Yesterday I discovered a meetup on Twitter and decided to sneak out from the nightly festivities with the Tangy clan to attend the monthly confab of the Cambridge Search Engine Marketing group (this was the closest name I could get out of anyone).  The topic interested me and the location ( the Robbins Library in Arlington) was a winner. Here are some highlights from the evening.

After breaking up into two groups (“advanced” and “soon to be advanced”), we proceeded with individual introductions by the 60 attendees.  I cringed at the idea but soon realized that this was pretty helpful to understand the audience.  Each group then had a Q&A session covering a range of topics including paid search, affiliate marketing, social media and online lead generation strategies.

Here are some my other observations from the evening:

• Online lead generation businesses are alive and kicking even in the down economy – There were people with lead gen businesses for a variety of markets including weddings, baby products, lawyers, real estate and replacement windows.  I guess everyone needs still leads.
• People are still trying to figure out the intersection of search and social media.
• Affiliate marketing is still going strong – A couple attendees (including me) were interested in learning more about the latest in creating affiliate networks.
• Tuning paid search campaigns is still a major challenge for people – A number of people mentioned that their organic search is performing well but their paid programs need help.

I’d like to thank Peter Davis and Jim Spencer for leading the “less experienced discussion.  Some of the questions were pretty random but they found a way to keep things on topic.  It was also nice to finally meet both of them in person after connecting with them online (yes, via Twitter).

Finally, I’d like to give shoutouts to Eric Sugalski of Rascodog who is promoting his new dog leash and Kiril from Bigskinny.net who is building his thin wallet business.  Best of luck to both of you in 2009.

All in all, it was a worthwhile event and I plan to attend in February.  You should check it out if you are in the area.