All Posts By

Ted Murphy

Ted Murphy
In sales & marketing

Good Logos Start in Black and White

Personal branding is all the buzz among bloggers these days. While there are many elements of a personal brand one of the biggest is your logo. Most bloggers are decent writers, but terrible designers. They don’t understand the basic principles of creating a logo for branding purposes. On the other hand I am decent designer, but a terrible writer : )

There are a few rules I have when creating a logo:

  1. Logos should start in black and white.
  2. Logos are not just a word in a fancy font.
  3. Logos should not contain pictures.
  4. Logos should be sharp, unique and distinctive.
  5. Logos need to be readable when printed at 1″

If you think of any major brand logo they follow these same rules: Nike, Apple, AT&T, FedEx, Microsoft, McDonalds, WalMart, you name it…

I have created many logos in my life, but the IZEA logo is one of my favorites. It is a strong logo that meets all of the above requirements. It works big or small, in black and white or color. It works screen printed in one color on a t-shirt just as well as it does animated in video.

I know what you are saying…. “Ted your logo on this blog can’t be done in one color and it uses a picture”. Yes…. but just because I am a jackass doesn’t mean you should be. It’s way harder to create a good black and white logo than it is to slap some text effects and a photo together. I took the shortcut. Now I am quite frustrated with my logo, I am going to have to redo it when I have some time. I can’t print it on t-shirts (without expensive full color) and you can’t read it when it is small. Not to mention it kinda sucks and is not my best work.

If you are going to invest time in branding yourself I suggest you take the time to do it right. Start in black and white, you will thank me for it later.

Ted Murphy
In health

Dude. You Are Fat.

Ouch. Nobody likes to hear that, but I did. Well…. kinda anyway.

A couple of months ago I linked up with my old buddy Michael Brito at IZEAFest. We hadn’t seen each other in about 4 months. He and I have always shot straight with each other, so after a few drinks he dropped a bomb on me. While he didn’t say “Dude. You are fat.” he did say I had put on a good bit of weight and my neck was thick. My mind translated his statement into what I already knew. I was getting fat and was out of shape.

That was a turning point for me and I am so happy Michael said something. Today I ran 20 miles and I am currently in training for a marathon. I saw Michael again this past weekend and he told me I looked like I was getting in shape (thanks buddy).

Fat is a Choice

While I realize a very small percentage of people have a legitimate weight disease, the majority of us don’t. There is no excuse for people like me. I was simply eating too much and exercising too little, my caloric intake was higher than what I burned. I am not alone. According to the CDC 33.3% of American adult men are obese. Are you kidding me!?! That is ridiculous.


U.S. Obesity Trends 1985-2007 from Ted Murphy on Vimeo.

I wasn’t getting fat because my parents are heavy, I was working too much, getting older, blah blah blah. I was getting fat because I was eating like a horse and not engaging in any physical activity. That was my choice. I chose to eat like I did. I chose not to exercise. It’s your choice too. Unless you have a rare disease you have nobody to blame but yourself.

Good Friends Shoot Straight

Michael is a Marine and with that comes a special flavor of tough love. There’s no BS, it is what it is. I’m lucky to have a friend like that, but most people don’t. When was the last time you told your friend to ease off the cheeseburgers? It’s a hard thing to do. Nobody wants to hurt someones feelings, so we sit back and watch our friends rack up the pounds.

Your friend gets fatter and fatter. You say nothing…but eventually the message comes, not from you but from their body. Coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, hypertension, dyslipidemia, liver disease, the list of obesity related illness goes on and on.

Tell Your Friend They Are Getting Fat

You have a choice, either you can help your friend realize they need to make a life change or their body can. Hmmmm… heart attack vs. some potentially hurt feelings. I would pick the latter any day. You have the chance to help your friend or loved one before thet get to far down the road of obesity. You may save thier life.

Speaking of that… it looks like you may need to lay off the fries. Chunky butt.

Ted Murphy
In life

Balancing Work and Play

I work a lot. Even when I am not “working” I am working. I check my email in bed, I use my morning runs to plan out my work day and I brainstorm in the shower. I would say 90% of my daily thoughts are work-related. I love it. I am passionate about what I do and the challenge of my job is what keeps me motivated to push myself further.

All that work is great… but I don’t let it completely consume me. I try to balance hard work with a consistent dose of play. Most workaholics find that difficult to do, but I have made a conscious commitment to have a little fun each day. I have found that the right balance leaves me happier and more effective in everything I do.

Apparently Chris Brogan picked up on my vibe, you can see his thoughts below:

Get out there and PLAY! Dance on a table! Jump in a bathtub full of cereal! Paint something! All work and no play makes Ted a dull boy.

Ted Murphy
In

Blog Design Makes a Difference

It’s been just over a month since I worked with the guys at Unique Blog Designs to launch this blog. I abandoned my old domain and started Ted.me fresh with no traffic and no inbound links. Nate Whitehill has been helping me periodically over the past month to tweak the blog and fix stuff when I break it (which I have done a couple of times). I can’t say enough good things about Nate and crew. If you are considering a redesign of your blog call these guys at 1.870.619.4550. I am a customer, I have no interest or ownership in UBD, I just like working with them.

More Traffic

I have been very impressed by the increase in traffic I have seen since I made the switch. Even though this domain is completely new I had a 8x increase in visitors and a 3x increase in pageviews from October to November. It’s still a pretty small number, but it’s a number I can start building on.

More Comments

Many of my posts on my old blog had no comments at all. This new blog enjoys a relatively steady stream of comments independent of the post topic. I enjoy the interaction and spend more time responding to people who leave comments.

Why is This Blog Performing Better?

The Design

The new design is appealing, clean, fun and user friendly. The comments flow nicely, links are easy to see and the font is big enough for virtually anyone to read. I am getting a bunch of people sending me emails about the design of the blog itself.

Design is the single biggest flaw I see in so many blogs. People have blogs that are just plain ugly. UGLY UGLY UGLY. If your blog looks like crap it is an instant turn off for me (and advertisers if you care about making money). If you don’t have the skills to create a good looking blog yourself buy a template or hire the guys at UBD to help you out. Don’t underestimate the importance of good design. It is the difference between an iPod and a Zune.

The Platform

I really enjoyed using Tumblr, but WordPress is where it is at. WordPress is easy to use and ridiculously extensible. I have installed a ton of plugins to make my life easier and my blog more user friendly. I have now used Tumblr, Blogger, TypePad, Moveable Type and WordPress for various projects. WordPress is hands down my favorite. If you are on one of these other platforms (except Tumblr) you can export all your blog posts and comments into a .txt file and import them into WordPress without losing any data. Do it, you will thank me.

The Content

Tumblr didn’t really lend itself to longer form content. I did a lot of mobile posts that were nothing more than a picture. Now I find myself writing less posts with more meat since the switch to WordPress. I put more effort into my posts and my readers spend more time on my site in turn. The whole cereal thing didn’t seem to hurt traffic either.

Ted Murphy
In gear

Win an XShot 2.0

I did a post over on the IZEA Blog about how you can win an xshot. They sent us a bunch of product to giveaway over the coming weeks and are an awesome sponsor. I LOVE this product. This is probably my favorite low cost purchase this year. I have joined their affiliate program through SocialSpark and you can too.

Ted and Ashley with XShot

Ted Murphy
In sales & marketing

My Interview with The Engaging Brand

I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Anna Farmey of the The Engaging Brand a few weeks ago. It looks like the podcast has now been published on here blog. You can check it out here. A couple things we talked about

  • Do blogging and advertising really go together?
  • What value does advertising have for the blog reader?
  • How PayPerPost can work for your brand, and what is the risk of paying people to talk about your brand negatively!
  • Cloudshout….Are we moving from adverts to sponsored web walks, people can see the sites I visit and if I bring people with me, I get paid?
  • Are bloggers almost in danger of exploiting the consumers just like firms did with “in your face” advertising?
  • Is the recession great news for web companies, does it give you the “excuse” to start monetizing the web?
  • Why I believe that advertising in social media is a great return on investment for companies.
Ted Murphy
In

Gary Vaynerchuck Invades the Lamberson Household

Yesterday Tara and I went to the Apple store and bought her parents an AppleTV (I am a huge fan) as an early Christmas present. We are doing Christmas with my parents this year in Naples and Tara wanted me to hook the AppleTV up for them. I had it working in 5 minutes and showed them the basics ( I LOVE APPLE TV ).

I was working on my computer this afternoon when I heard a familiar voice blaring from her parents bedroom. I walked in to find Tara’s mom watching a podcast of Wine Library TV with my buddy Gary Vaynerchuck on her Apple TV. She found it on her own, while looking for content about wine.

What just happened?!? Are my worlds colliding here? Will I come back to Virginia next year to see her dad with an iPhone and her mom on Twitter? It’s only a matter of time before social media truly goes mainstream…. and I will have to find something new ; )

Ted Murphy
In art

My Take on Christmas Lights

Tara and I took a trip to the local a Christmas light display. I decided to take a different approach to photographing the lights. These are normal Christmas lights, photographed with an extended exposure and some camera movement. What do you think?

Christmas Lights

Christmas Lights

Christmas Lights