SocialSpark Sparky (Update 2008-04-18 local time: My blog was approved on the 2nd try.)

I wrote about SocialSpark Alpha Testing just a few days ago. Yesterday, I received yet another invitation from them. This time, it was for beta testing. My blog hasn't been approved since I submitted it for approval back on the 11th. How was I to alpha or beta test anything other than what I could see? Even more so, why would I?

Today, I received a message from their "Customer Love" stating that my blog was not approved. It didn't give the reason. Instead, it forced me to log into my SocialSpark account to read the message. After wading through the nonsensical garbage preceding what I needed to know, it told me that "Your blog appears to exist solely for payment, or to post referral links."


Good Enough for PayPerPost, but not SocialSpark?

I wrote quite a bit, in my own opinion, for PayPerPost until I stopped in December of 2007. I wrote enough that I had to file a schedule C for my taxes in order not to get taken to the cleaners by the tax man. If my blog was good enough for PayPerPost, why isn't it good enough for SocialSpark?

I went through a bit of trouble (not really a lot) to install the code to claim my blog, the code for the IZEA Toolkit and the code for IZEA RealRanks. It took longer than 48 hours to for any data to start appearing and for them to verify that the toolkit was even installed. The least they could do would be to take the time to actually read some of my blog posts and not make assumptions based on what they saw.

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

"Your blog appears to exist solely for payment, or to post referral links." Isn't this exactly what they want me to do with SocialSpark? Isn't that how they make their money? My blog doesn't exist solely for payment. If it did, I'd be rolling in dough by now. Do I post referral links? Huh?

I have 4 links in my left sidebar, including one image, which are free referral links. I've made one post with an affiliate ID in within the last year. I link to many places in many posts, but they're not referral links. Are they telling me that I link out too much? Were they looking at my free blog reviews and assuming I was getting paid for them?

That's too many assumptions without making any attempts to actually read.

My Scathing Reply

I'll paraphrase some things I wrote to them through their "support" system an hour or so ago. I don't want to include all of it, because your eyes will burn out of their sockets if I do. Here you go:

"I have 4 free referral links in the left sidebar. I've included one affiliate id in one post…I have Google AdSense appear to only search visitors…

Did you take the time to actually read any of my posts before coming to your conclusion? I wrote for PPP until December. My blog was good enough for PPP but not SocialSpark?

Please take the time to actually read what I wrote and reconsider. I'm not going to resubmit my blog because there's nothing wrong with my blog, which is nearing 2 years in age. If you won't accept this blog as it is then I don't need to be a part of SocialSpark."