Archive: July 2008
This past weekend some of the IZEA folks, along with sister company MindComet, gave up their Saturday morning to help a local non-profit organization do some much-needed painting in their facilities. Granted, we were indoors for most it, in the air conditioning, but I think we all felt good about helping those who are a little less fortunate than we.
While I can't disclose the name or location of the organization we volunteered at, I can share some photos I took (and yes, I painted as well). And we quickly learned Annie doesn't like having her picture taken!
Special thanks to the following folks for giving up part of their weekend: Andrew, Annie, Colleen, Crystal, Jamie, Josh, Lisa, Stuart, Vance, and Karen (for helping coordinate the volunteer activities).
Are you curious about how to further your career or start a new one?
Have you ever wondered how to get the IT Training that will help you stand out in a crowd?
The answer to these questions and many more can be found here!
One of our advertisers, Cisco, is now offering an Opportunity in SocialSpark for you to learn more about how to get a variety of different Cisco certifications. They offer network certification programs that cater to a wide range of IT people just like you; from experts and specialists to associates and beginners.
Now you can take part in these exciting careers too! The networking technology world has expanded exponentially in the last few years and continues to grow at a rapid pace.
Have you been thinking about breaking into the IT field but don't know how to start? Do you need that extra certification to help qualify for that big promotion?
Log in to SocialSpark now and get paid to tell us about your experience (or lack thereof) in networking technology and learn why Cisco is a phenomenal company known for being "The Learning Network."
We're thrilled to announce the addition of two new partners to our social media conference, IZEAFest. They are both great sites that offer resources to bloggers and social media enthusiasts. Please take a few moments to visit their websites to learn more about the services they offer, and welcome them to our Community.
DotSauce.com is an exclusive web based magazine for domainers, web developers, designers and of course bloggers! Featuring almost daily updates on innovative web applications, sales and marketing, SEO, blogging resources, domain name industry news and more. You can join their private discussion forum community for the best free resources, video tutorials, available domain lists, coupons, discounts and more.
Pijoo is a blog directory, a social network, and a social voting site all rolled into one. By adding your blog to Pijoo, you can get more hits, more readers, and a whole bunch of new contacts from the blogosphere, as well as being able to track your visitors, build a community around your blog and keep up with the latest posts from other blogs.
Not yet registered for IZEAFest? Click here to sign-up today.
Technorati Tags: blog events, blogging, IZEAFest, social media, social media conference
Reason # 231 to keep your address up to date:
You may receive awesome new products via the 'Product Sampling' feature!
That's right, at this very moment, 35 pristinely packaged mystery boxes are being shipped out across the U.S. to unsuspecting Posties. What's in the packages, you ask? How about fun. How about memories. How about mouse ears. Uh oh, I may have said too much!
To update your mailing address in SocialSpark, simply follow these steps:
1. From the Account menu, choose 'Manage Blogger Account'
2. Then, click on the 'Profile' button, to the far right
3. On the next screen, click the 'Send Me Stuff' tab
Here you will be able to fill in your mailing address, and be sure to click the Save and Continue button. Also, remember that we do not accept P.O. Box addresses!
Here is a picture of the mystery package, to ease/entice your curiosity!
I have long been a GoDaddy fan and have registered thousands of domains with them over the years. In fact, they handle the domain management for all our sites including IZEA, PPP and SocialSpark. I am very happy to have them join us as an advertiser in SocialSpark. They are offering some discounts to our bloggers and I want to help spread the word.
Use these GoDaddy discount codes when registering:
BLOGGER10 = 10% off your entire order
BLOGGER799 = Get your .COM domain for just $7.99
BLOGGER20 = Save an additional 20% on 1, 2, or 3 year shared hosting plans
If you use one of these codes let us know and leave a comment. We would love to hear what new domain you purchased.
IZEA is the featured company today at OfficeSnapshots.com:
Office Snapshots shows their readers the inside of cool offices from around the world. They typically feature Web 2.0 and tech companies, and perhaps larger companies that people are familiar with. Our feature puts us in the company of Bebo, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr and more!
Technorati Tags: Cubico Loco, IZEA, IZEA Team, OfficeSnapshots.com
Hi Everyone!
A couple days ago I started a poll on the boards so everyone can help me decide where to send a donation. What kind of donation? One that's taken me months to accumulate . . . I'm donating my hair! The details and the poll are here on the boards, and I need your help deciding where to send my donation. I've narrowed it down to two worthy causes - Locks of Love or Pantene Beautiful Lengths.
Even if you don't want to vote, you should check out the thread. Others have shared their stories about how they've helped out with or been affected by this type of donation. We love hearing these great stories - yet another way to show we can all make a difference in some way every day.
I'll be cutting 10 inches off tomorrow, but am keeping the poll open until the end of this month. I can't wait to see how it turns out!!
Karen
Movin' On Up (to the 4th floor):
The Izea team is on the move again! This time they're heading one floor up. With construction of their new office underway, some of the team members reminisce about the journey so far.
Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, business, company, documentary, entrepreneur, internet, izea, marketing, money, orlando, payperpost, people, programming, reality tv, rockstartup, sales, social office, socialspark, startup, technology, ted murphy, venture capital, web 2.0
Later today we will be releasing a new version of SocialSpark that includes a recently implemented code of conduct. This code of conduct is designed to provide a clear guideline for acceptable behavior within the community and is in response to some usage trends we have spotted within the system.
One of the biggest abuses we have seen relates to comment spam and props. Specifically bloggers pouncing new users and leaving comments such as "prop for u" and "luv your blog. I gave you a prop" in hopes of gaining a reciprocal prop, whether or not it is actually deserved. This obviously was not the intent of the comment or prop systems and we have received many complaints from long time IZEA posties and advertisers regarding the need for a better framework and rules.
The new comment system will not allow you to leave comments regarding props (along with other types of comments such as "waiting in line", "requested this opp", etc.) without a warning. We now officially consider these types of comments as spam or non-additive at best. They don't add any value to our community and diminish the quality of the user experience. You will have to go out of your way to leave these types of comments from now on and if you abuse the system you run the risk of being banned.
Let's look at some examples:
Good:
"We just went to ColdStone over the weekend with my kids. They loved it!" - blm03
Bad:
"Prop for you!" - too many bloggers to mention.
To be fair our code of conduct was not in place in the past. There was nothing that said people couldn't leave comments on everyone's profiles to build props and friends. We didn't know that it would be such a problem.
That being said, we need to get this fixed and move forward.
The only fair way to do this in our minds is to zero out all props and comments relating to props for everyone. If we don't do so the users who have utilized this method of building props will be at the top of the list for the foreseeable future, creating an unfair advantage the can't be taken away.
Before implementing such a drastic measure I would like to hear from the community as to why we should or shouldn't do this. I am sure I will hear a good bit from the people using this method, but my real hope is that we hear from the community at large.
Attention "Lunch with Ash & V" fans:
We're moving lunch to Thursdays! Same time but different day! Grab your lunch box or paper bag and head on over to Stickam.com/RockStartUp at 12pm EST and chat-it-up with us. Here's what you can expect:
- Worldosphere. We spend a few minutes talking about news events and things going on in the world around us.
- Webosphere. There are tons of new websites and blogs that pop-up on the Internet everyday. During this segment we take a look at some of the more awesome ones we've stumbled across.
- IZEAsphere. We cover some of the amazing things going on at IZEA headquarters, that you might not read about here on the blog or on the boards.
Looking forward to seeing you guys! If you have any suggestions about topics of discussion please feel free to e-mail us. You never know...if we use your topic on the air we might even send you a special treat in the mail!
DISCLAIMER:: While we are employees of IZEA, please note we broadcast during our personal lunch hour (because we love engaging with our community). The opinions shared are our own, and are not reflective of our investors, our Founder & CEO, or any other members of the IZEA Team.
Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, IZEA Team, Lunch with Ash & V, Posties
