Remarkablogger

Well, no, not really, he doesn’t. But he uses the name Michael as an example of a name so common that it makes for a poor unique branding/domain proposition. I know everybody on the internet links to Godin. Normally I wouldn’t, preferring to write original material. But he’s made such a good point here, one I agree with strongly. So, without further ado: The new rules of naming.

So, why am I using just my name? Why doesn’t my blog have a catchy web 2.0-ish title? I’ll answer the second question first: because my blog predates the hoopla. Now to the first question. My name isn’t just Michael. It’s Michael Martine, which sounds great and rolls off the tongue quite nicely. It’s alliterative. It’s got rhythm. It sounds like it means business. I was lucky enough to snag my own name as a domain name, whereas many people were not so lucky and they were forced to come up with something else.

This website is my online presence. It’s an analogue of myself and my personality. As I grow older (I’m 36), my one main goal in life is to, quite simply (which means it isn’t simple at all) comfortably be myself and know myself. To discover and root out all “programming loops” that are non-optimal. Self-actualization as spiritual path, if you like. This website, like my interests, goes all over the place from fantasy writing to socio-technological issues to the new marketing and business paradigms enabled by the internet, mixed in with more personal observations, pictures, and writing. I will be me, and I’ll not be pigeon-holed. I think this odd mix of subjects reflects me fairly accurately, and I can think nothing else to call it other than Michael Martine.

And my tag line is killer.