Izea Townhall Meeting Transcript

Edit: This is a long transcript so you’ll have to click the link below to read more.

Ted Murphy: questions for me go over here
Ted Murphy: 30 minutes to showtime.
Ted Murphy: 15 minutes…
skeet: So, are we all going to talk about Ted until he comes back to direct the conversation?
Ted Murphy: i sure hope so.
Ted Murphy: 5 minutes…. lurking
Ted Murphy: alright… let’s get this going!
skeet: We’re here and primed for action.
Ted Murphy: great!
Cass: areyou wearing the red velvet jacket?
Ted Murphy: I am wearing my socialspark shirt

Michael White: What’s the future of PayPerPost like with SocialSpark on the horizon?
Ted Murphy: that remains to be seen. We will be making some updates to the ppp system over time, it all depends on how fast socialspark takes off.
Connie: I get my Izea Tack emails late. How are they sent out?
Ted Murphy: They are all sent out through an enterprise email system. May be your mail provider.
skeet: Anything new and amazing for us today, Ted?
Ted Murphy: Nothing to show off today… but we are definately working hard to deliver socialspark for you soon. banging out problems every day.
Bob: when will social spark beta testing begin?
Ted Murphy: I have a meeting about that friday morning. I hope to know more then.
dragonfly183: IS there a concrete launch date for social spark yet
Ted Murphy: not yet. we are focused on doing it the right way, the blogosphere isn’t too forgiving for us.
dragonfly183: i was hoping it was the g string
Ted Murphy: they are all in the laundry.
Mama BoK: thanks ted.. can’t wait..
Ted Murphy: me either! It is hard to not just pull the trigger, but we know it’s not what it should be yet. close. but not there yet.
skeet: Projected launch date?
Ted Murphy: already hit this one.
Tim @ Bloggerista: What is the advertisers’ feedback to nofollow in socialspark?
Ted Murphy: Some good, some bad. the seo’s don’t like ti much, but the regular advertiser have no problem with it. my guess is that 98%+ of all online ads have no-follow, most advertisers aren’t looking for seo, they are looking for clicks and sales.
Bob: noticed big money amounts way down
Ted Murphy: we have seen a small shift from less slots at higher dollar amounts to more slots at lesser dollar amounts. at the end of the day the advertisers are going to offer what makes sense for them.
Bob: whos the guest blogger gonna be?
Ted Murphy: i was just reading a bunch of posts. I am going to announce that live on friday.
valmg: Are you finding less, more or the same amount of bloggers applying since the google spanking?
Ted Murphy: it was less when it first happened, but we quickly regained steam.
minutechaser: do we all get to jump into beta or is that just for the test team?
Ted Murphy: it will be rolled out in stages.
Connie: Any info on the lags on the PPP site?
Ted Murphy: we have a team on that right now. it’s been dirving me crazy too. Appartenly it is a pretty complex problem but we have a solution.
Cass: any updates on PostieCon ‘08?
Ted Murphy: it is going to be in orlando. date is not yet set but we are working on it.
Katy: has there been any consideration to requiring a specific minimum dollar amount for how many words an advertiser wants written?
Ted Murphy: we tried setting prices on behalf of advertisers about a year ago and found that it is a bad idea. the advertisers and bloggers need to settle on a price. if the offer is too low pass on the opp and the advertisers will get the message.
Colleen: What’s been your biggest disappointment with PayPerPost / Izea so far?
Ted Murphy: hmmm. that is an interesting question. I’m not really one to dwell on the past. Life is full of challenges and I feel pretty good about the way we have dealt with ours. sometimes things don’t go as planned but through it all we have kept our heads held high.
Michael White: Are more advertisers coming on board with the use of Izearank?
Ted Murphy: There are more advertisers coming on board, though we don’t have any data yet as far as the impact of IZEARanks. We have yet to put out an official press release. That should go out next week.
Colleen: What are your plans to improve the communication between bloggers and PPP?
Ted Murphy: we have people assigned to the boards and have dedicated a good bit of time and money towards supporting the posties. we still have room for improvement and gordon has a number of initiatives under way.
Bob: do you have employees who regularly work nights and weekends approving opps live into the system
Ted Murphy: the customer love team works 7 days a week, most of our advertisers are US based and create opps during the standard work week.
Bob: are the people assigned to the boards paid by izea or are they volunteer?
Ted Murphy: there is a mix. some moderators are volunteers, some are employees.
techie: Is Wordpress.com going to allow social spark on it? I have a nice fat PR 6 blog on it that would love some ad revenue
Ted Murphy: I am not sure that wordpress will ever allow sponsored posts. it’s a shame. What is PR
Lincoln: The itk.socialspark.com code used to track sites tends to delay the page load of blogs if the servers are slow. Is the problem being worked on until it eventually becomes a non-issue?
Ted Murphy: we have done a few rounds of enhancements already and are continuing to bang away. We will have a CDN going into action soon. I think pete said that will be ready next week.
Colleen: What changes do you have planned for PostieCon this year to improve attendance, since you won’t be tied into Blog World Expo?
Ted Murphy: I was very happy with the event itself, i think the change in dates and location along with the short notice caused some problems last year. We should have that whipped this year.
brettbum: Has any progress been made with Google or Matt Cutts or did everyone agree to not quite agree?
Ted Murphy: There is still some potential there, but there are definately some issues we don’t agree on. I want to do right by Google but they need to have a uniform application of policies.
falsedragon: nice to see you joke about PR when most of us no longer have any and most advertisers still want it. If you truly belive ‘what’s PR’, then when can we expect you to actually do something about it?
Ted Murphy: I can promise you that PR will dissapear in the future. Timing depends on how fast we wrap socialspark, but we will be removing PR from PPP in favor of other data.
Connie: Any thought of allowing “veteran” posties opps before newere posties?
Ted Murphy: that won’t happen in PPP, but I think you will have an advantage in SocialSpark.
Cass: Can we expeWill there be more video from PostieCon ‘07? I was looking forward to some of the out-takes
Ted Murphy: yes. we had a backlog of rockstartup episodes, but they are kicking back up this week. I think the next one gets posteed tomorrow. Look for fab and colleen!
Bob: so pr will be gone from PPP and social spark even though its in the video?
Ted Murphy: yes. gone. bye bye. so sad.
dragonfly183: do you think we will continue to have problems with google even after were all using no follow
Ted Murphy: I can’t see why… but then again i can’t see why google does a lot of things.
skeet: Ted, you just made my day!
Ted Murphy: well good.
techie: Will you talk to Wordpress.com about it? As long as it’s with no follow, then it should be good no?
Ted Murphy: I went down that route before. I would love to work with them… I am 110% open to it. No-follow, full disclosure… lets do it
Bob: THANK YOU TED YOU ARE THE MAN!
Ted Murphy: Sweet. I am now the man. is that the man in a bad way or a good way
Heather in Beautiful BC: The directions for adding the RR badge are very confusing and not complete enough for me to install it… Would you have someone look at it and make the directions clear?
Ted Murphy: will do. jamie is godo at that stuff, maybe we need another swipe at it.
techie: Who did you meet with today that you couldn’t believe you were meeting with?
Ted Murphy: lol. i almost answered that.
skeet: do you expect to lose some advertisers if they can’t segment by PR?
Ted Murphy: no. i have something in mind that will still be appealing to those types of advertisers.
Ted Murphy: sorry for any typos btw. I am going really fast.
ryan: Was it Oprah ted?
Ted Murphy: that wouldn’t be a surprise… we are dating and she is having my child.
falsedragon: did Matt Cutts ever respond to your blog post a while back about what it is that Google really wants from us?
Ted Murphy: no. not that I saw.
Tim @ Bloggerista: If advertisers are looking for clicks and sales, is socialspark (and us) going to be competing with affiliate programs? Are they responsive to the buzz marketing sales proposition?
Ted Murphy: it is a blended value proposition. for someone like a car manufacturer I can sell on the creation of the post alone. Would you pay $15 to have someone explore and research your vehicle and write 250 words. That is as good as it gets whithout having you go to the dealership. For other advertisers it is more about the clicks and direct sales. each advertiser has their own metrics
ryan: Are there plans to release ROI rank on a seperate site, like Real Rank?
Ted Murphy: ROIRank will be part of IZEAranks and will have an API like RealRank.
skeet: Ted, there’s a hate blog out there that says you, Cass and I are having a three-way. Confirm or deny?
Ted Murphy: well… what about the forth…. are we not mentioning her?
techie: Do you realize that the PPP blog sucks, because you haven’t announced any really major cool changes forever? I miss the every other day major announcement. I guess that’s growth?
Ted Murphy: i wish we had more stuff to announce. most of the announcements in the past were updates to ppp. Once SS is live we will have the pleasure of making these announcements more frequently.
brettbum: Ted, the was a time when you were the KING of Gorilla marketing. For a few months now, you have toned things down a bit for good corporate reasons and necessities. I have a suggestions (seriously). Wouldn’t it make a very big statement if we (all of us together) MADE the next POTUS? -> Ted Murphy US King maker on the cover of Newsweek
Ted Murphy: cover of newsweek would be nice! we are revving the old marketing machince back up… look for more signature crazy in the very near future.
Tim @ Bloggerista: You don’t have to answer it this if you don’t to, but are you holding back any big-brand advertisers so socialspark makes a splash (instant credibility)?
Ted Murphy: there are a few big advertisers that are lined up for SS. we have been getting some really great feedback.
Lisa: Are you going to do any postie patrols anymore?
Ted Murphy: yes… and more. i am leading a big push internally to embrace our customers.
Heather in Beautiful BC: Are you weeks or months away from socialspark launch?
Ted Murphy: I will have a better idea on friday. it isn’t launching next week that is for sure.
dragonfly183: Is there any way to let advertisers know just how bag page rank is?
Ted Murphy: we have been trying. The funny thing is that most mainstream advertisers don’t even care about PR. they care about vlivks and views.
falsedragon: how about a way for bloggers to communicate with the advertisers.. I know this will be completely open in SS, but here in ol’ PPP there’s nothing much we can do.
Ted Murphy: I would like that too, but i have put a hold on any new features in PPP right now. We are only working on bug fixes and system performance.
ryan: How many advertisers do you currently have in the system?
Ted Murphy: we recently broke 14k
valmg: will worldwide wednesdays return after ss?
Ted Murphy: I have gotten mized reviews on 1k tuesday and ww wed. do you guys want it back?? we need to get the performance issues nailed first, but after that we may be able to bring them back… if you guys want them.
Connie: What are you hearing from advertisers about RR?
Ted Murphy: we are getting some good feeback. the biggest thing is getting as many bloggers as possible to participate.
Mama BoK: the apostrophe problem .. we are still having it.. for months now.. but tech never fixed it..
Ted Murphy: we know… hopefully with the next update
Mama BoK: After taking an opp.. and when trying to submit.. the opp is not there no more… happened twice to us here.. yesterday.. and i submitted a ticket a long time ago, but never got a reply .. except for the usual.. it should be fixed now.. but obviously it is not..
Ted Murphy: anyone else having this problem?
Heather in Beautiful BC: Ted, your new office space looks huge – do you have enough employees to fill them? Do you expect to be hiring lots more?
Ted Murphy: that is the plan. If anyone knows any developers please send them my way.
Mama BoK: oh.. when we get a rejection.. about not seeing the disclosure.. can we not get a warning .. that we might get banned because the disclosure isn’t there .. it’s like primary school. Plus the Disclosure had always been there.. that’s what irks me.
Ted Murphy: that’s no good. I will bring this to gordon and see what we can do.
jude: I don’t expect pr to go away, but is there any way at all to lessen this from the way posties have to equalify the the way they do posts for ppp?
Ted Murphy: I think I hit on this already. pr is gone in SS and will go away in PPP.
Cass: Have you been able to track down more info about what percentage of the Psosties were involved in the rankspank? Is it connected with tool kit as some suggest?
Ted Murphy: there is no definitive connection between the toolkit and pr that we can find.
Colleen: Are you seeing serious adoption of Izea Ranks by influential bloggers outside of the PayPerPost community?
Ted Murphy: not a huge influx of big names, but plenty of bloggers outside of PPP. We are going to be putting some muscle behind this soon.
Breezie 2: thats is great news Ted
Ted Murphy: Happy it makes you happy.
No thank you, to WWWeds, IK Tues.
Ted Murphy: hmmmm….
Tim @ Bloggerista: This is my first town hall – what is the etiquette about blogging this meeting?
Ted Murphy: You can feel free. I am an open book
dragonfly183: So is is Pr gone as of the SS launch or will it just eventually go away?
Ted Murphy: PR has been pulled from SS.
dragonfly183: So is is Pr gone as of the SS launch or will it just eventually go away?
Ted Murphy: PR has been pulled from SS.
Bob: does ppp have a stake in pay per play audio/ what do you think of this?
Ted Murphy: we do not. I am not sure what I think about pay per play.
Breezie 2: I just want opps period
Ted Murphy: me too!
skeet: I’d like to have them back, but only if the system can handle the increased load. The slow-down they used to cause was pretty painful.
Ted Murphy: yes. painful indeed.
valmg: If performance was improved I think 1KT and WW are a good thing
Ted Murphy: good to know.
Is Veronique still drinking mineral water?
Ted Murphy: as far as I know. She moved over to sales…. did you guys know that?
Michael White: How do you apply for the beta?
Ted Murphy: The beta will go out to those that attended PostieCon first, itk testers second and others after that.
Colleen: What’s been your proudest moment with PayPerPost so far?
Ted Murphy: when we made our first million. it took me a hell of a lot longer with my previous companies.
Colleen: What do you think about other paid blogging companies blaming PPP for the google smack, and not allowing bloggers who work for them to have any mention of PPP on their blogs?
Ted Murphy: its pretty much garbage. it’s funny how many people blamed us, then I go to their blog and see badges for 3 paid blog companies and tla ads all over the place.
skeet: Postie Patrol ‘08 in Hawaii, Ted?
Ted Murphy: if you are paying for the ticket!! wish I could come up with a reason to get me there.
dragonfly183: I know a man with a computer science degree who is looking for work, should i send him your way?
Ted Murphy: yes
Starryskye: Ted! You are ignoring my question! *whine*
Ted Murphy: sorry trying to catch something from everyone
Starryskye: To play “devils advocate” for the newbies, does “vet posties having an advantage” mean that Social Spark may turn into more of a “popularity contest” with the same people getting the better opps all the time?
Ted Murphy: no. what it does mean is that those that are very active in the communituy will be more visibile to advertisers. BUT at the end of the day they are going to look at your blog to see if they want to add you to their street teams.
Bob: john chow thinks google is having a bad quarter thats why they are cutting adsense payouts to countries and to application referals such as firefox
Ted Murphy: you never know. could be.
Bob: yeah typical matt went on vacation and forget everything and left everyone to cool down
Ted Murphy: i am going to do that next time you guys are updset…. lol
Bob: good way sorry i have to ask you such bad questions but i really love you and Izea
Ted Murphy: NP.
Jules: Not a question – just wanted to say hi!
Ted Murphy: HEY JULES
Tim @ Bloggerista: Do you think that was the real Mike Arrington here earlier?
Ted Murphy: what? mike arrington?
Bob: at what date should we expect pr to be removed from ppp and will it be removed from social spark at launch?
Ted Murphy: think I hit this one already
mistipurple: getting advertisers from asia? you have a huge market waiting to be tapped.
Ted Murphy: not a ton from asia, but 10% of business coming from the UK.
brettbum: Any thoughts or progress on possibly pushing out a toolbar for SocialSpark to compliment the on site analytics javascript?
Ted Murphy: YES, an IZEA toolbar that has some other cool features. Just trying to stay focused right now.
Lisa: Has pete figured out why our pageviews and uniques are lower in IzeaRanks thaqt they are in our own staqtcounters?
Ted Murphy: yes. i am not sure what the status is. it may have already rolled.
skeet: MArrington was signed in.
Ted Murphy: lol. i think someone is having fun
dragonfly183: don’t forget some people here have your cell phone number and i’m sure we could get them to share
Ted Murphy: Oh…. I know people have my cell phone number. Don’t forget I have your number too! ; )
Ted Murphy: i am now getting prods from the little lady
Ted Murphy: time to wrap this stuff up

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