Facebook Connect!!

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!

Profile Badges - Promote yourself...everywhere!

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!

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!

Alexa...Still Climbing!

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!

American Idol 2009 Auditions

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.

Taltopia Rap Contest!

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

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)

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!

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

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.

New Message System - Threaded Messaging

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!

Taltopia now on Twitter

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!

Premium Membership

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

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!

Our New Commercials!

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!

Get a personal guitar lesson from Jet Black Stare!

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/40072/READY_TO_ROLL_with_JET_BLACK_STARE

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

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!

Contests! Yeah Baby!

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!

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

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!

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 here 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!

Janice Dickinson, Paul McCartney, and the Smart Car?

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)

Jai Rodriguez loves Taltopia.com!

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

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!

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...

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 Interviewed on TechZulu

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!!

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"

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.

2 New Features

Although it might seem impossible, things just got even MORE exciting here at Taltopia. We would like to officially announce the release of two new subtle, yet very cool "refinements" to the site. Many of you have seen the cool way that pictures expand when you click on them; if you don't know what I am talking about, load the following link and then click on the picture: http://www.taltopia.com/view/14678&s=browse&c=newmedia&cur=85/Macro.

...well, now you can do the same with every single profile picture on the site! To see an example, click on my profile picture here: http://www.taltopia.com/allen

NOTE: If you would like your profile picture to expand to a larger size, you will need to re-upload your profile picture by logging in and visiting your "Edit Profile" page here: http://www.taltopia.com/members/editprofile.aspx

Another great feature that we have released this week is the "Previous/Next" feature on all media pages. You will notice that this helps you browse more easily on the site, making your visit to Taltopia a bit more enjoyable (and time-consuming).

Big News...

So we've dawned on a new chapter of our lives as the co-founders of Taltopia. You might have heard the rumors circling around your office water coolers, or should we say our office water cooler.

That's right taltopia-ites, don't let your eyes deceive you, I just said our office water cooler. Unknown to many, for the past year and a half, Allen and I have been working out of the following:

1) Starbucks

2) Allen's House

Pretty much in that order. Our running joke was that we had 6,000 offices all over the world. Let's just say we're happy that joke went out of style...really happy.

So, here are some pictures of the Talopia office with more to come as things develop. But before the break I just wanted to share some thoughts...I'm sure many of you have read these great tips on how to save money as a startup. Just to address a few of his points based on our experience:

For #2 and #10: Lots of people have their own computers. Especially if you are an online company. Although second monitors are great and buying people computers who work from home seems practical, you can just ask that people bring their own computers. I know this one's really cheap. But everyone here has their own computer and has no problem working on it. Yearly savings...lots.

#3: Don't buy people lunch. People need time away from each other, and lunch 4 days a week starts to add up.

#4: Bring whatever you can from home. We brought work tables and chairs from home and family members who were more than willing to give it away. What you don't have, buy cheap. I'm blogging right now on a $50 dollar Ikea desk, 4 legs and a flat surface, thats really all you need. Also, 600 dollar chairs are a bit much, don't skimp out on the chair, but 600 dollars, cmon. What it comes down to is that it's just a desk and chair.

#12: Do not buy a 5,000 dollar expresso machine. No explanation needed. It's freakin 5,000 dollars.

#13: Do put sodas and juice in your fridge. It keeps people happy and costs you almost nothing.

Our own few tips:

1)Hire people who have their own companies. 1099's are the entrepreneurs best friend.

2) Lots of whiteboards.

Here are the pictures I promised....


Doing some "filing":

Our first office visitor (we were lacking some chairs):

Allen's desk (did you notice the spotlight rugs?):

The Conference Room (excuse the mess):


Anthony's Desk:

Our first dinner in the office (Carl's Junior served on cardboard boxes...classy):

2008 Montgomery & Co. Technology Conference

Montgomery & Co. is a Santa Monica based Investment Bank which holds an annual Technology conference where it invites established/emerging tech companies to present to an audience of potential investors and industry professionals.

We were honored to receive an invitation to attend this conference last week and were very impressed by the event. The conference was held at the Fairmont Hotel right by the beach on Wilshire and Ocean Blvd., across the street from the Montgomery & Co. offices. The two-day had 5 presentations running each half hour from 8am-6pm, with breaks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We made sure to attend the relevant presentations which included sites like Habbo.com, Meebo.com, IMVU, Gaia.com, MyYearabook.com, Hi5.com, and so on. It was great to listen in on how these companies got to where they are, and more importantly, what their plans are moving forward. All in all, it was a very humbling experience where we were able to make numerous strategic contacts with potential future investors, as well as with representatives from the United Talent Agency, William Morris Agency, and the Creative Artists Agency. We hope to leverage these relationships to help our users get one step closer to getting the recognition they deserve.

WE GOT FUNDED!!!

So, we don't know if you've noticed yet, but after putting in a lot of hard work into Fames...I mean Taltopia.com, we got funding! We just closed the deal late last week, and in celebration we donated 5 Famebucks to all of our current members! Also, as a promotion we are also giving away 5 Famebucks to the next 2,500 people who sign up, starting right now! So be sure to tell all of your friends and family!

We are very excited to use this money to help you, our loyal and dedicated users. Look forward to new and exciting features (trust us they are coming) and new opportunities for members to get connected with industry professionals.

That being said, we owe it all to you, our Taltopia-ites!



You can see the press release below, and download the pdf here. Be sure to give it a read because we were up until 4:30am this morning making sure it was distributed properly.


Taltopia.com™ Announces $800,000 Series “A” Funding to Connect Talent with Fans

Los Angeles, CA – March 5, 2008 – Taltopia.com™, LLC (www.taltopia.com), a free online platform which connects aspiring talent with fans and industry professionals, announced today that it has completed a Series “A” round of funding in the sum of $800,000. The financing was led by a single Angel Investor from Go4Funding, a site whose goal is to unite entrepreneurs, business owners, and investors.

The young entrepreneurs who started Taltopia.com™, formerly Famesource.com, have completely self-funded the project up until this point. Allen Vartazarian and Anthony Zanontian, now 24 and 22 years old, plan to use the funds primarily to broaden Taltopia’s reach and to further develop appealing features on the site.

“Taltopia is about empowering fans to decide who gets exposure,” said Allen Vartazarian, referring to the “fame” and “shame” voting system. By focusing on this unique niche, Taltopia™ has distinguished itself from other general social networking sites where aspiring artists typically get lost in the clutter.

For users who are not getting the exposure they crave, the site boasts a “Wall of Fame” which grants users the opportunity to “buy” their fame with Famebucks™, the virtual currency used on the site. Users bid for the limited number of spots available on the page, with outbid users being bumped down to subordinate positions. To kick things off, Taltopia.com™ is giving away $5 worth of Famebucks™ to the next 2,500 members that join the free site.

“Taltopia is going to modernize the way artists get the recognition they deserve by providing the tools they need to promote themselves,” said Anthony Zanontian. “We hope to further expand our relationships with talent industry professionals, which are an essential part of this equation,” he added.

For users who are not getting the exposure they crave, the site boasts a “Wall of Fame” which grants users the opportunity to “buy” their fame with Famebucks™, the virtual currency used on the site. Users bid for the limited number of spots available on the page, with outbid users being bumped down to subordinate positions.

Anyone can upload or embed audio, video, or images of their talent to Taltopia.com™, in the hopes of becoming the world’s next “web-celeb.” Even if you do not have a talent, you can join as a fan and become a critic.


About Taltopia.com:

Taltopia, LLC (www.taltopia.com) is an online media distribution and social networking destination whose aim is to provide aspiring and professional talent with a world-wide stage to share their abilities across the web. The site also rewards its members with Famebucks™ for simply using the site’s features, giving users an incentive to find and recommend good artists, while giving artists a platform to promote themselves online. Categories include Music, Art, Acting, Dance, Comedy, and Modeling. Taltopia.com™ is based in Los Angeles, California.

CONTACTS:
Allen Vartazarian, allen@taltopia.com (818) 438-4656
Anthony Zanontian, anthony@taltopia.com (559) 906-2050

http://www.taltopia.com

Famesource is now....Taltopia!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are very excited to announce that Famesource has a new name…Taltopia! The new and improved name was created from “talent” and “utopia” – it’s our own little perfect place for talent. We wanted something completely original that would differentiate us from other websites out there.

Don’t worry, your lovable co-founders Allen and Anthony are still running the show, and all of your profiles and media will seamlessly be moved over to Taltopia.com. Along with this change, we are officially coming out of beta testing. This means we think we have worked out all the remaining bugs on the site, but be sure to let us know if you come across anything we may have overlooked.

Be sure to look out for new features and exciting contests in the near future.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Claim your fame!

- The Taltopia (formerly Famesource) Team

Mini-features Released: Filter by Media & Pagination

Hey Folks,

We just wanted to give you a all little heads up about two new "mini-features" that we have released on Famesource: filter by media type and paging. We are calling these "mini-features" because they are quite subtle...also, its just cute to call it "mini-. "


1) Filter by media type: This feature makes it easy to filter any category you are browsing by media type: video, audio, and images. When on a browse category page you will see 3 check boxes at the top and can uncheck any media type that you do not want to be shown. Take it for a spin:
http://www.taltopia.com/browsecats.aspx?c=12



2) Paging: We have also made it easier to flip through the different pages of content that we have thanks to a little thing called "pagination." This is just a fancy word meaning you can click on any page # shown and be taken directly to that page. This really helps when browsing through one of our bigger categories, such as photography:
http://www.taltopia.com/browsecats.aspx?c=65

Also, the entertainment community lost a great friend last week. All of us here at Famesource extend our deepest condolences to Heath Ledger's close circle of friends and family. We highly respect and value the contributions he made as an actor. May he rest in peace.

Articles Galore!!

To those of you who haven't noticed, we've made a small addition to the bottom of our front page. It's an articles section! Well now you are probably asking "Anthony, How does that help me, your average joe actor who has an audition and wants some advise on how to ace it?" Humm, I don't know, but we do have an article titled: Making the Cut - an Actor’s Guide to Acing the Audition

Besides some unnecessary sarcasm, we are very excited and are really trying to build a solid repository of helpful articles for up and coming talent. So if you have any good articles you've written on the topic feel free to Contact Us and we will post if it meets our guidelines.

Besides that, be sure to start browsing our limited, but constantly updating, Articles Section and as always be sure to let us know what you think!

Happy New Year!

Well it's that time of year again, where we reflect on the old and prepare for the new. We just wanted to wish all of our members health and happiness for '08!

In the last year we have had our ups and downs, and just wanted to let you know how much it's meant that you were all there with us (tear... sniffle ...tear). Allen and I think, correction, know, that '08 is going to be a huge year for Taltopia. We are going to pull out all of the stops so keep your eyes peeled. Believe me when I say we are working on additions that are going to be a huge resource for our members, and they are coming soon.

So with that, I wish you all a Happy New Year. Here is to a fantastic 2008!

Allen Vartazarian and Anthony Zanontian: The Truth Behind the Valleywag Article

On December 29, 2oo7 Valleywag.com posted a misleading article regarding Famesource, stating that we have been paying people to register as members on our site. If you have not yet seen this post, you can find it here:
http://valleywag.com/338952/meet-the-guys-trying-to-buy-users-in-india

They also tried to take a stab at our lovely CNN host Nicole Lapin:
http://valleywag.com/338980/internet-tv-even-dumber-than-the-real-thing

In response to these false and misleading posts, we emailed the editors demanding clarification. Here is the original email we sent to Valleywag (sent 12/30/07 at 1:53 AM)

" Dear Mr. Nicholas Carlson,

Thank you for taking the time to write about Famesource on Valleywag and, more importantly, for giving us this opportunity to respond. After reading this post, it is very clear that your “tipster” miscommunicated an offer we have in place to drive traffic to Famesource.com. We are not offering any monetary incentive for people to sign-up, as your article suggests. Like any Cost Per Action (CPA) offer, we are looking to work with a person and/or company that can drive US traffic to our site and we are willing to pay for every new member that registers as a result of this traffic.

This is no different than advertising on Google Adwords, Azoogle, or Hydramedia, all of which offer a CPA service. After dealing with a number of these CPA companies, we found that many of the campaigns were being managed by people in India. Since Famesource has been completely self-funded by the two of us, we made the choice to try and cut out the middleman. We want to emphasize that we are not paying any individuals (from India or anywhere else in the world) to join Famesource; we are only trying to strike a more affordable CPA deal.

The funniest part of all this is that we have not even found a qualified party to work with overseas, not even a single sign-up! We would appreciate if you could clarify these points in your title and article because it wrongfully tarnishes Famesource’s wholesome nature, which we have worked so hard to maintain. In the future, we encourage you to contact us before making any claims about Famesource or ourselves as we are more than happy to discuss any matters in more detail.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best,

Allen Vartazarian & Anthony Zanontian
Co-Founders, Famesource.com
Allen@famesource.com
Anthony@famesource.com "



and the response from Owen Thomas (Managing Editor, received 12/30/07 at 7:00AM) was...



" Allen,
Thanks for writing in. You're welcome to leave a comment on the post.
- Owen "


So, we attempted to leave a comment on the post only to find that it was never published. The comment that we attempted to post was the email seen above, which clearly describes our situation.

After we saw that our comment was not being published, we sent them the following email (sent 12/30/07 at 11:02 AM):

" Owen,
Between 9:30AM and 10AM, we attempted to leave a comment on the three postings regarding Famesource, clarifying the false information presented in the posts. As of 10:53AM, none of these comments have been published.
We are more than willing to provide statistics from Google Analytics proving that our membership is not coming from India. As stated in our previous email, we are not paying anyone to join Famesource.com, we are simply looking for an affordable affiliate partnership.
Please understand that if you don't correct these false and misleading statements, we will have to seek legal counsel.
Feel free to contact us directly to discuss this matter.

Allen Vartazarian & Anthony Zanontian
Co-Founders, Famesource.com
Allen@famesource.com
Anthony@famesource.com "

As of the time of this post, we have not yet heard back from Valleywag and, as a result, we wanted to make this clarification before anything gets out of hand.

Included below is a snapshot of our Google Analytics which proves that only 1.2% of traffic to Famesource is from India. Furthermore, if you search the word "India" in the search box on our site, you will find that only 63 out of approximately 10,000 profiles contain the word India.




What we are offering is no different than an affiliate program, where people/companies get paid for directing traffic that converts to membership. Furthermore, if Valleywag had taken a moment to do some research before blindly and maliciously posting about Famesource, they would find that we specify in our responses to all potential online marketers that all traffic must be from the US.

If anyone wishes discuss this in more detail, we are both very accessible.

We encourage you to share your thoughts by commenting on this blog post, as well as on the Valleywag post. Thank you for your understanding and continued support.


Allen Vartazarian & Anthony Zanontian
Co-founders, Famesource.com
allen@famesource.com
anthony@famesource.com

UPDATE: Our comments have been "approved" and posted on the Valleywag posts, about 4 hrs after we submitted them. We also received an email today (January 2, 2008) from "Gaby Darbyshire" the VP of Finance and Legal at Gawker Media (Valleywag's parent company) defending the blog posts. After a few minutes of discussion and debate, Gaby agreed to change the title of the blog posts to something they feel is more accurate. It is important to note, however, that a subtle change in the title does not correct the false information being presented within the post.

CNN - Young People Who Rock

Thats right...we rock! We were recently featured on CNN.com's segment titled "Young People Who Rock" which highlights people under the age of 30 who are doing big things. Nicole Lapin, the host of the show, contacted us after someone had anonymously suggested we be on the program.

We set the date. We set the time. We made it happen. I drove out the CNN headquarters on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles, parked the car, and approached the security desk. The gentleman at the desk asked for my ID and then said "Mr. Vartazarian, they are waiting for you in make-up." He escorted me to the make-up room where I got to meet the lovely Nicole Lapin. She invited me to in the chair next to her and we started chit-chatting about Famesource and its recent success. The make-up artist then brushed some of the magic tv make-up on me, and we were off to the studio...Larry King's studio that is.

It was truly an amazing experience to be in that studio. The lights, the cameras, the crew...it was awesome. I remember staring off to the side of the studio where I saw Larry's desk and his famous desktop microphone. After a few camera adjustments and a sound-check, we were ready to roll. The interview lasted about 10 minutes and was over as quickly as it began.

You can read Nicole's column about us here. The taped interview will be up soon!

KNBC4 Raw News: Famesource.com

I got contacted last week by Mekahlo Medina who is a news anchor for KNBC here in Los Angeles. He invited me to come into the NBC studio for an interview about Famesource. You can see the interview above.

It was really cool meeting Mekahlo, and I felt that the interview went pretty well. We hope that this interview makes more people aware of the free services that Famesource.com has to offer aspiring and professional talent. Claim your fame!

Who is Famesource?

Hi everyone I'm Allen Vartazarian (above right), and I'm his partner Anthony Zanontian (above left)...together, we are Famesource! We decided to start this blog to give people some history on how Famesource.com was founded, the start-up process, and the future of Famesource.

First lets begin with some background info. We both graduated from the University of California system (Berkeley and San Diego), yes, we are quite fond of UC's (please write articles about us Daily Cal, Guardian, and Daily Bruin, and other UC based papers...ummm, we need the exposure) After graduation, we both took those normal 9 to 5 jobs, but realized they weren't meant for us.

It was fate you might say that we began to talk, or the fact that our girlfriends were cousins. Yeah, that may have had something to do with it. It's pretty much history from there. After more than a few brainstorms, famesource was born. We still reminisce about other ideas we had, some too ridiculous to mention and some still highly secret(they are in a lockbox underneath Allen's bed). We really want to try and capture what we went through and whats about to come, so stay tuned for more.