Have you been stuck in a company that is not really paying too much respect to its pay per click unit? Maybe your top management folks say the right things and do the right things, but if pay per click is not really a big part of your company’s strategy, it’s going to show sooner than later. I had a similar situation when I worked as a marketing expert at a company that was making money from PPC but was not paying too much attention to SEO. We did everything we could to help the company generate lead for free through Google, Yahoo!, and MSN, but when the recession hit, our budget was cut and the project was finally discontinued. The same thing has happened to a lot of pay per click professionals.

The latest U.S recession has been tough on many small and big businesses. A lot of companies have laid people off and many others have decreased their advertising budgets to stay afloat. But recession is not the time to cut your advertising budget. Think about it. If you own a product or promoting affiliate offers, if you cut your advertising budget, you are going to get less leads and make less money in the process. A lot of affiliate marketers have the option to focus on the social media or search engine optimization tactics to offset the effects of reducing their PPC budget, but a lot of companies don’t have the option. If you are a small business, you are going to need a certain level of business to break even. It may be difficult to generate enough business without proper spending in advertising.

The recession has been a big eye opener as far as big companies are concerned. When a company decides that the first unit to get laid off is its online marketing unit, you know where its priorities lie. If you have been spending time at a company, hoping to take their PPC to the next level, you probably wouldn’t expect the company to pull the rug from under you. In reality, a company that is not willing to spend money advertising online during recession is either dying a slow death or is not dedicated enough to its pay per click marketing and SEM channel. A lot of people may be upset about losing their marketing jobs, but if your company is not smart enough to keep its advertising going during these tough times, it’s probably a waste of time working for it anyway.

Pay per click marketing is not the only way to generate business online, but it’s probably the fastest way and gives you a lot of control as far as your message, keywords and landing pages are concerned. The times may be tough but if your business is not dying and has cash in hand, wouldn’t it be smart to spend it on generating new business? PPC may not be right for your company but it shouldn’t take a recession (or depression) to figure that out!

So we here all this talk about the U.S. economy going down in flames, and the dow going sub zero. Is this all bad news? I am not going to pretend that there won’t be families who will suffer from this economy. Folks are going to lose their jobs, and that’s no fun. The last thing you want to see is people struggling to meet their ends in the holiday season. But just because 10% of folks don’t have jobs and won’t be spending, doesn’t mean the other 90% won’t be.

There are lots of folks who will be spending money this holiday season, and if you are in the selling business, you are going to have plenty of opportunity to make a living. But the better news is that recession may force some hands, meaning that the PPC bids could come down. Now, I am not an economist, but when I see the price of oil nearing $40 per barrel, I’d like to think the same thing could happen in the PPC world.

Besides, some of the niches are going to become even more attractive than before. For instance, the job niche is going to be extremely hot as folks try to find jobs in these tough conditions. When folks get desperate, they buy books, CDs, super expensive courses, and so on, which means there will be more money available for marketers such as you and I.

Another niche that is going get even hotter is the green market. President Obama has talked about the green industry being our way out of this mess, and I’d like to believe him. But really who cares about that as long as you can capitalize this publicity to make some cash. I know this may sound cruel, but you’ve got to be tough to be successful in the Internet marketing world. We all want the economy to get better, but the truth of the matter is, recession is not a bad thing. So why fret about it when you don’t have to?