Some GoDaddy Love

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This little surprise showed up today:

Dear Lance Weatherby,

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN®) recently agreed to reduce their Registrar Transaction Fee from $.25 to $.22. What does this mean for you?

Good news. You have been credited $.03/yr for each domain name you registered or renewed dating back to July 1, 2006* — $.60 has been placed into your Go Daddy® account with this customer number:

Me thinks that most companies would have just kept this in their own bank account.

Nice move. While the $.60 really means nothing to me (and based on the 20 million domains GoDaddy has this is costing them about $500,000 on the bottom line), I feel like I am dealing with an honest company that is treating me fairly.

May 2, 2007  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Customer Focus, Internet

Creep Don’t Leap

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One of the things that Cam Lanier says a lot is that it is better to “creep out then leap out”.

It is advice that I adhere to closely when marketing technology. Move slowly, close to the ground, like a reptile, measure where you are, and really pounce when you know enough about what you are doing to be confident of the result of your marketing effort.

Seth Godin posted today:

A lot of organizations decide to skip the rice and beans and studio apartment step. They decide to “go big or stay home.” More often than not, they end up going home.

Don’t go big early, pace yourself, stay out late.

Creep.

May 1, 2007  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Marketing

Don’t Listen To The Locals

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Business 2.0 (which oddly does not have its own web site, now 1.0 is that?) thinks Atlanta is hot. ATL was ranked tenth in a study on job growth. The forecasted job growth is being driven by small companies with less then 12 workers. Startup like companies.

Specifically mentioned was Technology Enterprise Park, which like the ATDC, is affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology. Tech Park is a not so little 600,000 square foot facility on the west side of campus that houses both offices and lab space.

  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Business

Open VC & ATDC Info Session

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Charles Ross and I have been talking with Jason Caplain from Southern Captial Ventures about his open call to Atlanta Entrepreneurs to sit down with him for 15 minutes on May 17. The end result of those discussions is that the sessions are being held at the ATDC.

If you have an interest in the ATDC and want to spend 10 minutes explaining your concept after speaking with Jason drop me a line and we can arrange something.

I am also going to run the 2nd ATDC information session the same day. The session will from 6:00 to 7:30 pm in the ATDC Board Room. Here are the directions.

The rules are unchanged.

1. You must read about becoming an ATDC company on our Web site. The more you read the better.

2. You must RSVP via a comment on this post including your full name and a one sentence description of what you are creating. You will be asked to do this at the session as well. If you are not comfortable in telling folks exactly what you are working on, think of a way to generically tell the what, without telling the how.

3. If you can not abide by rules one and two do not attend.

April 26, 2007  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in atdc, Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Computer Caring On The Rise

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When Paul Graham declared that “Microsoft is dead” he also made the bold statement that “All the computer people use Macs or Linux now. Windows is for grandmas, like Macs used to be in the 90s. So not only does the desktop no longer matter, no one who cares about computers uses Microsoft’s anyway.”

Well Apple (AAPPL) released earnings tonight. Sales soared 22% year over year.

The surprising part, iPod sales declined 1%. All those $79 shuffles and perhaps folks waiting for the touchscreen iPod before upgrading (like me).

But Apple sold 1.5 million Macs last quarter compared with 1.1 million the last year, while computer revenue jumped to $2.27 billion from $1.57 billion a year earlier. Thats a 36% increcease in units and 44% increase in revenue. Granted, Apple’s market share ain’t much but a lot more folks seem to be paying a lot more money to own a Mac.

Lots of folks care about computers these days.

April 25, 2007  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Web/Tech

Georgia Technology Jobs Down

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AeA just released its 2007 Cyberstates report. Nationally technology jobs increased by 3% nationally, adding nearly 150,000 jobs.

Alas, Georgia had a net loss of 900 jobs. The study attributes this to big losses in the Internet and telecommunications sectors. I take that to mean BellSouth, Cingular, and EarthLink.

The cloud in the silver lining is that VC investment in Georgia was up 44% last year and there are a bunch of people looking for something to do, which might lead to some future interesting startups in the Internet and telecommunications areas.

April 24, 2007  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Web/Tech

VC Calling Atlanta Entrepreneurs

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Jason Caplain has announced that he is bringing venture captial open house day to Atlanta on May 17. You can send him a note to get on the agenda. He is tightening the focus on this session to e-commerce, software, wireless, digital media and healthcare IT companies.

If you get on the schedule it would be wise to read this and take his challenge. Tell him what your company is doing in one sentence. It can be done for any technology startup.

April 23, 2007  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Blogging Equal Google Juice

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Here is a little proof.

I had not used Google for a while, but I am back on it these days. I did a vanity search. Below is the result.
Google_juice_2

Now I have been findable on the Internet for nearly 12 years. Typically 300 to 400 results. Now is it 9,500. The only thing that has changed is I blog.

I am now the sixth result on the term weatherby and twenty first on lance. The gun company, the guy with the yellow jerseys, and the candy company are still ahead of me.

  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Uncategorized

Duct Tape Marketing

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Guy put up the best (I honestly don’t think I have ever seen one before)
ten step marketing program I have ever seen if you are business to business focused.

I might be able to boil it down to three. One, focus on a strategic target. Two, measure what is important. Three, commit to the plan while having the flexibility to adjust to the measured results.

April 19, 2007  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Marketing