
You start to reach for the mouse to click that banner and
your common sense kicks in to tell you, "Calm down now,
there are only a dozen search engines that really matter!"
Then just as you overcome the desire for easy money and
free riches, you spot another banner offering "We'll
submit
your site to the Top Search Engines for $49.00!" Yes
- well,
there are those that may do that for you, but it won't help.
All the extreme noise and excessive hype surrounding what
are
the bare necessities of internet marketing has noisily
drowned out the calm, quiet voices of the folks that can
actually do you any good. The serious, working professionals
that truly understand what it takes to gain *quality* traffic
for your web site. Search engine optimizers, permission email
marketers, traffic analysis experts and community building
software companies have been painted with a haze of guilt
and
shame due to the hyperbole that has smeared the name of Web
Marketers -- until now.
Clearly it's time for serious marketing professionals to get
some respectability by forming a professional organization
requiring high ethical standards and providing best practices
guidelines to establish certification criteria for members.
The World Association
of Internet Marketers (WAIM) held an
organizing meeting on April 11 in Las Vegas, Nevada during
the
first annual U.S. "Internet Marketing Strategy Days",
one of
three events held worldwide by the fledgling organization.
Event organizer and WAIM interim president Lennart Svanberg
of Stockholm, Sweden arranged the international cast of
presenters and workshop leaders for the first U.S. event.
Svanberg and Swedish partner Axel Josefson of http://Axole.com
held their first Internet Marketing conference in Stockholm
and a follow-up event in Copenhagen last year.
Web marketing expert Jim Wilson of Wilson Internet
http://www.JimWorld.com participated as a conference speaker
and moderator during the three day long event as the U.S.
representative and honorary lifetime founding member of WAIM.
Referring to his longtime interest in technology and now the
web Wilson quipped, "I've been wearing a propeller beanie
since
1965." He has built an arsenal of valuable webmaster
tools
that have become well known by respected internet marketers
for their value to the web marketing industry.
Web luminaries attending and speaking at the conference and
participating in the launch of WAIM included attorney Jonathan
Cohen, ICANN board member (Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers) and Detlev Johnson, moderator of I-Search
marketing discussion list and VP of Position Technology.
Representatives from Inktomi, About.com, GoTo.com, FindWhat
and The Open Directory Project addressed the assembled group
of web marketing professionals at the event providing
valuable insights into effective web marketing techniques
while
attendees gathered good information on the latest technology.
Included was a new piece of hardware dedicated to what has
been
dubbed "Packet Sniffing," a technology that is not
only claimed
to efficiently analyze and track traffic upstream of the server,
but apparently increase server efficiency and use of resources.
The event was sparsely attended, as have been all DotCom
conferences so far this year, but those who braved the clanging
slot machines and elderly retirees wandering the Casino were
rewarded with some excellent advice and valuable networking
opportunities with fellow marketing professionals. Business
cards changed hands at a record pace and partnerships were
established between complimentary businesses while software
to power site search and forums was discussed in the foyer.
Organizers Svanberg and Josefson are looking forward to hosting
the next U.S. version of their conference at the same venue
in
2002 and hope to have firmly established the clout of the
World
Association of Internet Marketers by then. Membership can
be
applied for by visiting http://SearchEngineForums.com and
going
to the WAIM Public Forum for updates and contact information
or
by contacting Lennart Svanberg by email at:
mailto:lennartsvanberg@lennartsvanberg.com
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