So, several months ago, when I was blogging (a lot) more, Ted Murphy of PayPerPost Izea fame asked me if I’d like to participate in his yearly IzeaFest, once known as “Posticon”.  I’ve been pretty frank about my opinions about paid postings and at times they haven’t been … well, pretty.

So why am I here on Ted Murpy’s dime? A couple reasons.  First of all, I think Ted has made some strides in trying to bring bloggers and advertisers together in a win-win fashion.  Blogging is a tough business, no matter what language you speak, or where you find yourself in life.  It needs more friends, and that’s the sense I get from where Ted is coming from.

With PPP, his intentions weren’t bad, but they may have been executed in a way that wasn’t completely kosher, particularly with whole transparency thing and what Google may see as gaming the link system.  Ted’s got something new brewing with Social Spark, as a new means of bringing bloggers and advertisers together.  It seems above board on a lot of issues I had ranted about before (no-follow links, in-post disclosure amongst other things) and one day soon, I may just try it out.

Second reason is that I’m getting the chance to meet a lot of people. I’ve got to say I love meeting other bloggers / new media folk, and so this is really no exception.  This evening, for example, I got to meet Brian Clark and Tamar Weinberg.  Neil Patel and John Chow as well.  Yes, I even shook hands with John Reese and Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker (the latter of whom was gentlemanly of enough to feign recognizing me).  I also got to meet some panelists that I’ll be moderating including Lea Alcantara, as well as Steve Spalding, both of who, I might add (along with Rob, Lea’s husband), are excellent company. ;)  In the upcoming days, I’m also hoping to run into Loren Feldman (again), and Merlin Mann, who is delivering the keynote for Saturday.

I don’t anticipate the whole conference to be a pitch-a-thon for Izea.  If it is, of course, you’ll hear from me on that.  But it really seems to be more about bloggers and how to make them better at it.  And if that’s the case, I’ll be glad I came, not only as someone who is helping moderate a panel, but someone who can always learn a thing or three about the craft.