Photo-A-Day #1580

Ted Murphy, CEO of IZEA turned 33 today He asked that people give him photos of themselves with their tongues out. I was only happy too oblige.

Ted takes a lot of crap, apparently from his dog too. But today is the guy’s birthday and people not only came out to celebrate his birthday but to fire barbs at him with regards to his latest venture, Sponsored Tweets. However, today there was a very good article, written in a balanced manner too, by FastCompany. It was titled “IZEA Calls for Transparency, but Can Twitter Remain Pure?“. What I don’t understand is that there are all these programs out there to increase your twitter followers as quickly as possible, companies that pay people to tweet and disclose nothing and yet IZEA catches crap. IZEA is out there publicly telling people that they are paying people to tweet. Publicly disclosing each tweet and manually accepting each advertiser.

I’ve done sponsored tweets through SocialSpark as well as with Sponsored Tweets and before Sponsored Tweets was announced there weren’t that many people causing such a huge uproar about it. Sponsored Tweets have been happening for a while now and only IZEA is the only one disclosing. So why is IZEA the whipping boy? Why aren’t people screaming from the rafters that if any of their followers use another service that they will unfollow them? Why IZEA. Why the haters? Why tear down and be destructive? I can’t figure it out.

Ted, you’ve got to be part duck for all the stuff that you’ve got to let roll off your back. Have a happy birthday man!

Disclosure – I am an IZEA Insider. I’ve been working with them since 2006. Ted Murphy and I have hung out before. I believe in his message and his sincerity.