Happy Third Birthday To PPC Ian

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Oct. 31

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

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Happy 2nd Birthday To PPC Ian

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Oct. 31

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!

Image of Birthday Cake © iStockPhoto – aluxum

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Happy Birthday To PPC Ian!

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Oct. 30

Hey Everyone,
Today’s an exciting day! Today marks PPC Ian’s 1 year birthday. It all started one year ago when Unique Blog Designs completed my slick custom blog design and I went live! My first post highlighted my passion for PPC and SEM. Now, 94 posts and 683 comments later, PPC Ian is growing quicker than ever! I wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely thank YOU for your support. It’s my readers like you that have made PPC Ian such a success. Today, I’ll be going through some of my favorite highlights from the past year. I hope you enjoy!
Sincerely,
Ian Lopuch (PPC Ian)

It’s All About The Online Marketing Community

Birthday Cake

When I look back on the past year, I’m extremely excited about the friendships I have developed with other bloggers and the online marketing community in general. How did I do it? Well, it honestly all came down to my blog commenting strategy. I got out there and commented on all the great online marketing blogs. Upon doing so, I met a lot of talented individuals and also ended up driving some serious traffic and quality comments on PPC Ian.

I even decided to launch my own blog commenting contest and the winners Profit Addiction, Dino Vedo, and My 4 Hour Workweek ended up getting their blogs reviewed for free as the prize! Even after the contest, Jeremy, Dino, and Eric have continued to comment like crazy on PPC Ian, I am truly thankful for that!

I also feel blessed that PPC Ian got serious press coverage on some of the top online marketing blogs around! Some of my favorite instances of PPC Ian in the press include: Super Affiliate Jonathan Volk, Celebrity Blogger John Chow, Teen Domainer, ZK’s Web Traffic ROI, Morgan Linton, and most recently my buddy D3so. A HUGE thank you to everyone out there in the online marketing community, I sincerely appreciate your support.

My Sponsors Rock!

I’d also like this opportunity to sincerely thank my sponsors, Marin Software, Acquisio, and WordStream. I have taken a truly unique approach to sponsorship on PPC Ian. Basically, I’m extremely picky and only include sponsors that offer products I personally champion. That’s right: I only include sponsorship from companies that offer killer products, the types of products that search marketers can’t live without! After all, I’m here to empower the search marketing industry. I’m proud to say that I can’t think of better products and companies than these three!

Want to learn more about Marin Software? I highly recommend checking out my exclusive interview with Marin’s Matt Lawson. How about WordStream? You just have to check out their free Quality Score Toolkit that I just reviewed in my last post. How about Acquisio? Stay tuned for my next post, I’m going to review their unparalleled display advertising whitepaper! Sponsors, my sincere thank you for partnering with me in making PPC Ian a big hit! My success wouldn’t have been possible without you!

Some of My Favorite PPC Ian Posts

I’d like to close out by highlighting three of my favorite PPC Ian blog posts from the last year. First and foremost, it was one of my 2010 goals to speak at a major event this year. That opportunity came up and I jumped all over it! What am I talking about? My two hour presentation about PPC, SEO, and Social Media at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

As you may know, another one of my big goals for 2010 is domaining and developing websites that drive passive income. I’m excited to announce that I’ve totally killed that goal. Along the way, I quickly learned that it’s super critical to scale your Bluehost and Host Gator accounts with add on domains. It’s no surprise that others have the exact same goals and are finding my post all about BlueHost Add On Domains extremely helpful. It’s actually the most visited post on my entire blog!

Last but not least, this just wouldn’t be PPC Ian if I didn’t mention my passion for PPC automation. I’m extremely proud of my SEM Automation Buyer’s Guide, my FREE 12 page whitepaper. I’m looking forward to writing more of these in the future!

To close out, I wanted to share a screenshot with you. Take a look below, PPC Ian’s organic listing on Google now has site links. This is a new development, one that I’m quite proud of. It basically means that Google is acknowledging PPC Ian as a blog that has authority. Sweet! Thanks again and here’s to another year of hockey stick growth!

PPC Ian Site Links

Image of Birthday Cake © iStockPhoto – skodonnell

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