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.

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