Last night we had a fantastic birthday celebration at Wall Street Plaza in downtown Orlando.  We thought we'd share some photos of the festivities here on the blog; individual photos are located on our Flickr profile.

It's time for the first-ever IZEA Cubico Loco!  The IZEA Team has been hard-at-work the past week pimpin' out work areas, and the time has come for our blog readers to decide which themes they like the most.

Three (3) cubes will be acknowledged, according to votes (the voting widget can be found below):

- 1st PLACE
- 2nd PLACE
- 3rd PLACE

Each prize has a dollar amount attached, and of course everyone wants to win.  So we ask that voters please keep this fair.  Of course you can tell your family and friends about it so they can vote, but no fishy business!

There are a few things to keep in mind while considering your vote:

- Look closely at each photo to make sure you see all the details.
- Larger pictures of each cubicle can be found in the "Cubico Loco" set on our Flickr profile.
- This is a long post.  Look through all the photos before making a decision.
- Read the descriptions of each cubicle.
- Voting closes Wednesday, July 9th at 12pm EST (noon).

AND HERE ARE THE CONTENDERS:

The Champagne Room
Give it some thought.  This one doesn't really need too much explaining:

Christmas Cube
This cube really needs no detail...other than it's a Christmas celebration!

Cocina Loco
The "Cocina Loco" cubicle fuses this Teammember's two passions: Eating and IZEA!

Costa Rica
Welcome to the gorgeous Costa Rica Cubicle, where we live life Pura Vida.  Pull up a hammock and enjoy the beautiful sights of waterfalls and wildlife.  Just another day in paradise here at IZEA!

El Rancho Loco
This theme was inspired by Chachi Mang (the cube owner's Chihuahua) and a long time desire to see him in a sombrero.

Enchantment Under the Sea
A little movie called "Back to the Future" invented a theme that will live on forever in High Schools across America.  This cube is a little tribute to the "Enchantment Under the Sea Dance."

Fire Department Bungalo
No...definitely not.  Take a closer look and you'll see this is a stripper pole:

Flying Spaghetti Monster
Delivering a divine message might require a great deal of coordination, but building a FSM cube shouldn't. Pastafarians and spagnostics alike will worship this Flying Spaghetti Monster themed cube.

Golf Cubicle
IZEA's very own putting green.  Can you tell this guy loves golf?

Henderson's Classic Arcade Pavillion
IZEA's own arcade!

Intentionally Blank Cubicle
This one...well....

IZEA Loco
Plain-and-simple, the theme of this cube is IZEA Loco!

The Pretty Potty
This IZEA Teammember believes in keeping things squeaky clean.

The Marvel Comics
This cubical is all-things-Marvel!  Take a close look and you'll see Spiderman's second home...here at IZEA.

Purple Velvet
This cubical is rockin' out!

Rubik's Cubicle
The theme of this cubicle is "Rubik's Cubicle."  However it has bugs that have not been fixed.  Try cruising around this place without receiving error 404!

The B&A Bonanza
This cubical is a 70's gameshow gone mad, complete with IZEA's own host and hostess!  Three interactive shows during the day, "$25,000 Pyramid" style.  Groovy!

Tiki Time
This cube is the surf/tiki/beach thing.  Surf's up!

Tropical Paradise
This tropical paradise comes complete with Booze, sun and bathing suits thrown around... just a normal day at the beach in this cube owner's life :)

Western Saloon
Visiting this cubical is like taking a trip to the Old West!

Willy Wonka and the Candy Factory
Mmmm....who doesn't love candy?

VOTE for your favorite cubical NOW by matching-up your favorite photo above with the caption in the widget below. If you can't view the widget please click here.

I discovered Houndsgood.com several weeks ago and made myself remember it for a future "Blogger with a Cause." And July seems like a good month: it's hot out but you can still do something good without even having to leave your house.

In addition to having a heavy focus on animal volunteer and reach-out, Houndsgood.com also offers-up ideas and recommendations to those who are looking for volunteer opportunities in general:

- Bettering oneself through education
- Ideas & tips on fundraising
- Cruelty-free products (which is certainly a hot issues these days)
- Virtual networking (a must for bloggers)
- Animal rescue

It's no secret I have an affinity for animals, especially those that are in special need or have been abused or neglected. So this site definitely struck a cord.

The FAQ section of the site also has answers to questions site visitors might be wanting to ask. Check that out when you have a few minutes.

If you have or know of a blog that you'd like to recommend for an upcoming "Blogger with a Cause," please e-mail us at charity[at]izea[dot]com.

If you missed the posts on the Community Blog last week, you may not know that tomorrow is a big day for the IZEA team and the IZEA Community.  (We certainly wouldn't be where we are today without the support of our Blogger & Advertiser Community.)  Even if you don't live in the Central Florida area there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in the festivities.

Here's the skinny:

IZEA Loco
For newbies:  IZEA Loco is our monthly employee get together, and we don't mess around at these things:  lots of food, cakeplows, and awards for "RockStars of the Month."  It's loads of fun, and if you want to take part you can follow the whole thing as we Twitter it.  Here are some photos from previous IZEA Locos this year:

- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008

Cubico Loco
Last week Ted challenged the entire IZEA Team to pimp out our cubes with any theme we'd like, and boy have we ever!  Don't worry -- you'll be in on the action.  Starting at noon tomorrow (12pm EST) we'll start taking pictures of all the decked-out cubes, and post them here on the blog.  Then you guys will vote on your favorites.  There will be 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes so get your voting skills polished!  Stay tuned for additional details.

Devasaurus
This is the first of many meet-ups of local developers and technology enthusiasts.  It's being hosted at the IZEA offices from 6:30-8:00pm.  You might have an opportunity to win $5,000, so you don't want to miss this. A map to IZEA and registration information can be found at http://devasaurus.eventbrite.com/.

IZEA Turns 2!
Two whole years!  It's hard to believe we're celebrating our second birthday.  And we want you to join-in on the fun.  For those in the Orlando area, feel free to join us at Wall Street Cantina immediately following Devasaurus.  We'll have food, drink, and make lots of memories.  Click here to register so we can know you're coming. If you're not in the Orlando area and can't make the party, don't worry -- we'll take plenty of photos and share them with you after the party.

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow...and for two more successful years!

A linky-love (blog review) post should accomplish several goals. It should introduce readers to the blogger, inform them about the content and nature of the blog and, of course, provide some quality links. A good linky-love post will also compel readers to visit the blog. There's no set formula beyond that, but most of us who write reviews have a routine we follow. Here's what works for me:

The About Me Page

I always start my research with the About Me page. Some are a useless waste of space while others are goldmines of information. The About Me page is where we should be able to get a feel for the blogger and a general idea of what to expect from their blog. Aahz's blog, Philaahzophy, has one of the best it's been my privilege to explore lately. He won a linky-love post in my weekly photo puzzle contest. I was not familiar with his blog and was not feeling confident that I could do justice to a review for a man who self-identifies as an anarchist. His About Me /Usage Guide (Yes! Navigation aids - what a concept!) laid my fears to rest and allowed me to approach the job with an open mind. (He's a pussy-cat and a very likable guy, despite his radical politics. Follow his link and see if you don't agree!)

Categories

Exploring the blog's category menu is my second step. If it's well-organized and lists the number of posts in each category, that's a real bonus. It allows me to point my readers to the topic(s) that the blogger writes about most frequently. Laura Williams' Musings doesn't have category post counts, but she's accomplished the same thing by placing important categories on tabs in her header. I'm one of Laura's fans and knew her linky-love post would focus on her daily listings of blog contests, so her categories made it easy to find what I needed. Are you a contest junkie? You really should subscribe to Laura!

Current posts

Make sure you read at least the last few weeks of postings before you start your review. Blogs are organic in nature and the focus may have shifted from what the categories lead you to expect. Celebrity gossip may have the most posts, but it's also important that your review should mention that the blogger has a new baby or was on the evening news for rushing into a burning building to save a rare South American parrot. Discussing what's currently going on in the blogger's life is a great way to create a sense of immediacy that will encourage your readers to click on their links.

Relevancy

Ideally, each blog you review will share some topics in common with your own blog. (This might not be the case if you use linky-love posts for contest prizes. Sometimes you'll have to dig to find a "hook" that makes a review relevant to your blog.) Chatbug Karen and I are both small-business owners, so I used her business category as a link in her review. Such direct relevancy adds value to the links and contributes to the natural flow of the reviewer's blog. Karen and her husband have many years of experience, so they're great mentors for someone like me who is still learning the ins-and-outs of business ownership. She's also fun and funny, another reason you should visit her blog.

Critique

A linky-love post is no place to be bashing a blog. Save that for link-baiting aimed at arrogant, so-called A-Listers. Your review can contain some thoughtfully-worded constructive criticism. The blogger might appreciate knowing that their categories are confusing or their About Me page isn't terribly helpful. Apply the Law of Parsimony (Keep it Simple, Stupid!) and handle it gently. The reviewer's job is to help the blogger, not destroy their confidence!

Other Stuff

The length of a linky-love post and the number of links it contains are at the discretion of the reviewer. I try to give each review enough weight and space to create good buzz for the blogger, along with information or entertainment value for my readers. When I stumble across two-line reviews with only a home page link, I always suspect that the blogger had no real interest in the site they were reviewing. They probably got themselves talked into a review they didn't really want to do, or maybe they needed an interim post. It's too bad that some bloggers don't realize that a well-written linky-love post can benefit the recipient, the reviewer and everyone who reads it.  Pick a blog that's looking for love and try it yourself!

If you are anything like me you occasionally run out of month before you can accomplish everything that you wanted to get done. Since I started writing these guest posts I kept telling myself I have plenty of time to write my posts each month and stay on track. I mean, there are 28-31 days in a month I should be able to write 4 posts of various topics quickly and easily.  Heck, I should even be able to write many ahead of time and schedule them to post on specific days. Yeah, Right!

I think of myself as a pretty organized person. I think that you have to be in order to consistently produce quality content for your blog and still maintain a full time job, family and whatnot. Even though I am very organized I sometimes need a little help. I purchased and read the book Getting Things Done. Man, I was energized by the ideas put forth in that book. Many of them I had already been doing in my own life. So the book was so great that I had to share it with one of my friends. He is the least organized person that I've ever known. That is not a judgment call on his personality or anything, it is just a fact based on consistency. He's a great guy who would do anything for you to help you out. He is just disorganized.

He lost it...

Within a week...

He told me he would replace it....

That was two years ago...

Then one day during a meeting I saw his organizer program projected on a screen. This is what I saw.

That high priority item had been on the organizer for about a year. I also know that he's e-mailed himself reminders to get me a copy of the book. But this e-mail is trapped within a set of e-mails that he's sent himself to remind himself of things to do. At last count the number of reminder e-mails was 75. I just had to laugh because the situation has become incredibly funny to me. For one thing, I should have known that this would happen because of his track record and the other just for the sheer irony of the content of the book what happened to it.

Around the same time I bought a small Webber grill (it cost maybe $10 no big whoop, it was on sale) for a Jimmy Buffett Concert back in 2006. Once the concert was over the grill was still hot so I asked my friend (same guy) if he could bring it home in his roommate's truck. Now, I don't really care about getting it back or not, a $10 grill isn't something that I am going to lose sleep over. How many times do you suppose that I've heard "I'm bringing your grill in on Friday"? It is nearly time for another Buffett Concert (2nd one since the grill was bought) and guess what? The grill is still in his garage, probably on top of my copy of Getting Things Done.

What does this have to do with blogging? Nothing much except for this point. Procrastination can kill your blog. If you don't keep your blog updated people will expect it to be stagnant and will stop visiting it. What do you do when you first get online? If it is not directly related to your blog you might fall into the trap of procrastination or Internet ADHD. It is so easy to get distracted by what is being said online that you may forget to speak your own mind. If you go online and start by checking Facebook, MySpace, Dropping Entrecards, Reading RSS Feeds, reading e-mail, checking out your favorite blogs, participating in forums and on an on it is so easy to be caught in distractions. If you do that each day then you may never get around to working on your own blog because you've run out of time.

I've read many bloggers who have posted their methods illustrating how they budget their time to work on their blogs. Many are very good and many are crap. The crap ones are from those blogger who set up a junk blog with no real content but then proceed to tell you how you should run your own blog. If you want to blog better read better bloggers, consistent bloggers, bloggers with their own ideas and bloggers who don't follow the crowd. Are they blogging daily? Do they maintain multiple blogs and blog daily on each of them? Those are the people who most likely have something to tell you. But read them after you've taken care of your own blog and your own blog readers.

So, what do you do to make sure that you have enough time to blog each day?

Drew writes four blogs, is an avid kayaker and a Transformers fan, he also does a mean cake plow. He recently completed taking 1170+ consecutive photos in 1170+ days. You can visit him at The BenSpark, The Wired Kayaker, Read To Me, Dad, Google is not God.

We've recently looked at spiffing up your blog to make it link-worthy and about asking for reviews. Now it's time to move on to bribing rewarding your reviewers. Linky-love can be had for free, but it's pretty rude to accept someone's lovin' and not return it. Writing a linky-love post for the person who reviewed you is one way to pay them back, but it's problematic if you do that every time. Each of you needs unique links coming in and going out, so writing reviews for each other cancels out some of the value. You will get benefits because each of your blogs is being exposed to a new audience, but in order to get the most benefit you'll need some non-reciprocal links, too. Here are a couple of suggestions that have worked well for others.

Linky-love round robins

Form a group of bloggers - at least a dozen, but more is better - all with some areas of common focus. For no-niche bloggers like myself that can span a lot of interests. A group of bloggers that I choose to share linky-love with might include some who blog about food or pets, some Hawaii bloggers and maybe some game enthusiasts, because I post frequently about each of those things. If your blog is topic-specific, stay within that topic. A review of your finance blog won't carry as much weight sandwiched between my posts about the goofy beagle and a day at the beach as it will if you align yourself with other finance and business bloggers. Each member recruited into the group will commit to writing the agreed-upon number of linky-love posts for other members of the group, selected from those who are not reviewing their own blog. You'll each get acquainted with new blogs in your own areas interest, get some links that relate to your content and avoid the reciprocal-links pitfall. You can find many pages of link chains or link trains by entering either of those terms in your favorite search engine. They're not the same thing. Theose are more like giant blogrolls of strangers whose content might not have anything in common with your own blog. There is more value in exchanging reviews of blogs that share some relevancy.

Contests and giveaways

A number of posties have shown us how to do this right. The next time you feature a contest or giveaway, award extra entries to participants who write a review of your blog or of the specific promotion. You'll get some exposure and deep links and they'll get an extra shot at your prizes, so everyone wins. Lori and Val have both done this very successfully, so take a look at the contest categories on their blogs for some fine examples of how it works.

Content, content, content

Yeah, you knew I'd have to come back to this point, didn't you?  If you are routinely supplying fresh, relevant content to your readers, you will get spontaneous reviews from time to time without asking. Do you need to reciprocate each time someone sends you some linky-love? No! They're paying you for the entertainment and information they found on your blog. You're even!

The final installment of this series will discuss writing blog reviews.

I recently suggested that putting more of yourself into your blog might open the door to more linky-love reviews. That's not the whole answer, though. Many who have great blogs with good readership still don't get the lovin' they need. If your blog is link-worthy, why aren't the reviews popping up often enough to suit you?

Maybe it's because you didn't ask!

Sometimes it's as simple as asking for a review. We all know that blogs need link-love, but few of us think to do them spontaneously. We do them because the needs of a specific blogger are brought to our attention. They ask!

Ask the people who know your blog

Most of your friends and regular readers will do a review if you ask them. It makes sense that if they enjoy your blog, their own readers will enjoy it, too. They'll be doing their visitors a service by pointing out another good blog for them to read. It makes solid content for the reviewer, so everyone gets some benefit out of the deal.

Ask your new readers

If a first-time visitor posts an enthusiastic comment to something you've written, ask them to share it with their own readers. "Aloha GameGal! Welcome to skeet's stuff and mahalo for your kind words. It's always great to meet another hidden object game enthusiast. Could you do me a favor and let your own readers know you've found new source for game reviews? I'd really appreciate it!"  I've rarely failed to get a positive response to this approach.

Does asking make you a pest?

In the comments for my last Izea post, Drew's inquiring mind wanted to know how one can ask for linky love without being a pest. I don't think asking once is obnoxious. If the person says no, drop it. If they're regular readers, though, chances are pretty good they'll say yes. You can do it publicly, as I did with Mistipurple in that same comment string. I'll admit that was an experiment, though, and I wouldn't suggest doing it unless you're pretty certain of a positive response. An email or private message doesn't put anyone on the spot and will usually result in a review. You can also put out a general call for linky-love in a post on your blog, but I've gotten lackluster responses to that method. Making it personal by addressing someone privately has always worked better for me.

Ask outside your current readership

Ask for linky-love on message boards and public forums. Check out the Sparks forum on the Izea Message Boards. Posties are asking for love and they're getting it. Other posties are offering to give reviews. Take them up on it! Ask in the other communities you frequent, too. Ideally, you share some common interests with the members of those communities and they'll respond as enthusiastically as your postie pals.

Next up: Rewarding your reviewers. Stay tuned!

We're currently experiencing unusually heavy load and a significant drop in response times from SocialSpark. We have team members online looking into this since the load shouldn't have impacted the response times this much.

We will have  a resolution very soon.

Update: Issue is now resolved.

The release this week is pretty big.  In addition to the bug fixes and features listed below, there was also a ton of stuff behind the scenes that's going into this release.  The following items are included in the release:

- 4984 - Changed a number of details in the Create Opportunity process to make it more
streamlined
- 5004 - The Solutions Center has been added to SocialSpark.  Find more tools and services that can help you manage your social media campaigns from improving traffic, increasing user engagement to brand tracking
- 5019 - Added a report feature for advertisers so their stats are downloadable in csv
format
- 4951 - Fixed a bug where Sparks that were in Draft or Yanked were still showing up in
global search results
- 4955 - Changed "tracking links" on opp creation to "required links"
- 4972 - Fixed a bug where an uploaded avatar wouldn't save in opportunity creation if
the advertiser used the 'Previous' button
- 4986 - Fixed an overlapping issue Opp Creation where image upload option could get
obscured by a text box
- 4988 - Changed the Title field in opp creation so that it defaults to the same as what
the advertiser entered for 'Name'
- 4989 - Added the ability for advertisers to add bloggers to street teams from the blogs
list page
- 4990 - Truncated urls that were too long to fit in the component within the blogs
analytics page
- 4998 - Added text to the Opp Creation explaining the significance of required versus
suggested links
- 5003 - Clarified the error message that occurs when an advertiser doesn't fill out a
required info link field

Advertisers may be particularly interested in the new reports feature, as we've received lots of feedback requesting stats that advertisers can download and use as they see fit.  The advertiser reports give all the details of your Opportunities and the posts associated with them in csv format.  This can be found in the Tools component of any opportunity overview page, as seen below.

In addition to everything above, this release also adds several features behind the scenes to SSLove to help us fill a number of requests more easily.