The English Armchair Abroad

Payperpost and Social Spark: The last word

A few people have commented on the "new look" of The English Armchair Abroad and I thank them for their kind and positive comments.  It was beginning to look a bit dreary and I had an hour to play with (actually it took an entire afternoon but that's due to my total ineptness on the computer!) and it just seemed the right time.

It was also partly because I have decided to give up sponsored posts, at least for the time being.  Payperpost has been going well but to be honest was taking up far too much time.  When your blog is as lowly ranked as this one is you don't get the high paying opportunities.  That's normal and to be expected;  however my decision was finally pushed by Social Spark which is the sister of Payperpost - they are both the brainchilds of IZEA. 

Let me explain as I think people who are considering entering the world of sponsored posts should perhaps know the less glossy side as well as the good side.

Payperpost has been around for a number of years and seems (to me - all these remarks are mine) to work well.  You register, you are, hopefully, accepted and you are then able to see opportunities as they come up - at which point you grab them.  Just like the last piece of chocolate cake at a childrens' tea-party the opps go quickly.  From the moment the opp is up for grabs the price you will pay is there in front of you.  It might be 5USD (the minimum) or anything upwards of that.  The higher ranked blogs take opps which pay 200USD  if they are quick enough.  One blogger has made over 20,000USD in just over two years.  Not insignificant then.

Social Spark is different.  The opps are advertised and if you qualify (again the higher you are ranked the more you are qualified to take) you can take them;  except that more often than not you are a little too late so you are put in a queue.  In due course you receive an email saying it's your turn and you have twelve hours to write your post.
Unfortunately at this point there is the first sting in the tail.  You might have joined the queue when the opp was paying 30USD but because of the slightly peculiar payment system you are offered the opp at 5.50USD.  Hmmm.  A big difference!  Add to this that 300 words at the higher price is ok but at 5.50USD?  AND they want a photo, two links and perhaps a video?  No thank you.  I have written three posts for Social Spark but I've turned down about ten.  It isn't worth it in my view.

The final straw came one month after my first post had been written for Social Spark.  You are not paid by either Payperpost or Social Spark until your post has been on your blog for one month.  That's fair enough as most people erase the post as soon as they've been paid.  Payperpost puts the money directly into your Paypal account and I was under the impression that this would happen with Social Spark as well.  Oh how wrong I was! 

I received an email as follows: 

You have been paid for your post!
Your post Social Spark - Good, Bad or Indifferent? has been approved for payout, and your SocialSpark account has been credited. To transfer this money to your PayPal account, please visit the Blogger Payout section on the "Manage My finances" page in SocialSpark.

When I tried to take the payment I found that until I had 20USD in my Social Spark "account" I was unable to take any of it.  It seems from the IZEA forums that I am not along in considering this totally dishonest.  For a start this is NOT mentioned in their Terms of Service (if it is, perhaps someone can point me in the right direction).  I realise that many bloggers are earning a lot more than me and are happy with the arrangement but frankly I'm not the only one who was "just starting out".  I'm lucky, the small amount of money in the account, obviously less than 20USD, is not exactly going to stop me buying the food but there are plenty of students doing this who need every dollar they can.  In the meantime I wonder how many units of less than 20USD are sitting in the SS account earning a nice stack of interest - but of course, that's just speculation.

So that's it.  The sponsored posts will stay on my blog until the one month is up and then there will be no more.  All disclaimers will be removed and, who knows, perhaps Google will even consider raising my ranking just a touch!

Bloggerwave

I am having trouble with one of the companies for whom I write sponsored posts and am looking around for other options.  One of these is Bloggerwave who are aiming to become Europe's largest advertiser with bloggers, perhaps taking the focus away from the American based ones!
So, if you have a blog and would like to make a little extra money with it, why not try this one.

Bloggers World!

               

Oh boy, if I only lived in Las Vegas!  Can you believe there is a CONVENTION for BLOGGERS??  Sounds like  something all self-respecting addicted bloggers should attend!

Actually, it's not only for bloggers but for anyone who needs to know about creating better websites, podcasts or, er, blogs.  Forget the usual routine of stuffy exhibitors with panels and plenty to say.  This will be far more hands on, much more fun.

The 4th Annual New Media Expo 2008 takes place in Las Vegas from 14 to 16 August.  Why would you miss it?!

Social Spark - Good, Bad or Indifferent?

Recently launched and now open to all bloggers SocialSpark is the latest paid post site from IZEA and as such is a sister site to PayPerPost.  I've been a member of the latter for about eight weeks and I've only recently joined Social Spark.  There are some key differences between the two.

When you are offered an opp (a paid opportunity to write for an advertiser) in PayPerPost (PPP) you are told exactly how much you will be paid.  So if it offers you ten dollars and you accept the post that's what you will be paid.  In Social Spark they are using something called "dynamic pricing".  This means that when the opp is put on the board at, say, thirty dollars, if there is a lot of people who want to accept it, you are put in a queue and the price is bought down by some calculation.  The result is that this opp, which I accepted at 27.50USD is in actual fact only paying me 5.50USD.  As a result there are other opps which I have turned down. 

Now don't get me wrong.  There are people making money with Social Spark and they are well satisfied.  I just wanted to point out that for bloggers new to this the dynamic pricing is a complicated and to my mind not totally clear system.

The fact that I can actually say this is part of their code of ethics which includes:

-100% Audit-able In-Post Disclosure
-100% Transparency
-100% Real Opinions
-100% Search Engine Friendly

There are things that I like about Social Spark and which have nothing to do with paid posts.  There is a thriving community and you can use this to build traffic to your blog.  This obviously helps with your ranking and that has a direct bearing on what opps you are offered.

So what is my opinion of Social Spark?  I'm not sure.  On this blog the jury is still out.  Give it a go and see what you think.