Let’s face it, everyone knows that this whole internet thing is really just a fad. Sure there is lots of buzz and plenty of money chasing crazy ideas down, but mark my words, in a year or two, all this mumbo jumbo web 2.0 stuff will unravel and people will back to reading print newspapers again.
Just look at how zany the names have gotten, Vimeo, Scooop, Zooomr? It’s clear, that the Silicon Valley fat cats are doing way too many deals over happy hour. Pretty soon though, the internet will go the way of the hula hoop and the free dinners are going to get harder to come by. Since it’s only a matter of time before the public figures all of this out, my advice to my fellow bloggers is to quit waiting for the Google buy out and instead go the IPO route.
In 2000, all it took was a sock puppet and a .com in your name and you could get access to plenty of cash. (Sadly, Kozmo was too good to last 
) Today, investors are more discriminating though. You must use complicated words like social memes, video data systems and user generated content to confuse them into believing that negative cash flow can be sustainable. If you really need the extra push, you can encourage your own customers to get in on the IPO 
it was quite helpful to Vonage when they were unloading their shares.
Going from the private world of web 2.0, to the public markets doesn’t guarantee you success, but that doesn’t mean that you still can’t get an edge. Believe it or not, if your ticker symbol is easy to pronounce, it has a better chance of success in the markets, than one that’s a mouthful.
In 2000, there was a massive land grab and poachers bought up every domain they could think of. Some of them made money and some of them lost, but as more and more companies continue to go public, I am predicting that poaching stock ticker symbols will become the next hot market. If Webmasters are smart they would contact Go Daddy on the pronto to see if they can reserve their symbol.
Most of the good ticker symbols have already been snatched up of course, but with a little creativity and digging, I was able to find a few symbols, that would be perfect for some of the sites that I follow. The following is my list of available ticker symbols for when the web 3.0 bubble finally hits. If you are lucky enough to get out at the top, my advice is to play global warming and invest in ice cubes, they will be in short supply one day. This is an evolving list so, if you want to suggest a site, please feel free to leave a comment and I will try and find an available symbol.
BETA – Given it’s tech focus and with so many R&D companies out there, I can’t believe that someone hasn’t already registered BETA with the Nasdaq. Since it’s available, I think BetaNews should snatch it up and use it as an opportunity to launch their own early stage incubation fund. BetaNews offers great analysis on business trends day in and day out. With as many start ups that they have covered, they would have a good idea for which ones would make it and which ones would flop.
FEAR – It’s not hard to figure out why a company might not want to use FEAR for their identity on Wall St., but it would the perfect symbol for the Consumerist, if they wanted to go public. I can’t think of another publication on the net that strikes more fear into the PR industry. Forget pay per post, if the Consumerist would change their business model to pay to not post, they could fetch an attractive multiple as a Time Warner spin off.
DIGG - I wanted to find symbols that weren’t taken, but the symbol DIGG was too perfect to come up with a substitute. Besides, I think that there is still a way for Digg to get their ticker back from this early symbol poacher 
Right now, the company that has the symbol is named Digital Gas Inc. They trade on the pink sheets for .03 cents a share. Last fall, they partnered with a company called Techno Rubber, so they are clearly buzz saavy. They would understand the benefit of letting Digg takeover. Digg might have to give up 5% of the company to get the deal done, but if Digital Gas does not play ball, Kevin could ask each Digger to buy 100 shares and could seize control in a hostile Digg mob takeover.
GRDD – Time Warner isn’t the only one that could spin off lucrative web divisions. News Corp would realize handsome profits by spinning off MySpace to the public markets. They could even get paid again, by turning around and suing them for content violations once they were a separate company.. Whether it’s blocking outside developers from working within the community or bombarding you with spammy ads, GRDD would be an appropriate ticker symbol for what MySpace has turned into.
MEME – I don’t know what Gabe Riviera puts in the secret sauce, but influencers can’t get enough of Techmeme. It is where you go when you want to check the pulse of the blogosphere. It’s ability to separate signal from noise, makes the site a destination that you return to many times during the day. With Techmeme’s influence over early adopters, they have traffic that ad agencies will pay a premium for. Without any significant fixed costs, Gabe’s gross margins have got to look great. With a premium product and the public market’s crazy P/E valuations, MEME could easily turn $1 million in net income, into $35 million of market cap. I would be surprised if private equity was not already knocking, but at least Gabe knows that MEME is available, if he needs a back up plan.
GSUP – Everybody pretends to hate gossip, but deep down we love it. This is why Valleywag has been so successful. Sure Gawker itself could go public, but with as much inside information as these guys get, people wouldn’t think twice about giving them a billion dollars to run their own hedge fund. Sure there would be ethical considerations and issues with the SEC, but as long as they stick to the credit swap markets, it would be harder for the regulatory agencies to nail them.
TCVC – TechCrunch already has financial backing, but why make shareholders trade stock in Silicon Valley back alleys, when Michael Arrington could IPO his own venture capital firm and let shareholders trade their equity on the open markets. Arrington has already invested in several start ups and they could be rolled up into the IPO. He better hurry on this one though, Jason Calacanis has already poached MichaelArrington.com and I would not put it past him to go after TechCrunch VC’s symbol as well.