I'm on Vacation

As you can see my my vacation countdown I am now on Vacation. I am so excited to start 10 days of sun and fun in Florida. The vacation officially starts when I visit IZEA HQ today. I'm going there for the Friday IZEA Loco. This one should be extra special as it is leap year!

I'll be wearing a Mad Gringo Shirt and Green Baseball cap. Had I known that there would be a contest for the best green outfit I would have prepared, but alas communication with my contact was not stellar.

Tomorrow I am very excited to go to Sea World. I haven't been there since I was a kid. I am pretty excited to see Shamu, go through the Shark tunnel and take a buttload of photos.

Get your IZEARank

Back in November I went to PostieCon. There I learned all about some great things that were coming from the good people at IZEA. One such awesome item is IZEARanks. If you are a blogger then you might know about the 'smackage' that has been going on from the big online G. Well if you do any sort of advertising on your blog then you probably know firsthand about this.

When you got smacked did your blog get any less popular? Did the quality go down? I'm assuming the answer to those questions was no. The previous ranking system from big G was pretty arbitrary. With IZEARanks the ranking is based on real data and metrics. I have been using IZEARanks for a month or so now on all seven of my blogs and it has worked out great. I can see at a glance which blogs are doing well and which ones need improvement.

Here is what this blog looks like on IZEARanks.



I decided to show the 3 month view to let you know what was happening with this blog. It has been neglected and has thus suffered from that neglect. I haven't had many trips out paddling so I haven't made any podcasts lately. That lack of updates to this blog can clearly be seen on the IZEARanks chart.

Now, here is the chart for my blog The BenSpark. I update that blog every single day and do a ton of things to get that blog to be seen all over the net.



As you can see because I have been working hard on The BenSpark it is reflected in my IZEARank. Because IZEARanks measures real traffic and real influence of individual blogs. This is an amazing blog ranking tool that you can use to see how you stack up among all the blogs out there. You can even look at the top 100 blogs in your particular category

I have The BenSpark listed in the category of Photography. Take a look at today's top 100.



Looks like it is doing pretty well overall. IZEARanks had a prize for the top blog each week, but that was the overall top blog. I don't think The BenSpark can compete in that level but for Photography it is doing well and I enjoy that.

Setting up IZEARanks is very very simple and there are great instructions online to submit your blog, claim it and start gathering data on real traffic and your blog's influence.

Also you can compare your blog head to head with up to 10 other blogs. That way you can see how you stack up against their pageviews, their visitors and their IZEARank. It is a pretty fun way to see how your stack up. The interface is simple and getting started with IZEARanks is wicked easy. Start today and you are going to see how your blog really ranks.

Chair Lift Speed Dating

On the radio this morning I heard about this thing called Chair Lift Speed Dating at one of the local mountains. This actually is a great idea. You have 5 to 10 minute ride up the hill and in that time you can chat with your chairmate. This kind of makes the familiar call of 'any singles' in the lift line a bit more literal.

Here is where this could go wrong. What if the lift gets stuck and you are trapped with someone that you wouldn't want to spend 5 minutes with let alone 10 to 20+ minutes.

I like seeing incorporating sporting events and singles events together. That way you have a common interest built right in. So if you run out of things to talk about you can at least talk about the outdoor activity.

My friend Kim at Cape Cod Kayak does a singles paddle each summer. It is a nice event that ends with some social time at a local restaurant. If you are single and on the Cape in the summer you should look into this event. This year it is on June 20th.

Send me a Hawaii Chair, please...

Allison has been watching Ellen often and despite the writer's strike Ellen is still giving us a great show to watch. The Ellen video I saw on Be A Good Dad. I had heard about this thing called the Hawaii chair on the Mad Gringo's blog. The Hawaii chair is a chair that has a motor and swivels around as you sit. The infomercial is a riot and I think it is unintentional but then Ellen has guests sit on the chair and it is very very funny.

Here is the real infomercial.

I am posting this open letter to the http://www.hawaiichair.com/hawaii/ company Perfect USA.

I would love to review this product. I work 8 hours a day in a chair and can provide amazing feedback on a daily basis on my many blogs. I need to lose weight and would gladly add this product to my regimen of sitting. I know of nothing else I could use to work out for an entire day while just sitting.

I think this would be a great chair to help kayakers too, do you see how much it swivels, you could strengthen your core abdominals as well as improve your balance. Simply amazing.

So Perfect USA if you'd like a review from a great sitter please contact me.