It is terrible here in Illinois.  This is what my house looks like this morning:

We broke our back door trying to open it this morning.  My house is a sheet of ice.  We have about 4 inches of snow.  On top of that, we have freezing rain, so it is definitely an interesting combination we have going on out there.  We watched the traffic report starting quite early this morning, and at this point, Bill isn’t even going to try and go to work.  The bad thing is that he left his laptop at work, so he’s trying to do what he can from his cell phone.  It actually was hailing and snowing at the same time this morning if you can believe it.  We are hoping to take the kids out a tad later and maybe build a snowman.  However, the snow is more like ice chunks, so I don’t know how easy that is going to be.

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Seriously, I love Sony.  You all may remember that I received a Sony Cybershot camera in April.  However, when I went to Izeafest in September, my camera was dead.  I thought it was the battery.  However, it was not.  Instead, I ended up contacting Sony about getting it fixed.  All I can say is that their customer service team rocks.  They were able to send me a label, and I sent my camera back.  In a little less than two weeks, I had my camera back working good as new.  They also able to help me when I lost the cables that connect the camera to the computer.  Since my Cybershot saves to the hard drive first, I need this cable.  They were able to send me one. This kind of customer service makes me want to buy more products like a Sony Vaio the next time I have to buy a new laptop (which should be about a year since that is about as long as my laptops last).

Do you know of any companies out there that have given you excellent customer service?

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Izea is having a pilot program to help them spread the word about IZEA sites, products and services, create a stronger bond within our existing community, and provide provide product insight and assist in continuing innovation. They are looking for some people to give them a hand and want to know why we think we are a great fit for this position.  What do you get for doing all this for them?  Well, there is no hourly rate (darn!).  However, you will get a $1500 travel fee, Ted Murphy’s phone number with access to him, a blog makeover, the ability to try out new products before anyone else, recruiting bonuses, Postie Packs, etc.  As you can see, there are a ton of fringe benefits.

I wish I could say that I was one of the first members.  However, PPP started in July of 2006 and I joined up in September.  I had started my blog to keep in touch with my parents and friends in Green Bay, Wisconsin (I live in Illinois now).  In 2006, I only had my daughter, and she was growing up so fast.  However, as a stay at home mom, we really did need me to make some extra money.  Since 2004, I had been doing freelance work for various companies (creating websites and such).  That extra money paid for satellite TV, daily newspaper, internet access, etc.  It also allowed me to step out of my mommy roll and allowed me to be an adult again.  However, as anyone who works freelance will tell you, sometimes there is a lot of work out there — sometimes there isn’t.  I came across PPP on somebody’s blog (I don’t even know who) and signed up.  That was the beginning of this fantastic journey I have taken over the last 2 years with them.  My blog has went through my ups and downs of my family (there is a miscarriage and my son’s birth involved in there).  Currently, I am a work at home mom.  I still freelance, and now that I have 5 blogs under my belt, I consider myself a professional blogger.  I am lucky.  I make enough money to pay for the extras we need and want (see basement remodel), so I must be doing something right!

What do I know about marketing?  Well, one of the places I freelance for considers me their social media manager.  I have accounts at places like StumbleUpon, Digg, Mixx, Reddit, Yahoo Buzz, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, etc to name a few.  I even have joined a new bookmarking service called tagfoot that is still in beta and requires an invite to join.  I promote all of my blogs using social media.   I belong to several social networking sites such as Facebook, Namyz, Ryze, LinkdIn, Twitter, SocialSpark, Entrecard, and several forums.  I even was a moderator for six months on the Izea forums!  I also belong to MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog.  I also moderate over at Chicago Moms Like Me (which is a social networking site for Chicagoland moms).  Here are my stats for this blog for since October 1st:

I was able to achieve these numbers due to social media.  I think I would be extremely helpful in recruiting a crew for several reasons.  I know a lot of posties just due to being here so long.  When my son was born, Amy ran a baby pool on the forums for me ( I can’t find the link due to the boards not letting me search that far back).   As a moderator, I had several posties tell Izea not to get rid of me as a moderator, so I get along great with the posties on the forums.  I know several of the posties personally like Robyn, Elizabeth, Corrin, Christine, Julie, Breezie, Drew — just to name a few.  I know I am missing a lot of people in that list, but it’s just a start.  I try to help when possible too — check out this thread on the forums about bluehost and hostgator for hosting.  I often get emails and tweets from people with questions, so I think I am considered a very approachable person which definitely makes recruiting much easier.

What events have I attended?  I was at Blogworld last year:

I also attended PostieCon and did a cake plow (that alone should score me some bonus points):

In January of this year, I attended the Social Networking Conference in Miami.  I actually ran into Ted there.  However, I didn’t bring my camera, so no pictures for that conference.  I worked a booth here also, so I do know how to do that.

In April, I attended the Sony Mommy Bloggers Event with Laura and Heather who also are posties:

In May, I went to Agency Bootcamp here in Chicago:

In August, I was invited to the Pampers Mommy Blogger Event:

I also attended Izeafest this year:

Also, I have been invited on October 23rd to attend the Epson and Sparkplugging Girls Night Out (pictures to come).  As you can see, I’ve attend several blogging events and conferences this year.

Three conference I would have loved to attend are SNSX, Blog World Expo, and BlogHer.  However, travel expenses for these three events were not in our budget this year (especially with the downturned economy).  I own a  laptop that follows me everywhere.  I actually use my laptop so much that many of the keys have the letter rubbed off them!  I do not have an aircard.  However, my husband tells me when my cell phone contract is up at the end of the month, he’d like to get an iphone (so any iphone advice is appreciated).  I have heard that you can use your iphone as a modem of sorts, so does that count?

I would love to have Ted’s ear.  There are several things that drive me completely insane with Izea, and I would love to hear what he has to say about them.  I have to be honest, I don’t think my actual resume is this long!

What do you think?  Should I be picked as an Izea Insider?

EDIT:  Here’s a pic from the Epson/Sparkplugging Event:

I was also asked to join the Social Media Club here in Chicago.  I missed last night’s meeting due to not having a babysitter, but will try attend other ones.

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For any of you who I normally drop Entrecards on, I missed you all yesterday with all my blogs.  The first time I attempted to drop, the entire system was down.  When I tried to do it last night, I messed up big time.

During the day yesterday, I had downloaded a Windows Update.  All day long, it kept wanting me to reboot which I did not want to do.  I went grocery shopping last night, and while I was gone, my laptop rebooted itself.  When it did that, it installed the updates.  I think it installed Service Pack 1 for Vista.  No biggy, I thought.  Boy was I wrong.

The updates took over an hour to install which was the time I needed to drop my cards.   Trust me, a lot of swearing was going on here. The crazy thing is that I think my laptop is slower now. Aren’t updates suppose to make it faster?  Needless to say, I apologize to anyone I missed dropping on yesterday.

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We just got back from another weekend up in Green Bay.  I had a wedding shower on Saturday for one of my cousins who gets married in six weeks.  Everybody had a great time.  Since my parents only have dial up, I don’t bring up my laptop computer which means I am behind with both my blogs and my emails.  I am slowly but surely catching up, but I probably won’t be completely caught up till tomorrow.  I plan on going to bed soon.  However, I just love this picture.  I took it while we were at the Wildlife Sanctuary this morning (will be writing a review on it over at My Road Less Traveled By soon).  The kids loved the ducks and geese there.  We also checked out the buildings that are located there, and they had a blast.  Somehow, Bill managed to get two mosquito bites.  I think I am going to be going to bed shortly, so I’ll update some more tomorrow.

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