Make Money as a Paid Search Expert

This week in Bonita Springs, Florida, during Search Insider Summit, 100 search marketing experts will pay major bucks to network over pinot gris and spanakopita. These insiders understand how to exploit search engine optimization (SEO) to make money for their companies and clients, and themselves.

How can web workers join in on paid search to generate some extra income? One way, of course, is to declare yourself an instant expert and hang out your highly optimized shingle page. Or you could follow a more methodical approach, as we outline here.

A Huge Number of Opportunities

According to Jeffrey Pruitt, president of SEMPO, Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, and executive VP for digital advertising firm iCrossing, the opportunities in paid search work are huge (emphasis his). He says Google is hiring 100 employees a day; iCross has a number of openings; Monster lists more than 1,400 viable positions.

Job titles in the field include VP, director or manager of search media or paid media, media planner, search engine or online marketing specialist or some variation of those terms — so that’s what you’ll want to search for if you’re looking for online job listings in the field.

Skills and Experience You’ll Need

With the right skills, training and experience, Pruitt says, you could find yourself advising small businesses on retainer from your home office, working as the member of a small in-house team or running a $10 million account for a brand-name client as part of a 400-person online marketing company.

While a background in marketing or advertising might seem obvious for search experts, it isn’t a necessity. For instance, you can translate a technical background in developing web sites to a job training others in how to make sure anything they do related to the web site doesn’t hinder optimization. Likewise, Pruitt says people in finance and analysis can put their number-crunching skills to work in analyzing the tactical aspects of campaigns, which generate a multitude of data.

What You Might Earn

In a column she wrote last year, SEO consultant P.J. Fusco said starting salaries are in the $35,000 to $40,000 range, while expert-level search specialists can earn $75,000 to $90,000. Senior manager salaries go up from there.

But if the corporate life isn’t for you, then consider banding with others to create a boutique agency to attract clients on retainer. In these situations, you can act as a consultant, advising businesses on how to go about setting up an effective paid search program. Or you can do the day-to-day work yourself and generate higher retainers. One such firm, Bruce Lay, which has rates on its site, states that clients that hire the company to perform SEO can expect to pay $3,200 and up a month while consulting fees start at $2,000 a month.

Learn More

Not at the expert level yet? SEMPO offers just the ticket: three online learning courses that will take you from the basics ($499) through advanced SEO ($1,750) to advanced search advertising ($2,250). If that’s too hefty, consider getting trained, tested and certified by Yahoo and Google for a modest $50 apiece.

You can get a taste of the field by attending one of several conferences that cater to this crowd (though we can’t guarantee pinot gris and spanakopita will be served). Aside from the aforementioned Summit, Pruitt recommends the following:

And to stay up to date with the field of paid search, browse these two Pruitt-recommended sites:

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