It’s All About Circulation and the Trash Can


Morning folks!!
When I was a kid like many other kids, I collected coins. In coin collecting 'Circulation' is the keyword. How many coins in circulation is
the basis for value. The less available, the more they would normally be worth.
It is also the word used to describe the condition of a coin. Uncirculated means
it has not been used. It is brand new.

Later in life I was selling products and I printed millions of brochures.
In this business, part of how I judged it was exactly the opposite. Larger
circulation was better. I hired many to pass out brochures. I knew they had done
their job when I began seeing them in the garbage. That meant that I flooded the
trade show with my material. I had the market circulated. They may not need my product but my job was to make sure they knew it existed. I planted the seeds that
needed to be planted and just like in real life, most don't germinate into
sales. But a percentage do. My focus was to make the conditions right to
penetrate that percentage. The garbage can was my odometer. They were empty the
first day of a show. But there would be a point during every 3 day show that I
would hit critical mass. Where attendees knew my product was available. Where
any interest was evident or sometimes not so evident but actually kept for
reference and another source.

So enter domain Industry. Getting the message out of this great product and
investment known as domain names. Get out not to a trade show with 50,000 people
in a confined space for 5 days but to an entire planet?? How do you circulate
that?? Network Solutions was a registry but was dysfunctional. It certainly was
not an advertising or marketing machine like GoDaddy.com. So the head of the
snake (Network Solutions) was not even in the game. They were passive. The few
that were into domains were each working in their own universe. Many scared to
step out of it and the rest not wanting to. Trying to keep it all a secret. But
since few if any were really communicating back then, who knew where anyone
stood?

The first chance I had to 'Circulate' about domains was the adult industry.
At first they rejected what I was saying. So I would venture to other industries
like real estate where they would reject it much more intensely. That happened
at other venues as well. So I went back to 'Jonathan's World' in late 1996 to find out it
was there no more. Eventually finding my way to Ynot and bumping back into
Jonathan. Jonathan became my single biggest aid in circulating my far fetched
ideas on domain names. He was a well respected and innovative webmaster with a
huge persona. In between that time we had met at a pay per call show in Los
Angeles. Just 1 day after the first adult Internet gathering happened. I pulled
out my list of domain names from my back pocket (all 126 of them) and we sat for a while and discussed what I had and
what I saw coming. He saw it too and that really was the beginning. He acted
like a line backer protecting a quarterback and allowed me the platform to
circulate my crazy beliefs. That was aided by payouts that were 100x what the average was at that point in time. While most were making 1/10 of one penny per visitor, I was earning a dime. I actually thought my calculator was broken or I was doing something wrong until the checks strated coming in. The checks started coming. Nothing was broken. It just proved there was gold in them thar hills. Gold nobody believed was there until that moment. Circulation had finally begun. Now to repeat it 6
billion times. And if not 6 billion than at least every English speaking
country.

So I can get bogged down on these early stories all day. A LOT happened between 1996 and 1999. No period in my life has ever matched that era. It was like decades packed into months. Let's fast forward
to 2000 and the first domain board. Just my first attempt to have something
stand up on domain names alone. A chance to circulate and have domains stand up on their own. A starting point. I made a few opening posts and figured I would talk to myself. One by
one they came. Eventually more boards opened. To me, more circulation. More chatter.
More soldiers. Then 2004 TRAFFIC. Again a way to circulate the message with
slightly more assistance and a bigger playing field. That was the single biggest
blast I could have dreamed of to help 'Circulate' the message. It's all about
circulation. Steve Forbes and all other speakers are to qualify and circulate.
Then fast forward to today and all the blogs. More and more soldiers spreading
the word and gospel of domain investing. How could you not love it? I do. I love
it and it gives me great satisfaction as it has become so manistream and
circulation is going strong and the first question I asked has already been
answered. How to circulate domain names to 6 billion people? I think I can
safely say I see the stuff in the garbage can and that signals success. Look
where you like, I find my success in the trash
Have a GREAT day!