Buy Zombie Has Infected A New Medium

Well until now all of our advertising was pretty much based online in one way or another. Recently though we were given advertising in a book. I had mentioned previously in a quick blurb that Buy Zombie would appear in a book and now it’s actually happened! Yes that’s right! A real life book made of paper and ink and everything! How neat is that!

So which book is it? Well the one that is ‘currently’ out with it is “Dead: The Ugly Beginnings” though it will also be featured in Eye Witness Zombie which is a collection of short zombie stories coming out later this year! So. Awesome!

Above The Pants Releases Checkered Zombie Shirt

Byron told me something crazy last night. He said we should release a shirt that was only available in white. We shouldn’t give people the freedom to CHOOSE what color they want. I suppose being from Canada he’s not used to having the kind of freedoms we have in America.

Freedoms like picking the color of our shirts. He was adamant about it and after seeing the design I felt that I had to agree with him. We really did have to take away your ability to let you pick whatever you want.

How does that make you feel? Kind of makes you want to order a trendy zombie shirt on white doesn’t it?

If you’ve got an itch that can only be scratched with no shirts of the dead you can pick up this beauty in either men’s or women’s from Above The Pants

Zombie Disco 2 In Chicago This Saturday July 24th

The great folks over at Horror Society are again throwing a fun time for horror fanatics in Chicago and this time for zombie lovers in particular. A zombified disco will be taking place this weekend and this is the second year they’ve thrown one. If what I’ve heard about lasts years is even half way done this year it’ll be a blast, though one I’ll probably be not attending. But that doesn’t mean YOU shouldn’t attend for me! (..and take pictures and maybe write something so we can do a post on Buy Zombie about it!)

We are back again this year with another bigger and better Zombie Disco! Yep that’s right, its time to shake your groove thang on the dance floor 70′s style!

We will have DJ Joe Wallace spinning some of your favorite disco hits, drink specials to get you in the mood, BEST DANCE MOVE CONTEST, BEST MAKEUP AND COSTUME CONTEST (both with CASH PRIZES!) and more! You can also get Zombiefied there as well.

Its going down at Lucky Number Grill in Chicago, IL on Saturday, July 24th starting at 9pm and going till you are done!

We are bringing back the favorite from last year, Zombie Twister, along with some new games (Pin the Limb on the Victim, Bobbing For Brains) and more, so get ready to get twisted!

Tell your friends, tell your family, and tell your enemies that you are going to shake that ass on Saturday July 24th.

Tickets are only $10 at the door – $8 online and with every ticket purchased, you will be entered in a raffle to win some great prizes!

21+ Event, so its only for grown ups!

To RSVP to the event head to the Zombie Disco 2 Facebook
To buy tickets today head over to the Horror Society Zombie Disco 2 Page

[via: Buy Zombie.]

I Draw Zombies Free Sketch Contest!

My good friend Byron has decided to start selling sketches of zombies he’s done on the side. To help promote this he is giving away 1 of his first 8 sketches to anyone who actively comments or works on getting the word out! (Each of these sketches are on 2.5 x 3.5 cards.)

You have 4 ways to be able to enter this contest and all 4 of them can be found on I Draw Zombies. So if you are interested in a chance for scoring any of the above sketches for free just click the link and go from there!

Be quick though – you only have until Saturday July 17th to enter.

According to The Zombie Research Society May is Zombie Awareness Month. This has been deemed the case due to Night of the Living Dead having been released in May of 1968 which is truly the film that launched the zombie genre into what it has become today. While NOTLD was of course the catalyst of what would become the zombie craze that has swept horror fans everywhere it should also be noted that the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead also was released in May.

So why not October as so much else occurs around that time? Well ZRS explains that as well!

Despite common misconceptions, zombies – and the threat they represent – are not connected with the late October pagan tradition of Halloween. Witches, ghouls and vampires, all Halloween staples, are otherworldly creatures of old, filled with mysticism and superstition.

Zombies, on the other hand, are biological entities, made of flesh and blood, and functioning under the same laws of science and reason that all worldly beings must.

So this is a month of celebration full of zombie greatness everywhere the eye can see. Well of course if you follow my site you know I’d just say every day is full of zombie greatness over at (shameless plug) Buy Zombie! So what am I doing to celebrate Zombie Awareness Month? Absolutely nothing!

There are now, I want to say, 5 zombie awareness days/months at this point. Sadly none of them want to get together and standardize it which is the only way any of this will get anywhere at it’s current rate. It’s crawling far too slowly (much like one of the undead with one of their legs cut off) and can’t build up enough steam to fully catch on. In a few years it’s quite possible one of them will get somewhere but until there is a unified front against the hordes of bloodthirsty people who don’t think there’s a reason to support a zombie day (or month) it just won’t be able to cut it.

Want Extra Exposure?

Buy Zombie is taking guest posts! That’s right! My beloved site on the undead is currently taking as many guest posts as possible until March 18′th. I currently am set to be going on a cruise from March 20th-27th and while I absolutely love how many posts for a multitude of sites I will have to post ahead of time would love a bit of a relief as well!

Currently lined up is a few bloggers and authors who will be helping out with guest posts but we are taking more! So, if you are interested make sure to get in touch with me via Buy Zombie’s Contact Page in the next couple of days! Reviews, articles, zombie art, zombie fiction – just about anything is welcome! (I don’t want zombie sex tapes though. I don’t love the undead quite that much..)

BuyZombie Has Risen From The (fashionably) Dead

Working with Blue Tide Productions a new BuyZombie has been created.

• The most noticeable and immediate change is that we very clearly have a new look. There is now a featured section to show off the latest articles on the top of the screen and a much cleaner layout that is also easier to access and navigate.
• COMMENTS ARE FIXED! Comments were broken on the old theme for nearly 8 months and not only have they been fixed but upgraded. You are now able to comment both as a guest as well as login with either your Disqus, Twitter, Facebook, or Yahoo credentials!
• Easier to network with BuyZombie: It doesn’t matter if it’s by e-mail, twitter, facebook, or RSS it is now a lot simpler to be able to follow / fan / communicate with us
• Author boxes for posts! As more guest posts are being lined up we wanted to make sure knew a little bit about who you were reading an article from and be able to show off the great authors that are stopping in!

There were also a slew of changes on the back end for updating but most of that is going to prove boring to you so it’s not worth talking about. While Buy Zombie is of course my main project there is more changes on the horizon as well as more projects actually seeing updates and the light of day!

A Little Social Networking Goes A Long Way – BuyZombie On Facebook

Last night I was looking at my fans on BuyZombie’s Facebook Page and realized I was at 81 fans. 81 seemed like such an uneven number and triple digits sounded like the best thing to have so I decided to ask on Twitter if there was any zombie lovers out there who wanted to follow the site in a new area. The results were overwhelming as within an hour I was able to break 100 fans! Social media can have an amazing response when you are friends with your readers and part of the community.

I have no doubt that it helped that I had a bit of a support from the author of Breathers – Scott Browne, the wonderful horror blogger BJC of Day of the Woman, and the geek favorite Seres Victoria. (All of you, and everyone else who Re-tweeted I GREATLY appreciate it!)

Last night did not involve video games, movies, or reading. At least not all night

So I’ll start with the obvious, if you are a reader of this site I have switched over to using Thesis. While it is VERY clearly still on the default settings there should be changes coming over the next few weeks-months on this site to make things just a little more pretty.

At any rate aside from the Thesis install I was busy on a few other things.
For my friend Erin I helped install, modify the theme, and install plugins on:
Little Shop Of Zombies so she would have a central website for everything zombie related that she’s doing. I got to play with a couple of new things with wordpress as well. The first of which was Zazzle Store Gallery which lets you include a Zazzle store on your site. As this was something I wanted to test out anyway I was glad I had a time to play with it in advance though now am not quite as happy with it as I originally had hopes I would be. Second was the ability to incorperate an Etsy store into your web page so she could have pages as both shops.

Also while playing with plugins I updated the contact pages on the following sites to use Contact Form 7 which I have to say is currently my favorite Contact Plugin:
StuartConover.com
Little Shop Of Zombies
Buy Zombie
and other 3 projects I have in the works.

On top of the contact plugin on the above 3 I also installed the rough draft of the theme on 2/3 of the 3 above projects. The first of the 3 is down to just needing art and an updated about page while the second two need both of the above as well as a few other settings tweaked. Still, progress is being made!

…and some people think I’m lazy.

Thank You Zombies And Toys

Well with Buy Zombie I not only promote products mixed with with the news and reviews- I also promote sites and contests. Sometimes I will even go so far as th promote *gasps* the competition! Zombies and Toys is a perfect example of the competition that I will endorse! A site that constantly runs contests that I love to inform my readers on (as I am a broke, sponsor-less bastard who cannot run such contests myself.)

So how cool is it when your ‘competition’ not only sees and recognizes that you are promoting them but wants to thank you for it? You get awesome free swag that includes an ornament, a couple magnets, a couple buttons, and a thank you note that puts a smile on your face. At least that’s what happened to me and I have to say- Thank you for the thank you (and of course you’re welcome for the links / sending readers your way!)

[Note: 'competition' jokes aside I've always gotten along with the other major zombie themed news and websites out there. Each and every one of you are fun and cool people to speak with on both a personal and professional level.]