SocialSpark Alpha Testing

I was going through my email when I found a message in my Gmail spam queue from IZEA support with the subject of "SocialSpark Alpha Key". It was dated the 9th of April (10th here and that means yesterday).

My Reaction

My first instinct was to ignore it. I'd been waiting for SocialSpark to get underway long enough to give up on it. Still, I took a gander and this text caught my eye:

SocialSpark has some important differentiators from PayPerPost:

1. All links are no-follow, fully search engine compliant and must carry in-post disclosure.
2. SocialSpark offers display ads as well as Sponsored Posts.
3. Greatly expanded reporting capabilities and blog analytics.
4. Ability to have bloggers or advertisers initiate a transaction.
5. Social networking tools to foster communities and conversation.

Since Google doesn't have a problem with a paid link that contains the "rel=nofollow" attribute, this seems like it might be worth pursuing.

My Actions

A few months ago, I stripped the IZEA Toolkit code from my footer file. If I wasn't going to use PayPerPost anymore, what purpose did it serve?

Realizing that SocialSpark will require statistical data to give me the best paying opportunities, I went ahead and installed not only the code they required, but I went back over to IZEARanks to get the code for that as well. There's no current data there right now, naturally, but you can look at my stats later on at http://izearanks.com/sites/untwistedvortex-com if you so desire. I have nothing to hide.

The Future

SocialSpark has more than sponsored posts going for it, so it won't be a complete turn-off for everyone. Like anything else, it'll get abused by those looking for fast cash. That, of course, will be their undoing.

I wrote about SocialSpark, PayPerPost, RealRank, Google and You back in November of 2007, expecting it to roll out by the end of January. It looks like it took much longer than even they expected. Judging by what I've seen of it so far, however, I think it was worth the delay.

I'll be writing more about SocialSpark as time progresses, whether I do sponsored posts or other forms of advertising for them or not.

April 11th, 2008 By RT Cunningham | Categories: Advertising | Tags: IZEA, IZEARanks, RealRank, SocialSpark |

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Troy on April 12th, 2008 at 5:22 am (Reply)

Thanks for passing this along, RT. I'd never heard of SocialSpark before, but it does look much more appealing than all the other paid posting schemes I've seen out there before. I'm not prepared to sell my soul or my Google authority (what little there is), but I may just be willing to write some quality content for cash.

hari on April 12th, 2008 at 12:24 pm (Reply)

Selling your soul and selling your google authority shouldn't be spoken of in the same breath.
hari's last blog post..Boxi and Panjo - Low Fat Diet
RT Cunningham on April 12th, 2008 at 2:04 pm (Reply)

If you do it well, you can remove advertising from your blog. That, and making money, should be a strong enticement.

Karen from wordpress on April 16th, 2008 at 4:22 am (Reply)

I got the invite too, with a plea for tech bloggers to write something nice about them - I'm sure it's going to end up more of the same (with an even slower-loading and more complicated interface) despite the emphasis on nofollow…

Karen's last blog post..Technorati and WordPress version

Stephen from Custom WordPress Plugins on May 5th, 2008 at 12:52 pm (Reply)

Hi RT,

I deleted something from them, that might have been an invite. It sounds good, so perhaps I was a bit hasty.

Interestingly, your stats are still showing as 0 page views and visitors, so it appears that tracking code isn't working (its now three weeks after this post).

Stephen’s last blog post… Back In The Seat

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SocialSpark Alpha Testing