My shop was the first marketing entity of its kind. It drew lots of publicity in Business Week, The New York Times, on CNN, CNBC, CBS and so forth. It was a feeding frenzy. I was fielding 30 to 40 phone calls a day. I named it The Online Ad Agency because I came from Madision Avenue, where I was a copywriter for firms like IBM, AT&T and other blue chippers.

It took me one year to realize that my firm shouldn't be an ad agency. Why? Because the nature of that business is too labor intensive and wouldn't draw enough billings for the commission model to pay me and my people properly. Some agencies are just now understanding this truth. Some will never get it.

So in 1994, I revamped my business model so that my company functions like a consultancy, where we get paid for transferring knowledge. My revamped company was renamed Chase Online Marketing Strategies Inc., which is the parent company of this newsletter. One proven revenue stream of this business is my speaking engagements (which I refer to as "mass consulting"), where I demonstrate to organizations how to get their money's worth from the Internet.

One innovation that I brought to mass consulting is the 75-minute "Discovery Session". Held weeks in advance, the client team and I brainstorm and nail down exactly what they want their attendees to walk away with. (For more on this, visit http://larrychase.com/seminars.html.)

After ten years, I notice there is still a chasm between ad agencies and consultancies in this medium. Ad agencies typically aren't good at techno-weenie projects where piles of code are needed. Consultancies are better at that, but not so hot when it comes to conjuring creative campaigns and executing them. That's where guys like me come in to bridge that gap.

Over the years I've learned many lessons that I carry forward into my second decade online.

I learned that what worked last year may or may not work this year or next. Some things that worked five years ago, then stopped working, are now just starting to work again. Why? Because five years ago it was too early for some ideas and now this medium has matured enough to embrace what was premature back then.

I've learned that some ideas may never mature. Micro-payments is one concept I've been skeptical of since the beginning. Why pay next to nothing for something when you can get it for absolutely nothing elsewhere on the Net? Perhaps I'll be proven wrong in the future on this. It won't be the first or the last time.

I've learned to trust my gut. Hundreds of times over the years I've seen schemes that were heralded as the second coming whilst I thought to myself that they didn't make any sense. One key is to simply say to yourself, "Show me the money!"

I've learned that when it comes to technology people run hot and cold. When AOL was down for a day it was headline news at one point. Now, AOL is headline news for other reasons, and people think the Net is dead. How ridiculous that is when you consider how much time people with power of the purse spend online.

I've learned to keep myself from being online every waking hour. It's too easy to stare at this screen and literally loose perspective. So, am I going to watch movies on my desktop computer screen? Of course not. Maybe my laptop, but not my desktop.

Are there other lessons I've learned over the years that are worth sharing? Yes, and I'll share more of them in upcoming issues of Web Digest For Marketers. They'll also be posted at http://wdfm.com where you can find all previous Publisher's Notes that have appeared in this newsletter.