I have blogged about SocialSpark often on this blog, it is one of the top companies that pay you to blog in my opinion. I am not the most successful blogger on SocialSpark, but having earned almost $100 per month average from this one company over the past eighteen months has made it one of my favorites. What I like about the service is that as a blogger you get to pick and choose what you want to review and promote. There are no posts for quick backlinks here and all of the companies listed on SocialSpark want fair and honest reviews and posts about their products. You feel free to provide your own honest opinions and you don’t need to feel pressured into just saying you “like” everything you review, if you genuinely find some faults or things you don’t like about the product or service, be honest and open and you will not be penalized for it in any way and you will be paid whether you write a positive review or a critical review.
Here are some of my tips for succeeding in SocialSpark
First make sure when you sign up for SocialSpark you are part of an an “Insider’s Membership” this will give you access to someone who has been around for a long time in SocialSpark. I am part of I’m Not a Famous Blogger group which is managed by Ben Spark who is a great guy and has been blogging for years. He also is very helpful and always willing to answer questions for new bloggers.
Next is to get your blogs registered as quickly as possible and make sure they are claimed and approved to take opportunities in the SocialSpark marketplace.
May people at this point would just go idle and wait for their blogs to qualify for opportunities, but I am telling you that unless your blog is already getting over 200 unique visits a day this is a mistake. You must gain an active presence on SocialSpark and one way to do this is to take one “Spark Opp” per week. A Spark is a opportunity that offers you no payment but most of them do offer a “backlink” to your blog and you get to make connections and network with other bloggers by taking their “Sparks”. I have created many Sparks on SocialSpark myself and in my earlier blogging days I have taken dozens of Spark opps over my first few months.
By taking a Spark Opp you are getting some traffic in the SocialSpark system and taking a Spark opp does count as an opportunity. This gives notice for advertisers to see your writing style. You should also do searches for other bloggers and advertisers that fit your blog niche and befriend them. An introduction and greeting message along with a friendship request are also nice.
When your blog does start qualifying for opportunities always make sure you keep in mind that “quality” is what is the key here. Make sure you double and triple proofread your blog posts for typo’s or grammar errors. If you don’t like the product you are reviewing I would use constructive criticism about what you didn’t like rather than any sort of slander or bashing, word it in a way as to be as positive as possible.
I have told my bloggers month after month how SocialSpark is my single top earning program and this is because you can find some very hiqh quality advertisers and high paying opportunities here if your blog has the traffic and pagerank to qualify. This is also one of the only blogging programs where you can qualify for many opportunities with traffic alone, I was able to earn many opps when DragonBlogger.com was a PageRank 0 just because I was getting so many unique visits to my site.
-Dragon Blogger
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Tags: blog paying programs, blogging with IZEA, companies that pay you to blog, Earn Money Blogging, getting opps on socialspark, getting paid to do sponsored reviews, how do bloggers earn blogging, how do I earn blogging, how to earn money blogging, how to make money blogging, how to use socialspark, IZEA, IZEA SocialSpark, paying bloggers, programs that pay bloggers, socialspark, tips for using socialspark, why use socialspark
February 9th, 2010 at 8:06 am
Thanks a lot bro… this post will help me a lot cause recently i signed up with social spark, and now waiting for my blog to be approved!
Pubudu Kodikara´s last blog ..How To Turn Off Windows Indexing Service
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February 9th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Happy to help, I have been using SocialSpark since August 2008 when I first started blogging. It was the very first program I have signed up for for blog earning and is still my leading favorite.
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February 9th, 2010 at 9:10 am
I’ve never really looked at the “sparks” and wouldn’t of considered doing one a week, but I suppose every little helps, so in the future when there are no opps available, I’ll take on some sparks, thanks Justin
BlazingMinds´s last blog ..DVD Review: Resident Evil Degeneration
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February 9th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Good information, Justin. I’m seeing quite a few paid posts lately and it seems like a good way to offset any costs for hosting one’s blog with opportunity for more if done well.
Anne´s last blog ..More Snowy Shots From Ye Olde Homestead [A Photo Journal]
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February 9th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Some of my most popular posts on my blog come from SocialSpark, like I have over 105 comments on my SocialSpark opportunity for Tony’s Pizza, and my one for Shiny Search brings in over 1000 pageviews a month for 1 socialspark opp.
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February 9th, 2010 at 11:53 am
As always Justin, this is some awesome stuff
I’m sure this will be super helpful to others – you rock!
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February 9th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
No problem, I intend to do a follow up as well. I had several people ask me to explain more about SocialSpark which is why I did the article.
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February 9th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Thanks Justin, really useful post! I signed up for Social Spark but I was kinda lost until I read this haha.
From what you’re saying Social Spark sounds great, can’t wait to get started!
Keep up the great work!
O2O – Ordinary to Outstanding´s last blog ..Fear Not! I Am With You!
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February 10th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Wonderful post! I’m doing my first sponsored post for Social Spark as we speak and was searching for helpful articles. Yours made me relax and confirm what I need to do! I plan on taking a look at the sparks soon as well.
Henrietta´s last blog ..Don’t discriminate against Sleep Talking!
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February 10th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Let me know if you need any help with SocialSpark, I have done probably 30-40 opps there.
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February 10th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Thanks for this info. I use SS and have had some success with it in that if nothing else it pays my monthly Internet fees. What more could you ask for. I also was glad to hear about the Spark Opp. I didn’t know that it counted as an Opp. and for as long as I’ve been using them I can see I’ve been missing out. I’ve never used the spark, even though I write about other bloggers at times. I will now look for these opps. to create a better visualization for my blog. I am not sure I agree with your perception of criticism as I thought their TOS states that under no circumstances could you do an unfavorable review. Now I am also smart enough to know the correctness of a constructive review vs. just criticism but I didn’t think they allowed any type regardless.
My only complaint with SS is that they DO NOT encourage advertisers to pick their own blogs for review or blogrolls. In fact they discourage it. SS picks them for them and this seems to be too much favoritism in my opinion. I’ve tussled with discontinuing my acct. just for this reason and continue to pressure them in providing me with a reason to not. They seem to not be worried about this but it will eventually bite them in the ass. As a lot of their main income comes from blogs that hasn’t been around for ever and when these blogs get noticed they’ll move on to other avenues that aren’t so deceitful. Just my opinion.
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February 10th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
That isn’t totally true, I have had advertisers specifically select my blog and add me to their blogroll when they hire me “directly” on SocialSpark. It has happened only 2 times, but in both times it was a decent paying post. Also you have to be honest in your opinion of a product, without being bashing. If you find flaws, or things you don’t like you are welcome to be free in expressing your opinion as long as you do it tactfully. After all the disclaimer for SocialSpark said all opinions are 100% mine and if you couldn’t give your honest opinion for fear of being penalized, how could it be true?
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February 10th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
I’m not sure which part your not agreeing with (That isn’t totally true,) in your comment. I know only what I’ve horse dragged, dentist pulled, and water boarded, out of SS staff. They specifically told me that they discourage advertisers in picking their own blogrolls. Here again THAT’S FAVORTISM when SS picks them and discourages advertisers. SS knows no more about most of their blogs than the advertisers as they only approve a blog accordingly and forget about it. They don’t read them etc. shiz Justin you know this quit swinging on their nutz. I am not attempting to discourage ANYONE from using SS, Matter of fact I’m giving constructive criticism. HUH? and I have had an advertiser pick me too, as a matter of fact, 2 of them and I haven’t used SS as long as you and my blog isn’t yet as popular as yours. My whole pt. that is not very many and does not count as productive in a blogroll sense. Each time a complain to them, I get an opp and a blogroll, do I have to do that when my reviews are more than productive? Let others figure out for themselves. Like I said I have no problems with SS other than the blogrolls. When I first member shipped up they didn’t do it like they do now and it’s discouraging. Nuff Said. Keep Swingin..
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February 10th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
I was saying that’s not true about writing your own honest opinion when you review a product. I do also wish more blog opps were set by criteria and not hand selected by blog roll. Usually to get on an advertisers blogroll, the advertiser will tell SocialSpark what category of blog they are looking for, then SocialSpark staff will email the top 5 or top 10 blogs in the category (always hitting up premium bloggers first I think) to see who is interested, those that are first come and interested get the opp. This is how it appears to work for me. It isn’t favoritism, if they only email the top 10 blogs listed based on RealRank or Premium for the category, it is a fact of analytics no?
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February 10th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Uncle…your right let others find out for themselves. In the long run you can see the opps have dropped off and advertisers have moved to elsewhere. I get more productive opps by emailing and soliciting that way. But here again. I mean I wish I was SS. Shiz … their doing the damn thing… more power too them Floridians…
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February 10th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
I did notice that opps seem to taper off, and come in spurts from advertisers. One thing I also think is that IZEA charges too much for their commission 50% is higher than nearly all other blogging platforms and this especially hurts services like SponsoredTweets and Sponzai I think from being bigger since companies have to pay 2x what a blogger sets as his asking price just to hire them.
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February 10th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
I totally agree Justin. I noticed and I’m sure you have too that Sponsored Reviews raised their price to 50/50 recently. As for Sponsored Tweets and Sponzai.. I don’t use them and just by the Opps that come or that I noticed use to come when I payed attention to them, they’ve cut thier own throats so to speak. I would advertise one of my business blogs on their if they wasn’t so greedy. I’Ve noticed PPP4 has even quieted down and ppl are frustrated there or was when I left there. It’s actually been a few since I checked. Maybe I’ll go check topics/comments now to see. Curious. Gotta stay on top of things big and small.
You do rock though Justin, no matter how I comment I don’t ever mean to downplay your ability. I just speak too openly honestly sometimes. Cheers!
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February 12th, 2010 at 5:11 am
Much appreciated brother, hadn’t heard much of them before.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Theme Construction Part 2 – What Should Go WITHIN The Blog? This Is The FUN Part!
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February 12th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
I just signed up to socialspark because of this post , I dont expect to see the earnings you show in your screenshot but I can sure try
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February 13th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Hey Justin, have you logged in to the ‘browse users’ lately on SS? If so what does it do for you? As in is it working or does it say out getting cheezburgers or some ole crap? If you get time let me know if your still able to add friends or if that part of the server is down. thanks
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February 14th, 2010 at 7:42 am
It was broken for me on Friday when I tried to browse users, I figured they would have had it fixed by now. I will alert the SocialSpark team.
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February 13th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Guess your out getting cheezburgers too.. LoL… Hope you and yours have a special V-Day
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February 17th, 2010 at 9:14 am
Thanks for the tips. I learned a lot and followed through on some of your suggestions!
Yona Williams´s last blog ..Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred
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February 17th, 2010 at 9:44 am
You are quite welcome.
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June 12th, 2010 at 4:21 am
I tried registering on SS sometimes ago, I was not approved due to the fact that my blog does not have 20 post in the last 90 days but with your review and your disscussion with cadilacjax, I am going putting up post to get it approved, thanks for the honest and calm well you have done this post and the answers to the comment, to be fair is actually not an easy job!
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August 11th, 2010 at 1:06 am
thanks for these wonderful tips, however I cannot grab the opportunities in SS, maybe because of the categories? can you please share with me what is the best categories to apply. thanks!
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August 11th, 2010 at 8:15 am
I see varied opps in various categories, Technology, Family, Food, Women’s seem to do pretty well, but it all depends on what advertisers are in the system for that time. There were lots of opps for food related blogs recently, but earlier in the year there were plenty for entertainment blogs.
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