Why You Shouldn't Care About SEMcares.com

An Open Letter from Gregory Markel, SEMCares.com

My fellow SEM providers,

Let me confess something.

I was up to my chin in search engine marketing for 5 years before I realized that the power of SEM might be utilized for something other than commerce.

My awareness began its expansion in this area the day a non-profit contacted me about their SEM needs.

Their president was a very intelligent and interesting woman (listed in 'who's who') who projected such a profoundly impassioned sense of their mission, which was environmental and Ireland/Scotland focused, that I soon found myself equally inspired and saying "Yes" before I knew what had hit me.

I remember instantly thinking to myself, "Yikes! Did I just say yes? I'm buried in work already; what am I going to do now with this extra work... for FREE?!?!?!"

And thus began what turned out to be an experience that FAR transcended that of any normal SEM client I'd ever serviced to date.

In fact, it was no less than a soul enriching and unpredictably wild adventure filled with:

• Danger and intrigue!: Several regional oil/corporate heavies were harassing her, following her, sending/phoning threats, hacking the site....she would sometimes call me with site instructions 'on the run' from various hotels of the region or occasionally whisper them to me from within the corporate boardrooms of these multinational conglomerates. (She was very affluent and connected at high levels within the very companies she opposed, as I soon discovered.)
• Spiritual mystery and esoteric goings on!: She invited me multiple times to her New Mexico compound where I met Tibetan Monks, American Indians, relatives of famous Celtic historical figures, top metaphysical and 'new age' figureheads, regional government heads, and presidents and vice presidents of multi-national corporations, and danced around fire in the moonlight with indigenous peoples more than once!
• Romance!: She had a habit of trying to set me up with every female she thought might make a good mate for me. Tough work, but hey, "when in Rome..."

And more... lots more, but I don't want to go any farther off topic here than I need to go to make my point.

And what is that point?

Simply this...

Life changing events, events that enriched my life in ways I could have never anticipated took place simply because I said yes to providing my services for free to a deserving non-profit.

Now, I can't guarantee the same for you, but it's food for thought, eh?

Fast forward, December 26th, 2004

The Asian Tsunami hits.

Like many, I thought I should give money to assist those in need, when the following thought occurred to me...

"Wait a second, I'm in an industry whose very job is delivering qualified traffic to sites... why couldn't SEMs band together in response to this and future disasters and utilize SEM and SEO skills to ratchet up the donation numbers for these sites?"

I thought about it further, and the math and benefit behind the concept seemed to make sense...

I soon discovered that it in fact, did.

Here's an actual example of this, from that time: (This is listed on www.semcares.com.)

Just $20.00 spent at Google Adwords generated 86,758 RedCross.org ad/Brand/URL impressions and 907 donation page visitors. Now, if only 1% of those 907 visitors donated just $10.00, that would have resulted in $90 in donations to the Red Cross they might not have otherwise normally received.

That $20 dollar PPC effort was exponentially transformed into $90 dollars worth of donations by the magic of SEM. That seems worthwhile, no?

Just imagine what 5,000 SEM providers around the globe doing the same thing would result in... exponentially increased donations to deserving relief organizations for any disaster that might come along...a sort of 'relief matrix' made up of SEM providers! Why not?

Now...

Semcares.com has been controversial.

One industry writer lambasted us before the site was even officially launched, incorrectly guessing the functionality and purpose of the site and attacking those behind it.

Having just put our heart and soul into the creation of SEMcares.com at the time, solely for the purpose of helping to exponentially increase Tsunami relief donations through supportive and targeted mass search engine marketing efforts, the programmer and I were momentarily deflated by those accusations, I will tell you.

However, in contrast, several of our industry's most respected figureheads and practitioners thought that it was a sincere, altruistic and helpful idea.

We thought it was too.

We still do, and the recent Katrina disaster reminds us that we need to continue with the SEMcares.com mission, which is to respectfully remind our fellow SEM providers to help when, if, and how they can, through the exponential power of SEM.

My respected colleagues, we work within an industry rich in profits. Every year we hone our craft and further learn how to increase those profits. We take, and that's fine, that's business.

SEMcares.com simply and respectfully suggests that in addition to taking profits through SEM, we can also give non-profits and deserving organizations donation profits through our SEM skills and their unique ability to exponentially increase those donations.

I titled this editorial, "Why you shouldn't care about SEMcares.com."

Partially to get your attention, I admit, but also to tell you, frankly, DON'T care about SEMcares.com. That's fine. However, I respectfully request that you DO care about considering giving back through what you've learned about SEM to deserving non-profits and organizations (be it in connection to the Katrina disaster or any other worthy cause your heart feels to be important).

And besides, who knows? You just might find some unexpected adventure in the process!

Gregory