October 31, 2007
A few weeks ago, Ted Murphy started talking about the future of PayPerPost. Since the next incarnation of PayPerPost will be about MORE than just getting paid per post, Ted wanted to use this opportunity to brand PayPerPost in a whole new way.
I’ll admit, I was against it.
Especially when I saw the dumb names he had come up with. Zumzy.com? Pobdob.com? And even Odebo.com? What was Ted smoking? He’s spent thousands of dollars marketing and branding PayPerPost - not just the site, and the opps, but as a household name. From the t-shirts and postie prize packs, to the Big Blue Monster and all of the opps we’ve done about the company - was he really going to let it all go to waste?
Even worse, was he going to go with a made up nonsense word that doesn’t convey what the site does?
After we shot down a lot of crappy names, Ted came up with Izea.com - and even I liked it. Instead of continuing to operate all of the PayPerPost under the PayPerPost name, Ted and company will be launching Izea.com tomorrow, November 1st. Under the Izea umbrella you’ll find sites like:
Zookoda.com
BloggersChoiceAwards.com
RockStartup.com
RSSBrief.com
URLBrief.com
BlogInSpace.com
As of tomorrow, PayPerPost, Inc. will be officially known as IZEA™. It’s less about getting paid per post, and more about social media and marketing all coming together into a whole suite of products and solutions. On November 10th, at PostieCon, Izea’s new service (code name: Argus) will be released to a select few.
I asked Ted if he felt he’d be able to grow the services hosted under IZEA at the rate that PayPerPost has virally grown. He stated:
I am very confident in our ability to grow these properties and this new structure helps provide a framework to do so. In the future these offerings will become more integrated and beneficial to each other. The amount of organic growth we have seen has been incredible to this point but we can do even better if we acknowledge that sites outside of PayPerPost have a lifecycle of their own and dedicate the proper resources accordingly.
What does Ted say to the critics? Because you know, people have been saying Ted’s going to fail for over a year…and he’s still going strong. (He should dress up as the Energizer Bunny tonight!)
The critics have wanted us to fail since day one yet we continue to consistently set sales and signup records. We remain focused on our mission and delivering value to the bloggers and advertisers we serve.
(What do you have to say now, Arrington? Scoble? How about you, Calacanis?)
Argus is a breakthrough in the advertiser / blogger relationship. Not only will it not be as concerned with pagerank (take that, Google!) but it will provide:
- Advanced reporting
- Open APIs
- Blog analytics
- Management tools
- Social networking features
The PayPerPost / IZEA network now touts 80,000 bloggers and 11,000 advertisers. That officially qualifies as the world’s largest consumer generated ad network.
For old timers like me, who will miss PayPerPost.com - don’t worry - the marketplace is going to continue to operate. As IZEA grows, you’ll find that a single log on for the site will give you access to everything IZEA can offer. The sites will share profiles and data and streamline the experience for users from product to product.
About IZEA:
IZEA is a next-generation, Web-based social media marketing company. Comprised of properties including PayPerPost, Zookoda, Bloggers Choice Awards and RockStartup, IZEA aims to empower everyone to value and exchange content, creativity and influence. IZEA’s current flagship product is PayPerPost, the leading marketplace for Consumer Generated Advertising that connects advertisers and consumer content creators to deliver compelling marketing messages. IZEA is venture funded by Inflexion Partners, Village Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Advertisers, consumer content creators and partners are encouraged to join the social media revolution at www.izea.com.
4:37 pm
Filed under Geek Squad
13 Comments »
In honor of Halloween today, I have a special post in store for you. Last week, I attended a costume parade at the school my children go to. 
I saw a lot of great costumes, and a few that missed the mark. I wanted to share the best of the best, and the worst of the worst with you, so that you can learn from the mistakes others have made.
Please note - I’m not making fun of children. That would be wrong, and mean. I’m making fun of the parents who let their children out of the house in these costumes. And that is quite fun!
Here’s the first costume - Dr. Phil. I actually think this one is genius! I don’t know that I would shave my kids head for a costume when he’s only 9 or so years old…but the costume is hilarious. Of course, I’m sure his peers don’t have a clue who he is, but all of the parents enjoyed it. I guess the Dr. Phil costume isn’t much fun for him…dressing up as something that your peers don’t “get” is a tough position to be in.
This one is a what NOT to do. 
I covered up the kids faces to protect their identities, but this poor kid was on the verge of tears. He is well aware that his parents dress him funny, even when it’s Halloween.
I’m not sure if he’s supposed to be Pinocchio, or if his parents are into lederhosen, but either way, they’re asking for their kid to catch a beating on the playground. What’s the deal with the big fake wooden clogs?
And lastly…this one is just plain WRONG.
This is a 10 year old boy, dressed in a princess outfit. Complete with his high top sneakers underneath his skirt. SOMEONE has issues. If he was 15, this would be a funny costume. “Ha, ha, look at Mike! He’s the captain of the football team and he dressed like a girl for Halloween!”. When the boy in the princess dress is only 9 or 10, it makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth. What were his parents thinking?
I don’t care how much your 10 year old begs and pleads to let his inner girl out on October 31st, it’s just WEIRD at this age level. Be the parent and hand him a hobo costume, or a Freddy Krueger mask instead. It’s not ironic at this age, it’s just creepy.
As for my kids, they’ll be leaving the house dressed as a boy pirate, a girl pirate, and the Bride of Frankenstein. There will be no fake clogs, or shaved heads, or gender bending dresses. Call me old fashioned!
*I should probably point out that this entry has a lot of sarcasm in it. I realize a lot of people will not pick up on that, and will attempt to use the comments to make me out to be the bad guy. If you feel the need, keep on movin’.
1:42 pm
Filed under Ha, Ha!
7 Comments »
October 29, 2007
So the internet is in an uproar about the recent PR penalty assessed by Google. I’m actually feeling rather zen-like about the whole thing. I see people scrambling to remove paid links from their blogs, or references to the companies that they work for. I see bloggers obsessing over how to link people in their sidebars, clamoring to get off blogrolls they’ve been a part of for years, all hoping to find the magical combination of things that Google is looking for in order to get that high PR.
I’m not doing a thing. I’m blogging the way I’ve always blogged, I’m linking who I want to link to, and I’m not deleting links or content from any of my sites. Stupid? I don’t think so. I don’t want paid blogging to change me, or how I blog, or what I do, and I’m not going to obsess about my pagerank, especially since Google will never tell us exactly how to obtain a higher PR.
I also see bloggers worrying more about monetizing their blogs, and less about the content of their blogs. As a moderator on the PayPerPost boards, I see a lot of people talking about interim posts, and what’s allowed. Does an Amazon.com affiliate link count as being sponsored? If you receive a free product from a company and blog about it, is that post sponsored? What about Kontera links in your interim posts? People are complaining that PayPerPost wants to control their blogs and they can’t blog what they want, when they want.
To that I say…good for PayPerPost! A little quality control goes a long way, too little, too late, and all that jazz.
I want to read original, NON sponsored content when I come to your blog. I consider myself to be a fairly good writer, but I know people really aren’t here to know what I think about mixers or loans or clocks…and all of the other products I’m paid to review. If every single post on this blog was “sponsored”, I would lost a lot of traffic from the so called “regular readers”. Focus less on monetizing every single aspect of your blog, and worry about your CONTENT. You can’t rely entirely on search engine traffic, and one part of my blogs success is that I have a regular group of readers who come here once a week, if not daily, and seek out content. I abhor blogs that have some form of a sponsored link in every single post, be it contextual, or an affiliate link, or a sponsored link. I find myself skimming those entries, discounting the writer’s words, because the link screams to me, “I am only writing this to get paid.”
What’s so hard about inserting some content that’s just for the sake of blogging? If you want to review a book you purchased off Amazon.com, and you want to link to the book using an affiliate link, so be it. But please put some of the great content that made me start reading you in the first place on either side of that book review. Tell me about what your kids are up to, or about the idiot receptionist at the office. Make me remember why I came to read your blog in the first place!
As for me, I’ve made a conscious effort to place original non-sponsored content on either side of any sponsored review / post / link I place into a post. What are YOU doing to take back your blog?
12:25 pm
Filed under Bitchy-Poo, Geek Squad
17 Comments »
October 26, 2007
When sites are planning a future go live date, or a future beta stage, and have limited information on their site about what they’ll actually do, are you turned off, or turned on? Based on the limited information available at Next2Friends, I’m actually interested to see what’s going to happen when they launch on December 24th, 2007. Not only is it VERY ambitious to launch on a major U.S. holiday, it shows that they’re not afraid to compete with Santa Claus.
In the meantime, the site is giving away Dell laptops like they’re going out of style, and if you can’t win one of those, you can try for an iPod Touch each month. The next laptop drawing is December 15th, and the next iPod Touch drawing is November 15th. Two chances to win, two cool prizes. But wait, there’s more! Email your friends an invite to the contest, and they can enter too. For each friend you refer, your name goes into the pot another time.
Founding members of Next2Friends earn more cash, more rewards, and the chance to be the first to get on amazing Web 2.0 services. It’s a brand new social networking experience that combines the best of Facebook + MySpace + YouTube into one interface.
This is a paid review.
10:47 pm
Filed under Geek Squad
1 Comment »
Another early night for me last night. I didn’t even stay up long enough to watch Grey’s Anatomy. (I did get to it today, and it was absolutely delicious.)
Tomorrow will be an early morning for me, despite it being a Saturday. My sister will be over to my house around 7am, and we’ll be heading to Orlando to meet our other sister, and our niece. We’re walking in a 5K walk! Yeah, I know, it seems a little crazy to be walking in another walk, just a week after I completed a 60 mile walk for breast cancer, but this is important. My sister’s mom has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, so we’re walking to to support the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
My kids will be walking with us, and this will be their first experience doing a walk for charity. My sister made us purple ribbons (the color for pancreatic cancer support) to wear during the walk, but I need to go through our clothes and see if we have any purple shirts to wear!
If you’re interested in making a donation to the walk, you can click here to visit the Team Hope website and contribute to my walking fund. All donations are tax deductible.
1:49 pm
Filed under Daily Happenings
3 Comments »
October 25, 2007
As I headed back to the elementary school a 2nd time this morning (because someone forgot the candy corn he needed to bring in for today) I noticed a few things and started making a bulleted list to blog in my head:
1) The cold front seems to have finally shown up! It’s a lovely 60 degrees outside right now, and I can only hope it stays with us for a few more days. We’re going to some Halloween events this weekend, and it would be SO nice for the kids to not sweat inside their costumes.
2) Despite thinking I was over my 3-Day injuries, I’m feeling a new little twinge in my left thigh that wasn’t there yesterday. It figures…as soon as I let my guard down, I notice a new ache and pain! I was just talking with my sister last night when she was over about recovery this year, and how I felt better so much quicker, but I felt worse during the walk. She’s in agreement with me that the walking was much tougher this year, but the recovery process was relatively quick. I guess I spoke too soon.
3) Oh hey - I went to bed at 9:30 last night! I was actually IN bed at 8:30 reading, and watching a little TV, and I told myself lights off at 9:30 and went right to bed. That never happens. I’m still so tired!
4) I watched the end of that old movie, Baby Boom, with Diane Keaton in bed last night. I remember seeing it in the movies with my mother once upon a time. I love the end when her character goes into the big board meeting - she looks like a linebacker in her 1987 shoulder pads. If shoulder pads ever come back, I will not be jumping onto that trend.
9:11 am
Filed under Daily Happenings
5 Comments »
October 24, 2007
Last year, shortly after we moved into our new home, my oldest daughter got involved with a girls softball league. It was her first experience with a team sport, but she loved it…so much so that when they offered a camp for the league over the winter break, she signed up for that as well. When I heard about this fastpitch softball cruise with Crystl Bustos, Natasha Watley, and Amanda Freed, I knew it was something she’d love to partake in. Unfortunately, she’s only 11, so she’s too young, but if you’ve got a daughter, a sister, or a young women in your life who is into softball, this trip is worth a look. The cruise leaves from Long Beach, CA on December 21st, and returns on December 23rd. It’s open to female softball players ages 13 through 18 and the girls will participate in clinics and trainings with Olympic stars Crystl Bustos, Natasha Watley, and Amanda Freed. (One of the coachs who ran my daughter’s winter clinic was also a former Olympic star!)
The trip was put together by SoftballCruise.com and YourCitySports.com and besides a great trip on the water, the girls will have on-field instruction on Catalina Island during the cruise. It’s really a wonderful opportunity for girls to bond and learn more about a sport they love!
Fastpitch Softball Cruise with Crystl Bustos, Natasha Watley, and Amanda Freed
October 23, 2007 – Long Beach, California – On December 21st and 22nd girls ages 13 through 18 will have the opportunity to embark on a land and sea cruise expedition with some of the world’s greatest Fastpitch Softball Olympic stars. YourCitySports.com, a provider of services within the Softball industry, together with Crystl Bustos, Natasha Watley, and Amanda Freed are offering this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For detailed information on the cruise please visit the website at http://www.softballcruise.com.
The two-day, two-night event starts off with a Bon Voyage party where all the parents and guests are invited to mingle with the stars and crew. The boat sets sail on Saturday morning and makes way towards Catalina Island while the guests have breakfast followed by an exercise session on the top deck. The cruise arrives at Descono Bay where the real training begins. The star athletes will focus on subjects such as conditioning, agility, pitching, batting, and fielding.
Back on the ship is where most of the incredible lifetime memories will be created. For dinner, the athletes will compete in a cooking competition judged by the guests. After eating, the guests and athletes will unite their vocal cords to create a Rock Video with the stars and DJ. In the evening the guests will have the chance to reflect on their day and socialize with friends. Sunday morning the fun continues when everyone disembarks for a beach picnic and Volleyball game.
On the way home, guests will be able to obtain up to two autographs and personal photos from each star. Since there will be a photographer most of the time, photos and other great memorabilia will be available for sale at the end of the trip, although each ticket does include one professional 8½” x 11″ photograph. Upon arrival, parents are once again invited to board the ship for a Farewell Award Ceremony.
For more information please contact:
Dain Turner / 800-604-7247
http://www.softballcruise.com
sales@yourcitysports.com
6:12 pm
Filed under Going Places
Leave a Comment »
When I returned home Sunday night, I had 3 nights of TV to catch up on. I was on some kind of walker’s high and stayed up till midnight, despite walking for 3 days over the weekend. I started with my favorite night of TV, which is Thursday night. My sister had given me a little spoiler for Survivor over dinner (oops!) but I was still surprised to see Peih-Gee and Jaime throw the challenge, and to do it so BADLY! I know that many Survivors have gone off to take acting gigs after their season, and Jaime’s performance on Thursday night was a horrible example of acting. She couldn’t have been more obvious, and I was so glad to see Jeff call her on it.
It’s going to be just delicious to see James take his frustration out on her for the rest of his stay in China.
5:43 pm
Filed under Survivor
1 Comment »
The weather is absolutely miserable today. It’s rainy outside, and there’s not even a hint of Autumn in the air. Just a few days ago, the weatherman was predicting a cold front for last night and today, and all traces of that seem to have vanished. I really wish the cooler weather would just GET here already. It’s so irritating to go out for Halloween when it’s 90 degrees and humid. It just doesn’t feel much like October when it’s so hot out, or so rainy.
Jim has a little rule about decorating for the holidays that all depends on the weather cooling down next month. He won’t put up Christmas lights until there’s a nice chill in the air. He likes to go outside and down a glass or two of eggnog while he’s stringing up the lights. I completely understand why - it’s hard to feel very Christmas-y when it’s 90 degrees outside, and you’re stringing lights around a palm tree. Speaking of our lights, we had a little issue last year with our breaker being tripped at least once a night. All of our outside outlets apparently run off the same breaker, and the load was too much for it. I’d like to switch to LED Christmas lights this year, because they use about 1/10th of the energy that a normal strand of lights sucks up. I think it may just make the difference between the breaker tripping, or not tripping. Not to mention, they last 50,000 hours! You wouldn’t dive into your box of Christmas decorations only to find that half of your lights no longer work.
So come on, fall! I’ve got a lot of decorating to do!
5:05 pm
Filed under Daily Happenings
2 Comments »
October 22, 2007
I returned home from the 3 Day Walk for Breast Cancer last night, a little worse for the wear, but on a natural high that’s hard to beat. This year was much harder than last year, with the heat and humidity. To see how we did with our fundraising in Tampa, as well as a picture of me at the finish with some teammates, visit my other blog, 3DayMom.com.
I couldn’t have done it without my friend Kim. She kept me going even when I wanted to lop my feet off at the ankles and get a ride back home. We shared a bed for 3 nights, and shared a fabulous experience together for 3 days.
For now, I’ll leave you with this picture of me from my return home last night - victory is sweet!
7:45 pm
Filed under 3-Day
12 Comments »
