We all like to know that we have valuable skills. Like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, and computer hacking skills...girls only want boyfriends who have great skills (thank you Mr. Dynamite).

Anyway, I found this article on the Internet Retailer site that talks about the difficulty employers are having finding people who have search engine marketing skills.

I can understand why this would be. If you are really good at SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or PPC Pay-Per-Click), and you are confident that you can make a go of it on your own, you are not going to be working for a company, unless that company has great stock options or very big salaries. So finding good, experienced talent for an in-house position is always going to be tough.

Then there are your in-house SEM (Search Engine Marketing) people like me. I had the chance to meet both Doug Sundahl (from Overstock.com) and Chris Seahorn (from eBags) at different Yahoo outings. Both of them are quoted in the Internet Retailer article. The are both great guys who know their stuff but like me, they are still working in-house. Why? I think we all work for companies that we like, we all are in our first few years in the business, we all like the security of a salary, and we all may have some upside when it comes to company stock – and there is nothing wrong with that.

I remember when I was speaking to Doug Sundahl in Palm Springs and he told me that after being in the SEM business for 6 months, all of that time at Overstock, he was already getting solicitations from other companies to take over their SEM departments. Now if that isn’t a sellers market, I do not know what is.

So what is a company to do when they are looking for talent in the SEM department? Well, the first thing I would recommend is beware of “experienced” SEMs overselling themselves. I know for a fact that there are a lot of people out there that consider themselves SEM experts because they put up some banner ads and ranked for terms like “auto warranties for my child Sam’s car on a winter eve.” The last thing you want to do is waste time and money on a person who could potentially make moves to tarnish your online image or, even worse, get your million-dollar domain banned.

If you can’t find an experienced person to hire, there is always outsourcing your SEM, but chances are that if you are looking to have an in-house team, you have ruled out outsourcing. Which can be understandable, since there are a lot of shady SEM companies out there. Also, you could be making a large financial investment in a SEM company and there is a chance that you would never make any money off of it.

So what to do, what to do…

Well, there is no easy answer. But if anything, I would recommend trying to hire from within or looking for young, talented people who have the desire to learn and the potential so succeed in SEM. It will take time for your person to develop, which can be frustrating, but I think SEM can be taught to the right kind of person. And the best part is, if you find the right kind of person they will love it.

One thing I can tell you from experience is that I am grateful that my company took a chance on me and gave me the time and support to learn about SEM…and I love it.