Check Out My Guest Post About Blogging

The weekend is here! That means it’s a super time to read your favorite blogs and catch up on the latest trends. It’s also a great time to write a few blog posts, if you’re a blogger. Today, I wanted to share one of my absolute favorite digital marketing blogs, the 3Q Digital Blog. In particular, I wanted to share a recent guest post that I wrote on the 3Q Blog, The Company Blog – Why You Should Participate.

I’m passionate about blogging. It’s an amazing way to practice your writing skills (especially important for marketers), learn WordPress, experiment with SEO, and so much more. It’s also a tremendous responsibility, it’s like running your own mini-business. Want to gain some of the benefits of blogging without taking on the full responsibility of running your own? Want to do this while also growing your career and positioning yourself as a leader at your company? I suggest writing a guest post or two on your employer’s company blog, the topic of my guest post on the 3Q Blog. Learn all about the best ways to ask, the benefits of doing so, what you’ll learn, and why this matters to your company. Wishing you a super weekend, and thanks for reading!

Image in this post © 3Q Digital

Happy 4th Birthday To PPC Ian

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Nov 19 6

I’m a few weeks late here, but wanted to take a moment to celebrate the 4th birthday of PPC Ian! That’s right, it all started back on October 29, 2009 with my first post about how Passionate I am About PPC. Since then and many blog birthday posts later (1st birthday, 2nd, 3rd), It’s been quite the amazing run, both on this blog and in my career/life!

Happy Fourth Birthday

I wanted to start out and sincerely thank you, my loyal readers! I thank you for the emails/questions, comments, post ideas/requests, and, most importantly, support! I also wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely thank my sponsors. Here at PPC Ian, I partner with the best and brightest companies in our industry (folks like Acquisio, Kenshoo, 3Q Digital, InsideVault, and Rocket Clicks), I’m lucky to have such an amazing group of loyal sponsors. It’s the sponsors that keep the lights going here at PPC Ian!

PPC really has come a long way since my first post… Some fun statistics:

367 posts (including this one)
2,452 approved comments
26 categories
423 tags
432,346 spam comments blocked thanks to Akismet (unreal!)
~1,468 hours or 36.70 work weeks worth of hard work on PPC Ian. Posts typically do not take 4 hours (only the really long ones), however there is so much work that goes into blogging above and beyond writing posts, such as coding, marketing, networking, accounting, contracts, formatting images, and so much more… It has been a huge, fun commitment!

Over the last four years, I’ve truly learned a lot. Some of my favorite lessons as a blogger:

My amazing wife, Nicole, is my biggest PPC Ian fan by far! Thanks, Nicole, for the amazing inspiration, support, and ideas.
It’s about so much more than PPC. My career in PPC started out in 2004. In 2009, I launched PPC Ian with the goal of empowering and educating pay per click professionals. Now, PPC Ian is all about digital marketing and business in general, although you will certainly find me blogging about PPC quite a bit, even to this day. My day-to-day in 2013 is all about PPC, marketing, customer acquisition, and business/management, in general. I like to mirror those themes here, while still staying true to my PPC roots!
Pay per click can take you really, really far in your career. It’s amazing. Don’t overlook the huge opportunity in this rapidly growing career, it keeps getting better and better.
Blogging is an incredible way to network and meet others. I have met so many amazing professionals as a result of PPC Ian. It’s all about the people!
Blogging requires incredible determination and hard work. However, the lessons you learn about SEO, coding, writing, social media, and marketing in general are priceless. PPC Ian has provided a true wealth of knowledge, and I am thankful for the lessons.
Blogging is challenging. These days, I am so incredibly busy that I rarely have any free time. That said, I always make time for PPC Ian! It’s totally worth it. I have so much respect for anyone who blogs on a consistent basis, this is not easy work!

Thanks everyone for reading and I hope you will follow PPC Ian for the next four years and beyond! Lots of excitement ahead!

13 Lessons Learned As A Blogger

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jun 30 7

I can’t believe it! I’ve been blogging here at PPC Ian since October, 2009 – that’s a long time. I truly enjoy blogging. It has been quite the amazing journey, and I have learned so much over the years. I originally got into blogging to empower and educate others. However, I also always had the sub-goal of learning all about this wonderful medium and rounding out my own portfolio of skills as a digital marketer. Following are some of the lessons I have learned over the years as a blogger.

Blog Lessons

Get out there and do it, it’s totally worth it! You can learn so much by creating your own blog. It’s not the same reading and attending conferences. When you get out there and invest in your own blog, you learn so much. I can’t believe how much this blog has taught me over the years… I have learned lessons first hand from PPC Ian readers, lessons about SEO, and so many lessons about the technicalities of WordPress.
Try not to multitask while blogging. I cannot tell you how many posts here on PPC Ian I have written while watching TV. It always takes twice or three times as long to write and review a post that way. Focus is so important when writing quality content, and optimizing your own time. Sit down to write your blog posts. Then, go watch TV later. You will enjoy both activities more. Note: I have had a great experience listening to music while blogging. Music is not distracting, but can be very helpful to your blogging experience.
Don’t always blog from the same location. Go to Starbucks, sit at your desk in your home office, sit outside on your patio – change it up! You can get so much inspiration by just moving around. This creates energy, new ideas, and better content.
When you’re on a roll, keep going. Today, for example, I just published a post but am now writing another. Tonight, I may write another. When you’re on a roll, you need to keep going. Great content comes in waves and it’s ok to write a backlog of posts and save them for the future.
Make the most of weekends. We work so amazingly hard as digital marketing professionals. Weekdays after work should be reserved for family, exercise, eating, and fun! I try to get up early on weekends and write a few posts in the morning. This is always a more powerful and positive experience.
Keep it going at all costs. This point almost contrast with the last one and separates the real leaders apart. Really, this comes down to work ethic. Blogging is a tremendous investment. Once your blog is going, your readers count on you. Don’t let them down. Keep going. Don’t have a post? You will need to stay up late or get up early to get that post out. However, I highly recommend the tips above to avoid this last minute type of situation.
Build amazing partnerships with your sponsors. Sponsors are the lifeblood of your blog. They help pay the bills, they can help with content ideas, they can help provide content (guest posts, eBooks, whitepapers, and more), and they can help motivate you to keep going (really it is all about the people, in my opinion). Take your sponsors seriously and give them the best partnership experience ever.
Invest in your top advocates. Over time, there are certain people who will frequently comment, like you in social media, email you ideas, and more. Invest in these key influencers. They are your best friend and can help you so much. I can’t thank my top readers/advocates enough, you guys are the best!
Blog because you are passionate and love what you do. Money comes second. It is not easy to make money blogging and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for the money. Of course, that can be a longer term goal and something to aspire towards, but always remember your passion and why you started (you need a higher value purpose than money).
Keep innovating. Just like paid search, blogging changes ever single day. The only constant is change. Don’t be stagnant. Stay on top of SEO, blogging, and social media trends. Incorporate all the great new stuff into your strategy.
Take your blogging education back to your company. Blogging will make you a well rounded marketer. You will learn so much that could help your company grow. Keep learning and share your lessons at work!
Set yourself up for a blogging vacation form time to time. Get a large backlog of posts, auto schedule them, and then kick back! Everyone deserves a break.
Let your personality come across. Blog about your personal life. Share pictures. Readers want to get to know you as a person, in addition to reading your analysis and insights.

Image of Blog © iStockPhoto gunnar3000

Happy Third Birthday To PPC Ian

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 31 6

It’s hard to believe, PPC Ian is officially three years old! Back on October 29, 2009, I launched PPC Ian with a post about my Passion For PPC and SEM. Since then, it’s been three amazing, action-packed years of blogging all about paid search, especially careers in PPC. Today, I wanted to take a few moments to summarize the past few years and especially some recent highlights. Also, I wanted to take this moment to sincerely thank you, my readers!

Some Fun Statistics

Happy Third Birthday PPC Ian

Last year I started my blog anniversary post with some fun statistics. This year, I thought it would be fun to do the same. Following are some fun facts about PPC Ian over the past year:

293 posts (including this one) – Super excited that I’m posting more than ever before, one of my 2012 Goals
2.35 posts/week during the past year – My best pace to-date, I plan to keep a strong pace over the next year
2,311 comments – I cannot thank you guys enough for the valued questions, comments, and feedback
My top keywords: ppc interview questions, sem software, lending club strategy – I was especially surprised that my Lending Club posts gained so much traction and interest
My most-visited post: Quality Score Tips For PPC Landing Pages
A fun statistic in my personal career: I reached my lifelong goal of getting promoted to Vice President in March

Thanks To My Amazing Readers/Friends

PPC Ian has been an amazing vehicle to build long-lasting connections and friendships with my readers. Whether you are an occasional reader, and regular commentator, or the biggest PPC Ian fan around, I cannot thank you enough. I view the connections, networking, and friendships as one of the best byproducts of blogging. Some fun examples:

One of my top commentators became a personal friend. I was able to connect him with an SEM agency that was the perfect fit. My friend now works at that agency.
I developed friendships with a variety of SEM professionals shopping for the perfect SEM platform and/or the perfect SEM agency. I was able to provide sound advice and perspective to help fellow professionals make great decisions. At the same time, I got to learn all about a variety of different businesses and form long-lasting friendships. It’s a two way street!
Just in the last year, I spoke at Harrison Metal Capital, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and SV Forum’s CXO Forum. My blog has helped secure such opportunities by furthering my network.
PPC Ian helped me recently re-connect with some old friends who started an amazing SEM software company called InsideVault. Now, I have reconnected with my friends and they have decided to sponsor PPC Ian.
Friendships with big time domain name experts including Nima and Morgan Linton have given me strong expertise in the domain name industry. This has helped round out my online marketing toolkit.

Thanks To My Amazing Sponsors

I’m in a truly fortunate position with PPC Ian. I have personally hand-picked my sponsors and only work with companies I truly believe in. Whether we’re talking about one of my old-time sponsors like Kenshoo (one of the most amazing SEM platforms around) or one of my newer sponsors like AdMedia (your one-stop shop for all your online advertising needs), I have had the great fortune to work with truly amazing companies. These guys help pay for the costs of running PPC Ian and have provided a ton of the great content you find here.

I want to once again thank you! I truly appreciate your support and please don’t hesitate to reach out if I can ever be of assistance. If you have emailed me and I have not responded, please try again (sometimes I get super busy).

Want to learn more about the evolution of PPC Ian? Make sure to check out my first and second birthday posts.

Image of Happy Birthday © iStockPhoto – stuartbur
PPC Ian logo portion of image © PPCIan.com

My Twitter Challenge Is A Success

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 24 7

About a month ago, I announced my Twitter Advertising Challenge. What was my challenge all about? In a nutshell, I decided to follow no more than 200 people, redesign my Twitter background, and start advertising. About a month ago, I was following 16,826 people, with 17,060 following me. I’m now following only 68 people, with 14,417 following me. The strategy worked! I did lose some followers, but that’s ok. I lost fewer than the 5,000 I projected and now it’s so much more fun to use Twitter.

I also got a really cool new background. Head on over to My Twitter and see for yourself! I’m super happy with how it turned out. It’s really consistent with my blog! I have not started advertising on Twitter yet, but that’s still in the pipeline.

I was so thrilled with how my Twitter challenge worked out, that I also did a mini-Facebook challenge. Basically, I went out and got a new Facebook banner and also landing page. The landing page is interactive. If you like me, you get to download my eBook for free. Head on over to the PPC Ian Facebook Fan Page and check it out. (I also have a screenshot of my new landing page below.)

Big thanks to Collabo for reaching out to me and inspiring today’s blog post. I’m more excited about social media than ever before and am glad my challenges helped me take my social profiles to the next level. I hope you challenge yourself to make your social media campaigns amazing!

Images in this post © PPCIan.com

My Twitter Advertising Challenge

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 25 7

I got started with Twitter early on and leveraged smart strategies from day one. These strategies have propelled my following to over 17,000 on Twitter and have driven a significant amount of traffic to PPC Ian. That said, I’m always looking to improve and have set a challenge for myself. Twitter is hot right now so it’s the perfect time to revamp my Twitter account. Today, I’m going to outline the challenge I’m setting for myself and one month from now I’ll report back on the results!

Initiative One: Follow No More Than 200 People

Right now, I have 17,060 followers but am following 16,826. My Twitter stream is basically unusable. I want to be able to log in to my Twitter account and make sense of things, only seeing tweets that are relevant and interesting to me. If I am following no more than 200 people, I’ll be able to use Twitter once again.

Why am I following so many people right now? It was actually part of my initial strategy. I went out there and followed a ton of people knowing that a certain portion would reciprocate and follow me back. I would then unfollow those who did not follow me back. I did this many times and was able to drive a significant number of followers with this strategy. It’s a great strategy I still recommend for building out your initial base of followers. More followers equals more social proof and brand equity.

How am I going to remove 16,500+ followers? I’m going to go through all my @ messages and find out who I’ve interacted with. Then, I’m going to put them on my Tweet Adder white list. (Tweet Adder is a really helpful Twitter utility that I recommend purchasing if you’re serious about advertising on Twitter.) After my white list is loaded with my favorite people, I’m going to remove 1,000 people each day (who are not on my white list) until I’m done. Sure, I’m going to remove some good people by accident, but I can always add them back later.

Will I lose followers with this strategy? Absolutely. That said, I don’t think I’m going to lose more than 5,000 followers. I’m ok with this, and believe that I’ll retain most followers.

Initiative Two: Redesign My Twitter Background

My Twitter background has not been updated in years. It still looks ok, but could be a lot better. I’ve decided to engage the same designer who designed and built IJL.net for me. I’m sure the results will be great. Also, I’m sure my new background will help drive even more followers in the future.

Initiative Three: Advertise and Gain More Followers

After I reduce the list of people I’m following, I’m sure to lose a few followers. I’m going to partially make up for this by running a paid advertising campaign on Twitter. I’ve had phenomenal results running Paid Like Campaigns on Facebook. I have not tried this yet on Twitter, but am quite excited. At the very least, I’ll get that cool “Verified Account” badge by signing up as an advertiser. Also, I hope to gain some serious experience that I can then leverage at my job. In my opinion, it’s critical for all PPC professionals to master Facebook and Twitter in addition to AdWords and adCenter.

Stay tuned, I’m hoping to have some interesting findings in my journey to optimize my Twitter account. Want to connect on Twitter? Please don’t hesitate to reach out, my Twitter handle is ianlopuch.

Image of PPC Ian’s Twitter Count © PPCIan.com and Twitter

Blogs With Top Commentators Are Now Rare

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 5 41

One of the most popular posts on PPC Ian is my Blog Commenting Strategy. I’m a huge fan of blog commentating for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, it’s fun! It’s great to be part of the conversation. Second, it’s a great source of traffic. Write an insightful comment and you will quickly gain new readers. Third, blog commentating can be a great source of SEO-optimized dofollow links. That is, if the blog you comment on has a top commentators widget (like the one I have here on PPC Ian in my footer).

Comment

I used to do a ton of commentating. I originally purchased my iPad so I could commentate on the go. I would write comments on the train to and from work. I would bring my iPad to lunch and would write comments during my meal. I would even commentate on my mobile phone while away from my computer. I got a little bit obsessed.

These days, I’m still commentating but not quite as much. Why? Many of the big bloggers such as John Chow and Jonathan Volk have done site redesigns and have removed their top commentators widgets. I used to comment on these blogs multiple times per day because I got my name in the top commentators lists. This gave me thousands of dofollow inbound links, from blogs closely related to mine by topic. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a huge fan of both of these fine blogs, it’s just that I don’t comment quite as much since there is less of a reward.

So, you may be wondering, why are these big bloggers removing their top commentators widgets? If I had to guess, it probably comes down to preserving link juice (5-10 outbound links on each page of your blog can add up). It probably also comes down to comment quality. When you have as top commentators widget, the comments can sometimes be of lower quality. I particularly saw this happening on John Chow’s blog, although not anymore now that the widget has been removed.

As a blog owner, I’m a huge fan of having the top commentators widget. In addition to my top commentators widget, I even ran a Blog Commenting Contest. I feel passionately about rewarding those readers who support my blog by commenting. It takes time to write comments and I do my best to reward those supporting my blog.

The moral of the story: My blog commenting strategy is still very viable, but it’s more difficult finding blogs with top commentators lists. They still do exist, however, and I highly recommend seeking them out. You can even search on Google for directories of blogs that have dofollow top commentators lists. Moreover, don’t give up on blogs without top commentators. You may wish to throttle back your comments, but I still write many comments to this day on blogs without the widget.

Image of comment © iStockPhoto – pagadesign

Happy 2nd Birthday To PPC Ian

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 31 18

I can’t believe it. It feels like I just wrote about PPC Ian’s First Anniversary yesterday. Today, it’s the second anniversary of PPC Ian! (Actually, it was on 10/29, but I’m a few days late to blog about it.) I wanted to take a moment today to reflect on the last two years, and of course thank you, my loyal readers.

Some Cool PPC Ian Statistics

PPC Ian 2nd Anniversary

I’m a paid search guy, so I can’t get enough statistics. Here are some cool ones about PPC Ian:

171 posts (including this one), that’s an average of 1.64 per week
1,698 valued comments from my awesome readers, that’s an average of 16.33 per week
73,693 spam comments deleted thanks to Akismet
1,302 average visitors per day (last 30 days)
My top referring keyword: "sem software"
My most popular post: Bluehost Add-On Domains and htaccess

I’m really thrilled with how far PPC Ian has come. My goal for the next year: Push my posts per week and get that 1.64 average up to 2. PPC Ian is just getting started.

Thank You For Reading

I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you for reading PPC Ian. It takes a lot of persistence and dedication to keep blogging for two years. I truly love this stuff. I’m obsessed with pay per click and online marketing. That said, PPC Ian wouldn’t be at the level it is without my amazing readers. Thank you so much for your questions, comments, emails, and support. If you have a specific idea or wish list, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Also, a huge thank you to my amazing wife and my blog sponsors for your support. Here’s to an amazing third year and beyond!

I Changed My Post Background From Black To White

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Mar 20 19

At the end of the day, it’s my readers (you guys) that make PPC Ian the blog that it is! As such, I take feedback from my readers extremely seriously. What’s been the most overwhelming feedback that I’ve gotten over and over again? Basically that I make the background color of my posts white (with black text) versus the black background (with white text) that I’ve had for the last year and half (since my blog launched in October, 2009). Well, I finally took everyone’s advice and made the change last night! In sincerely hope my change makes reading PPC Ian a lot easier on your eyes.

Please Let Me Know What You Think

Blueprint

For the next few weeks, I’m going to test the new white post background. I’m going to closely monitor my blog stats (to see if my visits go up), blog comments, and also emails. If you like (or dislike) the change, I highly encourage you to speak up. Your feedback will really help me out. Right now, I’m very much leaning on the side of keeping the new white post background because I personally like the change and am hopeful it will help take PPC Ian to the next level in terms of visitors. My friend Owen Frager who operates one of the most visited domaining blogs on the Internet and who’s featured me several times provided some really helpful info from his own testing that suggested the white background with black text should really help me drive more visits (and happy readers).

Aside from the posts themselves, everything else here on PPC Ian is staying the same. I’m a huge fan of my overall blog design. After all, PPC Ian sports a custom design from Unique Blog Designs (the same people that designed John Chow dot Com). In an effort to preserve my overall site feel, I left everything else the same (including the post comments). Thanks again everyone for the feedback and I can’t wait to hear what you think!

Buy Keyword Winner & I’ll Review Your Blog

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Mar 2 8

I just wrote my Keyword Winner Review yesterday and couldn’t be more excited about the launch of this amazing keyword research plugin. My personal friend and SEO guru Dan Lew poured everything he’s got into version 2.0 of Keyword Winner and it shows. Here’s the deal: I can’t thank all of you enough, my loyal readers. As a thank you for everything, I want to offer PPC Ian readers a special deal.

Keyword Winner

If you purchase Keyword Winner 2.0 through my affiliate link, I will review your blog (or website) for free. It’s that simple. You will be reviewed right here on PPC Ian with exposure of my thousands upon thousands of monthly visitors. I really enjoy these review posts because the sites I end up reviewing are always super interesting and relevant to PPC Ian readers!

Here’s the crazy part! My friend, Daniel Lew, stands behind his SEO WordPress plugin so much that he’s offering a 60 day money back guarantee. Let’s say you purchase Keyword Winner via my affiliate link, but then return the plugin. I will still review you, no questions asked! I’m that confident in Keyword Winner as the must-have SEO plugin of 2011!

Specifics Behind My Keyword Winner Offer

You may remember a while back, I ran a blog comment contest. The winners of the contest got their blogs reviewed here on PPC Ian for free. Check out my review of these awesome online marketing blogs. This time, I’m going to do the exact same thing. I’ll review everyone in the same post, with each blog (or website) getting its own section. That said, the reviews are going to be a bit shorter (probably one or two paragraphs each), depending on how many people take me up on this offer.

My offer this time will span the entire month of March! That’s right, you have between now and March 31st to purchase Keyword Winner. After this month is over, I will write the review post within the first week of April.

Let’s say you want to purchase Keyword Winner via my affiliate link but don’t want your blog reviewed. No worries at all, this is an optional bonus! Last, I will only be reviewing “family friendly” websites.

I want to sincerely thank you for following my blog and wish you all the best! Purchased Keyword Winner via my affiliate link and want your blog reviewed here on PPC Ian? Just shoot me an email with your blog’s URL and also your ClickBank order/receipt number.