So What Does SEMPO Mean To You? Options

[bwelford]

I don't know whether anyone else did, BoxeySEO, but welcome to the Forums.

You are making some insightful and useful comments there.

[webmama]

If your post wasn't made with such seriousness it would have been laughable since you have no idea what we went through and have gone through to provide exactly what you are asking for. And let me say that I am thrilled that you are finally getting answers to questions that have haunted you for so long.

I attended the SEMPO meeting in San Jose where it was obvious that SEMPO Board members and you in particular were NOT interested in taking questions from audience members.

You have no idea how hard we worked with JupiterMedia to try and get more time at SES San Jose to be able to answer questions from the audience. That room cost a fortune for even 1 hour. Even so took plenty of questions after the meeting (probably 4 hours of questions) throughout the conference at all the social events, lunch hours and morning breakfast. I know the rest of the board did as well. Trust me, we weren't trying to hide from anybody! We wanted people to join!!!

Given the tension in the air and the rumblings that surrounded it's debut

Honestly, I didn't feel the tension. All I felt was a total high from the support and encouragement I and SEMPO received from the SES Conference attendees. It was such a positive experience.

Perhaps at the next SES or other industry related conference the Board members could make a point to stop and meet the people in the bar, at the sessions or in the meetings that make up the vast majority of the SEO community

Oh man, I have answered questions along with all Board members at all major SEM events (SES, WebMasterWorld, Ad-Tech, DMA, ACC, etc) until I was horse. I have been approached in airports, starbucks cafes, poolside, at my hotel, over IM, on forums, in email and by phone and I have always tried to answer in a very straight-forward way, even if it meant saying 'I don't know' once and awhile. Where have you been?

Were you at SES Chicago when we had the informational meeting and the projector was taking away? That sure brought us all closer together. Were you at SES New York when we spilled out into the hallway with members and the Board to mingle and smooze? Were you at PubConference when Board members (including Brett) made themselves available to answer questions? And will you be in Montreal for IMC; San Francisco for Ad-Tech; Kelsey Group in Santa Clara; and SES Toronto, SES London? I will be at all of those and be available like usual from 8am until 2am to answer questions about the industry and the organization. Remember our main mission is to educate the marketing industry about SEM and answer questions that they have about SEM.

Are you a member? Members are given opportunities to provide feedback on SEMPO and to ask questions. Become a member and get a chance to receive member emails, respond to member surveys, and attend member meetings.

[rustybrick]

I was at SES Chicago's SEMPO meeting - it went well. No complaints from a small member here. I was also at SES NYC, but was not able to stick around for the SEMPO meeting. sorry about that.

[BoxeySEO]

If your post wasn't made with such seriousness it would have been laughable since you have no idea what we went through and have gone through to provide exactly what you are asking for. And let me say that I am thrilled that you are finally getting answers to questions that have haunted you for so long.

Thank you for not laughing at my post. The comments were provided in a spirit of discussion, nothing more.

You have no idea how hard we worked with JupiterMedia to try and get more time at SES San Jose to be able to answer questions from the audience

If you knew in advance there was limited time, and felt the Q&A was important, you could have limited the time each SEMPO Board member spoke. Surely an organization concerned about the welfare of our industry and encouraging people to pay money to join would want to hear from its members?

Where have you been?

Obviously not in the same airports and Starbucks that you have!

Were you at SES Chicago when we had the informational meeting and the projector was taking away? That sure brought us all closer together. Were you at SES New York when we spilled out into the hallway with members and the Board to mingle and smooze?

Yes to all your questions and most all the places you listed although I have to say I didn’t feel closer to anyone in Chicago...just thought the Union people were jerks.

Are you a member? Members are given opportunities to provide feedback on SEMPO and to ask questions

If I had asked my questions as a member, would you have taken a different tone in answering them?

When I first heard about SEMPO, I got excited. I think an organization that brings "respectability" to a rather unusual/grey industry like ours would be awesome. I was all for it -- am still all for it, but had questions and concerns and since I didn't have an opportunity to ask those questions at the meeting(s), I've asked them here.

I want to end my comments on a positive note; If I didn't say it before, let me be completely clear, I think what SEMPO was set up to do is a great thing and fully support it. My hat is off to anyone who volunteers their time for the good of the whole. I want to believe and I want to join, so I'll follow the SEMPO threads in the forums and continue to form an opinion on the overall tone and direction SEMPO is going. Thanks.

[webmama]

Interesting article that backs up my claim that you can NOT plan a year out in the world of SEM.

http://www.mediapost.com/PrintFriend.cfm?a...rticleId=242988

[bwelford]

... and indeed, why most people need expert help.

[Black_Knight]

Interesting article indeed, webmama, although I think it simply shows how much confusion there still is among customers. Exactly the kind of situation where I'd love to see a professional body step in and straighten it all out.

Let's take a look at some of the specifics of the article:

Some planners say that where they used to deal only with Google and Overture, they now feel overwhelmed by an influx of smaller players gunning for their attention, portals like Yahoo! beefing up search capabilities, and Microsoft Corp.’s MSN now developing its own search tool. Navigating the changing landscape and lines of distribution is a full-time job.  

One senior planner, who works with a prominent, e-commerce-focused client, expresses a common uncertainty about how best to spend her client’s money: “It’s so confusing--for a while it was just buy Overture and Google and they were manageable,” she says, adding: “You could say, ‘If I bid correctly, I am guaranteed to be everywhere.’”

Now, this is just plain confusion, and shows exactly why most buyers need to be dealing with a professional SEM company/consultant.

The poor customer has been confused by a million nobodies and wannabes all jumping on the bland-wagon of PPC offerings recently. The facts though are so different aren't they? Neither Google nor Overture have lost any market share at all, and in fact, due to AdSense etc, both Overture and Google now often even wider coverage than they did at this time last year.

Isn't this where SEMPO ought to be stepping up to shed light?

[Kali]

It is interesting to note that at no point did webmama commit to a statement that SEMPO was a non-profit organisation!

Additionally it was stated that the minutes of board meetings had not been made public!

I assume from the former that the salaries of SEMPO directors have not been made public either!

I challenge you to openly publish a formal statement that SEMPO is incorporated as a non-profit organisation and to publish the payments SEMPO has made to its directors over the past year.

Doing so may give SEMPO some kind of credibility, failure to do so will just strengthen the commonly held viewpoint that SEMPO directors are only in it for the money.

[webmama]

SEMPO is a non-profit 501©3 organization. The Board of Directors have received no financial compensation for their volunteer position on the board of SEMPO.

[Kali]

Thank you for your statement of the non-profit status of SEMPO, it is reassuring to understand that the previous statement about incorporation omitted this by accident rather than design.

How long would you envisage being in existence before employing paid staff? (I accept that this is going to be necessary at some stage)

And do you envisage making public/available to membership all future payments to directors?

[webmama]

Kali - We do have some paid subcontractors like admins, webmasters, accountants, lawyers, PR, program managers, etc. We may have a paid executive position one day. I don't expect the Board to ever be given money for their 100s of hours of work (and in my case 600-700 hours) on SEMPO or for the hours and hours of time provided by their employees.

[projectphp]

I got (yet another) question, this time about the SEMPO site. The comment was made that there are two seperate and distinct potential audiences for the publicly accessible areas of the SEMPO site:

1. Potential / existing members.
2. Marketing Managers / those looking for education about SEM.

It seems that, currently, the two are kinda mixed in togther, with a lot of pages not really aimed directly at eother segment.

Is the website intended to directly provide educational resources, and do you plan to reorganise it, or perhaps split the content into seperate sections? What direction do you see the website taking?

[horsecove]

Hello ProjectPHP,

Great questions.

I’ll jump into the fun and try to answer them since I’ve been involved with the SEMPO website.

As you may have guessed, the SEMPO site is a work in progress and a real labor of love done mostly by dedicated volunteers.

When we launched the site back in August, it was a skeleton site with very little material on it. Since then we’ve been blessed with an influx of great writing material contributed by our talented members.

If any of you reading this are interested in contributing, please go to http://www.sempo.org/search-engine-marketi...ng-articles.php for information on where to send articles and to review our article submission guidelines. We always welcome new material and it's a great way for members to get involved.

Currently we are organizing the material into broad categories like Case Studies, Articles, and Tutorials. As we get build our library of material, we plan to create a more detailed breakout by specific subject. We currently don’t have enough of any one area to really worry about that yet. However, that is definitely a problem we hope to have in the future. The categories we decide to break into will be determined by the articles we receive.

Oh, here's something you might be interested in. Today we launched a SEMPO Frequently Asked Questions section that was developed from many of the questions presented here and in other forums. The SEMPO FAQ is located at http://www.sempo.org/faq.php.

Thanks for taking an interest in SEMPO.

Christine

[bragadocchio]

Hi Christine,

It's good to see you here. Welcome to Cre8asite Forums.

Thank you for answering projectphp's questions.

We appreciate the time and effort that you and Barbara have gone through to inform people here.

I just read through the FAQ, and it looks very informative.

I hope that you'll come back and answer questions if some others have some. And that you'll feel welcome to participate in the forums here as much as you'd like.

Thanks.

[DianeV]

Welcome to the forums, Christine. I think the FAQ page is nicely done, and clarifies issues.

[horsecove]

Thanks for the warm welcome you guys! It's great to see friendly faces.

My goodness you guys are fast - you read through the FAQ already. As we get more questions, we'll add them to the FAQ and probably organize the questions into "Membership questions", "General SEMPO" questions, etc.

We've discovered that forums are a great way to find out what concerns people, so you'll probably see Barbara and the rest of us around more. Of course we also accept emails, letters, and phone calls if anyone has questions or concerns.

Christine

[projectphp]

we'll add them to the FAQ and probably organize the questions into \"Membership questions\", \"General SEMPO\" questions, etc.

Nice one, not only answered my question but one upped it with a solution. nice work!!

[horsecove]

LOL, I'm learning.

Seriously, if you'd like to be involved with any of the "organizing" of the site, you are very welcome to help out. Just let me know.

Christine

[Black_Knight]

Great to see you here. Welcome to Cre8asite, Christine

That FAQ is superb, and seems to have addressed pretty much every concern I have seen raised, here or elsewhere. Well done to all involved.

[bwelford]

Welcome to the Forums, Christine.

I just had to comment on that great FAQ your team has produced. It does what it sets out to do extremely well, but is also a great example for others to copy. Some FAQ's have only a few Q's and the responses are very long winded. Here you have a long series of punchy questions and short and to-the-point answers. The questions are arranged in a very logical order so you can skim the whole set of answers if you wish. However if you have a very specific question, then it's probably already in the list. My hat's off to you.
:glasses: