PayPerPost, Inc Becomes IZEA, Inc

PayPerPost, Inc. has now been changed to IZEA, Inc. The official press release can be read on the IZEA site.

Most people already know about the popular PayPerPost. PayPerPost pays you to write on your blog for advertisers wanting to get the word out about their products and/or services. They have also come up with services that are free to use. One of them is Argus for tracking.

The name change comes just days before the scheduled unveiling of IZEA’s highly anticipated new service, codenamed Argus. An alpha version of the offering will be revealed on Nov. 10 at PostieCon, the company’s annual user conference. It will provide both bloggers and advertisers more visibility into social media and allow them to interact with each other and the public in more immediate, transparent and accountable ways.

It’s really interesting what new ideas they keep coming up with. I think the strangest one is broadcasting your blog’s content into space for aliens to read. It’s very possible that someone out there might be interested in reading what you have to say!

With the new change, you can download IZEA wallpaper. Very nice! I love the logo.

If you like the IZEA logo, you can download it and use it to create your own wallpaper and share it.

Others discussing this change:

• ProBlogger
• Simple Kind of Life

Google PageRank

It seems that a hot topic is about Google making some changes. These changes have caused a lot of blogs to have lower PageRanks. Why? Everyone has their own ideas.

• Removing AdSense
• Using WidgetBucks
• Selling text links

PageRank isn’t actually all that important to me, but it seems to be important to advertisers.

I decided to check if my PageRank of zero has changed. I didn’t expect it to so soon, but it turns out that it’s now a three! A three? How is that possible? The Soft Tech Reviews domain is only about four months old. I haven’t done very much except write in the blog.

So, the top blogs go down and Soft Tech Reviews goes up. Did Google make a mistake? But like Darren Rowse from ProBlogger said, Forget About PageRank and Build a Better Blog. Although I now have a PageRank of three, I’m not going to become obsessed about it.

Gmail IMAP

Google has added a new feature to Gmail. This feature is Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)! It will allow you to check your e-mail on Google’s server, rather than downloading them to your computer. This means that anytime you check your e-mail from your laptop, mobile phone and work computer, etc., your e-mail will appear as it did on either device. If you placed an e-mail in a specific folder, it will show up in that folder no matter which device you checked with! Same thing with marking e-mail as read.

I like this, because I have a laptop and a desktop computer. I had once setup a shared Outlook file between the two just so I wouldn’t have to read the same e-mails twice. IMAP is much simpler!

To find this new setting, login to Gmail and view the settings page and click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. If you don’t see this tab, then you may not have this feature, yet. Help for setting this up in Thunderbird, Outlook and iPhone, etc. is also available underneath the option for turning it on. Watch this video for setting it up on the iPhone. Or even read How-to: Proper Gmail IMAP for iPhone & Apple Mail. Although the steps are specifically for the iPhone and Apple Mail, I’m sure you can figure out how to do this for other clients (e.g. Outlook or Windows Live Mail).

It appears that some people are seeing this new feature and some aren’t. So, if you check your settings in Gmail and don’t see it, don’t worry, it’s coming!

Thank you for IMAP, Google!

xTrain Online Expert Training

xTrain is an online video based training website with classes about graphic design, web design, online marketing, digital photography and more. There are even free classes available.

I first heard about xTrain from Justine Ezarik. She had done a Viral Videos With xTrain video. One example she gives is getting started with a video blog. Depending on the type of video blog, it may be boring to some! Check out the video.

My favorite is Dr. Brown’s Photoshop Laboratory. Currently, there are three classes for free. Check out the classes to experiment with 3D, black and white, and animation. If you thought going to school was boring, Dr. Brown makes learning more exciting with his wacky hair-do.

What I Like
I like that I can preview a class before registering. People can also leave comments and rate the class. This can be helpful when deciding if you want to take a class. After you’re done, take a quiz and become xTrain certified!

What I Don’t Like
With web design classes available, I’m not sure why the sub-menus don’t look that great with the rest of the site. Larger font size and more to the right of the main menu link (probably because of being centered).

To find out how to get started with xTrain, check out the xTrain tour, starring Justine.

Blog Action Day

Blog Action Day, October 15th, is a day that bloggers participate by writing a post relating to the environment, donating the day’s earnings, and/or promoting Blog Action Day. According to Blog Action Day, 15,000+ 20,000+ blogs are participating. I participated by writing 11 Ways to Save Trees.

I have read some well written posts regarding the environment today. I decided I would share them with you in hopes that you will consider getting involved, not just today, but every day.

• Freelance Switch, Cyan Ta’eed wrote 29 Simple Ways to Become a More Environmentally Friendly Freelancer and wants the readers’ help to donate $500 to charity. Freelance Switch is pledging to donate $1 for every reader who leaves a comment pledging to take on one of the suggestions listed in the post (or your own). I plan to shutdown my computer every night when finished with work.
• ProBlogger, Darren Rowse wrote How Can Bloggers Be Environmentally Responsible? leaving readers with a question to answer: ‘how can we as bloggers be involved in saving the environment?’
• Larissa Meek wrote Blog Action Day: Green Design, listing some very creative ways for reusing recycled items. My favorite is the recycled glass and the grocery bags.
• Essential Keystrokes, Charlene wrote 5 R’s For A Greener World. Read the post to find out ways you can reduce, reuse, recycle, renew and respect.
• Lifehacker, Wendy Boswell wrote Easy Ways to Live Greener. Read the post and then vote for your favorite green hack! I voted for Bring Your Own Mug to Coffee Shops because those disposables can add up with the amount of people who drink coffee!
• Know More Media, Kimberlee Morrison wrote Blog Action Day: What You Can Do at Home and In the Office to Protect the Earth. She lists some of Al Gore’s tips for making your home more environmentally friendly while saving money, too.
• Dumb Little Man, Jay White wrote Items You Never Thought to Recycle. He lists things that can be recycled, leaving off the obvious things like newspapers, magazines, soda cans, etc. It is very easy to mistake recyclable items for garbage.

For more blogs that have participated on this day, browse Google Blog Search and Technorati.

If you’re a reader, please feel free to leave a link to your post for Blog Action Day if it’s not listed above.