This is a bit ironic, but inside the field of SEO I don't think search rankings matter that much. Anytime you sell something which is a higher end service or a

This is a bit ironic, but inside the field of SEO I don't think search rankings matter that much. Anytime you sell something which is a higher end service or an abstract type of service what drives sales is word of mouth recommendations rather than rankings. This is true for the higher end of the legal spectrum, the higher end of the health spectrum, and the higher end for any b2b services sort of business model. Those who are buying based on rankings will see the Google AdWords ads for $149 SEO and such...and get sucked into buying trash. Those who are even cheaper will get scammed by their domain registrar or web host. It is hard to make much money in the SEO game teaching others or providing tools to other. It is much easier to make more as a publisher, as Patrick stated. One of the reasons I haven't invested more into some tools area is just how much stuff is becoming freely accessible. Google's keyword tool is amazing, Google analytics is amazing, some of the competitive research tools are awesome & cheap. When you get down to it, its hard to automate the link parts without running into issues. Automating some of the link research areas is still an area for innovation, but most the stuff around keyword research, keyword organization & general content creation have already been heavily commoditized. Another area where some folks work is baking a semi-legitimate cloaking service into their SEO product & then making it seem legitimate by only working with huge brands who agree to minimum contract amounts in the 5 or 6 figures per month. That model works well for the SEO because they typically get paid by the click, but it is pretty crappy for the client because they end up reliant on a tool that can be pulled out from under them at any time. Brokering links is a huge business as well...but its sorta a gray area.