Zimbio

Welcome to Zimbio.com. Below, we've listed answers to some of the most common questions about our company and website. 

The Basics

What is Zimbio.com all about?

Zimbio.com is an interactive magazine focused on interesting people in the news, including celebrities, politicians, style icons, and famous athletes. According to the industry tracking service Quantcast, more than 20 million people read Zimbio each month, making it one of the most popular magazines on the web.

What’s a zine?

Zines are sections of our magazine that are focused on specific subjects both grand and granular, such as famous people, events, teams, TV shows, bands, or other special interests.  You can find zines about everything from actress Megan Fox to the Tour de France. They offer a range of features including group blogging, news headlines, professional pictures, videos, and more.

How do I join Zimbio? Is it free?

To join Zimbio, please go to our registration page and create a new account. Once you register, you’ll be able to comment on articles, register for picture alerts, and participate in our community. And yep, it's free.

You can find our current membership guidelines here.

Contributing Content

How do I write an article?

Members are encouraged to write articles and share their opinions with the community.

When it comes to writing articles, you’ve got two choices: you can either write an article from scratch, or import one from your personal blog. To write an article from scratch, login and click on the ‘Write an Article’ link at the top of your Dashboard. To import an article from your personal blog, first you'll need to submit your blog and add it to your Zimbio profile. Click on the Submit Your Blog link at the top of your Dashboard. For more information about writing articles, click here.

How do submit my blog?

Submitting your blog to Zimbio allows you to quickly import and publish entries you've already written. For each entry we'll link back to your original blog post so our readers can discover your blog. For more information about linking and managing your blogs on Zimbio, click here.

How do I create a new zine?

Any member can suggest a new zine, or section of our online magazine. If it's a general interest topic that we don't yet cover but should, they'll create the zine, email you a notification, and add the zine to your dashboard. To get started, please use our simple tool to suggest a new zine. For more information about zines, click here.

What if someone else has already created a zine about the topic I'm interested in?

Zines are wiki-based sections of the magazine, which means that members like you can contribute to any of the existing zines. If you're interested in contributing to a topic that's already covered, just go for it. Our site's content is user-driven - so the community depends on folks like you submitting great articles.

What is a "Draft?"

Newly created zines start off as "drafts" that need additional attention from members, and as such, are considered works in progress. Once a draft has enough content and member contributions to help other members get down the learning curve on that topic of interest, a Site Editor will reclassify the draft as a zine.

Drafts have the same functionality as regular zines, and members can use them in the same fashion.

What does it take for a Draft to qualify as a zine?

Site editors frequently review drafts to remove spam, errors, or duplicates of existing zines, and to promote drafts which are considered informative about the identified topic.

How can I see what other members are contributing?

We track all member activities on the site, and display them in history logs that are publicly viewable. To see what members are doing on a specific zine, click on the ‘More’ tab and choose ‘History’. To see what a specific member has been doing across the entire network of zines, click on the member's username to view the member's public profile, and then click on the member's History tab.

Who owns the content submitted on Zimbio?

When members post their own copyrightable content on the service, they retain ownership of the specific copyright. As part of our terms of service, members grant us a perpetual, non-exclusive license to the content they post. Also, some Zimbio and user submitted works are licensed under a Creative Commons License. For more details, please visit our Terms and Policies page.

How do I reach a Zimbio author?

To reach a Zimbio author, try checking out their member profile. The author may have sindicated the work from an external blog (which might include additional contact information for you). Otherwise you could try leaving the author a comment, and ask for a response. We at Zimbio cannot distribute any contact information for our members. For more information about this, see our Privacy Policy.

Can anonymous users contribute as well?

Anonymous users can view all of the pages in a zine. However, only Zimbio members who are registered and logged in can add, edit, or delete content. For example, members must be logged in to comment on articles. We believe accountability is an important ingredient for ensuring quality control across the network.

What are Kudos? Why should I give someone a Kudo?

Kudos are an easy way to say "nice job". They're a part of the Zimbio ratings system, so giving someone a kudo helps them get featured. When you visit a member's profile or read the full version of an article that a member wrote, you'll see a kudo graphic and a link to give someone a kudo.

Professional Content

Zimbio licenses professional pictures and videos from a variety of partners. Anytime you see a picture or video on a page with a black background, that is professionally licensed content, and copyright protected.

For more information about Zimbio’s professional pictures, click here.

For more information about Zimbio’s professional videos, click here.

How do I purchase a professional photo that I see on Zimbio?

Because we license our photos from agencies, we are unable to grant the rights to them. When you are interested on a photo that’s on a black page, check the caption to see which photo agency the picture has been licensed from. You can then purchase the photos through those agencies. We are unable to grant the use of them, per our contract.

What are picture alerts?

If you choose to sign up for a picture alert, we will send you an email anytime we receive pictures of that person from our photo partners. You can sign up for as many people as you want, and we will only send you one email a day.

How do I add a picture alert?

If you want to add a picture alert, the easiest way is to go to a person’s zine and click “Pictures”. Then click the link that says “Email Me Pictures of ‘So-and-So’”. Or, if you want to see a large range of options, you can go to the “My Account” tab at the top right of the page and select “My Alerts.”

How do I unsubscribe from picture alerts?

Managing Your Account

I didn't receive a registration email. What can I do?

You may want to check the spam or bulk mail folder of your email account. It is possible that our registration email was directed into one of those folders.

I lost my password, what can I do?

You can reset your password from the login page. Click "Lost my Password".

I lost my username, what can I do?

Actually, you can also log in with your email address and password.

How can I customize my public profile?

In My Account, select the tab labeled "My Profile". From here, you can edit your public profile.

How do I change my email address?

You can change the email associated with your Zimbio account by logging in and going to 'My Profile.' Under 'My Personal Info' enter the email address you would like to use. Then scroll to the bottom of the page and select 'Save.'

How do I delete my account?

Just drop us an email at support@zimbio.com, and we'll make it happen. Send the email from the same email account you used to set up your Zimbio account and include your username. This is to verify you're the correct account holder. Same goes for changing your username. Send us an email.

Problems or Feedback

How do I report a problem?

If you have found a problem that you would like to report, please contact us at: support@zimbio.com (please be sure to include your username, and any links that pertain to your question).

How do I make a suggestion to Zimbio?

We'd love to hear what you think about your Zimbio experience and always appreciate tips and suggestions. Please send us your thoughts at: feedback@zimbio.com. You can also visit our Company Zine, where the Zimbio team makes company announcements and the community engages in feedback and discussion regarding the future direction of Zimbio.

What does the name “Zimbio” mean?

Zimbio (ZIM-bee-oh) is a play on the word "symbiosis," which refers to a relationship of mutual benefit or dependence. Symbiosis is an important part of our business, in terms of how we view our relationship to our members, content partners, and advertisers, as well as how our members relate to one another.