Some people also refer to paid search as SEM, through here at Search Engine Land, we consider SEM (search engine marketing) to be an umbrella term that encompasses both paid search and SEO (search engine optimization).
Advice For Newbies
New to paid search ads? Don’t worry! Search Engine Land has the perfect series for you: PPC Academy. This special column began in 2010 and provides a different installment each week to bring you up to speed on paid search.
Another starting place is Google’s “Insider’s Guide To AdWords,” which you’ll find here in PDF format. AdWords is by many measures the most popular paid search platform used by search marketers, so the guide offers a useful introduction.
Of course, there’s much more to paid search than what’s covered in Google’s guide. You might consider some of the many print books out there with advice. Here’s our review of some newer books: A Roundup Of Best Search Advertising Books.
Advice At Search Engine Land
Here at Search Engine Land, we provide paid search advertising information and news in a variety of ways:
How To: Paid Search is our section that is devoted to practical tips and tactics about paid search ads.
Paid Search is Search Engine Land’s column that covers different paid search topics every week.
More Search Engine Land Columns – Beyond our Paid Search column, Search Engine Land also has these columns that cover paid search topics:

• Brand Aid
• Conversion Science
• In House
• In The Trenches
• Industrial Strength
• Locals Only
• Small Is Beautiful
• Strictly Business
• Video Search

Search Ads Library Archives: This area of Search Engine Land provides a collection of all stories we’ve written on the topic of paid search. We also have subcategories, including:

• Search Ads: Behavioral Targeting
• Search Ads: Contextual
• Search Ads: Domaining
• Search Ads: General
• Search Ads: Mobile Search
• Search Ads: Pay Per Call
• Search Ads: Video

In addition to covering paid search generally, Search Engine Land also has paid search areas specifically for each of the major search engines:

• Google: AdWords
• Microsoft: adCenter
• Yahoo: Search Ads

Remember, those with Search Engine Land memberships also have access to a wide-range of video content about paid search recorded at our SMX: Search Marketing Expo conferences. Our Search Marketing Now webinar site also has PPC / Paid Search presentations available on demand, to anyone, for free.
Continuing Advice & News
There are a number of blogs and forums that focus heavily on SEO topics, including: aimClear, bg Theory, Bruce Clay Blog, ClickEquations, Efficient Frontier Insights, PPC Blog, PPC Hero, Search Engine Guide, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch, Traffick, WebProNews and WebmasterWorld.
Looking for an easy-to-scan compilation of paid search news? Check out Alltop. For compilations of the best articles on paid search in a given year, visit The Semmys. At Search Engine Roundtable, you’ll discover a regular compilation of important discussions happening on a variety of search marketing forums.
Don’t forget to get our free SearchCap newsletter! SearchCap has a recap of all the day’s paid search news from sources all over the web, as well as the day’s news from Search Engine Land and from Search Engine Land’s related social news site, Sphinn.