The Lady Programmer

UPDATE: SocialSpark site is still in BETA. A BETA service means that the site has some problems and glitches, and thus these relies much on community feedback. It is often useful to suggest ideas on how to improve SocialSpark and report any problems with their service. You can do this with their customer support (Customer Love) or through their IZEA boards.

Probably the newest paid review site to hit the town is SocialSpark. I think this site is a spinoff from IZEA’s PayPerPost. PayPerPost has probably the largest network of bloggers and IZEA had been convincing PPP bloggers to signup with SocialSpark as well.

PPP Charm

PayPerPost is perhaps the biggest source of paid reviews with a huge network of bloggers working to get some paid opportunities; I’m not wondering so much if SocialSpark had gotten its charm from PayPerPost. I’ve checked my account and there seemed to be a thousand of registered members bloggers and advertisers.

SocialSpark is truly a handsome Web 2.0 design website; at first I was intimidated by its looks. It looked like a site made for those circle of professional bloggers. I got all my blogs approved, but I did not start taking any of its listed opportunities.

Like PPP, SocialSpark is getting to be an attractive work opportunity for work-at-home moms.

Opportunity Reservation

When the opportunities at PPP got dry, I started to revisit SocialSpark. I tried bidding to some of the posted opportunities. Within a month, I got an email informing me of a reserved opportunity that I had to write for my blog. If PayPerPost gives only a few hours to finish a reserved opportunity, SocialSpark gives 12 hours for a blogger to write a reserved opportunity slot.

SocialSpark is unlike other paid review sites. Here are some notable changes:

• In-post disclosure widget is always a requirement for every SocialSpark opportunity: Some of my posts have that in-post disclosure badge installed at the end of the post. An example of it is a post that I made for promoting SocialSpark to advertisers.
• All available opportunities do not need a blog with good pagerank; however, having a good traffic is a big factor in getting qualified for opportunities: All the opportunity links require “nofollow” links. Advertisers who decide to post opportunities often like blogs that contain a good traffic, so Alexa and RealRank ratings are important. To the blogger, a “nofollow” post does NOT hurt any page rank.
• Advertisers can post opportunities then handpick their bloggers, or post opportunities that meet an Alexa or RealRank rating requirement, or do both: This arrangement it is quite a mix between PayPerPost and SponsoredReviews paid review sites. If an open opportunity does not qualify a blogger, then this blogger can request for a slot by writing a compelling message to the advertiser to request for a slot.
• Meet other bloggers and make friends with advertisers: SocialSpark introduces a new concept in paid blogging by making it a social network. Bloggers can make friends with other bloggers and advertisers; advertisers can do the same. However, I have yet to encounter someone who is successful in getting good traffic and establish good relationship with other bloggers from SocialSpark.
• I’ll blog about you and then I’ll blog you back: Since there is a social element to this paid review marketplace, bloggers can blog for each other at no charge. This is done by posting out sparks together with the necessary requirements.

Payouts

Like PPP, payouts from SocialSpark can be taken out through Paypal. This time, a SocialSpark blogger gets to decide when to withdraw funds from the account out to Paypal.

The site is still in BETA, so there are always changes and some problems that need some fixing up. If I were to pick an additional income for blogging without losing pagerank, then SocialSpark is my best bet.

Watch Out, SocialSpark Members: Don’t Get Your Accounts Suspended!

Be sure to read the SocialSpark’s code of conduct. It has been revised recently to discourage bloggers from soliciting props. Comments that ask a slot from an advertiser’s opportunity are also forbidden. Too many friends added in one’s account at one time can also get one’s account suspended.

Don’t Take US Opportunities, If You Live in the Philippines

I had this experience months ago when I decided to write some opportunities that require US bloggers to blog about it. However, I got rejected after a manual review of the post because of my location. I lost $30 of effort. It really pays to follow instructions! The next time you see US opportunities, don’t spend extra effort writing for these even if you are qualified or included in the advertiser’s blogroll. Don’t hope that reviewers might miss out checking if you are a US blogger or not because they are already keen on it.
SocialSpark is the sister site of PPP; you can still write about SocialSpark with the PayPerPost badge below.

How would you know that you want to meet someone who shares the same religious beliefs online?

Christian Chat offers another option to meet people online. Currently this site is inviting more Christian members to join their chat city. Webcam chat is possible, so you deal with real people from other parts of the world.

Most of the successful websites that I’ve seen around often elicit the participation of the community to get the best content. Social bookmarking services like Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon are mainly powered by the community. Even Google’s pagerank technology is based on other people’s linked content. People remain the life-blood that powers up these successful websites.

Now 10to1 introduces a new way of doing things: by encouraging people to create lists and add up items. Members can get to vote up or vote down an entry. It is a way to ask the community which items are really cool or not. The most positive votes get it straight up to the top ten.

The most entertaining list that I’ve seen is the list of funny license plates.

The press release below explains the mechanism of this top ten voting lists.

Press Release

PHOENIX, Arizona – September 9, 2008 – 10to1.com, a technology company pioneering a new way to organize data and create collaborative authority, unveils its ranked list voting site offering. The site allows users to create, vote and comment on lists for any category. Categories include tech, environment, entertainment, sports, gaming, business, health and politics.

The process is simple. Each user-generated list, from 1 item to 101 items, will begin as one person’s opinion of a ranked list. The user community will then build and shape that list through voting, comments and adding new items which creates a consensus of the best version of that list.

“There is a lack of order and authority online. It is hard for users to get trustworthy information searching through the billions of pages found on Google and Yahoo. The user generated content and unbiased opinions found on 10to1 help users to find the best information based on collective user’s consensus and it aids in discovery of items that they may not have considered before,” said Korey Bachelder, President of 10to1, Inc. “We took a look at Digg and saw that people love to offer their opinions by voting and commenting. We decided to take the idea and make it better by creating order, ultimately creating winners in every category.”

Why Lists?
10. Easy to digest and remember
9. Encourage debate
8. Creates order
7. They will spread and be shared
6. Easy to write
5. Insightful and interesting
4. They aid discovery
3. People love stats
2. They assert authority
1. Lists are interesting!

10to1.com is a website destination that allows users to create, comment and vote on lists for any category. The lists become more powerful and resourceful with each vote as users collectively create the best list based on individual opinions. The company is headquartered in Chandler, Arizona.

Friendster is definitely a big hit here in Asia, over MySpace and Facebook accounts. I find more Philippine companies and local celebrities putting up and maintaining their own Friendster profiles and other accounts. Almost everyone that I meet asks me for my own Friendster profile. I think that David Jones, Friendster USA vice-president for marketing, made a good decision to direct efforts here in Asia than competing with MySpace and Facebook.

photo credit: SwedishMel (SXC)

I had been keeping my Friendster profile for several years after a friend introduced me to it. I got tired of updating it, but I decided not to take it off. Now, almost everyone has an account – at least for those who are computer literate. It is also common for me to meet guys even at their 40s with their own Friendster account.

I tweaked my new Facebook account yesterday and I had to admit that it is a lot better than Friendster – especially if you are a blogger. One thing I like is that I get to have my profile updated from various feeds like my posts at this blog, my StumbleUpon and Digg reviews, YouTube accounts and a lot others. I like its connectivity with other designs. I just hope Friendster would catch up on this and would not miss the growing number of English bloggers. It could be a lot tiring to be maintaining a lot of profiles around the web.

This ABS-CBN News Online article says a lot about their efforts in Asia. Friendster is still hot in the Philippines. I do not think it users will be convinced to switch to other networking sites and leave their hours-worked profiles and friends in Friendster.

If you’re a Postie, then share this great news!

I’ve learned to master the art of flirting. I had a great time “flirting” as a contestant or as the judge. Although I was not able to get through a game after a few tries because people seem to change their minds about joining my team. But I eventually ended up with two guys as the hot flirters while I get to be the judge to get my pick of guys.

All of this is done in a virtual game offered by Extreme Style by VO5 where I get to play with two other people. I had to wait for two more people to play online with me. Once that three people are in the waiting room with me then we could start with the Ultimate Flirting Championship game.

The widget provides a brief way to experience the snapshot of this game. If you like it then you can just use the “embed” tag to put on your own blog.

I think that this is a great way to get to try out avoiding cheesy pickup lines like “Hey girl, what’s up? Guess what? It’s your lucky day. Out of all the girls here, I picked you to talk to.” I would have a rather thoughtful creative guy to think of an attractive line to have and that game seems like a good sandbox to play with those lines that work. If you plan to briefly get away from work and meet somebody new then don’t ever forget your pick up line and put on Victory Hair for that great look.