The Lady Programmer

One of the greatest advantages of working freelance is the flexibility of managing my own time. I really love having to manage time myself, rather than getting employed at fixed 8 to 5 jobs plus overtime work on weekends. Most US employed workers have the advantage of working 40 hours per week from Monday to Friday, but here in the Philippines, most workers employed in private institutions need to spend 48 hours per week.

I am a single parent and it is all the more challenging for me to juggle my role between a family breadwinner and spending time with my kid. I was employed for three tech companies for a decade before trying out to be self-employed. In all the times that I was employed, I had to always be away with my kid. The last employed job that I had was three hours away from my permanent home – I had to be away from the kid for a week or two for rotating day and night shift work.

Making It Into Freelance

One of the sites where I had been getting my monthly earnings is from SocialSpark, a new paid blogging site that is still in beta testing. Despite that SocialSpark has definitely attracted a number of advertisers. Although I had been writing for other paid blogging sites such as Sponsored Reviews and PayPerPost, SocialSpark is a lot different: it requires the users to put a disclosure badge at the end of each post. Each required link is always a “nofollow” link, which does not violate the Google’s terms. For those advertisers who like to put on more buzz on their product then SocialSpark is the way to go.

I’m proud to say that, despite a zero pagerank for this blog, I have monetized my blog with several posts done with SocialSpark. I highly recommend this to mommy bloggers like me, who are exploring ways on how to reap residual earnings online through blogging. My earnings through blogging alone had exceeded my monthly salary as a previously employed engineer in the Philippines.

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.

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.

I have been writing for a month now while I keep up with the latest in web design and SEO before I get to accept opportunities related to these skills. I have been blogging for some time and paid posts have really helped me fund these freelance programming ventures.

This blog has written out other paid opportunities from SocialSpark, but this post is actually the first time for PayPerPost, primarily because of this blog’s page rank (it’s zero). If you have noticed, I have some PPP badges right up at the sidebar of this site but ironically, my paid posts are published in The Single Parent Talks, another blog that I maintain.

photo credit: arinas74 (SXC)

I hope you have stumbled some of my posts on this blog, because I have taken some paid opportunities in SocialSpark as a blogger. I wrote about choosing Misaki as my Manga name with a sponsored badge at the bottom of the post. Not long I also wrote about SocialSpark soon after becoming a member.

I started out by putting up my profile as a blogger and then I need to have my blogs approved. I have only two blogs but only this one (The Lady Programmer) was qualified to accept such opportunities. Blogger.com blogs have a good chance of being accepted in the SocialSpark marketplace.

The difference between SocialSpark and PPP is that one can get to interact with other bloggers in the marketplace. Not only do I get some traffic to my blogs but I can also get to communicate with other bloggers. I even got to write a “spark” about another person’s blog – which helps me build my reputation and opportunities to write a post back to that person. “Sparks” can also help me write about something related to the theme of the blog. I just wrote a post about a mentor that can help new bloggers become better writers and I am hoping for a good post about this blog. Most of all, unlike PPP where you have to catch an available opportunity, SocialSpark simply puts your slot on queue until the opportunity is available – if it is I’d always get an email.

There are some similarities between SocialSpark and PPP as well. Both need manual approval of the post. Both need 30 days wait period before the payment is released through Paypal.