Izea Hunt photos

More about it later...

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Day Three at Izea Fest!

The day is underway..

If you are interested in the conference, and learning new things about doing business on the internet, developing your brand- personal or business, and forming real online relationships with clients and companies FOLLOW ME on Twitter. I've been live tweeting from the conference, and have been sharing several bullet points, valuable insight and more from Izea Fest.

Special thanks to Daisy-Giggles & Tropical Traditions for being partners with 4BabyAndMom this weekend!

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Live from IZEAFEST!

Apparently, Clyde the seal did not want to come out and say hello at this year's Izea Fest, but we were able to at least have a quick look at him, a lot closer than his hysterical show at Sea World!

There is so much to learn about being successful online, as a blogger, as a marketer, as a business, and as a person. There have been many activities to get to know each other a little better, and even prizes for some of the attendees.

We just had lunch.. I had a turkey sub, a bag of pretzels, and a bottled water. The main key point from the three speakers we've heard already are creating a BUZZ! I'd love to know what *you* feel is the best way to generate buzz for your company, blog, or website.

I'd like to give a special thanks to my partners for this event.



DAISY GIGGLES is an online boutique for anything baby! Whether you are looking for baby shower favors, or just a unique gift to welcome a new baby, know that you can find it all at Daisy Giggles!






TROPICAL TRADITIONS sells the finest quality Virgin Coconut Oil and coconut oil products. All Purpose cleaners, cooking oil, health and beauty products and so much more. If you are looking for eco-friendly products in any of these categories, definitely check out Tropical Traditions to see their huge selection of the finest organic products, even poultry!


I am expecting a box of 150 lip moisturizers from Tropical Traditions to review and giveaway as swag at this year's Izea Fest, and I can't wait to try it out for myself. I am in love with my coconut oil, and have already told so many people that I've met at the conference how much I love it!

If you wish you where here you can watch Izeafest LIVE HERE !! Look close and you might see me!

Visit again soon for live updates, photos & sponsor highlights from IZEAFEST !!!

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Live blogging @ IzeaFest!

Sitting here waiting for the infamous Ted Murphy to start the first seminar. I'm super excited, as I've met a bunch of lovely new faces, and can't wait to network even more!

So, @BenSpark looks just like his pic- no mistaking him anywhere; Susan, from Life in a House of Blue is a total sweetheart; Melinda & Rob from Look What Mom (& Dad!)Found are such a blast, Erin from The Mom Buzz is absolutely delightful, and Cyndy the Artsy Crafty Queen is my roomie and an absolute blessing!

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If you're reading this, it means that...

...I am on my way to the beautiful Marriott Renaissance Hotel at Sea World, Orlando for Izea Fest, 2009!

My dad is watching the kids today, bringing my son back and forth to school- and my mom will be watching them tomorrow, then Bri gets the kiddos over the weekend.

I get to learn from internet experts on how to make 4BabyAndMom a better business, blog, and how to expand my network. How to increase my SEO, better my brand, build my traffic, and meet my goals more efficiently.

I can't wait to see some old friends, meet new friends, and see some online friends "IRL", (in real life.)

There will be several live blog posts, tweets and facebook updates, so be sure to follow me to keep up with what's going on at Izea Fest, and with 4BabyAndMom.

If you haven't had a moment to visit Tropical Traditions to see their huge selection of organic cooking, health & beauty, household goods and pet products, check them out- as they are one of our fabulous parnters for this conference.


I will tweet when we're in.. until then, don't forget to enter the CONTROL IT giveaway. I've extended it just a little bit so you can add your links to your nails. If you have nail issues, you really need to enter it; leave an anonymous comment if you are too embarrassed, just include a valid email address. If you prefer to Email me the picture instead, please send it to 4BabyAndMom at Gmail dot com with the subject title of "CONTROL IT GIVEAWAY PICTURE ENTRY".

Good Luck!

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Good Golly- What a Week... And it's not half over!

Tomorrow I leave for Izea Fest, 2009. I'm super excited, but it's wild how last minute prep tends to take over.. And so does the stress! Alex and Abbigaile were tested for the Swine Flu- thankfully, they did not have it. Alex had some 24 hour virus, and Abbie, thankfully, has been feeling ok.

I found out that two very important people in my family, are getting biopsies on a "mass" that doctors found. The one family member has a mass in her breast, the other on her cervix. Any good thoughts or prayers you could spare would be greatly appreciated.

So this week so far has pretty much gone like this: the friend that I will be rooming with flew down here to a family function in Orlando, I picked her up on Monday, got a $250 speeding ticket, battled possible H1N1, had my friend print me out business cards because the ones I ordered didn't come in in time, paid the water bill-twice, visited my sister in the ER (no, she doesn't have a mass), re-painted the trim and doors in my house, shopped until I dropped, allowed my roommate to spray paint my coffee table black, and tried not to lose my sanity. I'm exhausted, and fully looking forward to a full night of sleep without anyone tugging at me, waking up in the middle of the night, or after I finally fall asleep having the alarm whine rhetorically across the room.

I still need to buy extra batteries for my camera, and pack.. but I think I can manage that tonight and tomorrow morning without collapsing. I can't shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something.. Any suggestions?

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Countdown to Izea!

It's official- the time is running out! So much to do, and less time to finish it in. I'm excited- are you going?? I'd love to meet up with you there!

Countdown Clocks

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Ultimate IZEAFest Prize Pack Winner Announced today!

Today MarketLeverageTV becomes the MarketLeverage TV Network with multiple shows. And during the debut episode of WrapUp the winners of BenSpark's Ultimate IZEAFest Prize Pack Contest will be chosen.

This contest sprang forth from the mind of Drew Bennett - AKA BenSpark (@BenSpark) after writing his list of 10 Essential items to bring with you to IZEAFest. While writing that post Drew was thinking about all the conferences that he's attended over the years and the things that were essential to a blogger at each event. His dream was to be able to provide those items as prizes to a lucky blogger who will be attending IZEAFest 2009. That along with his 10 Reasons to Attend IZEAFest 2009 gave him inspiration to ask for help in making his dream of giving a great prize pack to some lucky bloggers a reality.

So Drew went out and asked multiple sponsors for help. He is an IZEA Insider for the "I'm Not A Famous Blogger" Crew and as such was provided with tickets to IZEAFest. So prize number one was taken care of. You can't have an Ultimate IZEAFest Prize Pack without a ticket to IZEAFest. From there Drew recruited the generous help of Dina Riccobono (@MLDina) and MarketLeverage (@MarketLeverage) who provided Drew with an Asus Eee PC 1000HA and a Flip Mino HD that is Co-Branded BenSpark.com and MarketLeverage!

Early on when Drew started his search for prizes he made a request from ZINK Imaging who gave him two Polaroid Pogos and 200 sheets of ZINK Paper. He uses one of them to create unique Business cards. When Drew meets you he asks you to take a photo with him using his Xshot. He then prints out an instant photo with his Pogo on ZINK paper and sticks it to the back of his business card. Drew is donating one of his Polaroid PoGos to the winner. He also secured An Xshot for each winner because there are two runner up winners who not only get IZEAFest Tickets (A fantastic and valuable prize in its own right) but they will each get a smaller prize pack.

Drew's friend Michael at Xshot hooked him up with a business contact in the Flipbac Innovations Company and they kicked in some Flipbac (@flipbac) angled viewfinder and LCD screen protectors for digital cameras as prizes. Each Runner up gets one of those and Drew has a few extra to give away at IZEAFest.

To keep people going all weekend long Drew was able to get a case of BluFrog Wildly Healthy Energy Drink donated by Martha Decker (@MarDeck). He is also including energy drink packets from EBOOST (@EBOOST). Drew will have close to 100 packets to give away at IZEAFest 2009, come find him for one. Runner up winners also get an EBOOST prize pack.

Continuing to fill out his Ultimate IZEAFest Prize Pack Drew sought out help from one of his "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.

Still not quite sure that he had the Ultimate Prize Pack for an IZEAFest attendee Drew sought out something innovative and cool that would reflect the fun open spirit of learning and networking of IZEAFest. He found the perfect prize in the Poken. Drew asked a question on Twitter about whether the Poken was worth the money and the call was answered by @PokenGirl. PokenGirl explained that the Poken is a device that one can use to connect with other people physically by slapping a "High 4" with that other person's Poken. What that does is exchange a digital business card that contains your online social media profiles. Since IZEAFest is all about learning, having fun and making connections with other people a Poken is a great prize that will be going to each of the winners. They even get to choose which of the cute little Pokens they want.

With the Prize Pack Assembled Drew only needed to find some willing judges and he did at Affiliate Summit East. First he recruited Famous Blogger Murray Newlands (@MurrayNewlands), then "I'm Not A Famous Blogger" crew member Tim Jones (@Timothy_Jones) or rather The Real Tim Jones. He also recruited Eric Schechter @ericschechter of ClickBooth and last but not least he recruited Kim Ann Curtin (@KimAnnCurtin, Life Coach to the Affiliates.

The Judges had a difficult task ahead of them. There were four bloggers who went that extra mile to try for the Ultimate IZEAFest Prize Pack. Those folks along with the many others who entered the random drawing are waiting on the edge of their seats until WrapUp airs on the MarketLeverage TV Network Monday Morning between 10:30am & 12:30pm EST.

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Twitter Tweet-up at Sea World, Orlando- February, 2009

While tweeting one busy day, I happened to stumble across an announcement that there was going to be a Twitter "Tweet-Up" for all central Florida Mom bloggers. Excited as anything, I clicked on the link for more details, and opened up to a network of bloggers and people that would make such an exciting impact on my blogging life.

My girlfriend and I carpooled and took 3 kids two hours away, to meet Wendy Piersall and Ted Murphy at the amazing Sea World Orlando entrance. The only problem with that, is that I had never seen either one of them, (outside of their Twitter pics!), ever. We ended up showing up about 10 minutes later than we were supposed to be there because of an accident on I-4, but we got there. We looked around for a person wearing an orange shirt.. That day, I honestly think Sea World was plotting a great Orange Entourage, because everyone and their brothers were wearing orange shirts! Ok, maybe that was a little bit of an exaggeration, but seriously- there were a ton of people wearing orange!

After we found them, we talked for a little while, got the meet-up times, and headed into the park. We walked in, passed the shops and found the construction site for the new ride, MANTA. Alex is obsessed with Rollercoaster Tycoon, so we stopped a few minutes and watched the workers moving about. Alex informed me he wanted to come back as soon as it was opened. It is scheduled to open in May, this year.

We decided it would be best to try to plot out the day, but in the end, walked around in an organized dysfunction. We got to pet stingrays at the Stingray Lagoon, watch dolphins play and we even got to feed them at the Dolphin Cove. We watched the dolphin show and got to see sharks and other fish in an underwater tunnel exhibit. They swam freely around us, as we gazed and pointed while rolling on an automatic sidewalk to the other side. It was incredible! We took all three kids on the water ride, Journey to Atlantis, and shreiked as it dove down into the splash pool below! I knew there were shows at Sea World, but we ended up watching the dolphin show, the hysterical sea otter and walrus show, and the Believe Show which features the gorgeous Shamu, and the rest of the Orca Whale family. We sat in the "Splash Zone", and oh-my-gosh! It is *not* like smaller home shows, you get DRENCHED at the Believe show! The kids loved seeing the whales so up close, but when we got soaked with the chilly water, they wanted to move to drier seats.

The cold water on our clothes made the heat of the day a little more bearable as we walked through the rest of the park and saw penguins, and mermaids, and the kids got to play in the kids play area for awhile while my friend and I got a moment to reflect on the day. All in all, we had a blast at Sea World, and we met some great people, other mom bloggers, and Ted, and experienced the beauty and wonder of Sea World up close and personal. This experience was like no other, and I cannot say enough great things about the theme park and the exhibits. It was wonderful!

If you haven't had a chance to view my article on Dolphin Bubbles, feel free to check it out, and leave some feedback! I am including the link to more of the pictures below for a short period of time.

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