I Am Only As Good As My Network

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I would like to share this one thought about “sharing expensive knowledge”…

I learned SEO, social and marketing organically, and am continuous student. If it weren’t for many, many people in the SEO community sharing their knowledge and expertise, via blog, time, etc. I know I could not be in the position I am in today. I have never gone to a class – my former employer paid for my first conference,  others I have gone to as a speaker or on my own dime. The SEO and online marketing community is general is very generous with sharing knowledge for free. If anything, sometimes they like to “one up” each other testing different tactics and creative. But they always share.

I can certainly see the view about not wanting to share expensive knowledge. But as someone who does this every day, it’s not only MY knowledge that counts – it’s my community’s knowledge that keeps me moving forward. I am only as good as my network. If we aren’t learning from each other, the community – and I –  will remain stagnant.

8 thoughts on “I Am Only As Good As My Network

  1. Christopher Regan

    This is so very true.
    The kooky ones out there who guard their “knowledge” are just that, kooky, for I can only admire people who take my recommendations and actually put them into action (read: do the work).

    I mean, look at leaders like Sullivan (he’s been leading since, what, 1995) and Brogan who punch-out open, honest guidance every week.

    Yes, let’s all have fun, but let’s share — that too was the only way I learned anything in this absolutely nascent field.

  2. Patricia Skinner

    I totally, 100 percent agree with you Monica. I learned a lot from my first job in SEO too. But over the years experts have been more than generous with their help. And how can it do you harm? Two of the most generous SEO sharers are Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz and Alan Wall of SEObook, and look what such generosity did for them?

  3. Monica Wright Post author

    Thank you both for leaving comments. I am happy that you both agree regarding sharing knowledge and resources. By helping each other, in the long run we will all benefit. I wish more agencies and employers weren’t so tight-fisted with their knowledge. Today that mindset seems (to me at least) very short-sighted. The same goes for the theory of not allowing employees to blog/speak/engage online in fear of being pilfered and hired away by the competition. Wouldn’t having an extensive network (one that shares, of course) only add value to an employee? I think so.

  4. Patti Fousek

    Monica, I completely agree with you. Speaking from someone who was once in your shoes (literally – former HMG SEO), learning and sharing from/with others is what makes us better at what we do. There are no secrets in SEO. The idea that you may be giving away a secret sauce by sharing with others is complete bull. Also, by not letting your employees engage online is not only short-sighted, but can be hurtful to the agency itself. After all, the most successful SEO agencies are those that participate and share. Sharing your knowledge makes you (and the agency) more credible – especially in a time where SEO/SEM agencies are a dime a dozen. Now that I own my own agency, I would never prohibit an employee from participating in the industry. If they happen to get snatched up by a competitor, I would be sad for me, but happy for them. We should do lunch sometime. I’m sure we’d have a lot to share.

    Best,

    Patti Fousek
    CreativeMind Search Marketing

  5. SEO Mofo

    Monica!

    In the spirit of free information…I present you with the following mini-audit:

    Your category archive pages have 3 meta robots tags!
    <meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow" />
    <meta name="robots" content="noodp,noarchive" />
    <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" />

    Also, the links to your category archive pages (in the top nav menu) all seem to be using the rel="nofollow" attribute (except for the about and random links) everywhere but the home page. In other words, your home page seems to be the only page that’s wasting PageRank on category archive pages that can’t be indexed.

    Also, it looks like you have 2 meta canonical tags per page: 1 from the Thesis theme and 1 from the All-in-one SEO Pack plugin. This isn’t really that serious; just a bit redundant. The more-important issue is the fact that you don’t have a WP-generated meta canonical tag, which suggests that you haven’t upgraded to WordPress 2.9…and therefore your blog might be susceptible to the security vulnerabilities discovered in WordPress 2.8.

    Lastly–and most importantly–your blog roll has erroneously (and unintentionally, I presume) omitted the World’s Greatest SEO blog.

  6. Monica Wright Post author

    Hey Patti,

    Thanks for your comment, I would love to get together and share stories. I’ll reach out in a few weeks, and schedule some time when I’m down in your neck of the woods.

  7. Monica Wright Post author

    Thanks Mofo for the awesome free WordPress SEO review, it’s just what I needed, you made my SEO to do list a lot easier. And who doesn’t like someone to leave a useful comment, especially one that challenges and stirs the pot a bit? I say bring it on.

    But just for the record (and I believe I already tweeted this) – this is personal blog, a sandbox of sorts – and therefore don’t spend a whole lot of time optimizing the crap out of it. I should, just to demonstrate I’m not that clueless, but just don’t have the time when clients are calling, paying my mortgage, and feeding my kids. 🙂

  8. SEO Mofo

    I don’t get it. If your clients are paying your mortgage and feeding your kids…that’s 2 fewer things for you to worry about. Shouldn’t that have freed up some extra time? =P

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