A new wiki is filling a void in the search engine marketing industry. Furthermore, it's poised to offer quite a few opportunities to bot business development and affiliate marketing types alike. First, it's not only picking up the torch where directories dropped it, but carrying to even higher heights. Secondly, as most wikis, it's harnessing the wisdom of crowds to provide the community with more frequently updated information that do top-10 type lists. Most importantly, however, it is offering search engine marketers of all walks to become involved in the community in a way that can catapult their reputation and personal brand. As the press release explains:

Sydney, Australia (PRWEB) November 12, 2007 -- Online training institution Search Engine College, has today launched Search Engine Wiki (BETA), the world's first vertical wiki dedicated to search engines and search engine marketing.

The idea behind Search Engine Wiki is to provide a collaborative online library of search engine marketing (SEM) resources.

Some of the extensive resources found on the site include:

Lists of international search engines - categorized by country, type and industry.

A glossary of definitions for common terms used in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

A library of search engine marketing articles.

Employment resources listing SEO, PPC and SEM job vacancies.

A collection of popular search engine marketing blogs and news feeds.

Frequently Asked Questions about search engines and SEM.

Lists of popular search engine marketing tools and time saving software.

Links to upcoming search industry conferences and events.

Introductions to well known search industry personalities.

Search Engine Wiki is the brainchild of Kalena and Jerry Jordan, the founders of Search Engine College, and is the result of over 10 years worth of industry research and practice.

Anyone who works in search engine marketing in any capacity knows how difficult it is to find reliable and up-to-date information on second-tier search engines. On the one hand, there are countless directories out there that feature either paid, unpaid, or a mix of both paid and unpaid listings. However, directories are notoriously incomplete, increasingly unpopular, and therefore infrequently updated. In a nut shell, even though some people disagree, directories are on their way out (even the great dmoz.

On the other hand, you have lists being compiled by reputable content-oriented sites, Top 100 Alternative Search Engines @ Read/Write Web and Pay Per Click Search Engines @ Search Engine Watch. These tend to be more on the reliable side. After all, these sites stake their reputation on being authoritative sources of information. However, these lists are also timely. In other words, they are only relevant for so long.

In these two respects, then, the Search Engine Wiki is both a welcomed and long overdue portal in the search engine marketing community. The real opportunity for search engine marketers, however, lies in the opportunity to develop a reputation (and therefore personal brand) within the community.

By taking up the roll of an editor on a wiki with such a specific niche, affiliate marketers have the opportunity to distinguish themselves as authorities on search and related industries. Indeed, even if they are not yet an authority, the process of moderating edits and entries will inculcate them with the knowledge that's necessary to become one.