It's Time To Get Respectable!
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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