Tag Archives: Twitter

Conferences, Photo-A-Day

Brand, Brand, Brand!

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Brand, Brand, Brand!
Photo-A-Day #1419

I’m going brand crazy lately because I am so excited about my upcoming new Blog design. Yes, my blog is being redesigned by someone really cool. I don’t have the design to share with you, yet. But, I do have the new logo. I’ve been reading about branding and getting your brand out in front of everyone. So I stopped calling this blog The BenSpark and shortened it to BenSpark.com.

People seem to know me as Ben. When I go to conventions people call me Ben. So I am known as Ben Spark. That works for me, it works for this blog. For the past 5 years I have commented on blogs all over the place under the name BenSpark. So my brand is out there. But I’m still not making it personal enough. I started the branding overhaul by personalizing my Twitter Account. If you are on twitter it is crucial that you create your own background and you brand it. Make it personal and let people know who you are.

I began to think about blog conferences and blogger events. Bloggers like Shoemoney and John Chow have T-shirts that they give away. Other bloggers have their brands out and about as well. So I decided to step it up and put my brand out there too. I already have my “I’m Not A Famous Blogger” T-Shirt and I also decided to buy some baseball hats and have the new logo embroidered onto the hats. I haven’t done that step yet but hopefully they will look as sweet as the mockup I created from these photos that I took with my Xshot today.

I have some other branding related ideas for swag and as they happen I’ll talk about them but I don’t like revealing much about this until I actually have items in hand. But if you are heading to IZEAFest or Affiliate Summit East you may get a chance to pick up some BenSpark.com swag. I’m going to have some good stuff too!

Okay, so what do you think of the hats? I personally like the flames but Allison says they are a bit redneck. However, I don’t care, I like flames, I love em on motorcycles, my Harley shirts and even on Optimus Prime (I’m sure my Transformers lifelong fan status might be revoked just for thinking that). But I’d like to hear that you folks have to say. Let me know what you think of the logo, the hats the colors. Which color is your favorite?

Contest, Photo-A-Day

What did you do for Valentine’s Day?

5 Comments
What did you do for Valentine's Day?
Photo-A-Day #1409

A Valentine’s Day Teddy bear that my sister Tara gave to Eva. It is from Wildlifeworks.com. It was handmade in the African Bush. The new teddy has assimilated well and even snagged my new hat from IZEA.

Today we were moving quite slowly. The sleep schedule for all of us was very off because Eva got sick for the 1st time last night. The poor kid was so confused as she just stood there and vomited. It was so sad to see.

Last night Allison and I went to the Speed of Thought Playhouse in downtown North Attleboro. We walked there, something one of the comedians asked us as he was making fun of the small town. But it was all in fun. We sat directly in the front in the middle so of course we were going to be targets, it worked and it was a good time. It is always more fun being a little part of the show, especially if you can laugh at yourself. But because the comedian asked if we walked to the show we ended up meeting another couple who also walked to the show, they have a 10 month old and I think we’re going to connect with them at some point, maybe at another show.

I love comedy, especially live comedy, there is nothing like it. The Speed of Thought Playhouse put on a great show with four comedians as well as a host. They also had a spread of chicken wings, a Caesar pasta and a Stromboli. There was also a great big bowl of strawberries on sticks and a chocolate fountain for dipping. I got us a few plates of those. They were very tasty.

Right before the show started I took this photo of Allison and I. We have a plate of Strawberries on sticks covered in fondue chocolate from a chocolate fountain. We had so much fun and liked the comedians a lot.

Can't even begin to spell his name

This was our opener, he was really good and right out of school. The son of an Irish mother and Pakistani father, he had some interesting perspectives to share.

Comedian #3

I want to say his name was Martin and I can’t find any info on the SOTP website but he was really good.

Meeting the headliner

The last performer in the Valentine’s Show was David Dilorenzo of the Goomba Comedy Company. He was good and he took some heckling from some random dude at the bar. It was sort of uncomfortable how angry the bar dude was but David diffused the situation pretty well.

After the show he personally went to everyone’s table and thanked them for coming and I asked if he’d take a picture with us. He said “no” and kept going. This was after he’d picked on me all night. I was like, what the heck, but I could tell he was joking.

David came back and took the picture with us, I didn’t use the Xshot because the camera wasn’t on it at that time and I had just gotten my call from my Dad about Eva getting sick. So a nice couple that we had been talking to took this photo and then we dashed home.

VDay_2009_009

While we were at the Comedy show my Dad called to tell me that Eva was getting sick. This was her first sick time ever. She took it like a trooper. We were up till 2:00am and then finally took her to bed with us, once we put down a bunch of towels and another blanket in case she vomited again. Poor Kid. She was better today.

A few times yesterday I asked my twitter friends what they were up to for Valentine’s Day. I got a pretty limited response but that is okay. Here is what they were up to or what they received:

magical_trevor – @BenSpark We’re going to DISNEY WORLD!

jorayne – @BenSpark Sadly I’m doin wat i do everyday~cooking~cleaning~and changing my brakes (tho i dont do that everyday)

Coop56 – @BenSpark My girlfriends in school still 1000 miles away from me so..what am I doing today? I have programming 2 class from 1pm to 9pm! Fun

GimmeBluFrog – @BenSpark Relaxing with my awesome girlfriend, massage, movie, Indian food, and a good book. We did dinner and dessert on V Day eve. You?

rebeccanimrod – @BenSpark handmade valentine from my husband, pink homemade waffles from my mom, window art from my youngest son “I (heart) mom”

Phreddy – Chillin’ w/ my boo in Galveston…w/his family. Romantic? Nah. Quality time with the fam? You betcha.

Yesterday I saw in a tweet that I had won a case of BluFrog Energy Drink. BluFrog is being hyped all over twitter and facebook and blogs. I am very interested in trying it because it is supposed to be a healthy energy drink. Less calories, less sugar. My case is on its way on Tuesday courtesy of Martha Decker. She ran a contest to give away a case of the stuff. I won. Nice!