Tag Archives: Gadget

Contest, SwagsGiving

#SwagsGiving – Fotobox Slideshow Creator

63 Comments

The second prize in my Swag Bag for SwagsGiving is the gadget and software bundle Fotobox Plus (aff link). Allison won this in a giant box of swag from Jennifer Leet from The Dirty Shirt. Congratulations to Brendan Recupero of no time 2 ride.

About the prize: A plug and play product to make photo slideshows quickly and easily directly from your memory cards. The box includes an SD card reader with software built in to make slideshows. I’m not keeping it because I’ve already got a way in which to make slideshows. Looks like a pretty sweet product though because it can make the slideshows and immediately port them to Facebook and YouTube. You can also easily add background music and different effects and use themes. Hmmm, maybe I might want to keep this…

Winners are chosen with Random.Org

Random.org results

About SwagsGiving!

SwagsGiving is going to happen each day from November 1 to November 30th. Each day I’ll put up a SwagsGiving post explaining how to participate. The post will also have an announcement of the previous days winner plus what the person won. Here’s the twist. You won’t know what you are winning until it is announced. I have prizes from Seagate, Kodak and Toy State as well as books, and various other prizes. So, here are the rules.

Today is your second chance to enter to win a prize from my SwagsGiving event. Remember to come back each day to see if you won and to enter for the next day’s SwagsGiving Prize.

Ways to Enter (Leave 1 Comment for EACH Entry)

  • 1 Entry – Mandatory to Enter – To enter the contest leave a comment on each day’s SwagsGiving post with your guess about what might be in my SwagsGiving Swag bag. Leave this as your FIRST comment.
    (If this is not done your entry will not count)

  • 1 Entry – Follow BenSpark on Twitter
    (Leave a Comment with your Twitter name)

  • 1 Entry – Subscribe to BenSpark’s Personal Branding BootCamp
    (Leave a comment letting me know you signed up)

  • 1 Entry – Tweet about SwagsGiving… something like
    @BenSpark is clearing out his Swag Bag. Prizes abound during #SwagsGiving – Enter here http://bit.ly/dkmHs7
    (Leave a comment with a link to your tweet. Here is how to get that link to your tweet)

I will not respond to any comments so that I can run the Random.org numbers correctly. Any trackbacks are unapproved while I select the random winner and then re-approved after. Only legitimate entries are counted. You have until midnight to enter for that day’s prize. Once midnight rolls around (or as early the next morning as possible) I will close the comments. Each morning at 9:00am the new #SwagsGiving post will go up. The winner will be notified via e-mail and will have 48 hours to reply with a U.S. Mailing address so that we can send the winner their prize. Contest is open to U.S. Only. Prizes will be mailed out at the end of the month. You may win more than once. Please enter every day on the SwagsGiving post for that day.

Photo-A-Day

Princess Providence

10 Comments

princess eva
Photo-A-Day #1910

The Rest of the Story coming tomorrow. Blame the lateness of this post on my brand new toy, the iPad. Yesterday Allison’s parent’s arrived from Florida. I was on a telecommuting day so I was unable to go and pick them up so Allison and Eva went. I stayed home and did work and caught up on a few things left to do around the house. I’m still getting back into the swing of things since Evo’10. I did write a pretty comprehensive post on my experiences there over on the Collective Bias blog. Continue reading Princess Providence →

Conferences, Contest, Travel

Packing 10 Essential Items for IZEAFest

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20 days from today I’m going to be boarding a SouthWest Airlines Flight with my active toddler daughter, Eva and my wife, Allison. We’ll be heading down to visit with Allison’s parents and have a vacation with them before we drive on up to Orlando for IZEAFest 2009. So now is the time for us to really think about what to pack… for IZEAFest!

Back in April I wrote a blog post entitled 10 Essential Items for IZEAFest 2009. Since then I’ve decided to change them up a bit. I’ll be giving many of these items to MommaDJane (@MommaDJane), Buck “Daddy” (@BuckDaddy) and Melinda (@LkWhtMomFound) because they won my Ultimate IZEAFest Prize Packs.

10. XShot – I love this device. It is a camera extender that allows you to extend the camera away from you 37″ and get a great shot of you with the people around you. I make use of this device all the time and I have some to give away at IZEAFest. And I am so happy that XShot (@xshot) is a sponsor for IZEAFest as well. I had the XShot 1st and have given it to over 24 great bloggers so far. Ted Murphy received one from me and it is no coincidence that this great device has made its way all over IZEA and even to IZEAFest. Without it how could I have gotten this great shot with Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Crush It and all around awesome guy. Oh and he does a little wine related podcast too.

BenSpark and Gary Vay-ner-chuk!

9. BluFrog Energy Drink – I no longer have any BluFrog. I want more. There will be some at IZEAFest. So I luckily don’t have to pack any. The weight limit for the suitcases might be a bit tough. So I bet that MommaDJane is probably going to want to pack a second suitcase to haul back her free case that she won courtesy of Martha Decker (@MarDeck)!

What I can bring with me on the plane however is the Energy Drink EBOOST (@EBOOST). I have 100 packets to give away at IZEAFest and luckily they were shipped down to the in-laws because 100 packets would also take up a bunch of room but 2 or 3 can easily be taken with you anywhere.

8. ZINK Paper – I like doing things differently. One thing I really enjoy is giving a very personal touch to the people that I meet. At conferences I have brought with me a a Polaroid Pogo, my Canon SD800is and my XShot to take pictures with people. Then I print the image out, remove the back of the ZINK paper and stick it to my business card. That way the person has both my business card and a photo of themselves with me. It impressed a few people at Affiliate Summit East. By doing this it really made the interaction so personal and gave me at least a minute or two to talk with each person while the image printed. This is how I use ZINK Paper.

7. Business Cards POKENS – Right before Affiliate Summit East I created 1000 business cards, last minute, rush order. Sure they are great when paired with my PoGo and ZINK paper however they are pretty much useless now for anything but that because I now have a Poken. What is a Poken? It is a digital business card that allows you to slap “High 4” with other Poken owners. You instantly connect and pass your business cards to each other. Put the USB portion of the Poken (stealthily hidden within the body of the Poken) into your computer and you can pull up the cards of all the people that you just met. You have instant connections to their profiles on many social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and Linked In (You must still friend each person in the regular manner of each platform).

I got so excited about Pokens that I bought a case of them and gave some away but I may have a few to give out at IZEAFest. You can certainly try to win one at the Karaoke contest sponsored by Me and PokenGirl (@PokenGirl). at ICEBAR on Friday Night. And if you are down in the Boynton Beach Area meet us at Bru’s Room for Wings and Pings night.

Poken with The Real Tim Jones

6. Portable Hard Drive – A small portable hard drive is a perfect thing to have with you because you can take a ton of photos and a ton of video and never have to worry about running out of space. I have a SimpleTech 320GB hard drive that weighs so little and is so small.

You don’t want to run out of space when you get that great video interview with Missy Ward or Chris Brogan.

I wasn’t able to get one of these for the winner of the Ultimate IZEAFest PRize PAck Contest but I did get a cool device called the CinemaCube. I got some help from one of my “I’m Not A Famous Blogger” crew members, Jennifer Leet (@jentifa. Jennifer is the queen of contests and she connected with one of her sponsors, BriteView, (@BriteView to get a Cinema Cube to add to the Ultimate IZEAFest Prize Pack.

5. Swag – #5 had been power but I ditched that for the very cool swag that I will be bringing with me. I can’t quite reveal what I’m bringing. I want it to be a surprise. I can tell you that what I chose to put my new logo on is something that people will use every day, multiple times. Althought I will make sure that I pack my Targus power adapter. With it I can power up my computer and peripherals in the car, at the wall socket and even on the plane.

4. Digital Camera – The one thing that I really wanted to provide the winner of the Ultimate IZEAFest prize pack. A Digital Camera is essential for blogging conferences. Photos make the event so much better. So many cool things happen at blogger conferences and you are going to make so many great friends. So what better accessory to go with the XShot than a digital camera to capture everything. I did however get a sponsor with a brand new product to help enhance your existing camera. The device is a called a Flipbac (@flipbac) which is an angled viewfinder and LCD screen protector for digital cameras.

On a Train (Yacht) Bound for Nowhere

3. Netbook – Portability and battery life are the two biggest concerns when at a blog conference, you don’t want to be weighed down with a ton of stuff and you don’t want to lose power when you have that great tweet to post.

I really wanted the winner to receive a netbook and I was so fortunate to hook up with the generous help of Dina Riccobono (@MLDina) and MarketLeverage (@MarketLeverage) who provided me with the major prizes of an Asus Eee PC 1000HA netbook.

2. Flip Mino HD – HD is where it is at. And the Flip is a perfect device to have with you at a blog conference, it is small, it fits in your pocket and powers up so quickly. I have one and Allison has one. I’ve used it for a ton of things and it fits great on the XShot. I even won another one at Affiliate Summit East. But it can no way compare to the coolness that is the the Flip Mino HD that MommaDJane is going to get. It is a custom made co-branded one with two of the best logos around. Check it out!

Co-Branded Flip Mino HD MarketLeverage and BenSpark.com

1 – A Sense of Fun, An Open Mind and a Great Attitude – IZEAFest 2009 is going to be the most fun, informative and exciting events you have ever been to or will attend this year. This will only be topped by IZEAFest 2010. However this cannot be the best time ever with out the essential items from #1 on this list, everything else is cool stuff to have but the number one essential is truly… essential. You are going to have the rare intimate opportunity to spend time with some of the best minds in blogging today. Approach the conference with a great attitude, a sense of fun and an open mind and you will have the time of your life.

So is that the definitive list? No, there are many other great things to bring, why don’t you let me know what some of them are in the comments.

I figure that by now most people have gotten their ticket to IZEAFest 2009 but if you haven’t go and click the IZEAFest logo on the top left sidebar. I’ve been talking about IZEAFest 2009 since IZEAFest 2008 and many people have clicked the link. Yet no one has made their purchase with me. So if you would like to help me help defray the cost of #5 on this list (I went way over budget on the swag I bought) please buy your ticket to IZEAFest through me. You can even use the promo code “Sponsoredtweets” for 50% off the ticket price. That is even a better deal than the early bird prices.

Blogging, Conferences, Technology

10 Essential Items for IZEAFest 2009

30 Comments

This October I am attending IZEAFest 2009. I’ve been to many blogger conventions over the years (Blog World Expo, PostieCon, and IZEAFest) and I’ve come up with a list of essential items that you must have to go to one of these blogger conferences.

Did you know that you can Enter to win many of the prizes on this page. Enter BenSpark’s Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack Contest.

10. XShot – This simple gadget for your digital camera is the perfect accessory to have with you at a blog conference. I had the xshot 1st and gave it to some great bloggers. Ted Murphy has taken the use of this gadget to the next level though.

With an XShot you can make sure that you are in the photos with everyone. Being seen at blog conferences is very important. And being able to share photos of yourself with cool people like John Chow is fun.

XShot with John Chow

9. BluFrog Energy Drink – I’ve been drinking this stuff for the past month. I won a case from Martha Decker and also received one for Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs from Jeremy Kendall. BluFrog Energy Drink is pretty amazing stuff.

I’ve done my own trials with it and I can tell you it keeps you awake and alert during meetings and on those boring days. Of course IZEAFest will be anything but boring. But the nights will be long so you are gonna need a healthy pick me up.

Swag Table #3

8. Digital Camera – So many cool things happen at blogger conferences and you are going to make so many great friends. So what better accessory to go with the XShot than a digital camera to capture everything. My camera of choice for a quick shoot is the Canon Powershot Digital Elph. I have a Canon SD800is and there are many newer ones out now.

Canon cameras are fantastic. There is even a group that has hacked the camera to run some great scripts. I use one all the time called the Ultra Intervalometer. This allows me to set the camera to take pictures at a specific interval. I’ve used this in a few creative ways. Like attaching it to the shopping cart to take Eva to the store.

7. ZINK Paper – ZINK paper is some pretty fun stuff because you can use it in interesting ways. I use this product with a Polaroid Pogo, my Canon SD800is and my XShot to take pictures with people. Then I print the image out, remove the back of the ZINK paper and stick it to my business card. That way the person has both my business card and a photo of themselves with me. It makes the interaction so personal and gives you at least a minute or two to talk with that person while the image prints and you put it on the business card. I did this at Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs and will be doing it again at Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs II. This is how I use ZINK Paper.

6. Portable Hard Drive – A small portable hard drive is a perfect thing to have with you because you can take a ton of photos and a ton of video and never have to worry about running out of space. I have a Simple Tech 320GB hard drive that weighs so little and is so small.

You don’t want to run out of space when you get that great video interview with Missy Ward or Chris Pirillo.

5. Power – We’re all looking for a little power but in this case I’m talking about power for your gadgets. I’ve had an iGo for years and after 7 years it gave up the ghost, that was seven hard travel years. I was able to power three laptops, seven cell phones, and various other gadgets. When the iGo died I got a Targus that did the exact same thing, in fact I was able to use my iGo peripheral charger with the Targus. With these products you can power up in the car, at the wall socket and even on the plane.

4. Flip Mino HD – HD is where it is at. And the Flip is a perfect device to have with you at a blog conference, it is small, it fits in your pocket and powers up so quickly. I was watching the cake plow at IZEAFest last year and John Chow was able to scoop the video of Ted Murphy being slammed into the cake. I had a different video camera and it wasn’t fast enough to catch that moment. If you want to catch a moment you have to be ready all the time. And even if you capture a moment you want to make sure you get that moment posted quickly. The Flip Mino HD has all the software you need to edit and upload your movies.

3. Business Cards – Two years ago I made 250 free cards with VistaPrint. They were good but sort of random. I had printed out 100 of my photo-a-day photos and stuck them to the cards. Creative but didn’t get my message across. This past year I made Moo cards with two designs one with my hands everywhere and the other of a rubber ducky that looks like me. These cards made a visual impact on everyone who got them. This year I plan to do something similar but to incorporate the PoGo, ZINK Paper and XShot into the mix.

2. Netbook – Portability and battery life are the two biggest concerns when at a blog conference, you don’t want to be weighed down with a ton of stuff and you don’t want to lose power when you have that great tweet to post.

Allison owns a Lenovo IdeaPad S10 she is able to do so much more now online because she is portable. She’s even applied for a job with Ravelry, I hope she gets it.

1 – A Ticket to IZEAFest 2009 – This is pretty much the most important thing that you need for IZEAFest, you need a ticket. You can buy one at $229.00 which not only includes an incredible lineup of speakers including 2 full days of amazing speakers and events plus a blogger takeover day at SeaWorld!


So is that the definitive list? No, there are many other great tings to bring, why don’t you let me know what some of them are in the comments.

And look here for a contest where I will give away some IZEAFest tickets. Heck I’d love to give away this complete list to some lucky bloggers, but I need some sponsors to help me out. Contact me through the contact form and let me know if you are interested in being a sponsor. I already have sponsors for the PoGo and ZINK Paper, XShot, IZEAFest Ticket and Flip Mino HD.

Today’s assignment for Day 2 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge is to write a list post. I’d been toying with the idea of this list for a while and the assignment gave me the push I needed.

Technology

Free Shipping on XShot 2.0 till Valentine’s Day

8 Comments
Ted and Me!

The Xshot 2.0 is my favorite gadget for my camera bag. I take it with me everywhere. I received my 1st Xshot, the Xshot 1.0 back in 2007. Michael from Xshot contacted me (Michael is the creator of the Xshot) and he asked me to review the Xshot vs another product that I already had. He wanted to know the good and the bad of the product. I looked it over, tested it out and told him what I thought, what I liked what I did not and how it could be improved. He listened and the Xshot 2.0 came out. I upgraded to the newest version and absolutely love having one so that I can take photos of myself with my friends and family all the time.

At this year’s IZEAFest I was given 12 Xshots by Michael from xshotpix. I was to give the Xshot to bloggers and let them know about the product. Everyone was pretty excited about it and I even saw John Chow playing with his during the sessions.

One very influential person received an Xshot 2.0 and that was Ted Murphy of IZEA. Since then Ted and the IZEA team have been Xshot fanatics. They even got Xshot as an advertiser and now you can purchase the Xshot from my blog as a part of the Social Spark Affiliates program.

Why should you buy an Xshot through my blog?I have been talking about Xshot and using it for years across the country and around the world. I introduced the product to many people because I believe in it so much. I honestly want Michael and xshotpix.com to succeed because their product is so simple yet so amazing. Take a look at this video I made about the Xshot.

Click the image below to purchase your very own Xshot from Xshotpix.com.

If you want to see more posts about the Xshot with more of my photos using the Xshot please click the categories below. They will take you to my past posts about Xshot.

Technology

XShot Affiliate

1 Comment

XShotI am so thrilled to be able to tell you that I am now have affiliate links for the XShot 2.0. I am doing this through the awesome site SocialSpark. Back at IZEAFest 2008 I was given 12 XShot 2.0s to hand out to bloggers. I got one in the hands of IZEA CEO, Ted Murphy, and he is hooked on using it. If you got to his blog Ted.me you can see blog posts and videos where Ted uses the XShot 2.0 that I gave to him.

Ted and Me!

Even John Chow received one and he spotlighted it as a gadget of the week once. That was because my friend Heather brought her’s with her to a Dot Com Pho lunch meeting with John.

XShot with John Chow

I’ve had an xshot for a few years now and I’ve taken hundreds of pictures with it. I’ve even used it to film video while walking, rollerblading and also in the pool. I used it to extend my reach above the heads of the crowds at Buckingham Palace to film the changing of the guards. I’ve used it to photograph myself with all my Transformers.

I’ve run multiple contests to give away the XShot or to reward photographers with money and Flickr Pro Accounts for their great pictures while using the XShot. Everywhere that I go I am asked about the XShot. I even connected a group of photographers who are going to South Africa with XShot so that they could use the product on their trip. I also consider the creator of the XShot, Michael, a good friend. He’s done right by me for so long and now I am proud to promote XShot on this blog. You can see the photos I have taken with the XShot and XShot 2.0 on Flickr.

The XShot allows you to extend the reach of your arm up to 37 inches. You can quickly attach your digital camera or digital video camera to the XShot and take photos or video of yourself and others with you. I’ve gotten large groups of people in a single shot just by using the XShot.

The family photo

It is also great for me when I am on the road and want to get a photo of myself in front of something. Or to say, use it to take a photo of myself and a friend from the top of a moving double decker bus.

The Wheels on the Bus

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Photo-A-Day

Probably Voids the Warranty

Probably Voids the Warranty
Photo-A-Day 1300

I’ve mentioned that my iGo Juice (The Best product for a traveler, EVER!) has been having troubles lately. I can’t blame it at all, this product has been a champ and road warrior for seven years. Seven years, 4 laptops, 6 cell phones, 2 PDAs and 4 MP3 Players as well as a Bluetooth Headset. What is the iGo Juice? It is a power adapter that can be used in a wall socket, a car cigarette lighter, and an airplane. It can simultaneously charge your laptop computer and a peripheral device. It also packs up into a slim zippered case.

In the past seven years that I have been a Road Warrior I have used the iGo Juice on a near daily basis. I did not want to crawl under my desk each day to unplug my laptop so I got an adapter that lived in my backpack. I took it everywhere with me, always. Except once.

I had gone to the Cape and I left the zippered package with the iGo on the sunporch. I then went to Wisconsin. I had a brand new laptop and no one else on site had the same one so I couldn’t get power for it and I had a demonstration for 4 hours the next day. So I looked around for a place to buy an iGo Juice so I could use it and return it, take the restocking fee hit but I would still be ahead. Well, I couldn’t find anywhere that sold them but they did have the Targus Notebook 70W AC/DC Power Adapter. This power adapter would work with my laptop.

In the end I didn’t return the new power adapter but instead tried to sell it on the company intranet. With so many travelers I thought it would be snatched up for a song. No takers. So this sat in my desk drawer for a two years untouched. When my iGo Juice started acting up a short in some wire or the base, not sure which one) I decided to take out the Targus power adapter. Today I was looking at the cords on the Targus and I noticed that the port for charging the peripherals is the exact size as the iGo. I thought about it for a few seconds and then plugged it in. It fit. Now I need to test it on something. I have been hanging on to my Treo 650 so that I could manually transfer all of my numbers from that device to my EnV. I finally accomplished that last week. So I took out the Treo iTip, plugged it into the power adapter and connected the Treo. It worked. The Treo is charging as we speak. I do not need to buy a brand new Juice but if I did want a new iGo Juice they are selling for 39.95 on amazon.com, that is down from $119.00. An absolute steal. Believe me I’ve been in so many places where the iGo Juice has been perfect for me. Needed to make a call in Vancouver, dead battery, charged the phone in the car. Needed to do work (okay watch a movie) on a plane, used the plane adapter and was golden.