2008: the Year of Paid SEO Memberships

Rand Fishkin and SEOMoz started something a few years back that is now influencing the rest of the SEO world. Rand took a simple blog and turned it into a major resource of SEO/SEM information. He offered readers the incentive to comment often in order to earn authoritative status. After reaching a certain point of popularity, SEOMoz launched a paid membership side of the company. Not only can you read the daily posts on the SEOMoz blog, you gain unlimited access to SEOMoz exclusive tools and additional content for paid members only.

This is the year of following suit. Look at Jim Boykin. After years of establishing himself as a linking expert and offering a blog full of SEO tips and thoughts, Jim’s put together a paid member only resource at InternetMarketingNinjas.com.

I’m amazed that Jim of all people amassed this group of contributing experts. He doesn’t strike me as the social butterfly or mister popularity. InternetMarketingNinjas provides detailed videos of industry info and tips featuring experts like Aaron Wall, Andy Beal, Bill Slawski, Christine Churchill, Cameron Olthius, Jeremy Shoemaker, Jim Boykin, Jill Whalen, Lee Odden, Neil Patel, Todd Malicoat.

On top of the instructional videos, Boykin pulled his famous free tools off of WeBuildPages.com and they are now available only through the paid membership at InternetMarketingNinjas.com. I know some SEO companies depend heavily on those tools for their initial assessments of new clients.

For better or for worse, this is the model people seem to be following in the industry:
1) offer quality, free info and tools
2) get readers/users hooked
3) switch to a paid exclusive model.

As with every stage of web development, this model will be overused and abused by everyone looking to make a buck. In the long-term, you’ll see some people and companies switch back to a free open source model in an attempt to rebrand themselves as unselfish givers in a taker industry. You wait and watch for it. It’s going to happen.