I'm a Pro member as well.<p>I think the subscription fee is well worth it if you are looking to draw more traffic to your website via SEO. It's the combination of the tools and the community.<p>Disclaimer: Rand Fishkin's a friend (but I would have been a customer regardless).
I'm surprised that they were unprofitable. How does a consulting business with great brand recognition, in an industry that's <i>still</i> growing fast, not make boatloads of money? They should be like all those Whateverilents of the late 90's, paying people $50/hour and billing them to companies at $200/hour. (At least, I know of plenty of companies that would pay that much, and plenty of SEOs who would make that much -- and having a middleman with the best brand name in the business could definitely make it happen).<p>So what gives?