What’s an MBE?  Apparently its a Multilayer Business Executive according to blogger Maria Popova.  I googled the term and nothing really comes up so it remains to be seen if this term can stick or not.   So what exactly is an MBE and could you be labeled as one?

According to Maria, MBEs are…

“a new-age version of the types who have been running the parade since the beginning of business time. They’re not the old-school conventional “suits.” Many don’t even go to work in suits, if there’s anywhere to “go” in the first place—nursed on new media and technology, this set is comfortable with telecommuting, Web- and videoconferencing, livecasting and all the rest of those new tools that let them control both their time and their business.”

Here’s a simple checklist to see if you qualify:

1. Not in a suit 24/7 – Yep, that’s me.
2. Comfortable and immersed in new technology – Absolutely.
3. Worldly intellectual and a culture-crossers – I’ve been to Asia and Europe.  Mexico, Canada, and the rest of the US sort of counts.  I’ll do a partial nod and a full nod once I eventually make it to Australia and Africa.
4. Have an MBA – Getting one…so check.
5. Quote Christopher Guest movies rather than Peter Drucker books – Well, I have seen Best in Show…
6. Crave luxury and good design, but also socially and enivronmentally conscious  – Wonder why Pinkberry’s and Prius’ do so well? 
7. Excelled at higher education, but they’re uniquely attuned to pop culture – Face me in Trivial Pursuit, I dare you.
8. Have successful business careers, but are also harvesting entrepreneurial ideas or actual projects on the side – Check and check.
9. Have money to spend – Not yet, but hopefully.
10. Great bloggers with something to say – You can be the judge of that.
    

I came across an article today called “Search Marketing: A Rewarding Career Path ” on Search Engine Watch today. It basically was discussing the results of a new survey of in-house SEMs conducted by SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization . Some very interesting facts from the article:

• ~64 percent of respondents had five years of SEM experience or less.
• For those with 0-3 years of experience…
  • 8.0% made over $100K
  • 48.8% made between $50-100K
  • 43.2% made less than $50K
• For those with 5-7 years of experience…
  • …they make significantly more.
  • The majority (56.4%) make more than $80,000 a year. Of this, 4.4% reported earning more than $200,000 and 30.3% make between $100,000 and $200,000.
• Few senior management roles for Search as of now – Only 4% had VP titles and 10% had Director titles.

Some very interesting numbers and figures, especially considering that SEM is a relatively new field of marketing. Simple supply and demand theory implies that salaries should be decent for both inexperienced and experienced hires. How many graduating college students have degrees or concentrations in Internet Marketing? Yes, exactly.

Of course, in the next 3-5 years this will obviously change. I recently took an Internet Marketing class as part of my MBA curriculum at USC Marshall. A few years ago it was an experimental class; today its a regularly listed elective. We all should expect more colleges and universities to offer courses like this. It’s hard to deny the fact that the Internet is an important channel for any marketer to get a grasp on. It will definitely be a competitive advantage going forward for any company and individual who gets it.

Part of my daily news reading for the morning, I came across this interesting article, Top 5 SEO and Link Building Challenges for 2008, by Justilien Gaspard of Search Engine Watch.  Paraphrasing, Justilien identifies his top trends and challenges that SEOs, link builders and webmasters will face in 2008:

1. Webmasters Scared to Link Out
2. Overuse and Abuse of NoFollow Tags
3. Neglected Link Building Destroys Top Rankings
4. Google Paid Links Assault: Collateral Damage
5. Scarcity of Link Building Resources

I’ve been working on a couple pet projects and can attest that link building is extremely difficult.  Not only is it time consuming but the hit rate can be also demoralizing.  Perhaps it is the trend that webmasters are scared to link out or the fact (as the article points out) that most people’s lives don’t revolve around search engines.    I can see the value that Google places on these hard earned links.  In my opinion, link building is like having great content on your website – it’s something that takes time and effort to build up,  something where shortcuts do not tend to be effective, and something that must be a focal point for your ongoing strategy. 

2008 is already here.  It’s been 10 days since the new year and I have yet to make any resolutions.  Well, here are some that I will make for this blog:

1. Make tweaks to the design and usability of the blog – ok I cheated a bit and this is being done as we speak.
2. Post more often…let’s make this a daily event for as long as I can take it.
3. Upload portfolio (print and web) and develop other interesting sections. 
4. Continue learning and keep up to date by practicing new SEM and SEO techniques on this blog.    

Ok, the resolutions have now been blogged….thus it will be done.  I guess that means I’ll be blogging tomorrow.