At Cre8asite forums, one of the more amusing threads today comes from new member severeidaho. His state is infamous for government coverups and FBI goings-on, so why not some secretive SEO:

"Altogether you will find the JOB of SEO to be very Secretive. And since Search engines dont want you to know how to get Noticed, Top of the list, whos to know what works and what doesnt. TOP PR ratings in my theory were paid for "obviously". Top websites and webmasters these days Have The money to Pay for the Best search results. Where does that Leave the Average , minimum wage Webmaster when He/She wants to finally get noticed."

As fun as that is, there's more:

"Now I have found certain things to work. BUT question whether its worth the extra 20 visitors a day. One thing such as Hidden Keywords in your webpage. For example, if you have a Black Background, you would use a Black Text font for keywords you use for site and they would not be visible Unless you highlight the text. How Efficient is this method?"

Why is that so many people think of SEO as secretive? Once you take a step inside the online communities, it's easy to see how open, friendly and abiding the people really are. With so much free information available, there's really no need to view things this way.

BTW - Boneheaded move of the week... I forgot to tell our new employee (Kat) what PageRank was. She was doing some SEO reading and got a bit confused. I started to explain, but gave up and just sent her this link (an oldie, but a goodie). She's a smart cookie, though - I'm not worried.