As a search marketer that’s been providing search marketing services for quite a while, I like to think of Andrew Goodman as the guy who “wrote the book” on Google AdWords - or at least that’s one of the ways I like to think of him. He’s authored/edited Traffick.com since long before blogs became popular, speaks at numerous industry conferences and also has a successful SEM agency, Page Zero Media. In this interview, Andrew explains how he tossed in the towel on his PhD to become, gasp, an Internet marketer!

Please tell us about your background. How did you get involved with search engine marketing?

Do you want the real answer? ;)

My real entry into all of this came in the form of Traffick.com, a site that was hatched in summer 1999 as a sort of hobby. We thought we’d write about “portals” as others were writing only about the search engine component of portals. I still think seeing the search companies as large monopolists who control the user agenda (and dollar flows) is a productive way to look at it. For pointyheads scoring at home, it’s Marshall McLuhan meets Gabriel Kolko, or something. In case you hadn’t guessed, I was a political scientist nearing completion (we’re talking one chapter short of a finished dissertation) of a PhD when I began dabbling in my side passion, Internet business.

As my friend J.W. once introduced me (after a couple of apple martinis at SES Boston): “This is Andrew Goodman, theinnellexshual.” But it’s been a while since I had a deep thought. I’m in marketing now.
 Online Marketing Blog.