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business

Ted Murphy
In events

IZEAFest at SeaWorld!

I have been keeping a secret for nearly 3 months now… today I’m letting the cat out of the bag. IZEAFest 2009 will be at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. Not only do we have a great lineup of speakers including Robert Scoble, Aaron Brazell, Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse, but every single blogger in attendance gets a free ticket to SeaWorld.

What the heck are you waiting for? There are still early bird tickets available, your $179.00 ticket includes a day at SeaWorld, lunch on Friday and Saturday, parties, drinks and a free t-shirt. It is pretty much the best bang for the buck you will ever get at any blogger event. Book now!


IZEAFest at SeaWorld from Ted Murphy on Vimeo.

Ted Murphy
In business, life

Nanerpuss

Joe showed me the commercial for Denny’s Nanerpuss this morning and I instantly fell in love with it. I have been known to play with my food and could see myself doing something like this. I want a Nanerpuss t-shirt. The original commercial was good, but the Nanerpuss remix was even better.

Ted Murphy
In sales & marketing

Google Hates .me Domains

It’s been five months since I launched this blog and it is still nowhere to be found when you search for “ted murphy” on Google.com. Google’s algorithm gives so much weight to site age, back links and apparently domain extension that superior content and relevancy don’t seem to matter.

I have owned tedmurphy.org and tedmurphy.net for many years. While neither of them are regularly updated with original content anymore both of them outrank this site. My Vimeo, Twitter , LinkedIn and Facebook profiles also outrank Ted.me for my name. All of these social media profiles link back to this blog yet Google.com doesn’t seem to recognize it as an authority. Ted.me does not rank in the first 100 Google.com search results for “ted murphy”.

I started wondering if I was doing something wrong. Is this blog configured improperly in some way? Tedmurphy.org is a simple Tumblr blog, a platform that doesn’t have any of the SEO bells and whistles you can install with WordPress (I use the All in One SEO pack among others). I looked through Ted.me and didn’t see any glaring issues. The site is indexed just fine and I rank for terms I don’t care about.

The only thing I could come up with was my .me domain extension. I went to Google.me and sure enough ted.me is listed #5 (with tedmurphy.org outranking it).

Beware of .me Domains

I have to admit I had second thoughts about purchasing a .me domain. I was drawn to it because ted.me is so short and unique… it’s not often that you can grab a 5 letter domain. I knew international domains were penalized on Google.com but thought I could overcome it with good content that people linked to. It appears I may have been wrong.

Am I screwed? Will ted.me never reach the top of google.com for my name because of the .me extension? It sure looks like that may be the case. In my opinion Google hates .me domain extensions. While ted.me did show up on Google.me it was still outranked by my .net domain, which means even Google.me favors traditional U.S. domains like .com, .net and .org. Unless you want to rank for Google in Montenegro I would stay away from .me domains for now.

If any SEO experts can weigh in on their experience with .me domains I would greatly appreciate it.


Ted Murphy
In events

Blu Frog Energy Takes Me to Daytona for NASCAR Racing

IZEA has the best clients. Seriously. They are so good to us. One of our most recent clients is Blu Frog Energy Drink, a new product sold exclusively online. If you follow me on Twitter you have probably seen a few tweets about them. Our office has gone nuts over Blu Frog, so much so that I can’t seem to keep the stuff around. Our developers will pound down a few a day, they say it keeps them alert. Each can of Blu Frog only has 68 calories and they are fortified with a ton of vitamins, it’s good stuff. You won’t get the shakes like you can with Red Bull.

Ted Murphy and Larry Foyt

Ted and Larry Foyt

I have only been working with Blu Frog for a couple of weeks but they already treat me like family. This past weekend they invited Tara and I to Daytona for the big NASCAR race weekend. They sponsored three vehicles including the No. 56 Blu Frog Energy Chevrolet, driven by second generation driver Larry Foyt (son of A.J. Foyt). As official sponsors they had incredible access to the racetrack. Not only was I able to go into the pits, but I also had an magnificent seat to watch the Camping World 300 on Saturday. I felt like royalty… these guys know how to do it up. I want to thank everyone at Blu Frog for being so friendly and outgoing. I truly had a memorable experience this weekend.

I know I am not supposed to talk about it because Blu Frog is healthy….but I am going to anyway. The younger peeps at IZEA have started to mix Blu Frog with vodoka to kickoff the weekend. They call it a BluBomb and they say it gets the job done. You didn’t hear that from me and I did not have one at the race ; )

Ted Murphy
In sales & marketing

Personal Branding Crisis

Last night I returned home from my day at Daytona with Blu Frog Energy to find my favorite hat destroyed by my dog Bonzo. She has grown quite spoiled now that I take her to work with me every day, and hates it when we leave her at home. We had a dog sitter pick her up in the afternoon, but apparently that wasn’t fast enough. She gnawed on my hat and on one of Tara’s dresses, making sure she sent a clear message to both of us. Don’t leave me alone. I don’t like it.

Brand Damage

Normally I wouldn’t care so much. Stuff is stuff and I can buy another hat. The problem is this particular hat has become part of my personal brand. I have similar hats, but none of them are as identifiable as that one. That hat is featured in hundreds of photos of me, including the logo on this very blog. People recognize me because of that hat, it has become part of my image.

The truth is I screwed up. I’ve made a huge mistake (Arrested Development reference). When I decided to include that hat in my logo I should have made sure I had enough backup hats to deal with misplacing one, destruction or simple wear and tear. I knew better, I just didn’t think about it until it was too late. I tried to buy more about a month after I launched this site and had no luck.

It’s actually a good lesson for anyone developing a brand that includes a specific style of hat, glasses, etc. Make sure you have enough backups to last you several years, chances are you won’t be able to buy that same model or style again.

Help Me Rescue My Personal Brand

I bought the hat at Urban Outfitters in August. I have searched for the RN# featured in the picture below on their site and have come up with nothing. There is no website for the Vintage Crown Company. I have no idea where to get more of these hats.

Are you a super sleuth? If so you may score some cash. I am offering up a $100 reward to the first person who leaves a comment on this blog with either a link to buy this exact product or a phone number that I can call to order it. It must be this exact hat style, not a similar product. I will also hook you up with a thank you post and tweet for helping me out.

Brand Damage

Brand Damage

Brand Damage

Brand Damage

I hope one of you is better at tracking down things like this than I am. I really don’t want to go through a personal rebrand.

Ted Murphy
In gear

Directional Sound

Last night I watched the TED video below and was blown away by inventor Woody Norris. I had heard about sound cannons being used to thwart pirates on the news, but never understood the genesis of the technology. Woody is man behind the concept and this video explains how it works.

The second I was done with this video I set out to purchase a directional sound speaker for my office. I want to set one up in my cube so I can jam out without bothering others or wearing headphones. I also thought directional sound speakers would be great for keeping the noise complaints to a minimum at my lake parties.

Woody’s company is American Technology Coproration. ATC doesn’t sell product on thier site so I had to dig around a bit. Unfortunately the prices haven’t come down very much since this video was made in 2004. The lowest price is $663.47 as of today and the speakers are only available through one distributor (which doesn’t seem to have any in stock). I tried eBay, no such luck. I am still going to try and get one, I am fascinated by directional sound techology. I will let you know how it works.

Ted Murphy
In business

I Can Haz Short Email

I don’t know about you but I get hundreds of valid emails, tweets, comments and sms messages every day. I feel like I am drinking from a communications fire hose… with some of it always squirting out of my mouth. Today I received a couple of extremely detailed emails that were essentially long winded meeting requests. I didn’t read them. I scanned them, took into account who sent them to me and deleted or forwarded them on to be booked.

short_email

I am a get things done kinda guy. I like bullet points. Short, sweet and direct makes me smile. I am all for a bigger conversation, but I would prefer to do that on the phone or in person if it is necessary. I wish email had the same character limit as Twitter. If you can’t say it in 140 characters we may need to talk.

I know everyone is different. How about you? Are you short and sweet or long and descriptive when you communicate online?

Ted Murphy
In gear

Camera On A Stick

I had the pleasure of spending the entire weekend with bloggers at SeaWorld in Orlando. In addition to falling in love with Shamu and dolphins (I am going to buy one), I fell in love with my X-Shot all over again. I am an X-Shot affiliate and a HUGE HUGE fan of the product. I like it so much that Friday night I gave one to Lucretia Pruitt, Julia Roy and Alex Schek to film our SeaWorld escapades (I was one short and still owe Sarah Austin hers).

xshot_pixI took over 10Gb of photos and video in 30 hours, almost all of it with my camera attached to an X-Shot. An X-Shot is an expandable pole you can screw your video or still camera to. You can see an example of me using it in my side bar. I like to call the combined rig my “camera on a stick“, mostly because it reminds me of meat on a stick and that makes me happy.

My camera on a stick lets me grab shots I simply couldn’t get without it. Below is one of my favorite videos from this weekend, filmed with an X-Shot at SeaWorld.

If you don’t believe me just ask Alex, Julia or Drew how awesome the X-Shot is on Twitter. Go ahead. I dare you ; )

Alex Schek and Julia Roy

You can get your own X-Shot here.

Ted Murphy
In sales & marketing

Invest in Your Personal Brand

CerealI had a realization earlier this week. Less than 3 months after starting this blog it already has some real value, traffic and monetization opportunities. I thought to myself how can this be? I don’t consider myself to be a good writer, other bloggers run circles around me. However, I have something that the majority of bloggers don’t have… branding skills. From the design of this blog to my hat and tongue in photos I have created a brand around myself and my personality. There is an image that people associate with my name, so much so that if I show up somewhere without my hat or fail to stick my tongue out in a picture people think something is wrong.

Branding is one thing, believing in your personal brand enough to invest in it and market yourself is another. You have all seen the twitter shirts I had made, but did you also know that I buy ads with my own money through IZEA to promote this blog? This week I decided to personally sponsor Barcamp Miami, that deal got me a link from their site and placement on the T-shirt promoting my Twitter profile.

First I developed a personal brand, then I spent time and money making people aware of it.

Some people ask me why I invest in the Ted Murphy brand when I am the CEO of a company with a corporate brand. It’s simple really… business is personal. In many ways my brand and the IZEA brand are intertwined. However, this blog allows me to create a connection with bloggers and advertisers in a way that I can’t under the IZEA moniker. This brand is my opinions, my thoughts, my life… me. (thus the ted.me domain).

It’s not brand building for brand sake. It’s about creating enough power and momentum with your brand to further your cause. My personal brand and this blog exist for three reasons:

  1. Make money for IZEA.
  2. Support charity.
  3. Express my creative spirit.

I am happy to say I am doing all of these things with a good degree of regularity and having a blast along the way. What about you? Have you been able to establish your brand? What does it look like? What does it feel like? What are you trying to accomplish with it?

I have a couple of words of personal branding advice:

  1. List out your objectives. Answer the questions above for starters.
  2. Don’t skimp on design. If you are not a designer hire someone to establish a personal ID for you. Remember your ID may go beyond a logo, it may include how you physically present yourself.
  3. Create a marketing budget. I know it is hard in these economic times but you need to invest in marketing on an ongoing basis. (PPP has some budget friendly options ; )
  4. Invest the time. It’s not going to happen overnight, you need to spend 2-3 hours a day everyday interacting with others online.