The Lady Programmer

If you had been an avid follower of this blog, I had been writing some sponsored reviews in this blog every now and then. I am not limited to a single paid review site though, but one of the places where I get my technology-related sponsored reviews is at SocialSpark – and they got plenty of them in different flavors: blog posts, sponsorship, affiliates and CPCs.

One of the new changes that I like in SocialSpark is their CPC campaigns. I noticed that each click pays more than what I normally earn in Google Adsense. In addition to that, I am not limited to displaying CPCs only in my blogs – I got both Facebook and Twitter, and SocialSpark provides the necessary links for me to display those ads in two Social Networks.

I’ve tried posting out technology-related CPC links right here in this blog, and in Twitter and Facebook too. So far, I’ve earned more from both this blog and Twitter, but not much on Facebook. I guess it is because I’m not too actively involved in Facebook (but I am not simply posting out sponsored links either). However the earnings I got from promoting tech-related products or services are not really that much – I still need to learn and figure out how to get the most out from CPC clicks.

If you are a blogger who loves to write about technology as well as earn money from blogs, then be sure to head out to SocialSpark – they already got plenty of technology-related opportunities up for grabs.

I see a number of bloggers who are starting out with social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. I have been into Twitter before sponsored tweet opportunities had started out. Now I noticed an increase in the number of people who use Twitter to tap the potential of earning bucks from their Tweets.

In case you are not yet aware on what Twitter is all about, it is a site that allows anybody to answer the simple question: “What are you doing?”. However, I don’t use Twitter only to report what I am doing. I use Twitter to announce that I have a new blog post, share some news or ask help. This combination is the most effective way for me. The video below describes what Twitter is about.

Twitter in Plain English

Follow me on Twitter if you like. I have already gained some followers in this social network site.

Like blogging, there are some sites that offer opportunities to make money from Twittering away. Except for SocialSpark, I have not used all of these sites personally so I cannot guarantee success with these services. continue reading »

I’ve done a series of posts about paid blogging sites. I hope you did not miss any of these past posts:

• Earn by Doing Paid Reviews with PayPerPost
• Make Money Doing Paid Reviews with SponsoredReviews
• SocialSpark: A Paid Review Site with a Social Networking Twist 
• Other Sites That Lets You Earn Money From Blogging 

All of these cover how a blogger can earn from simply doing paid posts. Of course, these are not the only ways to earn from blogs. There are also other means like affiliate marketing, ad networks like Google Adsense and selling links. The last post on other sites that lets you earn money from blogging simply covers other paid review sites.

Disadvantage of Page Rank Loss

One downside to accepting paid reviews is that these blogs are prone to Google pagerank loss. To be accurate, Google is NOT against all paid reviews; Google penalizes links that have no “rel=nofollow” code. So far, SocialSpark is the only place where I can fully retain pagerank while doing sponsored posts, because their posts always require the use of “rel=nofollow” code.

I had been a firsthand witness of this. I was doing paid posts with SocialSpark then I suddenly hit PR3. Now I’m back to zero because I had accepted “dofollow” paid posts.

Matt Cutts, a high ranked employee of Google, had approved the way things are SocialSpark. Don’t believe me? You can read all about it in this IZEA post.

Unfortunately, props was not given to PPP. I guess everyone knows the issue about PPP bloggers getting spanked by Google. I strongly believe that PPP bloggers are not the only ones that get affected but any blogger that does sponsored posts with no “rel=nofollow” code on links.

If you are writing for site like SocialSpark, PayPerPost and SponsoredReviews.com, bloggers often run into problems when these bloggers performed an upgrade to using a custom domain.

I could still use the old URL and statistics with PayPerPost and Sponsored Reviews.com. SocialSpark is an entirely different story: I could not submit my posts even if I used the old URL that I had registered with them.

photo credit: stevekrh19 (SXC)

The Problem with SocialSpark

I had taken a SocialSpark opportunity recently but I could not submit my recent post because of the URL change. To most bloggers, this situation can be frustrating and some bloggers may blog about their frustrations that accompany new domain changes. SocialSpark is still on BETA, so their automated review system is not perfected yet and it relies on community feedback to build their system.

Immediately, I had gone to IZEA Help section to find any write ups and FAQs about domain URL changes with SocialSpark. I have not found any so I decided to write a short love note to Customer Love, requesting for two things:

• change the URL registered with them from http://theladyprogrammer.blogspot.com to http://www.theladyprogrammer.com
• approve a recently opportunity that was rejected outright at auto approval

I did not get an immediate response with them because I submitted a help ticket during the weekend. The recently opportunity that I had with them had even expired. What I did was to reopen the resolved tickets to Customer Love just to have those requests approved. I was so happy when they had fulfilled all my requests above. Customer Love seemed to love me!

photo credit: weirdvis (SXC)

There is only one more problem that I had encountered with SocialSpark, so I had to reopen the resolved ticket again. My blog has lost its statistics so I ended up not qualified for the opportunities that I was once qualified for. It seemed to me that the right statistics for the daily visitors and Alexa rankings are not properly reflected in my new account, so I needed those clarifications.

Change URL Requests with PayPerPost

Since PayPerPost still remains as the huge paid review site, I had encountered so many bloggers blog about their domain changes and their successful arrangement with PayPerPost. I had tried my hands too, when I had to request for a URL change on one of my older blogs. The system with PPP is simple: simply write to Customer Love to request for a change in URL. Their technical support will make all the corresponding URL changes in their database. All the blog statistics with the new domain will be reflected in one’s PPP account.

Change URL Request with Sponsored Reviews

URL change policy is different in SponsoredReviews.com because it has a different policy on URL change requests. One has to delete the old blog that uses the old URL first, then resubmit the blog that uses the new URL. This will still require manual review by the SponsoredReviews.com. I don’t like this arrangement, because I had gotten some good feedback ratings from some advertisers.

I have noticed that the old URL still works with SponsoredReviews.com, so I still get opportunities using the old URL instead.

Have you encountered headaches with other paid review services?

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.