COURSE CORRECTION DAY

Every now and then I need to slow down, mentally climb above it all to attempt to give myself a new, more realistic view of it all. It is so easy to get wrapped up in it all, especially as an Internet Entrepreneur whereby I spend a lot of my time alone, sitting in front of the laptop exploring and creating new worlds.
So today seems to be one of those. Clean house physically, mentally and spiritually is a refreshing experience but usually, like most things, appreciated after the fact.
So I clean, prioritize and discard the old and that deemed useful no more. My thinking use to be, when in doubt, keep it...JUST IN CASE! Can you identify? Now my new, more improved thinking is when in doubt, throw it out....it even rhymes!
Tomorrow I shall chart my new course based upon a re-thought vision of what I want my organization to look like, function and represent. The magic, I believe, will come as a result of clarifying the vision...the more specific I can be the easier it will be to navigate my way there.
Wish me luck!
Mike
as My Atlas Shrugged

TRAFFIC'S DOMAIN NAME AUCTION

WOW! That's all I can say about the Domain Name auction held today at the TRAFFIC Conference at the Westin Diplomat Hotel. They auctioned off over 300 domain names for some extraordinary sums, some for well over a Million dollars. It started at 1:30pm and I had to leave for an appointment at 4pm with just over 100 names already pitched by the Auctioneer. The event was sponsored by Monte Cann's company, Moniker.com and they did a great job! The Auctioneer was extremely entertaining as he exibited a great sense of humor. When I left the most money spent for a single name was $1.5 million for "Cameras.com". There were other that were rumored to draw more than that so I am eager to log on and see the results. It is amazing that all of this "virtual real estate" goes for the premium prices that it does. Remember, that all of the domain name originallty sold for under $10!!!
Only in America?
Mike
@ www.myatlasshrugged.com

TRAFFIC DOMAIN CONFERENCE 2006

DAY 1 - Today is Day 1 of the 2006 TRAFFIC Domain Conference & Expo being held at the Westin Diplomat Hotel in Hallandale Florida. For those of you unaware of South Florida geography, Hallandale is the first city north of the Miami Dade County line and its just south of Hollywood Florida. The new Diplomat Hotel is amazing and I was just told today that it is the most expensive hotel built (I believe) in the U.S. Whatever the case, it's beautiful!
I attended several of the scheduled panel discussions which consisted mostly of Domain Industry related content.
I am excited about the upcoming Domain Name Auction being held at the event. They anticipate generating big dollars at the auction and I mean millions. I did hear an interesting tidbit about a name that might be put up for auction. As most of you know, the company YouTube.com was recently sold to Google for $1.68 billion dollars. Well it turns out that that there is a company that has been in existence since the 1990s called Utube.com which specializes in buying and selling used metal tubing and such. As a result of YouTube.com's explosive success, the other company, Utube.com has seen its daily traffic increase several thousand-fold resulting in their hosting company shutting down because they could not accommodate the surge of hits! So now it seems that Utube is exploring suing YouTube and Google for domain name infringement which obviously has tremendous implications. And...on top of all of this, Monte Cann of TRAFFIC 2006 was negotiating today to put Utube.com up for auction at the event.
I'll keep you posted of this.
The only other thing I have to say about the event is the quality of "goodies" provided by the companies sponsoring the event. I am referring to T-shirts, pens, notebooks, knickknacks and other somewhat useless paraphernalia. Well I loaded up a couple of goodie bags so I satisfied my lower self...for now.
I'll keep you posted on the event as it unfolds this week. I do hope the sessions pick up in terns of energy and content.
Until then, Mike
http://www.targetedtraffic.com/

TRAFFIC EAST 2006

Hope and anticipation are two very powerful emotions as they can change one's outlook significantly and motivation to rise daily with extraordinary exuberance. I think that most of us can relate to anticipating an upcoming birthday, anniversary or christmas morning and the feeling of excitement it can bring as the day approaches.
Ever since re-discovering Internet Marrketing and its tremendous possibilities I have been living with the feeling of an impending xmas morning and what a glorious feeling it is!
I love looking forward to something...anything....as long as it breaks me out of the daily monotony I live with. In 2 days, Wednesday, October 25th, I will begin attending the TRAFFIC EAST 2006 Conference being held atthe beautiful Westin Diplomat Hotel on Hallandale Beach, just north of the Miami Dade County line. The event is THE event for those in the Web Domain name business as they buy and sell their virtual real estate parcels for ungodly sums. I hope to once again utilize an industry event to further my knowledge and circle of influence by practicing aggressive Networking skills. The event is first class with some great speakers and a veritable whos-who of industry pundits. I plan to document this leg of my journey right here on my blog for all to see and hopefully benefit by....so stay tuned, OK?
Mike
http://www.targetedtraffic.com/

NEWSLETTER LAUNCH

Well, it shouldn't be long now, the much anticipated launch of the "My Atlas Shrugged Newsletter". Its' birth has taken more time than I anticipated, however it is something that I can be proud of but more importantly, something that accurately articulates my values and vision of the world. Kind of "As Mike Sees It", if you will. I vascillated in when to let it fly primarily due to some of the mixed messages I was receiving by those that teach and motivate for a living. Have you heard the phrase, "You don't have to get it right, you just have to get it going"? The moral of that statement speaks more to self-motivation issues, frozen inaction and/or perfectionism. While I did want the inaugural issue of our Newdletter to be great, I was more concerned with it setting an accurate course for the journey we were about to begin. You see, I wanted this newsletter to be more than just a gathtering of interesting content and amusing anecdotes. It needed to convey a message congruent with our beliefs, values and mission statement. So in addition to being a "good read" it would draw those that either share our mindset or interested in elevating their present one to another more principled one. We believe that we have achieved the above but will monitor the results, i.e., the people we resonate with always soliciting their feedback.
Thanks for letting me shre......Mike Lang
http://www.simplemarketing123.com/