It's not like living on the edge of raging wildfires in southeastern Arizona or taking off from the base at Bagram dodging enemy fire.  It's dangerous like all the folks who know just enough about the Internet business to think they know it all.  Too often, instant success starts to feel like bullet-proof brilliance. 

There's so much opportunity and so little time.  But let's take a little time to learn from experience -- our own or the competition, from experts with success records and professors from the real world of the Web.  Let's make time to seek out education and training from proven sources.  let's make time to optimize those landing pages, analyze that new campaign and test with real users.  Yes, it can take time or cost money, or both, but whenever it's possible, it pays.  It also pays to ask for opinions, listen to fans and followers, and take those reviews to heart, however painful or clueless.

We can also learn from the experience of all the Web designers, developers and marketers whose sites we visit and end up staying longer than we intended.   Besides those favorite and bookmarked sites, it's helpful to learn a little from unexpected places, for example, sites like Drumstick.com, Cavs.com and CreativeKidsEducationFoundation.org.  Other sources include those pop-up surveys asking, "Help us make our website better!"  You may not win the $500 thank-you lottery, but in a few quick minutes, you'll learn from the survey questions asked by your peers at companies like Direct Energy or Home Depot.  And it's good karma.  

It's recommend that every Web professional take a little time to investigate and choose training and education that can fill in the gaps, fit the schedule and not break the budget. Many of our esteemed contributors travel year round to different events to reach Web professionals and their management, sharing their expertise.  Good vendors are another source, and many are packaging training with their technology and services.

Kudos to all those Internet entrepreneurs working 24/7, to the corporate corps doing e-strategy and e-tactics for the big brands and to all the Web whiz kids who can hardly wait to capture the Internet flag.  Definitely the competition is fierce and the heat is on, so today many feel more like a day fighting wildfires or dodging enemy fire.  On those days especially, it's best to remember nobody goes into firefighting without extensive training and back-up, and our Marines are trained before, during and after their deployments in Afghanistan.

When we're flying at Internet speed, sights are trained on future results, not so much on analyzing what we don't know.  But there's no reason to go aloft alone.  It takes just a little more time to get informed, check for trusted sources and ask your fans and friends.  Be fast, don't be dangerous.

SOURCE; Website Magazine

AOL turned its first quarter ad-revenue growth in two years, and investors rewarded the good news by selling off AOL shares.

AOL did, however, miss earnings-per-share estimates by a wide margin, reporting a loss of 11 cents a share compared to an average analyst estimate of 4 cents, and that contributed to the stock hit.  By increasing display ad sales, AOL was able to beat Wall Street's consensus revenue estimate.

As a matter of fact, AOL booked $319 million in ad dollars for the most recent quarter, a 4.7% gain over the same period last year, while total sales dropped 8.4% to $542.2 million.  It's access business slid 22.6% to $201.3 million.

CEO Tim Armstrong's bid to transform AOL from aging internet access business into a media powerhouse appears to be progressing nicely, but not without a few trouble shots.  For the first time since AOL was spun off from parent Time Warner in 2009, AOL increased its advertising revenue and stemmed its overall loss.

AOL's ad business was driven largely by Advertising.com, its third party network, as well as its video network through its acquisitions of Goviral and 5 minutes, accounting for a 29.3% increase to $93.6 million.  AOL's premium ad units also drove the bottom line with domestic display-ad revenue notching a 16% gain to $126.8 million, driven partly by its Huffington Post and Tech Crunch properties.

Despite the initial success of the previous strategy, the company let go of its sales chief, Jeff Levick, and placed Advertising.com manager Ned Brody in charge of all sales operations for the company.