In 1988, Michael Douglas performed in "Wall Street"
where he said: "The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit..." This text is from "Greatest Film Misquotes (part 2) which demonstrates how people (including myself) can sometimes mislead other people by misquoting and misusing a keyword like "GREED". Most people just misquote: "Greed is Good", period.
If "SEO - Pay For Some Kind of Performance" is going to be a "win-win" scenario, both buyer and seller must resist the negative, adjective keywords associated with the definition of "greed" ("excessive", "reprehensible", and "insatiable"). I say "buyer" also, because buyers can want too low a price, or may say to the SEO seller: "Just get me top rankings, no matter how you do it!)
I try my best not to judge other people (only their actions, when appropriate), so in pointing out this entire SEW Forum thread on "What's The Best Way To Price SEO?" my main goal, right now, is to show how it is possible for "offenses" to be taken (I wish people, in general, would not take offense so easily!) by both buyers and sellers of SEO when "generalizations" have to be used, and the keyword "greed" is used "for lack of a better word". Here's what I mean.
I have quoted Stoney deGeyter before, because I believe his articles to be open and honest (again, I don't recommend or not recommend anyone unless I've done business with them myself). I don't always agree with everything he says, but it's OK to agree to disagree. So, when Stoney wrote this post in that same thread, I felt the need to elaborate on what I feel he meant when he said: ""Greed" in America, and other countries, is really what keeps people employed." I'm sure Stoney knows that SEO buyers have to "keep their people employed" too, so "best interests" for both parties should include the other's "best interests"!
First, you have to read the entire thread in order to understand the context in which he said it. Second, I wish the movie character "Gordon Gekko" COULD have thought of a "better word"! Third, in researching this topic, I've come across the Technion Institute of Management's article (worth the read, in my opinion) on "Are Capitalists Greedy?". If you don't have the time to read this entire "gem", then here is an excerpt:
"There are three main reasons why capitalism's creed is not 'greed is good'".
First, people simply are not greedy. Most are by nature charitable and generous to family, friends, neighbors and even outright strangers, because this is intrinsically right and because the esteem of other people matters to them.
Second, greed is bad business and destroys wealth, rather than builds it-and as Princeton Univ. professor William Baumol notes, no system ever came close to capitalism in wealth-building.
Third, any system based on greed would soon be consumed in the flames of conflict, with losers seeking at all costs to take the wealth of winners. Capitalism shows few signs of this.
It ends by saying: "To do things better, to learn and grow, to take risks and live fully, to love, to share and to give-that is the essence of capitalism. Call it greed if you must, but we really do need more of it."
Therefore, while I will soon give an outline of a formula for my "one suggestion" to help the Search Marketing Industry grow, since each SEO buyer-seller circumstance is unique, the "dark side" of "GREED" cannot enter into the equation (or there may be "hell to pay").
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org.
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