The Lady Programmer

Interestingly, I’ve been getting more and more writing opportunities with Sponsored Reviews and SocialSpark as compared to those very hot writing jobs in PayPerPost. I think this is indeed a great way to work with Sponsored Reviews, as I’ve been happy to have a queue of writing jobs waiting for me to write about (not on this blog though, but on my other blog).

Sponsored Reviews is another paid blogging site offers paid opportunities to write reviews on a particular product or service. It is a straightforward site which works very similar to freelance sites in oDesk and Elance: an advertiser puts up a job opportunity, then active bloggers can take their bids for as low as $5 per review to even as much as a $100 for one. This is indeed a great opportunity to put in some buzz on a website: indeed advertisers have the option to post a writing job that talks about great reviews – it could either be a discussion of the benefits to a full critique of the product in question.

image credit to Dan

If you happen to be a part time blogger, then Sponsored Reviews is the paid best blogging site to go for additional income from your blog. Unlike PayPerPost and SocialSpark where the post deadline should be met in a few hours, SponsoredReviews allows you to think about the writing post for seven days after the advertiser had accepted the review. However, once that you complete the review, then the payment is immediately credited into you account. Paypal is the only means to withdraw earnings from this site, so I highly recommend to have an account with them.

Not long ago I was doing programming tasks, but right now I had to upgrade my skills. Something like being in the web design since I am mostly into blogging (and blogging needs a bit of web design and SEO and those are two areas that I plan on strengthening right now).

Right now I am more active into blogging simply because my internet connection (which is dial-up) is limited to it. I had to add more to my oDesk profile by coming up with new sample sites where clients should be able to browse through and decide which sample works for their companies. I think this is useful rather than having them browse through the web for some sites that they really like.

To even complicate things, web design jobs even needed a bit of basic SEO, so I really have to reinvent myself.

I had already arranged to have the new DSL connection up by two or three weeks, and by then I should be able to catch up with the skills in web design (I’d like Web 2.0 by the way). I am fortunate that I still have paid blogging sites and clients who feed me with some writing jobs to do each day.

photo credit: ilco (SXC)

I’ve been blogging in SocialSpark lately: it is a lot different to other paid blogging sites that I’ve worked with. For one, SocialSpark allows advertisers to interact with the bloggers. It is more like an informal virtual place where everyone gets to mingle with everyone else on the same level – like a social networking site where one person can get to be friends with another person.

SocialSpark is a sister site of PayPerPost and is a new blog marketing innovation created under the IZEA roof. Advertisers get to post opportunities that may be available to the blogger. Handpicking bloggers is possible through the use of Selected Blogroll and Selected Street Team which are available to the advertiser. Opportunities are automatically available to bloggers if they meet specific criteria such as highest monthly pageviews and highest monthly visitors. If a blogger does not meet the particular criteria for the opportunity, he or she can opt to request a slot for the job – an opportunity for that person to express his interest in writing the post and providing a suitable explanation how this will help the advertiser.

Advertisers can also opt to create Sparks, which does not cost the advertiser anything and simply gives SocialSpark bloggers ideas on what they have to put up in their posts. But of course paid buzz about a particular product or service still remains to be the primary interest of bloggers in that place.

To start with, simply type SocialSpark.com and get to build your campaigns; don’t forget to add me to your blogroll and street team and have me write a review or a buzz just like this.

Sponsored Reviews has recently announced to its members that they will be performing house cleaning – they have already rejected 2000 blogs because some members fail to follow the rules after their blogs have been approved.

Blogs should be cached in Google and other major search engines. Posts must be of good quality. Paid content of 2 non-paid posts to one-paid post shall also be checked. Advertiser ratings is also another item that Sponsored Reviews will be looking into.

Bloggers who ignore these rules are often “downgraded” by Google and their blogs are usually removed from the Google index.

The housecleaning task shall last for a few days.

I’ve been trying to do a new blog in my Friendster account and I discovered that the free version does not have the same flexibility as Blogger and WordPress sites. For one it allows me to upload only 50 pictures (if you’d notice I always place at least one picture in this blog and my other blog). I also only have 12 templates to dress up my site and it does not permit me to play around with the design of the site. I just can’t easily add a new widget or even add simple HTML text at the sidebar.

However the “upgrade” option is available in different plans. The free blog will cost me a banner advertisement at the top and bottom of the blog – I do not really like the one that I see on top. If I were to remove that I have to pay at least $4.95 per month to remove all the ads and let me place something on top. If I had to fully control the site (including the HTML) and purchase my own URL or domain I had to go with the Pro version that will cost me $14.95 per month. The billing agreement is by credit card (sorry Paypal users).

photo credit: bloodylery (SXC)

It is no wonder why Pinoys prefer blogging on WordPress and Blogger.