$11,000,000,000 by 2010

I love the pay per click and search marketing industries - have for years. Ever since I first started playing with AdWords I realized the days of "send out a mailing and wait 6 weeks for results" were destined to head the way of the dinosaur. Having worked in "traditional" direct response advertising for over 10 years I had become accustomed to the pay and wait game.

PPC is like direct marketing on steroids. No more waiting for weeks for results, expensive printing charges and lost mail. PPC is like what direct mail would be, if it could be, when it grew up.

We're at an exciting time in the search marketing industry. Mediapost reported that it's being predicted that search marketing will be an 11 billion dollar industry by 2010 - double what it was in 2005. With growth like we have seen (up 44% when comparing 2004 to 2005) I don't see any reason to doubt that prediction.

Hang on, 2006 will be great a year for search marketing professionals.