Taltopia.com - The Blog

Holiday Contest

2011-12-17T10:59:00.001-08:00

Now that we are into the holidays, what better way to share the holiday spirit than by entering a holiday art contest! Here's one that's ending soon on Taltopia...you can enter ANY type of holiday related media including photos, videos, poetry, and music:

http://www.taltopia.com/contest/41128/Winter-Holiday-Media

2011-01-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

We want to wish each and every one of our loyal members health, success, and happiness in the year ahead.

To start the new year right, we have added a number of great new offers to help you earn Famebucks! In case you aren't familiar with how the offers section works, look for an offer that interests you, click on the link, and perform the described action - once the action is performed, we will automatically deposit Famebucks into your account.

http://www.taltopia.com/offers.aspx

Enjoy!

Editor's Pick - Ice Cave

2010-12-11T11:02:00.001-08:00

by RickLamb

HAVE NO FEAR...

2010-11-17T22:11:00.000-08:00

...Taltopia's Happy Thanksgiving logo is here! A big thank you to all of our members for making Taltopia the wonderful, creative, competitive, enthusiastic, entertaining, and supportive community we have all grown to love.

Happy Halloween at Taltopia!

2010-10-07T02:05:00.000-07:00

Halloween spookiness has begun at Taltopia! The first thing you might notice is the return of our spooky logo and some spooky member uploads! Check them out here and here.

We wanted to send out a few reminders for this awesome holiday:

1) Remember you have the ability to create and feature contests! Let's see some spooky Halloween theme inspired ones!

2) Once you create a contest, feature it! Anyone can feature any contest! It's fun, fast, and really cheap! Visit any contest page to get started. If you feature your contest it gets; featured on the front page, a highlighted listing on the contests page, and appears above other contests. Plus, it is featured in our Fame Mail a newsletter sent to all members.

3) Also don't forget about upgrading to a Taltopia premium account. As always, you get free Famebucks every month, gain access to our industry directory with over 2,000 listings, entry to our premium member contests that offer bigger prizes, removal of advertisements, direct tech support, you show up at the top of search results, and can directly contact casting directors!

As always...Claim Your Fame!

Staff Pick: "I Grew This"

2010-09-07T10:27:00.001-07:00

by RickLamb

Staff Pick: Untitled

2010-08-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

untitled

by "karenmcfadden"

Staff Pick: The World Today

2010-07-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

Staff Pick: Green Mountain Falls

2010-07-12T09:18:00.001-07:00

http://www.taltopia.com/view/179363/browse/TopRated/3/Green-Mountain-Falls

2010-06-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hi Taltopia Blog Readers,

Wanted to drop by and say how we really liked a piece of artwork from one of our users. Every so often we'll come across a piece that we strikes us a certain way, donate famebucks to the artist, and try to give their work some more promotion with a blog post.

So without further ado here it is: Spring Sunset

You can also check out Keith's profile.

Good work Keith! Keep an eye out for the famebucks coming your way!

Contest Winners - Free iPod Shuffles!

2010-06-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to announce that we had 2 contest winners last month who won 2gb iPod shuffles by participating in our contests.

Best Music Contest Winner - Thrashard23

Best Photo Contest Winner - KWillettte

Congrats to you both, and enjoy!

New: Feature A Contest!

2010-04-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

Have you ever created a contest on Taltopia and wished you can let more people know about it? Or maybe you entered a contest and wanted a bigger prize pool of Famebucks. Well, now there is a solution...Feature a Contest.

Here's what you get by featuring a contest:

Contest featured on front page

Highlighted listing on contests page
Appear above other contests
Featured in Fame Mail newsletter sent to all members

Anyone can feature any contest! It's fun, fast, and (practically) free! Visit any contest page to get and click on this image at the top:

Fight Breast Cancer with Famebucks

2010-03-30T17:08:00.001-07:00

You can now donate your Famebucks to help fight breast cancer. All donations will be made to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Think pink.

Click here to visit the Taltopia Store and make your donation today.

Flickr Importer and Taltopia Mature

2010-03-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

Hi All!

Just wanted to drop in with a quick announcement about two new features on the site:

You can now import all your images from flickr! Just be sure you are logged in a and follow the link below or just choose the option on our upload page.

http://www.taltopia.com/members/import/flickr/

Also, we now accept mature content!

In the past, we reluctantly asked members with great mature art to remove it from the site...but no more! Now just tag your media as mature when you upload and you can keep your mature art up on the site. Obviously this needs to be tasteful art (no porn!) and follow our Terms of Service. So enjoy these new features and let us know your thoughts.

Keepin' it Weird - Taltopia Style

2010-03-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

Sxsw Austin 2010! Wooooo! Austin had shut down it's famous 6th street to prepare for bands and their screaming fans. There was music at every venue...and by venue we mean every place you could fit a drum set and some speakers - Pita Pit included!

This year there was a huge turnout, just look at the army bags prepared for the convention below.
Once we arrived we were quick to set up our Taltopia booth, and get ready for the week of craziness to come.

So we gave the list a quick rundown:

3,000 Taltopia Pitch Cards - Check
1,500 Taltopia T-shirts - Check
Realizing we had to give those out or bring them back home - Check

We don't look worried...do we?

We're happy to report that we gave out all of our shirts to people that stopped by the booth with an interest in what we did. All-in-all a successful trip.

Be sure to check out some of our lucky ipod winners below! Thanks for wearing our shirts guys!

Virtual Gifts - New Feature!

2010-03-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

Be sure to check out the newest feature on Taltopia...virtual gifts! You can use your hard-earned Famebucks to send your friends, fans, and favorite artists a gift. This gift will forever remain on their public profile page for all visitors to see.

It's really easy to send someone a gift on Taltopia. Visit the members profile page and click on the "Send Gift" link located next to the members username. Here is what it looks like:

Next, pick which gift you would like to send. There are a ton of different virtual gifts to choose from.

Once you have selected the gift, just confirm and your gift will be sent instantly!

Fashion Model Contest Winner Chosen

2010-03-09T11:05:00.001-08:00

A winner has been chosen for Taltopia's Fashion Model Contest! Chantal Aytes (username: butterscotch) is the winner and will receive $100 to Amazon.com as well as a 1-month Premium Membership. Congrats Chantal!

Picture008NYC

Sing Your Heart Out -Contest Winner!

2010-03-09T10:40:00.001-08:00

We have a winner! The winner of Taltopia's Sing Your Heart Out Contest is TinaRose. Click here to see her winning entry (also embedded below). Isn't she great?!?!

Taltopia iPhone Application is LIVE!

2010-03-03T11:00:00.000-08:00

Taltopia.com has just released our iPhone Application! Use the official Taltopia iPhone App to find and apply to hundreds of casting calls in your area, for free!

This is another convenient resource to help you claim your fame. Click here to download the app! (The app is also available for download on the Android platform)

New Feature: Premium Comments

2010-02-24T14:52:00.000-08:00

We just made a small, but noticeable change to the site to help all of our Premium members stand out a bit more. Any time a Premium member posts a comment anywhere on the site it will show up in a highlighted yellow box, making it stand out a lot more. Just another benefit of being a Premium member!

New Feature: Rotate Images

2010-02-22T17:53:00.000-08:00

You asked for it, and now you got it - the ability to rotate uploaded images!

Sometimes when you upload an image file to Taltopia, the orientation could be off. You would have to delete the file, fix the orientation on your computer, and re-upload the image...pretty annoying. Now you can rotate uploaded images with the click of a button.

Look for these arrows underneath media you have uploaded to start rotating today. Enjoy!

Contest Winner - Valentine's Day Writing Contest

2010-02-15T10:07:00.000-08:00

We hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day! We would like to announce the winner of our Valentine's Day Writing Contest - RebeccaJeanine71.

The winning entry is below. Congrats!

The "L" Word

82nd Academy Awards - Taltopia Poll

2010-02-10T15:30:00.001-08:00

With the Academy Awards right around the corner (March 7), we wanted to poll our community to see who they felt would win Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Picture. All results will be tallied and posted on our blog on March 5th.

Click here to participate!

Famebucks for Haiti

2010-02-03T17:45:00.001-08:00

To show our support for the earthquake relief effort in Haiti, all members can now donate Famebucks for Haiti. For every Famebuck you redeem, Taltopia will donate a real dollar to the American Red Cross. Visit the Taltopia Store to get started. Click here.

Most Creative Contest

2010-02-02T14:58:00.000-08:00

This contest is sponsored by FanStory.com and FanArtReview.com

Share your writing and get feedback on FanStory.com. Share your photography and artwork on FanArtReview.com. Feedback, contests, and fun!!

Requirements:

Upload your most creative art, photography, or writing sample into this contest. All entries will be considered, but more attention will be given to the top 5. Contest winner will be chosen by Taltopia Staff and contest Sponsor.

PRIZE: $100 VISA gift card!

Click HERE to view and enter contest.

Singing Contest!

2010-02-01T16:12:00.000-08:00

Hey! Did you miss American Idol auditions? Who needs that when you can sing your heart out right here on Taltopia! Enter your best vocal sample to be judged by Taltopia's critics.

Enter here: http://www.taltopia.com/contest/40731/Sing-Your-Heart-Out-Singing-Contest

Fashion Model Contest

2010-02-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

As you all know, there are many different types of modeling - this contest's focus is on Fashion Modeling, a style of modeling whose focus is to display and promote clothing and/or accessories.

The winner of this contest will get $100 to Amazon.com, a free 1-month trial of Taltopia's Premium Membership

Enter here: http://www.taltopia.com/contest/40730/Fashion-Model-Contest

Contests Galore!

2010-01-14T13:15:00.000-08:00

This is definitely the month of contests!

We have entered a competition to help Taltopia get funding and continue providing you our great service…and we need your help! All you have to do is go to Vator.tv and vote for Taltopia in the competition (don't worry, its free to join). Here is a link: http://tinyurl.com/ygwqy8z

Every vote helps!

Also, we had one of our sponsored contests end!

Contest Sponsored by: HeadshotEnvelopes.com - The first step to getting cast is getting noticed! Use our clear, headshot envelopes for your submissions-always free shipping!

Congrats to jenny12313 who won 250 Headshot Envelopes, 1-month Taltopia Premium Membership and a blog entry highlighting her headshot. Here it is!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE COMPLETED CONTEST

Valentine's Day Writing Contest

2010-01-06T11:46:00.000-08:00

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, we felt that it's an appropriate time for a Valentine's Day writing contest. Upload and submit any of your Valentine's Day or love themed writing samples into this contest.

The winner will get F$50 to spend on the site or to redeem in the Taltopia Store, a free Taltopia T-shirt, and a blog post highlighting the winning entry.

Enter here.

New Upload Page Design

2009-12-22T17:35:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that we have made our upload page a lot more user-friendly. Be sure to take a look, and upload some talent while you're at it!

UPLOAD HERE

HeadshotEnvelopes.com Contest

2009-12-14T14:08:00.000-08:00

Description:
Contest Sponsored by: HeadshotEnvelopes.com - The first step to getting cast is getting noticed! Use our clear, headshot envelopes for your submissions-always free shipping!

Hey Actors! You know how important it is to have some quality headshots when apply to casting calls. Submit your best headshot into this contest for a chance to win a 250 Headshot Envelopes, 1-month Taltopia Premium Membership and a blog entry highlighting your headshot.

Requirements
Must be a headshot of you, and only you. This contest is open to both guys and gals, all ages. All entries will be considered, but more attention will be given to the top 5 entries with the most votes. Winner will be chosen by Taltopia's staff.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS CONTEST

New Membership Plans

2009-12-10T16:14:00.000-08:00

Thank you for your continued membership and involvement on Taltopia. We have received some great feedback from you all about how to improve the Taltopia platform.

Many of our members have mentioned that they want the ability to get premium features at lower prices. As a result, we are very happy to announce that we will be introducing two new levels of Premium Membership. The new "Basic" and "Plus" levels offer members access to some of the features of Premium Membership, at a more affordable price.

These changes will not affect current Premium Members who will continue to enjoy full use of all of our great premium features. Non-premium members will notice new limits on certain features, including a cap on the number of media you can upload. All current free members will be able to keep all of their uploaded media, however, from this point forward you will only be able to upload 10 more files before being required to upgrade your plan.

Click here to see a breakdown of the new premium plan types and the benefits of each.

We hope that you continue to support the Taltopia community and the development of new features by upgrading your account today.

Thank you, and as always, claim your fame!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-01T14:01:00.001-08:00

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, the 2009 holiday season is officially here! As you may have noticed, our logo has also changed to reflect this:

To really kick-in the holiday season, we have put up a number of great contests:

Christmas Modeling Contest

Holiday Music Contest

Holiday Photography Contest (Premium Members Only)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

Check out our Thanksgiving logo! (art by Anthony Zanontian)

Taltopia at Actorfest 2009

2009-11-17T12:05:00.000-08:00

Actorfest is a huge acting convention put on by our friends at Back Stage where thousands of aspiring actors can meet with casting directors, attend workshops, and browse acting services in the exhibit hall. This year, Actorfest took place at the California Market Center in downtown LA on Saturday, November 14.

We really wanted to make an impression at this event...this was the first trade show we were exhibiting at after all. So, we came up with this great idea: people who visited our booth would get a free Taltopia shirt and we would email them our comprehensive industry professional directory. If we saw you wearing the Taltopia t-shirt at Actorfest, you qualified to win a free iPod shuffle! We got a great response from everyone and gave out iPod shuffles to a few lucky actors throughout the day.

Here are some pics from the event.

Our booth before setup:

Our booth after set-up:

The t-shirt giveaway!
The iPod winners:

A few fans of Taltopia:

Our #1 fan "Basil":

New Category: Photography!

2009-11-11T15:13:00.000-08:00

New Category!: We have just created a new "Photography" category on the site! Before, Photography was a subcategory of the Art category, but since it became so popular on the site, we decided to give it the attention it deserves.

If you have previously uploaded photography on the site, your media is now in the "General" subcategory of Photography. Other subcategories include Landscape, Nature, People, Macro, and Black & White.

Important: Please visit your My Media page to correctly categorize your photos! Here is a link for your convenience.

Enjoy!

Facebook Connect!!

2009-10-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

That's right, you read correctly, we now have facebook connect. Woo hoo!

What does that mean ? Well, you can now use your Facebook account to join and login to your Taltopia account! This feature makes it really easy to find and connect with your Facebook friends that might already be on Taltopia.

When you are logged in with Facebook Connect, and you vote on a media or leave a comment, a box will pop-up asking you if you would like to publish this to Facebook. You will also see a "Share on Facebook" button after you upload media to the site or promote a contest entry. These are great ways share what you do on Taltopia with your Facebook friends through your newsfeed.

To get started, just visit Taltopia.com and click on the blue "Connect with Facebook" button located at the top right of the page.

If you don't already have a Taltopia account, you will be prompted to create one.

If you're already a member, we make it easy to link to your Facebook just click "Already a member? Click here to link your account." and you are ready to go!

Hope everyone enjoys this new feature! Let us know what you think!

It's Halloween @ Taltopia!

2009-10-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

The countdown to Halloween has begun! We've got a few things going on at Taltopia to commemorate this awesome holiday.

The first thing you might notice is our spooky new logo:

Next, we have some great Halloween-themed contests running in various categories on the site:

Sexiest Costume Contest-Upload a picture of you modeling in your sexy halloween costume! We are looking for the most professional looking pose - creative costumes are a plus, but remember, lets try to keep this PG (nudity is NOT acceptable). Winner gets $100 to Amazon.com, where you can buy anything.

Funniest Costume Contest-This contest is for all you jokers/comedians out there. Upload a pic of you in a funny halloween costume for a chance to win $100 to Amazon. Be creative, thats what Taltopia is all about!

Halloween Art Contest- Enter your best halloween themed art into this contest for a chance to win $100 to Amazon! Drawing, paintings, and other art forms are all welcome to enter - no photographs please. The winner will be chosen based on creativity, attention to detail, and professional quality.

Scary Halloween Photography Contest (Premium Members Only)- Upload a picture of you've taken of something scary!! We are looking for the most creative pictures. Winner gets $250 to Amazon.com, where you can buy anything.

Profile Badges - Promote yourself...everywhere!

2009-09-30T13:54:00.000-07:00

Profile badges are a great way to drive traffic to your profile to help you get more exposure. Including badges in your email signature, on your blog, or on your website can help your fans conveniently navigate to your portfolio on Taltopia. We have recently added 3 great profile badges for our members. If you are a member on Taltopia and want to promote your profile with a badge, click here. If you are not yet a member, join now. Ciao.

7-day Premium Membership FREE Trial!

2009-09-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

That's right folks, you can now enjoy all the benefits of being a Premium Member FREE (for 7 days). If you decide to cancel within the 7 days, you won't be charged a penny....otherwise, do nothing and you can continue receiving all the perks that come with being a Premium Member.

Click here to get started!

Note: This offer is only valid for NEW members ONLY!

Want a free Taltopia T-shirt?

2009-08-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

We have a great promotion going on right now - sign up for a Premium Membership on Taltopia and get a free Taltopia T-shirt ($15 value)...its that simple!

If you are already a member, use this upgrade link (you gotta be logged in first)

If you are NOT yet a member, use this link.

Claim your fame!

Taltopia Logo Design Contest Winner!

2009-08-05T17:35:00.000-07:00

We are very proud to announce that JScorpio has been chosen as the winner of Taltopia's logo design contest! His drawing of the Taltopia logo will be featured as our logo for a day. In addition, JScorpio gets 25 free Famebucks and a Taltopia T-shirt. Congrats!

LOGO

Alexa...Still Climbing!

2009-08-03T12:52:00.001-07:00

Many of you may have read our previous post about our growth in Alexa ranking. Well, we're still climbing! As of the 12:53pm PST, our Alexa rank is currently at 16,791 - that's an all time high for us! Although the Alexa rank is important, the real value of it is the ability to compare it to our "competition" (the chart below speaks for itself).

I would also like to add that despite the recent downturn in the economy, July was our most successful month in terms of member acquisition (36,972 new members) and in terms of revenue (sorry, figures can not be disclosed!)

Here's to another successful month at Taltopia!

Writing Contest Winner!

2009-07-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

Taltopia's first official writing contest has just come to a close!

WickedHorizon's entry titled "Deep Currents" has been chosen as a winner! WickedHorizon will be receiving F$50 famebucks to enter more contests, promote himself on the site, or to spend for great prizes in the Taltopia Store.
Congratulations!

Deep Currents

Castings Galore!

2009-07-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

Hey all. We wanted to let you know that we partnered up with a new source that now supplies us with tons of casting calls!

We have over 16 pages of castings that are organized nationally and by zip code so give it a spin and be sure to apply to castings you like! If you are a casting director/industry professional and want to post your casting calls, you can sign up for a free account and start posting right away!

Be sure to let us know about your success with our casting calls, we always like to hear back from our users!

American Idol 2009 Auditions

2009-07-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

Sunday, 4:20 AM....I picked up Anthony and we started our day's adventure to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.

You might be wondering what in god's name would possess us to be up so early on a Sunday morning - American Idol 2009 Auditions, of course!

As we pulled into the parking lot, we noticed that there were already hundreds of cars and thousands of future Taltopia members already waiting in line. Let's move!

Once our flier distribution team arrived, we popped open the trunk and started distributing 10,000 colorful, professionally printed, double-sided, high-gloss, UV protected fliers to our future members.

By 10:30 AM, pretty much everyone in attendance had a flier in their hand and on their car.

A job well done.

eBook - Taltopia.com's Official Talent Industry Guide and Directory

2009-06-11T12:11:00.001-07:00

That's right folks, Taltopia.com now has an official eBook for sale! Taltopia's Official Talent Industry Guide and Directory includes over 45 articles with tips and advice to help you get more exposure. Also included is the industry's most comprehensive national directory with over 2,000 listings of talent agents, record labels, modeling agencies, studios, and much more.

There are 3 ways to download this eBook:

Directly from us - Use this link to purchase the eBook and a download link will be immediately sent to your email.

Lulu.com - For your convenience, Taltopia's eBook is also listed on Lulu.com here.

Amazon.com - You can download our eBook from Amazon.com to read on the Kindle or iPhone here. Due to limitations on Kindle, this eBook does not include the Directory and is therefore offered at a reduced price.

Taltopia Rap Contest!

2009-06-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

Hey Taltopia, we just posted a new premium contest with prizes valued at over 600 dollars!

So submit your best beats and rhymes. Please enter an audio or video file of yourself rapping. An iPod Touch, professional Sony headphones, and a professional recording microphone are up for grabs! Enter now!

4th of July Contest

2009-06-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

Description
Independence Day, also referred to as the 4th of July, is a holiday which commemorates America's independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Show your Independence Day spirit by entering a photo, video, audio file, or even a document that commemorates the 4th of July. Some ideas include pics or video of fireworks and US monuments, pics or drawings of the flag, original poetry, modeling in 4th of July clothing, and so on.

Prize: $100 Amazon Gift Card!

Enter now!

Up, Up, and Away! (Alexa Rank)

2009-05-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

For those of you who may not be familiar with Alexa, here is a brief intro: Alexa.com ranks websites based on a number of factors, the most important of which is a site's traffic. This widely accepted ranking helps give a general idea of how one site's traffic compares to another site's traffic.

Now that we have had this lesson in Alexa Rankings, we are very excited to see that Taltopia's Alexa Rank has recently pulled way ahead of our competitors. Take a look at the screen shot below (the dark blue line is Taltopia). As of yesterday (May 20, 2009), our Alexa rank was 22,722. Our 3-month average has increased by over 33,000 ranks, and we are confident that this trend will continue.

We want to thank all of our loyal members and supporters for their role in helping us reach this milestone!

Taltopia Mobile News!

2009-04-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post a quick update. We are really excited to see that our new mobile site was chosen as a Staff Pick by Apple.com.

Thanks Apple...personally I've been a fanboy of yours since my G3 laptop!

Taltopia Mobile

2009-04-27T19:03:00.001-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Taltopia.com Launches Mobile Website

Los Angeles, CA

Taltopia.com, a platform that connects aspiring talent with fans and entertainment industry professionals, announced today the launch of a new mobile-friendly version of the website. This mobile-friendly version of Taltopia.com is designed specifically to accommodate smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android G1, both of which feature relatively large touch-screens and 3G speed for easy internet browsing.

Visiting “Taltopia.com” from your smartphone will automatically redirect you to this new mobile site where you can browse profiles, vote on media, send and receive messages, edit your profile, and even apply to casting calls on-the-go.

“The ability to browse and apply to casting calls from your mobile phone is a highly demanded service which none of our competitors offer,” said co-founder Anthony Zanontian. Taltopia Mobile helps solve the problem that models, actors, and other aspiring talent face when they need to access and apply to recent casting notices while on-set, between auditions, or on the road.

“We are really proud of Taltopia Mobile,” said co-founder Allen Vartazarian. “We really tried to create a simple, yet very functional interface for our Taltopia’s members,” he added. The launch of Taltopia Mobile comes at a time when mobile browsing has dramatically increased. As more sites like Taltopia embrace this transition from 20-inch monitors to 3.5-inch screens, even more users will flock to the emerging world of mobile browsing.

Taltopia Prints

2009-04-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

What are Taltopia Prints?
You can now purchase your favorite images from Taltopia and have them printed on a product of your choice. We currently have t-shirts, hand bags, coasters, aprons, cutting boards and other great stuff. Look for the "Buy This" button in the upper right corner of media pages.
Why can people buy my images, and how can I control this?
Members can now sell photos and art on t-shirts and other merchandise and share in the revenue with Taltopia. We credit your Famebucks account as soon as we are notified that a sale has been successfully completed. Please be patient as this may take 3 to 5 business days.
If you would rather not sell your art, you have the ability to opt out of Taltopia Prints in your profile preferences.
How much do I earn when someone buys merchandise with my image on it?
For each item that is purchased from your media, we will credit your Famebucks Account with F$4

Click HERE to take it for a spin!

Can I upload documents?

2009-04-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

Yes! Move over scribd and docstoc, taltopia's coming to town. We just finished our new writing section where you can upload your poetry, short stories, novels, scripts or anything else you feel relates to talent and is a document or pdf.

For now we placed writing in our "Other" category until it picks up some steam; so be sure to upload your stuff to make it a mainstream section!

Click here for an example.

Super Duper Search Now Available

2009-04-02T14:34:00.000-07:00

We've just upgraded our search...and what an upgrade!

The entire site is now indexed and broken up by category. Everything is now searchable and results show up fast, really fast. For you techies out there, we utilized Lucene.net to help us query our database, and it is awesome. When the results appear, we made sure that the search terms found are highlighted and easy to spot. So search away!

Also as you can see in the picture above, if you are a premium member on the site your media/profile shows up before everyone, and is in a handy dandy yellow box, so consider upgrading if you'd like the attention!

Upgrade link if you have a membership:
https://www.taltopia.com/members/premium/join.aspx

Join as a premium member:
https://www.taltopia.com/premiumjoin.aspx

New Message System - Threaded Messaging

2009-04-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

We recently upgraded our messaging system to what is called "threaded" messaging. "Threaded" is just a fancy term used to describe the way your messages work: when you message someone on Taltopia, you are starting a new "thread" and when the other person responds, your full conversation will be displayed in a single, organized manner. You may already be familiar with this system if you are a member on Facebook. Here is an example of what it looks like:

Enjoy!

Guitar Center Music Contest - $300!

2009-04-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

Description
**This contest is limited to Premium Members only**

Being a musician is tough. Making money as a musician is even more difficult...until now. Enter your best music into this contest for a chance to win $300 to Guitar Center!

Note: This prize will only be awarded if a minimum of 15 entries are submitted.

Requirements
There is no entrance fee for this sponsored contest, but entry is limited to premium members. All types of music are accepted in this contest, whether it be classical, rap, rock, a cappella...you name it. Video and Audio uploads only please (no pics).

All entries will be considered, but more attention will be given to the top 5. Winner to be chosen by Taltopia Staff. Taltopia.com has no affiliation with Guitar Center.

Find Out Who You Know on Taltopia!

2009-03-19T16:13:00.000-07:00

We were thinking. Yes, we do that sometimes. Do you know someone on Taltopia? (Probably) Are you their fan? (Probably) Then, I query you this: What if you know someone on Taltopia you're not a fan of...could you find them? (Probably...Umm not really)

But wait! There is a reason I'm writing this blog...now you can! You just type in your login and password to your favorite webmail service (blank@gmail.com) and our nifty tool does the rest.
Now you're saying, "Anthony I don't believe anything you just said." Well, the image above should be proof enough.

Be sure to give it a test run(don't forget be logged in): http://www.taltopia.com/members/promote.aspx?t=find

Taltopia now on Twitter

2009-03-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

Taltopia.com is proud to announce that we are now on Twitter!

We figured if the world is doing it, why shouldn't we.

You can now follow the happenings of Taltopia.com here: http://twitter.com/claimyourfame

Don't miss out, become a follower today!

Best Original Oil Painting

2009-03-05T11:40:00.000-08:00

Best Original Oil Painting

Description
Enter your best original oil painting for a chance to win an Oil Painting Set in a Wooden Box with 3 Canvas Panels! You can upload your best artwork in any picture format, however all work must be paintings no digital artwork will be considered. All designs MUST be original and created by you.

Requirements
This contest prize is only available for United States residents. Get as many votes as you can. All entries will be considered, but more attention will be given to the top 5. Winner to be chosen by Taltopia Staff.

Best Short Film Contest

2009-03-05T11:29:00.000-08:00

Best Short Film Contest

Description
This contest is for all you filmmakers out there - we are looking for you to upload your best short film! Enter your best short film for a chance to win a Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder (30-minuites).

Requirements
Upload your best short film, try to keep it under 10 minutes. The short film must be yours, and only yours. Good luck!
All entries will be considered, but more attention will be given to the top 5. Winner to be chosen by Taltopia Staff.

Taltopia.com Passes 100,000 Users, Proves Artists Value "Free" In This Economy

2009-03-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Taltopia.com Passes 100,000 Users, Proves Artists Value "Free" In This Economy

Los Angeles, CA

Taltopia.com, a platform that connects aspiring talent with fans and entertainment industry professionals, announced today that their membership had just passed 100,000 registered users. “We couldn’t be happier,” said co-founder Anthony Zanontian, referring to the site’s membership, ”it’s great too see how users are responding. We really do everything for them.”

Taltopia differs from most talent-themed websites by allowing its members to upload an unlimited amount of media, apply to casting calls, and enter sponsored contests where they can win prizes – all for free. Taltopia also offers a number of free articles to its members, thereby helping aspiring artists on their path to success. It’s no wonder the site’s membership continues to grow rapidly in a slumping economy.

Another competitive advantage for Taltopia.com can be found in their new “Offers Section,” an area of the site which allows members to complete incentivized offers from advertisers in return for Famebucks, the pseudo-currency used on the popular website. Members can then redeem these Famebucks at Taltopia's Store to purchase gift cards and merchandise from retailers such as Amazon, Apple’s iTunes, and Guitar Center.

Most of these offers simply require members to enter an email address or answer survey questions, resulting in free Famebucks to the user and income to Taltopia from the advertiser. “Our new Famebucks Offers Section is one way we have had to adjust our revenue model to accommodate the economic downturn” said co-founder Allen Vartazarian. “It’s been great to see these free features gain traction with our members,” he added.

About Taltopia.com:
Taltopia.com is a platform that connects aspiring talent with fans and entertainment industry professionals. Members can create free profiles, upload media, join fan clubs, enter contests, and submit to casting calls. Categories include music, art, acting, dance, comedy, and modeling. Taltopia.com received $800,000 in angel funding in March of 2008 and is based in Los Angeles, California.

Contacts:
Allen Vartazarian, allen@taltopia.com
Anthony Zanontian, anthony@taltopia.com
(818) 763-1065
http://www.taltopia.com

LA Ink Casting Call

2009-02-26T17:33:00.000-08:00

TLC IS NOW CASTING LA INK

Casting for LA Ink is seeking LA’s top, professional tattoo artists for TLC’s hit show! Here’s what we they are looking for:

• Dynamic, interesting characters with a big personalities
• Tattoo artists with defined points of view who don’t hold back
• Experienced artists with a legitimate following and a strong client list
• Artists with top-notch skills and an individual style
• Artists who are ready to be available for full-time work with Kat Von D!

This is a great opportunity for exposure as you’ll be a part of one of TLC’s most popular shows. Celebrities, rockers, athletes and tattoo legends alike are lining up for some of Kat's famous black and grey ink.

They are also seeking Shop Managers to assist the artists in the shop. They’ll be responsible for everything from sterilizing utensils, answering the phones and greeting clients. The managers should be:

• Cool people who are familiar with the tattoo world and love being in it
• Artistic by nature i.e., makeup artist, musician, body piercer, etc.
• Confident in your own right- be able to step in and get the job done
• Unique in your personal style and have a great attitude

To apply for the show, click here.

Be sure to mention your background, your personality, your qualifications and style (graffiti, pinup, lettering, tribal…) Upload a close-up face shot, full body shot (show off your Ink!) and any photos of your work that’ll show us what you’ve got.

Casting ends on March 6, 2009

Good Luck!

Bulk Uploader!

2009-02-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

The moment you have all been waiting for...the Bulk Uploader is here! That means that you can upload or embed multiple images, songs, and videos all at the same time! It's super easy to use this bulk uploader. Click on "Browse" to add a file from your computer...if you want to add more files, click on the "Add" button, and repeat as necessary.

You can also embed multiple files by pasting the "Embed" code from your favorite media sharing website (YouTube, MySpace, DeviantArt, Slide, and Flickr are a few of the many places that offer embed codes). Click on the "Add More" button if you want to...add more. Pretty simple, right?

Once you are done, click the "Upload" button, wait for you files to upload, and then you will be prompted to enter more details for each media you have uploaded. Click here to take our new bulk uploader for a spin!

Complete Offers - Earn Famebucks!

2009-02-06T11:07:00.000-08:00

We just finished adding a cool new feature to the site that lets you earn Famebucks just by completing offers here (you need to be logged in, so be sure to create an account if you don't have one yet).

Here is how it works:
1) Find an offer: Each offer states how many Famebucks (F$) you can earn for completing the offer. The description will tell you exactly what you need to do to earn the Famebucks.

2) Complete the offer: Click on the image of the offer you would like to complete. This will link you to the offer page where you can complete the requested information. Some offers are free and only request information or a download, while other offers may require you to purchase a product or subscribe to a service.

3) Wait : After you have completed the offer, it may take a few hours for our system to be alerted of its completion. Please be patient during this process. If you have completed an offer, and still have not seen the appropriate deposit in your famebucks account, then please contact us.

It's as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Taltopia.com Introduces RSS Feeds

2009-01-29T15:48:00.000-08:00

What is RSS?

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.

Why RSS? Benefits and Reasons for using RSS

RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter.

Where can I find the RSS Feed for Taltopia?

We have added numerous RSS Feeds for the various different categories on Taltopia. You can subscribe to any one of the following feeds (or all of them if you prefer!)

Featured Talent
Wall of Fame
Top Media
New Media
Recently Popular Media
The Blog

Enjoy!

A Cappella Contest Winner!

2009-01-19T15:42:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Gentleman, we are proud to announce the winner of our A Cappella Contest..."Shakapella Groove"! This is one of the best a cappella performances that we have ever heard. This entry was submitted by Scott Turnbull who is an elementary music teacher from St. Petersburg, Florida. As the contest winner, Scott will be receiving a high-end microphone, autographed CD, and T-shirt from the band "Straight No Chaser". Congrats!

http://www.taltopia.com/view/86166/Shakapella_Groove

Premium Membership

2008-12-22T17:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Now that we got that out of the way, lets move on to some more important Taltopia-related news...Premium Membership!

As a Premium Member, you will gain access to many new features that are not available with a basic membership. Here is a breakdown of what you get:

Premium Contests: Only Premium members will be able to enter premium contests which offer bigger and better prize packages.

Featured in Searches: When anyone does a search on Taltopia, Premium members will be featured at the top, resulting in much more exposure.

Apply to Castings First: Premium members will be able to apply to casting calls within the first 24 hours of posting!

FREE Famebucks: We will deposit 5 free Famebucks into your account for each month of Premium Membership. If you prepay for 6 months or 1 year, you will get even more Famebucks up-front! You can use these Famebucks to promote yourself or buy stuff from our new and improved Famebucks Store.

Directory Access: As a Premium member, you will have exclusive access to our new directory section with over 2,000 valuable listings of Talent Agencies, Modeling Agencies, Record Labels, Dance Studios, and Acting Schools.

Profile Badge: Premium members will have an exclusive badge on their public profiles which let's others know just how cool you are! Check out my profile here to see what I mean.

No Ads: As a kind gesture to Premium members, we will block all ads from showing up when you are logged in.

You are probably thinking to yourself, "Wow, these are some really great features...I wonder how much this costs?" Log-in and find out here: http://www.taltopia.com/members/premium/join.aspx

Have a wonderful holiday season and happy new year!

Just Launched: Taltopia Famebucks Store

2008-12-19T10:48:00.000-08:00

The moment you have all been waiting for has finally arrived...Taltopia.com is proud to announce the launch of the new Famebucks Store! Woo Hoo!

Previously, you could use Famebucks to donate to artists you admire, bid for a spot on the almighty Wall of Fame, enter user-generated contests, and buy a Taltopia T-shirt. But now you can spend those hard-earned Famebucks to buy just about anything! Currently, our store selection includes gift cards to Guitar Center, Amazon.com, Michael's, and iTunes (don't worry, you can also still buy a Taltopia T-shirt, the hottest trend in fashion). Look out for more great items coming soon to the official Famebucks store!

It's super-easy to use the Famebucks store. If you see an item you would like to purchase, click on the "add to cart" link and you will see it show up in your shopping cart on the right. Once your all done, click on the "checkout now" button. What are you waiting for? Click here to check it out!

Press Release: Casting Calls

2008-12-09T15:23:00.000-08:00

Now that we have had a few weeks to fill up our casting call section, we thought it was the right time to announce it to the world. So, we made a press release:

Taltopia.com Launches Casting Call Section

Taltopia.com, a platform that connects aspiring talent with fans and entertainment industry professionals, announced today the launch of a new casting calls section on their talent website. The addition of this feature has brought Taltopia.com one step closer to becoming a true utopia for talent.

Taltopia’s new casting calls section is designed to accommodate various types of talent-seeking professionals including casting directors, photographers, filmmakers, choreographers, talent agents, and music producers. The painstaking task of finding models for a photo shoot, recruiting actors for a film, discovering unsigned bands, and other casting needs have all been simplified by this new feature. Unlike other casting and audition websites, Taltopia.com does not charge industry professionals a fee to post their casting calls and projects. Taltopia’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to post projects, define specific roles, and conveniently manage the selection process from start to finish.

Another valuable tool only available to industry professionals is the advanced search engine which allows professionals to tap into Taltopia’s vast database of unsigned artists to find talent that meet their specific criteria. Searchable characteristics include gender, hair color, eye color, height, weight, age, ethnicity, and geographic location.

Casting agents for popular television networks such as MTV and VH1 have started flocking to the site to take advantage of the huge pool of undiscovered talent. “Our new casting calls section has helped Taltopia’s members find relevant opportunities in the entertainment industry while providing industry professionals with the tools they need to discover the talent they seek,” said co-founder Anthony Zanontian. “We are really excited to see our casting call section taking off,” he added.

Due to a lack of suitable alternatives, most talent seekers have been forced to use unfocused website’s to satisfy their needs. “Our new casting calls feature has liberated people from using general classified site’s like Craigslist.com to discover talent,” said co-founder Allen Vartazarian. “Our focus is talent. This is what we do best.”

About Taltopia.com: Taltopia.com is a platform that connects aspiring talent with fans and entertainment industry professionals. Members can create free profiles, upload media, join fan clubs, enter contest, and submit to casting calls. Categories include music, art, acting, dance, comedy, and modeling. Taltopia.com received $800,000 in angel funding in March of 2008 and is based in Los Angeles, California.

http://www.taltopia.com

Taltopia's Holiday Photo Contest

2008-11-20T13:04:00.000-08:00

Photo Contest

In the spirit of the Holidays we are giving away a Cannon "Elph" digital camera! We are looking for holiday themed photography. Be sure to submit your best stuff! Good luck!

Click here to enter (or vote) now!

RocaWear Rap Contest

2008-11-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

Rap Contest!

Think you got the best rhymes around? Prove it in the RocaWear Rap Contest. The rules are simple: upload a video or audio track of your best rap, then invite all your friends to come vote for you. The winner will get $50 to RocaWear and an iPod Shuffle!

Click here to enter now!

Acting Contest

2008-11-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

Are you an aspiring actor looking to make it in Hollywood? Upload a VIDEO of you acting out a scene from your favorite movie. Taltopia.com will pay for $100 worth of acting lessons for the winner!

Click here to enter the contest now!

Now Casting! (Taltopia Launches Casting Calls)

2008-11-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

Question: What is a casting call?

Answer: In the performing arts, casting (or casting call) is a vital pre-production process for selecting a cast of actors, dancers, singers, models and other talent for a live or recorded performance.

Now that you are aware of the formal definition of "casting call," we would like to introduce you to the new Casting Call section of Taltopia.com, where industry professionals can post their current projects and recruit talent for FREE. (click here to sign up for your free industry professional account)

Casting directors, Photographers, Talent Agents, Music Producers, Filmmakers, and Choreographers can use this new feature to access our database of over 50,000 artists.

Casting call categories include Acting, Crew, Dance, Modeling, and Music. You can even search for casting calls within a certain mile radius of your zip code!

When you come across a casting that you are interested in, simply click on the blue "apply" button to submit yourself directly.

Click on the following link to check out our (growing) casting section:
http://www.taltopia.com/castings/casting-calls.aspx

Enjoy.

Our New Commercials!

2008-10-20T17:10:00.000-07:00

Well taltopia users we have some exciting news...we have two new commercials!! Woo hoo! They are going to be running on a national campaign so let us know if you happen to catch one.

See the videos below!

Taltopia's Best Comedian Contest!

2008-10-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

Comedian Contest

We are looking to discover the best comedian on Taltopia.com! Submit your funniest skit, prank, or stand-up routine for a chance to win two tickets to the Improv Comedy Club at a location near you.

Submit the funniest VIDEO or AUDIO clip of yourself doing a skit, prank, or stan-up routine. The top 5 entries will be judged by Taltopia's staff.

Click here to enter: http://www.taltopia.com/contest/40096/Taltopias_Best_Comedian

Win a brand new Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP Digital Camera!

2008-10-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

We have a new contest for a chance to win a Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP Digital Camera!

We are looking for Taltopia's photographers to show us their best macro shot! For amateur photographers this just means very close-up photography. Be sure to submit your best stuff! Good luck!

Here is the link: http://www.taltopia.com/contests/contest.aspx?cid=40097

Get a personal guitar lesson from Jet Black Stare!

2008-10-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

Two great contests launched in one day! Woohoo!

Jet Black Stare, want's to see and hear your best guitar, bass, or drum solo! Upload now and you will have a chance to get a personalized video lesson from the band along with a brand new guitar! You'll also receive a Viva La Rock hoodie and a Jet Black Stare prize pack including an autographed CD, tshirt and official Jet Black Stare trucker hat.

Requirements
Upload audio or video of YOUR OWN best guitar, bass, or drum solo.

This contest prize is only available for United States residents. Get as many votes as you can. The top 5 entries will be considered.

Here is the link: http://www.taltopia.com/contest/400 72/READY_TO_ROLL_with_JET_BLACK_STARE

Win tickets to a show with Spill Canvas and One Republic!

2008-10-02T14:03:00.000-07:00

We have a great new contest for our Taltopia Users!

We are working with The Spill to get you two tickets to The Spill Canvas concert with One Republic, an autographed Scraps LP Vinyl, a Spill Canvas button pack, and a Spill Canvas hoodie!

For the contest, The Spill Canvas wants to see your best black and white photo!

Requirements
Upload YOUR OWN best black and white photo. Any photo goes!

The top 5 entries will be considered.

Here is the link: http://www.taltopia.com/contest/40071/The_Spill_CanvasLets_See_Your_Best_Black_and_White

Enter now and claim your fame!

Thumbnails

2008-09-25T13:56:00.000-07:00

Many users have been asking us to create a way for embedded media to show thumbnails (instead of our generic TV icon). The moment you have all been waiting for has now arrived! Although we already do pull thumbnail images for videos from YouTube, Revver, ClipShack, starting today we will also pull thumbnail images from embedded images on Photobucket, Snapfish, Webshots, and Flickr.

Thumbnails help our members get an idea of what a media might be about before they click on it. Don't worry if you have already embedded media from these other sites, since our top notch programmers have set up our system to go back and automatically pull the thumbnails for you ;)

Stay tuned for more updates...

Album Art Contest: Lunar Sway

2008-09-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

Art Contest

Lunar Sway, an L.A. based rock band, is looking for artwork to be considered for the cover of their upcoming CD!

Click on he following link (or the image above) to check out the contest on Taltopia.com:
http://www.taltopia.com/contests/contest.aspx?cid=40045

Lunar Sway is on track to become the breakthrough band of 2009. This band embraces new models of creation, promotion, and distribution of their music, including the release of a new song on every full moon.

To learn more about Lunar Sway be sure to visit their site here:
http://www.lunarsway.com

and join their fan club here:
http://www.taltopia.com/lunarsway

*Prize Description: Your artwork to be considered for their next CD, CD autographed by the whole band, 2 Tickets to their next show (date to be announced), 5 free mp3 downloads of their tracks! less

Requirements
Upload any artwork that you feel represents what Lunar Sways stands for. Your entry must incorporate the moon. Photography, art, photoshops, etc., are all acceptable!

The top 5 entries will be considered by Lunar Sway for the prize.

Contests! Yeah Baby!

2008-09-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

Contests galore. That's the word around our water cooler here. What contests can we create to keep our awesome users happy. We keep trying to come up with cool and original contests for you guys. Hope you like what we conjured up this month!

Contests currently running:

Breakdance Battle - Win tickets to a live show of Randy Jackson's Americas Best Dance Crew

Tiffany & Co. *Bling* *Bling* Jewelry Contest - Win a $100 dollar gift certificate to Tiffany & Co.

Taltopia Rap Off - Win an Ipod Shuffle and one year subscription to Source Magazine!

Taltopia's Take Your Best Nature Shot! - Win a Canon Powershot A590 8.0 Megapixel Digital Camera

Also we want to congratulate our winners from last months contests:

Congrats to GH05T for winning the Guitar Center Jam Session Contest!
Congrats to Jessica for winning the Victoria's Secret Contest!
Congrats to Viv for winning the Art Contest!
Congrats to Jandri for winning the All Time Low Contest!

Keep entering to win...and remember Claim Your Fame!

Taltopia News and Updates

2008-09-02T16:44:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of stuff cooking here at Taltopia.com headquarters that we wanted to keep you updated about.

Wall of Fame: First and foremost, we would like to inform all of you about a minor change we are making to our Wall of Fame section. Currently, when you bid for a spot on the Wall of Fame, your entry stays up until it is outbid or 21 days, whichever comes first. Since the site has grown significantly since we created the Wall of Fame, we are going to be lowering the time period to 10 days. This will help to ensure that the Wall of Fame is not being abused, and will open up spots for other deserving talent looking to get more exposure.

Higher Quality Audio: After some super heavy-duty fine-tuning, we have improved the quality of audio playback in our media player to CD quality! We are pretty proud of this, especially since there aren't too many other sites out there that offer this sort of committment to preserving quality.

Best Week Ever: Last week Taltopia had its best week ever in terms of traffic to the site. Our Alexa ranking (for those of you who know what that is) jumped about 25,000 spots, while our traffic tripled! This spike in traffic can be attributed to a number of factors, including TV ads airing nationally, people getting others to vote for them in 3 contests ending at the same time, as well as a very successful press release.

In The Works: We are in the process of developing a casting call section where members can browse and submit to a plethora of available casting opportunities in cities around the country. This casting section is also going to be an amazing resource for casting directors to recruit the talent they seek. Along with this, we are developing a number of value-added features exclusively for premium members...more details about this later.

Breakdancing Battle!

2008-08-25T16:12:00.000-07:00

Are you a hip/hop or break dancer? Show off what you got to win 2 tickets to see America's Best Dance Crew LIVE in a city near you. The show will be touring major cities this September and October (2008) .

Requirements
Submit a PICTURE or VIDEO of you and/or your crew showing of your best hip/hop or breakdancing moves.

Taltopia's judges will chose a winner from the top 5 entries, so be sure to get your friends, family, and fans to vote you up!

Click here to vote or enter the contest:
http://www.taltopia.com/contest/40018/Breakdance_Battle

American Idol: We came, we saw, we fliered.

2008-08-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

The last time we blogged about hitting up the American Idol audition line, we thought we had seen it all.

Here's a short recap: San Francisco's Cow Palace. 6,000 people standing, singing, and screaming in line. Sleeping bags, pillows, security guards, and hundreds of parked cars.

We had such a successful marketing outing that we decided to try and go to all of the American Idol auditions. We crunched some numbers, compared calendars, called contacts, drew up battle plans and came to the following conclusion: we would be able to make it to Phoenix (Arizona), Salt Lake City (Utah), and Jacksonville (Florida).

So we did the following: ordered up another 15,000 fliers, booked flights and hotel rooms, (through priceline where we got some killer deals), and put our running shoes on.

Phoenix and Salt Lake City, were both great successes and having done three cities, we thought we had the whole fliering thing down. We knew how many to take, how long it would take us to pass out our supply, and when to go from passing out to people to placing our fliers on cars. We knew our stuff; or thought we did.

Then came Jacksonville. Wow, what a city. It took everything we knew and blew it out of the water. Up til now, the biggest turnout we had seen was probably 6,000 people. Jacksonville was at least 15,000; there were people everywhere! Every previous time we had passed out pretty much every flier we had, give or take a few hundred. In Jacksonville, we came home with empty pockets. Not one flier was left between the two of us.

Now that it's said and done, we were very happy with our marketing efforts. We reached the exact demographic we were after and got some serious branding done. The bottom line is we will see you again next year American Idol!

New Features!

2008-08-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

Now that the contest section is up and running, we took some time to add a few features that our users had suggested...ok, demanded.

MySpace Promotion Tools
We would like to direct your attention to our new animations that you can use to let your friends on MySpace know about your Taltopia account. Here is what they look like:

You can find the codes for these by clicking on the "Promote" button on profile pages.

Sorty By:
This new feature gives you full control over what shows up when you click to browse one of our many categories. Now when you are browsing through a section, you can choose to sort by votes, views, upload date, and alphabetically. Click her e to take it for a spin!

Sponsored Contests
Our contest section has really been taking off! We are currently offering tons of great prizes including cash to Guitar Center, a Studio Art Case Set, gift card to Victoria's Secret, an iPod Nano, and autographed gear from "All Time Low":

Thanks for tuning in, and as always, remember to claim your fame!

Allen and Anthony Learn How to Flyer

2008-07-21T11:22:00.000-07:00

1. 6,000 people standing in line to audition 8am
2. 60 people standing in line to audition at 8am

Can you guess which one was American Idol and which one was America's Next Top Model?

No, no it's not what you think. Well, actually it is. The Fresno audition of Top Model, had a poor turnout. Even though this was a little disappointing, we were still able to promote Taltopia.com to a very targeted group of models who really wanted to make it in the industry.

American Idol was a little different. By a little, I mean a lot. We arrived to the scene around 2am to see how the line was coming along. Again, we were met by the stern face of disappointment. Only 50 cars were in the parking lot. We decided to lay low for a few hours hoping the situation would change.

Then it happened.

Hundreds of cars started pouring into the Cow Palace parking lot. By 5am there were close to 1000 cars parked with singers jumping 0ut to get in line.

It was time for action. Allen and I stepped out fliers in hand and started to go to work. Cars continued to come into the parking lot, while those who had finished were leaving. After we had finished with the cars, we took a more personal approach and started handing our super awesome fliers (seen below) to talent as they were walking past.

I am happy to report that we passed out all of our fliers and have ordered another 5000. See you at the next audition American Idol!

Taltopia.com Road Trip!

2008-07-09T14:28:00.000-07:00

We recently found out that America's Next Top Model is having auditions on Saturday July 12th in Fresno, and that American Idol is having auditions from Tuesday through Thursday the following week in San Francisco - you know what that means....road trip!

We decided that it would be a great opportunity for us to educate (flier) the aspiring talent who will be attending these open auditions about the valuable resources available for them on Taltopia.com!

We will drive out of LA this Friday afternoon and head for Anthony's hometown of Fresno, CA. To save on cash, we will be crashing at Anthony's parent's house and will get up bright and early on Saturday morning to head out to "Island Water Park" which is where Top Model auditions are being held. After that, its off to San Francisco on Monday night for three more fun-filled days of passing out fliers. Here is what the fliers look like:

On a side note, we wanted to let you all know that we saved alot of money by booking our hotel on Priceline.com We were looking for a cheap hotel near Cow Palace (the convention center near SFO where the Idol auditions are going to be held) and decided that we wanted to spend only $90 a night. Neither one of us had used Priceline before, so we decided to give it a shot - not only did we get a room for $90, Priceline upgraded us to the 4-star Sheraton Hotel (a $250 value). Priceline Negotiator rocks!

Check back for updates from our trip!!

SCHEDULED DOWNTIME: New Servers ;)

2008-06-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

Scheduled downtime: Tuesday, July 8th 2:15-3pm PST

In our continued efforts to make Taltopia.com very scalable and redundant (tech terms which mean "able to grow big" and "safe from crashing") we decided it was time to invest in some professional grade computing power. We've been getting by until now with the single server that we built with our own hands. For all you techies out there, this means that we have been running our operating system, database, encoder, media files, and anything else you can imagine on one machine...yikes!

We would like to now introduce you to the new machines that will be running the show:

3 brand new Dell 2950's! Here is what they look like:

These computers are monsters, they are load balanced, Dual Quad Core Raid 1's and 5's, 4 Gig's of Ram, and Dual Ethernet Gigabit Cards. Below is a Prime 95 test for 12 hours(basically running the CPU's at 100% for 12 hours to make sure that Dell didn't send us duds)

We have been setting these up in our office for some time and will be delivering them to our host on Tuesday night, so the site will be down for a few hours. Thanks for understanding!

It's Finally Here!! Taltopia.com's Contests!!!!

2008-06-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

Wow. Starting off the blog with a "wow" may be dramatic, but it's well deserved. After months of talking about contests, we finally did it. No, your eyes are not deceiving you, you read correctly dear talopia-ites.

Contests have arrived.

You might be wondering, "What does it mean for me, your average taltopia user?" Well, average taltopia user, this means that you can now win prizes and famebucks just by creating or entering contests.

Contests are broken down into two main categories:

1. Sponsored
2. User Generated

Sponsored contests are generated internally. What this means is that we partner up with companies, studios, casting agencies, etc., to bring you contests where you can win awesome prizes. Currently we have an MTV casting seen here , a digital camera for photographers seen here, a chance for models to sit down with a scout seen here, and a gift certificate to Michael's Arts and Crafts seen here and other great stuff to come that you can take home. Check it out here.

User Generated contests are created by you, our fantastically cool users. You create the title and description, then set the requirements, entrance fee and duration. It is totally controlled by you! After you create your contest you can invite people to join, and the entrance fee they pay gets placed into a prize pool. For example if you created a contest with a 5 famebuck entrance fee, and ten other people joined, then the winner would get 50 famebucks!! Check our User contests here.

We hope you enjoy the new section on our site, it can be accessed via the new tab, and on the front page.

Janice Dickinson, Paul McCartney, and the Smart Car?

2008-06-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

What does the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, Paul McCartney, and the Smart Car have in common? They were all somehow tied-in to the green carpet event that we were invited to attend last night at the House of Petals in West Hollywood. The event was titled the "Green with Envy Fashion Experience" whose purpose was to raise awareness about the environment, help fight global warming, and to discover new ways of enjoying an eco-friendly lifestyle.

The green carpet event was hosted by Janice Dickinson and featured models from the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, including CC Fontana who you can see here. There were also some great organic foods and beverages.

We had the pleasure of meeting Paul McCartney's mother and sister. For those of you who are too young to know who Paul McCartney is, you might know him from a little garage band called THE BEATLES! It turns out that Paul's sister runs a website which provides management tools for up and coming bands and musicians. We spoke about potential partnership opportunities and are setting up a meeting - look out for some news of this in the future.

(photos courtesy Wm. Marc Salsberry)

Headshot Envelopes

2008-06-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

Anthony and I were traveling to a conference a few weeks ago, and when we arrived to the security check area at the airport. As we proceeded to take off our shoes and place them in the bin for the x-ray machine, we noticed a clever ad from zappos.com, the site that sell shoes online. The ad was inside the shoe bin and read "Looks like you need some new shoes...visit Zappos.com"

We felt that this was some really great advertising - everyone who was boarding a flight could relate to the ad - thats some good targeting. We needed to come up with something like that for Taltopia.

Here is what we came up with: Pretty much all aspiring talent need professional headshots if they want to be considered for a gig. Actors need headshots, models need headshots, comedians need headshots...everyone in the entertainment industry needs headshots. Why don't we provide headshot studios with FREE (branded) envelopes!?!? Genius!

We picked up a few hundred 9x12 envelopes, printed our quirky message on them, and started distributing them to local photographers. The photographers loved the idea of getting free envelopes (lower overhead costs for them) and they felt that Taltopia would be a great resource for their clients.

Here is what they look like:

If you are a photographer who would like some free envelopes, be sure to contact us.

Jai Rodriguez loves Taltopia.com!

2008-05-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

Jai Rodriguez, star of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy", made an appearance at the Taltopia.com party and said a few words about us. Thanks again to TechZulu for their great coverage.

http://www.viddler.com/explore/techzulu/videos/119/

Taltopia.com Party - A Night To Remember

2008-05-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

So we've been getting a lot of requests for pictures and video of the event. Allen and I thought we'd structure this blog in such a way so people that attended could view the awesome pics from the event and those that didn't could get a taste of what went down.

For those of you that attended and are dying to see the pics here is the link:

Click Here For Pics We really want to thank Wm. Marc Salsberry for taking these great shots.

Also, we wanted to thank our sponsors Pink, Fashion Tv, Red Agency as well as the great charity that we worked with at the event Reality Cares.

After the break, you can see some select pictures from the event and a play by play from Allen explaining what happened. (Also, a picture of us with our "Serious" faces, I swear the photographer told us to do it)

It was 6:30pm on Friday, May 16th when Anthony and I arrived at Boulevard3. The Tainted Angels were rehearsing on stage, bartenders were stocking up their shelves, the art exhibit in the courtyard was already set-up, models were downstairs prepping for the fashion show...lets just say there was a certain buzz in the air.Lights, camera, ACTION! The doors opened at about 8:40 to a line of guests that had been waiting patiently outside. The first thing that people noticed as they walked in was the Taltopia.com logo projected on the side of the Boulevard3 building...jaws dropped.

While the crowd started growing in the courtyard, the red carpet became the place to be seen. Special red carpet appearances were made by: Golden Brooks (Beauty Shop), Jai Rodriguez (Bravo’s Queer Eye For The Straight Guy), Shana Wall & Tian Kitchen (The Amazing Race), Rebecca Cardon, Brian Peeler & JD Jordan (Bravo’s Work Out), Dominique Sharpe (Oxygen’s The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency), Jeff Pickel & Brett Novek (America’s Most Smartest Model), James Rhine (Big Brother), Model Verina Marcel (Model), Rib Hillis (Extreme Home Makeover), Diego Currier (Love Test), Summer Altice (Playboy Playmate), Enrique Sapena, Alexcy Aranguren, Janet Michel, Gisel Saumat & Roseny Carrero (VH1’s Viva Hollywood), Tony Duran (Celebrated Photographer), and Orna Etkovich Gusinski (VP of Fashion TV), among others…

After a few poses on the red carpet, we headed over to meet with our friends from TechZulu for a follow-up interview - we were very honored to have had them cover our event.

By 10pm the courtyard was packed and people started to fill up the main area inside, where the fashion show was taking place. Our Taltopia.com video montage was playing on the main projector screen as DJ Cash should the crowd what real music is. Contrary to popular belief, at Taltopia.com money does in fact grow on trees...Famebucks that is.

We got up on stage, introduced ourselves, and then showed the audience what Taltopia.com is all about:

Click Here To View

Then it was time for the main event...The Tainted Angels! This upcoming group sang their hearts out on stage while putting on an amazing dance performance. Just when you thought it was all over, a group of professional breakdancers pounced on stage and put the icing on the cake. All in all, one hell of a show.

Once the stage was cleared the pumped-up crowd kept the party going. People rushed the stage and danced the night away...this was a night to remember.

Look Ma'...we're on TV!

2008-05-12T15:05:00.001-07:00

In our efforts to brand the hell out of Taltopia, we have decided to enter the world of Television advertising. We have considered doing this for some time now, but really had no clue where to begin. Google has started offering a TV Ad marketplace which is pretty cool, but currently only offers national advertising campaigns. Since we want to ensure that our ads are being shown to the most relevant audience, we decided to research the ad marketplace in Los Angeles.

So, Anthony and I got on the phones and started contacting Los Angeles cable television networks which include Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast. We also had the option of using Spotrunner.com, but found it to be too expensive. We found it was muuuuuch cheaper to work directly with the cable networks - cut out the middleman.

Time Warner had a pretty sweet deal that we couldn't pass by. Our TV commercials are going to be aired 600 times a month in each of 3 major metro areas of LA for about 3 months on networks which include MTV, VH1, BET, ComedyCentral, and E!. Be sure to let us know if you see our commercial while watching!

With a little help...ok ALOT of help...from our editor friends, we were able to make two 15 second spots which will begin airing next week. Here is a sneak peak:

New Look and more...

2008-05-07T17:21:00.000-07:00

Well we did it. After a month of arguing, yelling, throwing laptops out of windows, and realizing that we just can't work together anymore (pause) we launched a new look on the site. Hope you all like it.

We really wanted to make the site a lot more user-friendly and I think we have done just that. We made everything bigger and more "bubbly". The icon's are just darn cute, you'll notice that they have been changed on your user panel to the left and throughout the profile pages. The actual page size got bigger, as well as personal and media thumbnails. Our front page changed to include the browse section for easier searching and we got new kicka** tabs throughout the site. What it comes down to is that our minor changes ended up turning into a whole site redesign.

Also, we've expanded the profile sections to include "Im a(n): Actor, Model, etc", although this is a minor change, it will be a major addition because of the industry tie-ins that will go along with it; so be sure to update your profiles to reflect this change.

Edit Profile Here

Looking towards what's coming in the near future, we are happy to say contests, and we really mean it this time!! We are done with the design and programming (mostly) however we just got wind of some major deals we can put together before launch. Once these are locked-in we will release the new section to give you guys more opportunities to Claim Your Fame!

Taltopia Party! RSVP Required

2008-05-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

You are cordially invited to attend Taltopia's exclusive red carpet event on Friday, May 16th. The event will be held at one of LA's hottest nightclubs, Boulevard3, from 8pm-2am. Boulevard3 is located at 6523 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, CA 90028. There will be no cover charge for this event and there will be an open bar from 8pm-10pm, so be sure to arrive early.

IMPORTANT: You MUST RSVP to be on the list by clicking on the image above or by following this link: http://www.gaudypr.com/rsvp.html

Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to celebrating Taltopia with you!

Claim your fame!

Best,

Allen Vartazarian & Anthony Zanontian
Co-founders, Taltopia.com

Taltopia Interviewed on TechZulu

2008-04-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we were contacted by the guys over at TechZulu.com, a site where they interview up-and-coming websites. Vak and Efren (TechZulu's co-founders) came by our office last week to shoot this rather extensive (25-minute) interview. It was great meeting them, and we feel that the interview went very well - we covered everything from the start-up process to getting angel funding, and even our future plans. Go grab some popcorn and soda pop, click play below, and enjoy!

http://www.taltopia.com/view/15338&s=user&cur=1/TechZulu-Interview

Adtech 2008!!

2008-04-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

So it's that time of year again. What time you ask? Well, it's time for the Digital Media Advertisers to showcase their stuff at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, otherwise known as Adtech '08!

Allen and I were lucky enough to make it out there this year. As first time attendees we really thought the trip was well worth the time, cost, and effort. Those of you who were there can attest to the massive turnout of the online advertising community; Google, Yahoo, Clickbooth, Commission Junction, and almost every other player in the field all made it out to try and grab a few new clients and give away lot's and lot's of new pens.

However, even though we've been funded, we are still super tight with our budget. Having said that we learned a couple of things for next year and had a few experiences that made us laugh.

Here is the breakdown:

Flights: Sure first class is great, but so is Southwest's 39 dollar flight that leaves at 8am from
LAX. Time to wake up so you'll make the flight, 5am.
-Tip for next time: Fly out of Burbank and go to Oakland, it's worth
an extra 10 dollars.

I'm not a morning person:

Allen is:

Local Transportation: Limo's are awesome. So is the BART. Total Cost: 12 dollars. Yep that's round trip.
-Tip for next time: I'd do it over again. The BART is awesome!!

Lodging: You partied at the W and we spent the night at the Renoir. Total Cost: 87.00.
-Tip for next time: Stick with a chain hotel. We were afraid to go out at night.

The Event: In a word...Awesome! Get there early.
-Tip for next time: Bring comfortable shoes, I mean really comfortable shoes, we walked like 20 miles on the duration of our trip.

Food: There are lots of events after the conference hall closes. We stopped by
Advertising.com's shindig, free drinks, food, and more importantly great networking!
-Tip for next time: Don't go out with you friends to some restaurant. You are there to network and meet people. Go to great company sponsored event's and start some conversations

That's pretty much a summation of the trip. We highly recommend it to everyone who's thinking about attending. We made some great contacts and plan on going again next year.

LA Business Journal - "20 in their 20's"

2008-04-08T11:23:00.000-07:00

We are honored to announce that we have been featured in the April 7, 2008 issue of the respected Los Angeles Business Journal. Not only are our pictures on the front page, but we were lucky enough to get the centerfold placement! Here is a link where you can check out the digital "clippings" that Anthony put together for you all: http://www.taltopia.com/press/labusinessjournal.pdf

The special report is about 20 people in their 20's who are doing big things in Los Angeles.

This is probably the best print coverage we have received so far, and we want to thank our families, friends, and fans for all of their love and support.