I spent part of last week trolling the SES (Search Engine Strategies) conference. Out of the few hundred companies in the convention floor, I would say 80% of the companies there are SEM and SEO related. About half way through the show, Joe Krause’ ultra popular post (which Ken Norton introduced me to) on It’s a great time to be an entrepreneur hit me. Specifically this passage.

SEM changes everything
Ten years ago to reach the market, we had to do expensive distribution deals. We advertised on television and radio and print. We spent a crap-load of money. There’s an old adage in television advertising “I know half my money is wasted. Trouble is, I don’t know what half”. That was us.

It’s an obvious statement to say that search engine marketing changes everything. But the real revolution is the ability to affordably reach small markets. You can know what works and what doesn’t. And, search not only allows niche marketing, it’s global popularity allows mass marketing as well (if you can buy enough keywords).

SEM not only changes the cost equation as Joe had mentioned, the bigger impact of SEM, I think, is that it changes the accessibility of entrepreneurship.

Before SEM came along, entrepreneurs were born rainmakers who wheels and deals their way to venture funding, partnership, and strategic investments. They spent their time in the Valley giving speeches, “evangelizing” their vision, and networking from dust till dawn. In many ways, those with the largest rolodexes were the most successful and most desired. It’s a rare combination of type-A’s and extreme extroverts that became entrepreneurs. Furthermore, if you don’t speak the “language” of the Valley, you are pretty much dead in the water as far as getting past the first meeting.

Given the constraints of the right type of personality, geographic location, cultural understanding and network; there were very few people who could fit that criteria and launch successful companies.

Well, SEM changed all that. Entrepreneurs from all over the world could build a website, cheaply acquire customers, and build a solid business without all that extraneous stuff. (given the right type of web business of-course) They could be anywhere, know almost no body and drive traffic to their business. All they have to learn is how to buy clicks, signup for or launch affiliate programs, and optimize their website for natural search – and all that information can be learned on the web.

In many ways, because business models have somewhat stabilized (PPC, PPA, PPI) in the internet world, marketing & business development has become standardized too - allowing partnership contracts that used to take weeks if not months of negotiation to complete into one click of a self-service “user agreement.”

After finally getting traction, receiving the attention of VC’s and structuring more complex partnerships becomes much easier. Given leverage and traction (ie money to pay for things & customers other people wants to get their hands on too), entrepreneurs can take their time up the learning curve of becoming that “uber” entrepreneur.

Today, from the chair of their desk, entrepreneur can not only launch businesses cheaply but do it in such as way as to circumvent some of the cultural biases of the “Valley” and elsewhere. It’s the ultimate democratizing of what used to be an exclusive profession. Ironically, the Internet, and the Internet entrepreneurs who built industry disrupting businesses, have finally turned on themselves after lowering the barrier of entry, increasing competition, and revolutionalizing many brick & mortar industries . . . .

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BTW, other interesting posts on similar topics include Jeff Clavier’s The Era of Disposable Startups, Entrepreneurs, angels, and the cost of launch(especially the comments section), Battelle’s story of SEM & Overture, and It’s a great time to be an investor.