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!

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!

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

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