A few months ago in Orlando a new idea in transportable widgets was introduced to the developer community. The name of this concept is CloudShout . During this years IZEAFest , CloudShout has developed into a fully functional system and introductory keys were given out to not only developers but blog owners as well.

Being in closed alpha at the moment CloudShout is once again opening looking for more developers and blog operators. Thus allowing me to give out invite keys to those that are interested.

Anyone who surfs, blogs, or develops for the web would find CloudShout highly useful. The idea behind the transportable widget is that you can go from site to site with a set of applications that you or others can use. Instant messaging, LastFM, even a nice game of checkers!

From the surfers point of view they would be able to instant message friends that are also online; as long as both are on CloudShout equipped sites. With your apps in hand you can extend your user experience in real time communication with your friends or the other site visitors.

The first site to adopt CloudShout is SocialSpark and since CloudShout is in closed alpha registration must be done at SocialSpark to gain the full profile potential.

After setting up a blogger profile you can simply surf about your business. Upon happening on a CloudShout equipped site you’ll notice your display name as well as other registered users. The nice thing is through polling requests you can watch others come and go from the site. Contact these users as you wish in a variety of ways.

Each user can choose from several applications to install to increase your or others enjoyment. The big benefit here is that you can install any apps on any CloudShout equipped site you are on. When viewing the profile of a person you can choose to install apps that they have and you want; never leaving the site you are on.

As a blog operator it’s nice to be able to instantly communicate with your visitor as they come and go. Visitors can leave you messages apart from comments, and the benefit of not exposing the owners email address as well. Blog specific apps can be installed, yes via the site, that will potentially have visitors stay longer.

For developers this is another opportunity to get your name out. Just as Netvibes, iPhone, Nokia, Facebook, etc, allow developers to create applications for their community to use, CloudShout is no exception. Using a predefined widget architecture developers can quickly develop applications and submit applications. After a review process the application, if approved, would be made available to the community at large.

I have keys to give out to those interested in developing and or using CloudShout as it is still in closed alpha. Leave me a comment and I will send keys out to the email you leave.

Tags: cloudshout, IZEA, izeafest, uwa, widgets

When I started working for IZEA a little over a year ago I didn’t have a blog. Not to say I didn’t have many web sites and was marketing those, I just didn’t have a personal blog to speak of. Rather quickly after starting with IZEA I started Tech Raving: to test code; to begin blogging about *JavaScript*; technology stuff when I could.

Pre-SocialSpark I had a hand full of visitors each day and even a comment here or there. Mainly the visitors came from those individuals I meet in the forums at IZEA.  I guess I had made enough splash on the intertubes because I got Google rank spanked without a single sponsored post by any company. Apparently just the mention of PayPerPost made Google quake in jealousy. To be fair I shouldn’t say it wasn’t just PayPerPost that lead to the spank as I had a few third party widgets that I found could have been the cause.

When SocialSpark went into alpha release and new users started to trickle in, my daily visitors started to increase. That’s easily attributed to the fact that only a limited number of users were involved and they were checking out the other blogs in the system. So to use that as a gauge would be inaccurate of me to report to you.

SocialSpark has been in Beta now for only a few days and if the MyBlogLog widget tells me anything then it’s that I am getting visitors. Before alpha it may have had a new user once a week, now it’s about every two days. Now I know that’s only one yardstick to measure by and my other stats programs tell me the same thing, visitors are increasing even as the number of members to SocialSpark has increased.

Taking a step back for a paragraph, under the PayPerPost system I could not take any posts. Even when the paintball opp came out that I had a huge interest in; I could not. Now with SocialSpark I can take the spark opportunities to my hearts content, although I’m not sure if I can make any at the moment. Since I love building widgets and plugins I can finally recognize other authors of the same who create SocialSpark sparks, such as owencutajar who also creates Wordpress plugins as well as myself.

Since there is more to me than just JavaScript and coding, I am going to stand up a new blog just so I don’t dilute this site. YES! After a year of blogging it’s time to have multiple blogs; and isn’t that what it’s all about in terms of SEM? Niche systems. Saying that I have a blog in x category and being able to check out like interest blog in my category leads to an expansion of friends.

Even if you don’t find an opportunity to take at SocialSpark the system is designed to build on other bloggers. That is were Sparks come in. Straight to the quick, how many goth blogs do you find in PayPerPost? I’ve alway found that as a deficiency in PayPerPost, yet I’ve found one in SocialSpark already and befriended them. More new users are coming in rapidly. If they create a spark asking for a site review, product review, and what not, I can take it. There is a paranormal video site that fits in with what I was doing with RiffRaffRadio (old site of mine) and doing a spark to boot. Where is that in PayPerPost?

Trust me as someone who see’s behind the curtain to SocialSpark there are others in it that think, and have sites, like you do.

Do not fear to tread there, since you still be accepted from someone. I am so relieved that SocialSpark truly incorporates the entire genre of blogs and bloggers. Let’s keep it realistic, there are exceptions of course and I mean that as saying there are laws in this country as to what you can display on the internet and SocialSpark can not accept those.

I as a developer for IZEA, and a lone wolf programmer that usually kept to himself, I did not foresee the impact that SocialSpark would bring to unknown blogs such as Tech Raving. Trust me I was skeptical as well, pre-alpha, and still am still in some respects. Yet the facts remain that in a month I had the traffic developing to cause me to consider, and soon to create, a new blog for me and not just the technology that I use. This blog was nothing more that a test bed for my code and general brain dump of a few posts. Within a month and without any marketing it has taken on more visitors due to being in SocialSpark than just being a regular blog within the vast sea of the interwebs.

I am scooter on the IZEA boards.
I am scooter on  SocialSpark.
I am Scott Krutsinger on Zookoda
I work for IZEA.

Just so you know, this is truly what I feel and have put together outside of any IZEA requirements. Feel free to drop me a private message on the forums. Within SocialSpark feel free to leave a comment or let me know of any related sparks you create!

Tags: IZEA, PayPerPost, SocialSpark, Zookoda