Social Spark | All About Kimberly

Today I have a SocialSpark.com Assignment to write about which companies I’d like to see seeking Social Spark for advertising. Who would I like to blog about for money? Wow! That’s a tough one. I like so many different types of products and services. I have noticed though that on these paid opportunities on various sites that they do tend to have lots of sites/products that I’ve never heard of (and truthfully could stand never hearing about) so it’s nice to know that Social Spark is thinking about this.

My ideal situation that I would love to see is a paid to blog site where you are actually sent products to try out and then blog about them instead of just reviewing websites and basing your reviews on a website. I’m a member of a couple survey sites that do in fact send you test products and then you fill out surveys about them. With the world of blogging becoming so dominant on the Internet, I think it would be a great move for a company to link up with different vendors and actually send out samples or memberships to bloggers. Let us really try your product or service for a couple weeks or a month and then write honest blog reviews.

Specific companies? I’d love to see companies that we, women bloggers, already use. This would really increase the quality of reviews I think because we would be familiar with the sites/programs. I’d love to see offers from survey companies, reward programs, and blogging resources. In addition, I’d love to see small Work at Home Mom businesses venture into this form of advertisement. I know through blogging, I’ve found some very nifty women who have great products and ideas. It seems to me that this would be a great way for them to get the word out about their products and services. Another item I’d love to get paid to review – books. It would be great for authors or publishing companies to pay us to review books.

Now should we dream? Oh yes. Let’s do and let’s be specific. Who would I love to get paid to review? hmm..Sephora, Target, ShoeBuy, Gap, Old Navy, Amazon, Pontiac, Capital One Bank, Wal-Mart, Tivo, DirecTV, Cellular One, Dell, Brother, and of course, Disney! Of course all of these places are already well known and have a presence so I’m not sure that they would even consider paying for blogging advertisement, but if they did, I’d LOVE to blog about them.

As I’ve been experimenting with my blog, I’ve found lots of blogs and articles on making money with your blog. I have to admit that many confuse me, and many require a very large reader base that I don’t think I have (yet) so I don’t think they would prove to be very profitable for me. I also don’t personally like the look of a bunch of advertisement built into the design of my blog so I’ve passed on those types; however, one type I have found that I do enjoy is blogging about specific websites or products in a post. I like that I have the choice to pick whether or not I want to blog about that website so that I don’t just fill up my blog with advertisements. If you see an advertisement or review here, it was carefully chosen and is my honest opinion.

I’ve signed up with a new company that I think looks really promising along these lines called SocialSpark. If you’ve not heard of it, let me tell you a little about this upcoming pay to blog site. One thing I like is that SocialSpark encourages you, in fact demands, that you disclose in your posts that they are sponsored posts. Unlike a couple other companies I’ve experimented with that don’t want you to disclose. I think you, my blog readers, deserve to know when my reviews are those I’m doing for pay and those that I do just because I feel like it. Others may not like this, but like I said, I choose my paid posts carefully. I don’t take every opportunity available. I only do those that I feel I can give my readers a real and relevant post about. Also Social Spark allows for your TRUE opinion. Every post does not have to positive. Wow?! Isn’t that amazing? That you will be paid to give your true opinion? This makes it much different than other sites I’ve looked at and experimented with because usually you are only allowed to give good reviews (this is one of the reasons I’ve turned down many opportunities).

A feature of this site that I already like is that you don’t have to constantly refresh their site, waiting on an aopportnity to turn green and then grab it so fast you don’t have time to really look at it in fear of someone else grabbing all of them first. There’s a much better system here, you look for the opportunities you qualify for by looking for at the boxes like the one below. These boxes tell you two different details about the post. First of all if the job is open, you will see a “green light,” and then if you are qualified for the opportunity you will see a second “green light.”

Don’t have time to look through pages and pages of posts? Social Spark has an answer for that too. You can search by activating a filter that will only show you opportunities that are both open and that you are qualified for.

Additionally, while you are paid a flat rate for an opportunity, you also have the opportunity to make even more for high quality work (a feature I have not seen anywhere else). For example, as you can see below for doing a superior job on a post about Social Spark (like this one), you have the chance to make another $100. On other sites, I have seen where people throw together the quickest posts they can for paid opportunities. They will not be very informative and be the minimum words required. I also roll my eyes and think, “Why would people want to read this?” and “Why would advertisers pay for this?” It was almost disheartening to think of the thought and work I try to put into my posts to see that these people were making as much as me (or maybe more as they would also take every opportunity they could). That is not the case at Social Spark. I may never get this bonus, but it’s nice to see that quality does matter to them.

Finally, there is one other pretty interesting feature I’ve found so far at Social Spark. They have many paid opportunities, but they also have a very unique type of opportunity – Blog U Back opportunities. Individuals can list their blogs and just ask for you to review their site and create a link back to it. In exchange, they will do the same for you. If you are in the beginning stages of blogging like I am, this seems like it could prove to be quite profitable in your rankings and increasing your readers. I plan to look over the Blog U Back opportunities over the next couple days in hopes of finding some blogs related to mine and set up a few exchanges.

This is, in fact, my first paid post for Social Spark, and I hope that it has been helpful to any of you who may be wanting to make a little extra money with your blog. In this wavering economy, any extra money can prove to be helpful, and I’m looking forward to giving Social Spark a try. If you are already using or if you sign up with Social Spark, please come back and let me know what you think of your experience with this company.