Ted Murphy is Giving Away a Years Supply of Cereal
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Ted Murphy of Izea, Inc. comes up with some of the strangest promotional stunts and this one is no exception. Ted covered himself in Cheerios in his bathtub to promote his “cereal give-away.” Ted will be giving away 52 boxes of cereal to a random winner of the contest. The first video, below, shows the promotion, but be sure to check out the second video that gives the behind-the-scenes view of the making of the promotional video.
Win a Bathtub Full of Cereal from Ted Murphy on Vimeo.
Making a Bathtub Full of Cereal from Ted Murphy on Vimeo.
Ted gave two methods of entering the contest. The first, through Twitter, is to Tweet the following: “RT @tedmurphy is giving away a bathtub full of cereal. Help a family in need http://urlbrief.com/0910d7″ The second, blog about Ted’s contest and include one of his promotional photos or videos on your blog post, much like this post. 
Additionally, Ted said that if he gets over 500 comments on his blog post about the cereal give-away, he will donate 52 boxes of cereal to his local food bank, so get over and comment on his post! This is a great cause and should I win the 52 boxes, I will be donating my winnings to the local food bank, also. This is another great promotion by Ted and I look forward to many more.
New Premium Theme - Ultimate Blogging Theme with Discount Code
I’ve been thinking of “upgrading” my blog theme for some time and I finally decided to go with a premium (vs. custom) theme from Ultimate Blogging Theme. I saw the theme advertised in a few different blogs, last week and I really liked the look of the theme. I think it looks professional and custom without the professional/custom price tag. One of my biggest hurdles with making the final decision to buy the theme was how difficult it might be to customize. With Zac Johnson’s post on the theme - he discussed how easy it was to modify, my fears were alleviated and I went for it!
While the theme was not quite as easy to customize as I’d hoped, it wasn’t hard, either. Also, Carl, the “Kidblogger” (the theme’s designer) provides a very in-depth video tutorial, showing you how to maximize the use of the site and he was very responsive to my (MANY) other questions/concerns. I’m still ironing out all the details (like what to put in all the “boxes” at the top and bottom of the page - I’m open to suggestions), but I really like the theme, so far. It offers lots of advertising options, without looking “salesy” and “spammy.” It offers lots of ability to customize, not just within the “Theme Options” section of the theme, but I was able to alter the CSS to my liking without any difficulty — and let’s be clear, I am no CSS coder, by any means. I also like that I can put a “Featured Post” at the top to highlight a certain story, review, or contest for any given time-period.
Carl offers a couple different options for purchasing the theme:
You can purchase the single blog license for $67 that includes the following:
- 3 color schemes of Ultimate Blogging Theme (Spit fire red, Quirky pink and Earth green)
- 6 months FREE updates
- 17 minute video tutorials for theme installation
- 20 minute video tutorials for on-page SEO & Conversion tips and tricks
- Attribution link must be kept intact
or, you can get the BIG package for $97 that allows you to put the theme on unlimited blogs, you get all six color schemes (Spit Fire red, Quirky Pink, Earth Green, Chillin Blue, Charming Blue, and Vogue Red), and you can customize or remove the attribution link at the bottom of the page.
If you’re at all interested in this theme, Carl did provide me with a single discount code for the theme, so you would have to be the first to order it, but you would get $20 off the prices above for whichever package you ordered. You just have to enter the code REALTIM to get your $20 off. This makes it a great deal for a great theme!
PepperJam Stores Gets WordPress Optimized - Well, Maybe
It didn’t take long for PepperJam Network’s new Store Builder feature to get WordPress Optimized. PepperJam has made the process very simple by just having you click a check-box to alter the code for WordPress sites.
I really wasn’t all that excited about the Store Builder feature, mainly because it was just one more thing to add to my list of “to-dos” and because most of my sites are built on WordPress. Well, PepperJam solved item number two, so now I guess I have to find some time to start building some stores.
Seriously, if you have a shopping-based affiliate site, this tool could be very useful and time-saving, rather than consuming. I decided to build a store, just to show you how it works in a post. It literally took me less than 30 seconds, including the time it took to log-in to PepperJam.
There’s just one slight problem….you can’t see anything in the space above this line, can you? I spent another good half hour trying to get the PepperJam Store working, including looking at the help documentation at WordPress. PepperJam instructions tell you to just cut and paste the code from the StoreBuilder into the “HTML” tab in WordPress. Did that. Tried using a plugin to help with the JavaScript. Nope. Tried adding JavaScript code to PepperJam’s code to help WordPress recognize the JS. Fail. Sorry, PepperJam, looks like you have some more work to do to truly “optimize” the StoreBuilder for WordPress.
XShot Pix Review
While I was at Blog World Expo, I ran into Drew Bennett of BenSpark.com and Photo-A-Day fame. He has a new gadget that he uses to take pictures and video of himself called the XShotPix. I saw Drew using the XShot at IzeaFest and thought that it looked pretty darn cool! Drew was kind enough to give me one to try, as I take a lot of video of myself for this and my other blogs.
This weekend, I took a brief video of myself walking on the beach in St. George Island, FL, just to test out how well it works. The XShot works great for self-video and self-pictures, but I’ve also been using it as a mono-pod and arm extension. Especially with the point-and-shoot compact camera’s for which the XShot was designed, it really adds some stability when taking photos for more clear shots. Also, if you’re in a crowd, the XShot can get the camera up above the fray for a clear shot of the stage or speaker.
One of the few suggestions I’ve heard to better the XShot has been to make the handle a tripod, so you can set the XShot down and use it like a tripod with an extension. Personally, I don’t see the need. If I need a tripod, I’ll use a tripod. This was specifically designed to use for self-photos and video. It takes your own picture, so that you don’t have to use a tripod to set up the camera, the timer, and then run to get in front of the camera. I can understand that this requires a second “tool” when you are out and about.
Drew mentioned that the new version of the XShot will have a sturdier rod to handle heavier cameras, as well. Fortunately, Drew corrected me, in that my XShot is the 2.0 version. It is still designed for point-and-shoot cameras, but with more stability. They do not currently make one for heavier cameras. I have tried the current version it with a full-size, digital SLR. The XShot seemed to handle the weight fine, but you definitely lose some of the stability that you have with a smaller camera. I’m not sure how it would stand up to the weight over time, so it’s probably only advisable in extreme situations.
I really look forward to taking a lot more pictures and video that include the whole family.
October Blog Contest
Zac Johnson has a very quick (24 hour) contest over at his blog with some prizes from Market Leverage. You should go check it out and enter. It’s a fun contest where you write a caption for a photo taken at Blog World Expo of Zac and Shoemoney.
Inspired by Zac’s contest, I thought I would hold a contest of my own for the month of October. There are two ways to enter the contest.
How to Enter
- Sign up through my Market Leverage link and become a publisher with Market Leverage.
- Comment on this blog.
How Do I Win?
- The affiliate with the most volume with Market Leverage that signs up under my link for the month of October will receive the grand prize.
- The top commenter on the blog will receive the runner-up prize.
What Do I Win?
Grand Prize: Market Leverage gym bag made by Ogio
Runner-Up: Roll-up USB keyboard
**All prizes provided and sponsored by Market Leverage.
As I said in my panel at Blog World Expo, the most immediate, actionable step you can take to adding affiliate marketing to your blog is to join affiliate networks. Take advantage of this opportunity to go after your goals and dreams. Join Market Leverage and start incorporating affiliate marketing into your blog. The contest will start immediately and run through October 31.
Free Affiliate WordPress Plug-ins
As part of my session at Blog World, I spoke about some plug-ins that I use on the site and how they contribute to the affiliate marketing aspects of this blog. Many people had questions about the plug-ins after the session and since the show, so I thought I would just itemize them here, as you may have missed them at the session.
I’m a big fan of Max Blog Press’ plug-ins for affiliate marketing, including the Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate, the MBP Stripe Ad, and the Max Banner Ads plug-ins. Pawan makes very easy to use plug-ins that just work. There’s not a lot of thinking involved and the tool does exactly what you want it to do, plus a little more. You will see a fair number of his plug-ins on the list for this reason. As a side note, you can remove the “Powered by Max Blog Press” on the plug-in’s ads by paying for the “Pro” version, if you so desire, but it’s definitely not necessary.
- Max Banner Ads: This one provides several locations for you to include ads of any size on your blog. The locations include the top of the page, bottom of the page, within the post, and you can create a widget to add to the sidebar. The ads rotate through each time the page refreshes or a new visitor comes to the site. This plugin also keeps track of impressions and clicks, so you can test how each ad performs on your site. You can find this plug-in here. I also mentioned OpenX as an alternative to Max Banner Ads. I find OpenX to be more complicated than MBA and I do not want to spend the time to learn the system. It is a much more powerful ad-server with many more options, however, so you may consider this one, also. It’s also free.
- Max Blog Press Stripe Ad: You can see this ad at the top of my blog. This just puts a stripe of color and text at the top of the blog that you can customize with affiliate text links. The links rotate through as the page refreshes or new visitors come into the site. This plug-in also provides an option to “weight” each link, meaning you can give more value to certain links, so they show up more often in the rotation.
- Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate: This was the one that received the most questions and in which people were most interested. This plug-in converts text within your post to an affiliate link without having to input any hyperlink data or coding anything. You just create a link with the appropriate affiliate link and provide a list of keywords for that link and the plug-in takes care of the rest. As banner ads become less and less effective, more customers are moving to in-content, text links to take action. This provides an easy to use, effective method for ensuring that you’re not missing out on this trend and opportunity. You can learn more about this plug-in from the review I did when I got the plug-in. This is one of two plug-ins I reference that costs money. They have it priced at $97. Personally, I feel this was worth it, as I see more revenue from my contextual links than from other sources, but you have to make that call.
- WP-Affiliate-Pro: There is another plug-in that is very similar to the Ninja Affiliate plug-in called WP-Affiliate-Pro. It also costs $97. Many blogs that incorporate contextual affiliate marketing into their blogs use this plug-in and I nearly bought it, myself. I’m sure the plug-in works great. I just felt Pawan at Max Blog Press had the opportunity to use and examine WP-Affiliate-Pro before creating the Ninja Affiliate plug-in and would improve on the concept. I am very happy with my decision to buy the Ninja Affiliate plug-in, but this one gives you another option to compare and decide.
- Peel Away Ads: I go back and forth on using this one. I think the peel away provides a unique look that people just want to click. I also can see where it might become annoying to a reader and I try not to overload the blog with ads. The one I use is Page Ear, since this one does not cost money. Peel Away Ads does provide a paid version that only costs $37. I’m sure it provides a lot more bells and whistles, but until I decide on it’s permanence, I’m going to stick with the free version.
- Adsense Manager: The last one I’ll mention is the Adsense Manager plug-in. This one handles Adsense, as well as many other ads and converts them in to easy-to-use widgets for your sidebar. I use this plug-in for a multitude of reasons. It allows you to input many types of code, from HTML, to CJ affiliate links, to Java script and creates a widget to add to your sidebar. I use this for my Amazon “what I’m reading” widget and even my “subscribe by email” section. It doesn’t even have to be an ad (as demonstrated with my email widget), it just provides an easy way to get a widget for your sidebar.
As I said at the session, it is not my intent for anyone to use all these plug-ins and create a site filled with ads. Your blog should still look clean and be easy to read. These are just options, allowing you to test many different areas of your blog, styles of ads, sizes of ads, and so on. Some may be more successful with text links, some with big 300×250 ads, some wth 125×125 ads. You have to try things out and stick with what works. Also, although these plug-ins are free, most developers have an option for donating through PayPal for their efforts. If you feel you’ve gained something from the plug-in, please consider giving them something for their hard work. Good luck and have fun!
Affiliate Marketing Secrets for Bloggers Video
Shawn got the video for the “Affiliate Marketing Secrets for Bloggers” panel up on Google Video. The sound is a little low, but you can still here what were all saying. It’s also zoomed out enough that you can see the slides, but you may want to look at the slides separately for more clarity.
On another note, I have heard from Blog World Expo that the videos of all sessions will be available after they get them all edited and rendered. I was not informed as to access to the videos, however. You may have to pay to see the videos, have attended the event, or they may just make them available to everyone, like Shawn and Missy do with the Affiliate Summit videos. As soon as I hear the details, I will post another update.
Affiliate Marketing Secrets for Bloggers
This past weekend, I had the honor of participating in a panel at the 2008 Blog World Expo event with Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit and Mike Allen of Shopping Bargains. In case you missed our presentation, you can see the slide show on Slide Share, now. We are currently in the spotlight on the front page!
It was a lot of fun presenting with Shawn and Mike. I look forward to working with these guys, again. Class acts, all the way. Well, most of the way.
The slide show on Slide Share really only shows our slides for the presentation, but Shawn took video that we hope have ready later this week. Keep checking back for this update!
UPDATE: Here’s the video from the panel.
Blog World Expo-10 Golden Rules Dinner
Every time I’ve been to a conference that Jay Berkowitz attends or speaks (which is all of them, he’s an amazing speaker), he sets up a small, informal dinner with a small group of people. I am always amazed at the quality of these dinners and the caliber of the people that attend.
Last night, I had the good fortune of attending one of these dinners with Jay at Pampas Brazilian Steakhouse at Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas. Many influential and successful people attended the dinner. It was a nice setting where you didn’t have to yell to communicate with each other. We had a good meal, good conversation, and enjoyed participating in some “pass the mic” time for Jay’s podcast, The 10 Golden Rules Internet Marketing Podcast. One of the surprise attendees was Tim Ferriss, author of the Four Hour Work Week. Due to the fact that I had to leave so early on Sunday, I was going to miss his keynote speech at Blog World. Fortunately, he came to the dinner, so we could hear from him there and chat on a more personal level.
Mike Allen joined me for the dinner and asked Jay about his dinners and how he got started doing them at these conferences. He told us the idea came from a book he read called Never Eat Alone. The book talks about networking, building relationships, and other secrets to success. Jay said the book includes several ideas for networking, but the one in particular that he’s implemented here is the one regarding dinners. As a keynote, Jay takes the onus upon himself to set up dinners for a small group of people to network with during a meal. Just listen to Jay’s podcast and you’ll see how successfully he’s implemented this strategy by the amazingly successful people that he interviews for the show during these dinners.
Needless to say, I am definitely buying Never Eat Alone to find what other gems I can pull from this book. If you are at all interested in unique networking techniques, you may consider checking out this book. Jay is amazingly adept at networking and it sounds like this book had a lot of influence on his means and methods.
Blog World Expo 2008 Recap
It seems as though I just arrived here in Las Vegas and now, I’m heading home. Blog World afforded me a fantastic experience with the opportunity to meet a lot of new people, as well as catch up with old friends. I just wish it didn’t have to happen in the course of a mere 48 hours.
The trip started off with a fantastic dinner/social with Missy Ward and Shawn Collins, along with 40 of our closest Affiliate Summit friends at the Chinois restaurant at Caesar’s Forum Shops. I have to thank Missy and Shawn for a wonderful dinner. As always, they put on class events with warm, friendly people.
Mike Allen, Shawn Collins, and myself enjoyed doing our panel on Affiliate Marketing Secrets for Bloggers. Hopefully, we passed along some good, actionable information for the attendees. We had many good questions from the audience that provided the opportunity to provide even more information to the group.
On a slight side note, several people came up to me in many sessions asking about my Asus EEE. I have really enjoyed taking this machine with me to the Expo. I took all my notes on Google Notebook for each session, had my presentation notes on it, and I almost never had access to power. I did hook up once, during my panel, in the middle of the day, but otherwise, I was on battery the whole day and still had 20% left at the end of the sessions. It was easy to tote around the conference for the whole day and it took no time at all to boot up for each session. For those of you that asked for more information on it and are reading, you can see my full review of the Asus here.
As I noted before leaving, the Blog World Expo had several different tracts to follow for the conference, including military blogging, political, monetization, bleeding edge, and so on. For every panel I sat in on, there were four others I was missing that I really wanted to see, as well. I’m really hoping they provide video of all these sessions, otherwise, Blog World will miss a great chance to provide more value to their attendees and speakers.
I really wanted to see some of the political sessions, but I stayed in the Monetization tract to learn from and see many of my friends and colleagues speak, including Zac Johnson, Jay Berkowitz, and JB Glossinger. I really enjoyed all of these sessions and learned many take-aways that I will be furiously implementing in my businesses.
I finished off the trip with a great networking dinner with Jay Berkowitz, Mike Allen, and Tim Ferriss, among others. I’ll be talking more about this dinner in another post.
I’m sitting in the Las Vegas airport, ready to go home, but also wish I could stay for the last day of the conference. I’m missing some great sessions, but business and family call. I really look forward to the next time I can speak at a conference and give back to the community that continues to provide so much to me.
