As the resident PPC player here at PMX, it’s up to me to stay on top of what’s going on in the world of Pay Per Click. So of course it was interesting for me to read about how Google Adsense will now accept ads from qualified third party networks which will “help you generate the most profit for every ad that appears on your site, whether the ads come from AdWords advertisers or Google-certified ad networks,” according to the Google Adsense Blog.

While I suppose that’s great news for Adsense users, as a PPC Specialist, I’m more worried about what it means for my Adwords campaigns, specifically when it comes to the content network. More competition for ad space means higher CPCs obviously…but I’m trying to wrap my head around any other repercussions for my content network campaigns, either good or bad.

If I’m having to mess more with CPC bidding to keep my ads in prominent positions, it’s obviously going to increase some time spent on PPC management initially…if the third-party networks come running to jump on board that is. Supposedly Google will have some pretty high standards in the certification process.

So what does everybody else think? Besides the obvious increase in competition and CPCs, how else will our Adwords campaigns be affected? I’m particularly interested in anyone who can think of some positive changes it could have.

I suppose one pro for us Adword-ers is that if potential revenue earnings for Adsense publishers go up, more and more people might jump on the Adsense bandwagon, which means more sites for us to advertise on and more impressions for our ads- but I dunno, seems like a bit of a stretch for me.

Every now and then I’ll get myself into a new situation. Occasionally in new situations, the way things turn out line up pretty well with what you expected. More often than not, there are - shall we say - some minor differences between what I imagined and what is reality. Sometimes that’s positive, sometimes not.

Marriage, fatherhood, and moving overseas are three great examples of huge differences between expectations and reality. I’m about to add another item to my list:

Internet Marketing.

Being a member of the ProspectMX team is my first jaunt into the internet marketing world. I come from a consulting / coaching / training background with a healthy dose of retail. Now that I’ve been in the internet marketing world for a few months, I have developed some keen observations on what internet marketing actually entails vs. what I originally assumed it would be.

Seeing as how many of our clients are sticking their feet into the waters of internet marketing for the first time, I believe my observations can be very beneficial for anyone questioning what this industry is all about and how it fits into their marketing objectives.

I was looking for a quickly changing, fast moving environment when my job hunt led me to ProspectMX. Slow growth and stability? Bah! Not for me. Well, I certainly found what I was looking for. It seems that things are changing all the time in this industry. Even aside from all the other issues that are part of the changing landscape in this industry, working with Google (and their game playing) keeps things interesting.

Naturally I expected a bit of a techie flavor when I started. This is internet marketing, after all. But I certainly underestimated the amount of geekiness required to excel in this field. There really is a high amount of technical expertise required to do internet marketing well.

I underestimated the level to which you are able to track the results of your marketing efforts. Many have heard the famous quote that is attributed to a variety of people:

“Half of my marketing works. I just don’t know which half.”

One of the beauties of internet marketing is the ability to easily track results. In fact, there is the danger of having too much data. The biggest challenge for tracking results with internet marketing is not the lack of data readily available… it’s paring down the massive amounts of data and identifying the key pieces that are relevant for a business.

This item is not specific to internet marketing, but it’s an important part of what I’ve noticed moving into this new company and industry. I was (and still am!) surprised by the skill and knowledge level of my teammates in their specific areas of expertise. It’s enjoyable to learn new things from people who are intelligent and competent.

One of the things that attracted me to marketing, in general, is the opportunity to be creative and forward looking. But I assumed that creativity would be less important in internet marketing. After all, how much original thinking is required to help a client’s website rank higher in the search engine results?

As it turns out, a lot. We’re always kicking around ideas for doing different things or doing things in a different way.

Lastly, I underestimated how much I would enjoy not having to dress up each day.

Cool news from out of the ProspectMX camp…

One of our company’s co-founders, Steve Young, has been named to Central Penn Business Journal’s (CPBJ) annual “Forty Under 40″ list for 2009.

Young is the second ProspectMX co-founder to earn this recognition from CPBJ. In 2006, Rory Wilfong was also honored with the same distinction.

While Young plays an important role within ProspectMX, he also manages the day-to-day operations of GetMyHomesValue.com. GetMyHomesValue was the first company Steve, Rory, and Dave established in 2003 that was a finalist for CPBJ’s Emerging Business of the Year Award in 2006 and named one of Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest growing private companies in 2008.

Young was selected for this year’s Forty Under 40 for “his commitment to business growth, professional excellence and the community.”

Nominations for the Forty Under 40 program ended in late April, and a panel of four judges who have all won the award in the past selected the top 40. This is the 15th time CPBJ has honored the region’s top young business leaders.

Young and the other 39 recipients will be honored at an awards reception on October 23. The winners will also be featured in a special supplement to the October 30th edition of the Central Penn Business Journal.

Central Penn Business Journal is an award-winning business newspaper for Central Pennsylvania that provides more information, analysis and advice for business than any other local publication. The Journal has served the Central PA community for 23 years.

Congrats Steve!