A little while ago I wrote about learning online. That’s cool, especially because it makes the task of learning so much simpler. But sometimes when you’re in charge, you’ll tell someone to go learn, and then wonder about it later. I mean, how can you judge whether someone has learned what they were supposed to? Sure, through testing, but when you’re the boss, you don’t have time to say, “Pop quiz, hot shot.” So what do you do?

Track them! Did you know there is software for training administration in a business or company, and that same software can track each “student’s” progress? It’s like having an extra set of eyes in your employee’s computer! Well, not as creepy as that. It’s like having a kindly butler to update you every time your “student” completes a lesson.

I found out about training administration through ConductIt.com. You can track employees as they receive new educational training, and as they work toward any sort of licensing. So like if you had someone working for you and they needed to be certified in something, you’d get the right program and then be able to watch and see how long it takes them to finish it. That would ensure that your workforce is kept up to date and cutting-edge at all times.

And if someone plays hooky, you’d know enough to justify giving them an F!

RealRank is still fairly new, so to build up some buzz they're holding a contest. The owner of the top RealRank-ranked blog for each week of February will receive $1000. It could be you!

All you do is sign up with Izea and put a little piece of javascript on your blog template. Once that code can be seen by the RealRank Robots on every page of your blog, they'll begin collecting data, and you'll be automatically entered in the contest. If you don't mind having spies analyze information regarding your blog and the habits of your visitors, this could be for you. And the best part? You've got four chances to win.

Here's a chunk of the rules:

"The eligible blogger with the highest RealRank for the … weekly entry periods will receive a prize. There will be one (1) winner for each weekly period; a total of four (4) winners throughout the Contest. The winner in any previous week is ineligible for the following week(s). Odds of winning depend on number of bloggers signed up for RealRank, and, as stated above, the weekly winner will be the blogger with the highest RealRank. The RealRank algorithm weights blogs as follows: seventy percent (70%) on daily unique visitors, twenty percent (20%) on daily active inbound links and ten percent (10%) on daily page views as reported by IZEA Toolkit.

All winners will be notified by email on or about seven (7) days after the applicable weekly entry period ends."

So, there are two definite pluses here. First, there likely wouldn't be a $4000 giveaway (split 4 ways) unless Izea thought the appeal of the contest would suck in a whole new group of bloggers. That means new blogs being added to the system every day, with the RealRank code being added to those blogs for mega-tracking purposes. So since odds of winning are dependent on how many competitors there are, and Izea is obviously saying "We need more blogs," a decent blog with a good amount of traffic probably has a fair shot at snagging a thousand bucks.

The second plus is that even if you join in the middle of February, you still qualify for the remaining entry periods.

And if you're the kind of blogger who values privacy of information, and yet still thinks you've got a shot at winning, you could always:

1. sign up,
2. install the tracking code,
3. win in one of the 4 periods,
4. collect the cash,
5. and then remove the code.

But that's only for those bloggers John Chow might call… evil!