Patrick's SEO abilities are notable on HN because he has managed to run a business quantifiably tied to SEO and search advertising. He's hasn't just "done" SEO. Lots of HN people can claim that. He's successfully taken a product to market with it. That's impressive.
Referring to Patrick as an SEO undervalues him. SEO isn't really his schtick. Engineered product marketing is. Engineered marketing includes SEO, but also A/B testing, metrics, optimization, and a grab bag of other "lean startup" ideas.
(Also, in case it isn't obvious, Patrick is popular here because he writes thoughtfully, helpfully, and often.)
While I'm impressed by the ability of people like Rank and Greywolf to identify and exploit new-found SEO techniques for short term profit, with the knowledge that Matt Cutts' team is going to be hot on their trail as soon as anybody notices, I'm _significantly_ more interested in Patrick's longterm sustainable business strategy.
While I might be prepared to go out on a grey-hat SEO limb for an idea of my own with only a marginal chance of success, I'm _much_ more cautious about risking Google blackholeing any great ideas I've got, or any of my clients' sites...
I guess what I'm saying is that "excellent writing and marketing" _is_ a magical SEO technique. It's not a $50k/month affiliate scheme or a $2k/day Adwords trick, but I suspect Patrick's BCC is a properly valuable business that someone might sensibly buy off him one day. I'm not so sure I'd ever consider buying a quick moneymaking website off Rand or Michael...
From the HN guidelines:
Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downmod you.
I eagerly welcome discussion on this topic.
His comment wouldn't lose anything, but rather win in terms of readability, by removing those 10 words ("and I'm going to be downvoted into oblivion for this"). Those words are simply unnecessary and unobjective. They don't provide anything except making the comment sound more sensational than it actually is.
There are good reasons for this guideline, and I think those reasons apply to everyone, including patio11 and pg.
I know this because he is a member of our community and we chat often, I tell him stuff that is off the record & sometimes he evolves the model & pushes my model of thinking in new directions.
If I had his programming skills my goal would to be able to retire by the end of next year. :D
Probably the only thing that holds Patrick back in terms of aggressively using SEO to make a ton of money is that he isn't primarily driven by making a boatload of money. Some people are, but he isn't.
Whether Patrick has the inclination to work on tools like this, I don't know. I think it'd be a good idea for him to write a book, too, but he pooh-pooh'd that idea on TechZing because there's just not enough money in it.
He's an excellent writer and marketer, but it's not like he's privy to some magical SEO techniques that would explode SEO traffic.
I would be surprised if he uses SEO tools much himself. From what I've seen, he's very good at identifying small niches, creating good content, etc. Basically good SEO fundamentals, not cutting edge trickery.