While I was at BlogWorld 2009, I had the chance to meet up with Ted Murphy, CEO of IZEA, and talk about their newest product, Sponzai.

Watch below to learn more about the new service and how you as a blogger can start making some additional income with sponsored guest posts.

What are your thoughts on Sponzai? Is it a service you would consider using as a blogger? Why or why not?

If you’ve already used the service, please share your stories below so that others can benefit from your experiences.

While I haven’t used Sponzai just yet, I will definitely be looking into it a lot more over the next few weeks and plan on doing an in depth review on it soon.

For more info on Sponzai, you can check out their website here. You can also follow Ted Murphy on twitter here.

While I was at BlogWorld Expo 2009, I met with a variety of the companies in the expo hall that had some really cool products and services. Some aimed at helping bloggers increase their traffic, others to maximize their efficiency, and a variety of them were geared towards helping them monetize their traffic.

One of the first companies I started talking to was Blog Catalog. Let’s take a look at what Blog Catalog is and how they might be able to help you expand your reach and increase your blog’s traffic.

Have you used Blog Catalog? What’s been your experience with it? Has it helped you in any way? Share your stories below!

As most of you already know, I recently attended BlogWorld Expo 2009 in Las Vegas. I’ve always heard good things about this conference, and was anxious to finally check it out for myself and see what all the hype was about.

Right when I got to the show, there was such a great vibe in the air. So many people looking to learn, collaborate, and share information – it was like social media heaven.  

For those of you that don’t know, one thing that’s different about BlogWorld than the rest of the conferences I normally attend, is that it caters to a wide variety of bloggers and people in the Social Media space. There wasn’t just your typical “general” blogging sessions, the conference really went out of their way to target people by niche, so that the attendees got the most out of the conference. There were sessions about blogging in the Real Estate industry, miliblogs (which are done by people in the military, spouses etc), sports blogs and mommy blogs.

I made it a point to at least attend one session in each of the different niches, because I really believe that you need to open yourself up to see how people in other industries are using Social Media, because in most cases, it is usually pretty different. There’s so much you can learn from them, that can really help inspire new ideas and strategies. 

Some of the other panels that really stood out to me were:

The Internet Marketing For Smart People (featuring Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, and Brian Clark) which was so full I had to sit on the floor. The panel discussed some of the different strategies they used to grow their blog and community, and provided some excellent tips and advice to help the audience do the same.

The Sponsored Conversations panel ( with Jeremiah Owyang, Ted Murphy, Wendy Piersall), was a full house as well. The point of this keynote session was to talk about the new FTC act that requires bloggers to disclose anytime they are getting paid to write about a product, service, business etc. The entire session was pretty much all Q&A so bloggers could have all their questions answered before the act goes into effect on December 1, 2009.

The Blogging Super Panel (with Zac Johnson, John Chow, Darren Rowse, and Brian Clark) was another panel that I thought was extremely valuable for the people that stuck around the last day. Bloggers had the opportunity to pull their blog up and ask the experts what they could do to better monetize it. While this type of advice and consultation would normally cost you a lot of money, BlogWorld attendees received it for FREE. 

Another thing I liked about BlogWorld was the networking. One thing that most beginner bloggers seem to forget is the power of face to face networking and how it can really help fast track the success of their blog. Whether it’s to find a blogging buddy, or to meet someone that will link to you or allow you to guest post, there are so many opportunities you can find at conferences that won’t appear anywhere else. 

So all in all, I thought it was a very successful event and it was great to see so many new and old businesses (tons of brand names!) committed to Social Media and listening and engaging with their customers.

I took a variety of interviews while I was there and will be sharing them throughout the week, but for now, check out some of the pictures I took below.

Me, Peter, and Zac Johnson

John Chow and I at the Clickbooth booth

Me, David Risley, and Tim Jones

Me and Loren Feldman from 1938 Media

Me and the infamous Guy Kawasaki

Jun Loayza and I kickin it at the Expo Hall. 

Me and Justin Levy from New Marketing Labs and Workshifting.com

Congrats again to the BlogWorld team (especially Rick Calvert) and I definitely look forward to attending next year’s conference.

This is a guest post by Murray Newlands from MurrayNewlands.com, an email marketing blog.

Email marketing has been one of the phenomenons of affiliate marketing for the last 10 years on both sides of the Atlantic. Postal direct marketing has been generally superseded by email marketing as a tool of choice for many marketers. As products and services have become commoditized, marketing has become one of the differentiators and email marketing has provided a cheap method of mass communication with immediate and tangible results.

You send an email and see the results within hours. In a world where businesses want to know defined and measurable results, email marketing has had few competitors in many sectors.

Shawn Collins recent survey revealed that 51% of affiliates collect email lists, which shows that email marketing is still on an upwards trend. Nelsen published a report this week that said social media power users also consumed large volumes of email lists.

Email marketing solution providers have not been slow on the uptake with these, enabling users to post them directly to Facebook and other social networks. This has produced some spectacularly positive results for email solution providers. By re-targeting and encouraging those people to post more to their social networks, marketers have generated huge amounts of positive traffic.

OK now here is the question. What will happen when consumers learn the power of this and start posting about brands that email them too much? Watch for the social media tidal wave brand flashback.

Thoughts?

I had the pleasure of interviewing Kris Trujillo of CashTactics.net the other day and it was great getting to know a little more about him, as well as some of the tips and strategies he uses as an affiliate marketer.

If you haven’t heard of CashTactics.net, its a great resource for affiliates to learn about the industry, engage with other affiliates, and improve their skills at affiliate marketing.

IZEA Fest 2009 is a little over a week away and that means it’s time to start training for one of this year’s most grueling events, IZEAHunt. If you haven’t heard of  IZEAHunt, it’s a timed interactive scavenger hunt where you take pictures, film videos, and collect physical objects all around the city of Orlando.

Last year the Mommy Bloggers went home with the crown, however this year will be a totally different story. Clickbooth and I have been working our asses off training for this event, to ensure that this year’s IZEA HUNT Championship Title comes back to Sarasota with US!

Don’t believe me? Then check out the video below

Haven’t registered for IZEAFest yet? What are you waiting for? Sign up now!

This is a guest post by Dennis Yu, CEO of BlitzLocal, a firm doing local Internet marketing .

This morning, I got a Facebook chat window pop-up from someone I barely know (yeah, don’t you hate that “popping” sound it makes?) It was from someone well-known in the industry, of whom I have many friends in common. I won’t out him here.

Here’s an inside look at what it’s like working at Clickbooth, Inc 500’s 5th Fastest Growing Company in the Nation.

Enjoy!

Clickbooth was also ranked as one of Florida Trend Magazine’s “2009 Best Companies To Work For”. For more information on career opportunities or to learn more about Clickbooth visit our Careers Page or contact one of our recruiters at recruiters@clickbooth.com!

I still can’t believe it’s already the end of August. Where the hell did Summer go? It feels like only yesterday that I got back from tour and celebrated my 23rd birthday in Orlando and now…poof…I’m another year older.

So in an attempt to make sure I do everything I want to do this year before I hit 25 (and seeing as how time has been flying by lately), I decided to put a list together of 24 things I want to do before August 28, 2010.

Here goes (in no particular order):

1) Learn Japanese ( I learned some on tour, but forgot all of it. Sorry Pete! )

2) Start a Rock Band (Hmm…Maybe Chris Brogan will be my guitarist?)

3) Break 10 Guiness World Records

4) Witness the Dolphins win a Superbowl

5) Read 52 books (that’s right a book a week!)

6) Rank #1 on Google for Eric Schechter.

7) Beat Zac Johnson in an Eating Contest.

8 ) Drive 1000 Unique Visitors a day to this blog.

9) Grow a full fledged mustache.

10) Get 50 people to buy the new No More Kings album, because it’s AWESOME!

11) Speak at a Conference

12) Sky Dive for the first time.

13) Have a drum off against Jonathan Volk, Justin Barr, and Logan Thompson.

14) Learn PHP

15) Redesign this blog

16) Bowl a perfect game.

17) Find Amberlee Jenkins III a steady boyfriend. (She’s been begging me for a while haha)

18) Visit all my friends in California and Seattle (I miss you guys!  It’s been forever!)

19) Write a new album and perform it live.

20) Gain 15 pounds of muscle (Ohhh yeaa. Getting a gym membership this week!)

21) Beat Murray Newlands and Greg Rollett in Beer Pong.(You guys are going down this time! )

22) Write 3 guest posts on Mashable.

23) Build the World’s Biggest Sand Castle (Siesta Key is a great spot for that!)

24) Win the Championship in the next Clickbooth Basketball League.

There you have it. 24 Things I want to do before I turn 25. How many will I accomplish? Only time will tell, but I am definitely going to give this my all and will keep all of you updated as I knock each one out.

Thanks again to everyone for the birthday wishes, you are all AMAZING!

Peace out.

Affiliate Summit East 2009 is right around the corner and this year’s conference is packed with tons of great speakers, events, parties, and great networking opportunities. If this is your first time attending a conference, it’s understandable if you feel somewhat overwhelmed trying to take it all in. With so much going on, it can be frustrating trying to figure out all the events that are happening, which ones are worth going to, and which ones aren’t.

While it really depends on your needs, I thought I’d throw together some good resources to look at that will help you make a sound decision and also help you prepare for one of the biggest conferences in the industry.

• First Timers Guide For Affiliate Summit East, written by co-founder of Affiliate Summit, Shawn Collins.
• Missy Ward, co-founder of Affiliate Summit, put together an amazing list of all the parties (or as she like to say “Pah-tays!”) that are happening at ASE 2009.
• 8 Ways to Get the Most Out of Affiliate Summit East – A guest post I wrote on Zac Johnson’s blog that will help prepare yourself for this year’s event to ensure that you make the most of your time there.
• The Real Secret to Successful Networking, by Neil Patel. A great post on how to effectively network at conferences.
• 27 Things To Do Before a Conference, and Be Sexier in Person by Chris Brogan. The first post is a great checklist to go through before any conference, and the second post gives some great advice on how to present yourself when going up to a new person at a conference.

Now that you have some good resources to look at before the conference, I wanted to highlight a few of the speakers/panels/events that I think will provide tons of value to you and are also ones I plan on attending as well.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

• Affiliate Meet Market: This event is going to be a great place to network, meet merchants, talk business, and close deals. I highly recommend you attend this if you are at ASE on Sunday. (12-6pm)
• Personal Branding 2.0: Led by well known blogger, Stephanie Agresta and Founder of Pop17, Sarah Austin, this discussion will provide some excellent tips on how to create, build, and enhance your personal brand. (1:30pm)
• SEO Site Clinic: Whether you are a beginner at SEO or you have a strong foundation, this Q&A session will give you the chance to grill the experts on any questions, concerns, or ideas you might have regarding SEO and achieving higher organic rankings. (3pm)
• Affiliate Summit Tweetup: Another great place to meet up with affiliates and tweeps for drinks, great conversation, and a chance to network and create new business opportunities. (9pm)

Monday, August 10, 2009

• Keynote: Chris Brogan: This is one keynote I’ve been looking forward to for a while. Chris always provides high quality presentations on community, social media, and using the two to grow your business. Definitely a MUST SEE! (9:45am)
• Social Media Marketing for Affiliates: This is going to be a great discussion on how to leverage Social Media to increase your site’s visibility, build links, drive traffic, and create great relationships along the way. I highly recommend this panel for affiliates that are bloggers, as well as those that use/want to use Social Media sites to drive traffic to their affiliate links. (2pm and also at 3pm)
• Organic Site Review: Have your site picked apart by a panel of SEO experts. (2pm)
• Advertising on Facebook: Hosted by Dennis Yu (Blitz local), Zac Johnson, Jeremy Schoemaker, and Alex Schultz (Facebook), you already know that this panel will contain lots of value for those looking to learn more about Facebook Ads and how capitalize on a network with over 100 million members. (3:30pm)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

• Keynote: Jim Kukral: I’ve been reading Jim’s blog for quite sometime and have always been impressed with his unique outlook on business, building relationships, and internet marketing. I’m definitely looking forward to this keynote. (10:00am)
• Profitable Performance Marketing: More Money For You: This panel will be filled with actionable items on how to use things like Social Media, negotiating, partnerships, and points of sale opportunities to increase your success and make more money! (11:30pm)
• Hot Topics in Marketing Compliance and Enforcement: The reason I encourage you to check out this panel is so that you are fully educated on all the legal issues facing affiliate marketers today. With all the changes that have happened over the last few months, it’s important that you do your due diligence so you are always 100% protected and informed. (2pm)
• GeekCast.fm Live!: If you’ve listened to the podcast before, you know the peeps over at GeekCast always provide tons of great information for affiliates that’s fresh, helpful, and inspiring. This panel should be no different. (3:15pm)

Well there you have it! A complete guide to Getting Your Summit On…If there is something I missed that you think will be really valuable for affiliates to attend or read before the conference, please share it in the comments section!

See you all at ASE and make sure you stop by the Cickbooth booth (#2217) and say hi!