I am the marketing director for an IT consulting business. What would be the best source of learning material to achieve expert level status on SEM? Not so much the SEO portion but the PPC and CPA and other options. I recently read Perry Marshalls book on adwords twice. Have searched online but came up with nothing except expensive courses in far away places. Is there a book you could recommend? Or an online course?

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Jay’s Answer: After you’ve read a little, invest some money in your learning by doing. Work on a real website (yours or a friend’s) and start learning what works in reality. Really understand: how long it takes, which keywords, which geographic area, the offer/copy, etc.

As you create these various experiments, document them well. They’ll become the basis for your own “bible”. As you have problems, post the questions to SEO forums to get input. Real questions are much more valuable than theoretical ones.