I just got a box with IZEA schwag and my award!

IZEA named me Postie of the Month for January 2008 during their first IZEA Loco (which was crazy and awesome), and they sent me a cool trophy thing to go with it!

I want to thank IZEA for being possibly the coolest company in the world. You help me get some cash every month and keep me very entertained (More RockStartUp please!). Sometimes I fear that the cool companies will eventually die or stop being awesome, but I don’t think I have to worry about that with you guys!

Keep on being awesome Ted Murphy and the whole IZEA team! You guys inspire me!

IZEA just made their IZEARanks website live, and it includes an API so you can use the data however you want to.

I’m not too good at programming, but I combined a few things and made a simple button to display your RealRank on your website. It will look something like this:

If you want to use this, all you need is the one PHP file. Download it here

Once you’ve done that, open it up in a text editor like notepad and edit in your domain name and your API key. You can get your API key from your account page on IZEARanks. You also need to enter the path to the image file you want it to create. Then upload it to your server.

You will need to go to your hosting control panel and add a cron job. You will want this cron to run every day at about 3 AM EST (I believe the rank is updated about 2 AM). The line would look something like this:
0 3 * * * php -q /home/user/public_html/realrank/realrank.php

I think you also need to make the folder where the image will go writeable. I am not too sure because i am on a different kind of server than normal.

Once you’ve done that, go ahead and visit the realrank.php file you just uploaded so it will create the image (It will update after that by the cron job). Then link to the image like this:
<a href="http://izearanks.com/sites/yourdomain-com"><img src="rank/realrank.gif" width="80" height="15" alt="RealRank" /><a>

And it should show up. Let me know if you have any questions. This isn’t perfect, and I’m not the best at programming, but it’s better than nothing.

I’m going to be looking into how to read XML a little more in PHP and hope to make it so you can show your average RealRank over a period of days (user defined). Maybe add the little lightbulb for IZEA as well. and anything anybody else things of.

I just read about a great contest being put on by Shoe Money and Izea: I could be a Shoeperstar! It’s a trip to the South by Southwest Conference and Festival in Austin, TX, some spending cash, a hotel room, and an appearance on RockStartup! You also get to meet two really great, creative guys: Ted Murphy and Jeremy Schoemaker.

I’ve never actually heard of SXSW until now, but I can’t believe I’ve missed it. It’s a whole week of awesome new media technologies with everything from web design, advertisers, and social networks. It’s a great place to check out the new technologies and get in with the latest and greatest companies.

I want to go to this conference! I think New Media is where everything is headed, and most of the current media just doesn’t realize that. That is one of the reasons that I love RockStartup: They recognize that a TV show on the internet is something that is in demand and can make it big. Plus, they document a company that’s rocketed towards success ever since they started. It’s like a real version of the Office. I wish there were more TV shows online that I could watch that were as good as RockStartup.

If I went to this conference I would probably bring the Mountain Dew Armor and go absolutely everywhere in it, sparking curiosity in everybody’s minds (and also being in the Dew Armor on Rockstartup). I love taking the Dew Armor out because everybody wants to know what it is, they always gravitate towards it, and it really is a conversation starter for just about everything. I’ve done promotions in it, I’ve walked down streets in it, and we’ve even made a movie with it.

Choose me Jeremy and Ted! You can see the Dew Armor in person! And I love marketing ideas and basically what this whole conference is about! I have some of the craziest ideas, and I’d love to go to a whole conference dedicated to other people’s crazy ideas!

You could be a Shoepster! Check out the contest to win a trip to this conference!