My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings » Ted Murphy

Izeafest ’09 Day 1

Lisa — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:59:58 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

I’ve been trying to get this post up for a while, but real life seems to get in the way. How would I describe Izeafest? Awesome comes to mind. The best one yet does too (and I’ve been to every single one of these). It was one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended. Nothing irritates me more when I know more than the speakers on panels (which is one of my beefs about BlogHer). I pay a lot of money to go to conferences, and I want to learn — not just be told what I already know (or be given bad information). *off soap box*

Izeafest started off with a trip to Busch Gardens for Howl-O-Scream. Interesting is the best word I can use for it. We got to go through some haunted houses and ride some awesome roller coasters. I even got to do my souvenir shopping (which is so much better than airport shopping). We got back pretty late and went to bed.

Day one of Izeafest started off with me handing out Crocs and T-shirts and helping out the Izea crew. I missed the beginning of Ted’s keynote speech, but what I caught was good. It was about personal branding, and how you need to carefully pick your image. Next, there was 5 minutes of fame with Murray Newlands. This was about how he has gotten where he is. I’ll be honest — I could listen to him talk all day long (I’m a sucker for an accent. Also, on a sidenote, I got to hang out with Murray quite a bit and he’s one of the nicest people I’ve met). Brian Clark was our next speaker. His talk was about how design and content really do matter. Next, we had lunch. I have to admit that this was some of the best conference food too. Granted you don’t pick a conference based on what they serve for food, but the food was yummy. The afternoon started with Sarah Austin and Julia Roy for a session called Screen Gems. If you watched Twitter during this session, it was brutal. I basically got out of this session that you need to be 23, have perky boobs, and be cute if you want to do video. It was so bad that I actually walked out early and got a cookie. The sad thing is that I’ve heard how smart these two women are, and they just did a terrible job (Though I think Julia did see the twitter stream, because she started to try and answer things towards the end). I actually dubbed this session “2 girls and a video” and sadly everyone knew which session I was referring to. Next, another 5 minutes of fame with Xshot which is a product I love. The next session was on SEO and I loved it. Michael Gray and Rae Hoffman were the speakers, and they took sites from the audience to dissect. I was a chicken. There was no way I was submitting my site. Rae gave us ladies a good show of how a woman can give a great presentation. My only complaint is that they did a ton of business sites and no personal blogs. As a mom blogger, am I even shooting for SEO? Sarah Evans was next with Twitter and businesses, and why they need to be on Twitter. We closed out the first day with Lucretia Pruitt, David Binkowski, Chris Heuer, Wendy Piersall, and Warren Whitlock. This, by far, was one of the best panels I’ve ever seen. I could have listened to them all day. They really brought everything down to where most bloggers are right now and gave us some concrete ways to get better.

After the first day, we were able to all meet up at the IceBar and hang. It was very cool. Pun intended. LOL

Some karaoke took place too (no, I didn’t do it). This is Ted Murphy and Jeremy Wright singing the Backstreet Boys. The sad thing is that they knew most of the words without watching the screen:

We closed out the night in my friend Heather’s room with a little afterparty:

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Who’s going to Izeafest??? YOU!!!!

Lisa — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:02:52 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

This contest is now over. The winners are Anne and Rob! Congrats and I’ll be contacting them shortly!

As many of you know, I have gone to several conferences over the years (and you’ve all seen the pictures). Now, this will be my third year going to Izeafest, and I want to see you there! Yes, you! If you don’t come, you’ll be missing:

Speakers like Ted Murphy, Aaron Brazell, Arleen Anderson, Brett Bumeter, Brian Clark, Chris Brogan, Chris Heuer, David Binkowski, George Smith, Joseph Jaffe, Julia Roy, Lucretia Pruitt, Michael Gray, Rae Hoffman, Sarah Austin, Sarah Evans, Warren Whitlock, Wendy Piersall, and Zena Weist.
Learning how to blog better at the sessions that are offered like developing your brand and traffic strategies.
Awesome parties and food. (now this shouldn’t be the only reason you go to a conference, but it sure is a good one!)
Swag (need I say more?)
A free ticket to Howl O Scream at Busch Gardens for Thursday night
A free ticket to SeaWorld on Sunday

According to what I’ve been told, you need to pack flip-flops, sunscreen, a laptop, and…oh yeah…your fanciest coconut top. Now, I’ve managed without the coconut top, so you may survive without it. That being said, do you want to go to this conference?

If so, it takes place on October 1 – 4, and I can help you get there! I am giving away 2 tickets (each ticket valued at $229) to the Izeafest conference. You will need to get your own hotel and airfare (I highly recommend Southwest and special rates are being given at Renaissance Hotel.) but I can hook you up to get in.

Here’s what you need to do:

Leave a comment on this post. Look over my blog tell me something you learned like my kids ages for example. Also, I want to know why you want to win one of these tickets! You must do both for your entry to be valid.

Each of these gives you one additional entry:

1. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify. Or use something like this:

RT @blm03 is giving away 2 Izeafest tickets! http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com/2009/08/04/whos-going-to-izeafest-you/

2. Stumble this post and add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

Each of these gives you 5 additional entries:

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed

4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

If this isn’t working, please let me know. For some reason, WordPress seems to be eating the code up when I post.

This will give you 10 additional entries:

1. Join my Spark E Crew at Social Spark. Click here to find out how to sign up. If you are on my crew, please leave your social spark ID, so I can verify it.

This contest will end at August 18nd at noon CST! Good Luck and I hope to see you there!!!!!

Where in the World is Ted Murphy?

Lisa — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:55:12 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

For those of you who don’t know, Ted Murphy is the CEO of Izea. He’s a really cool guy (yes, I’ve actually met him several times), and he’s got a cool little thing going on his blog right now. He wants all of his readers to post photos of themselves, so he can see his viewers. However, he has a little twist on it — he wants to be in the picture with you. He actually gives you his head to print out, so here’s Ted here in Chicago with us:

It looks like he’s done a little cross dressing and grew out his hair. Bill and Will also join in on the fun:

Will also decide to take Ted’s picture to everybody and kiss us, so Ted you’ve made the rounds here.

Why I Should Be An Izea Insider

Lisa — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:20:09 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

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.