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currently there are some various options for bloggers that are interested in earning some extra cash using their blog. the extra cash can come in handy especially when filling up a tank of gas each week takes up to $60 nowadays. the amount that you can make usually depends the popularity of your blog as well as the time and effort that you put in to keep your blog up to date. One avenue that a blogger can take is the paid blogging route. IZEA’s SocialSpark is one of the more popular sites that are geared toward paid blogging and blog advertising.

I’ve been using the service for the past couple months and I have to say that the site is pretty impressive. First off, like most web 2.0 services, there’s a heavy emphasis in social networking. The service give the blogger great potential in connecting with other bloggers with similar interests as well as interacting with advertisers. each member has an accessible profile that displays interests, demographics as well as links to their blogs. this is great for advertisers curious about who is actually writing for them. blog profiles conveniently list out recent posts as well as visitor stats and IZEARanks. One of the neat things concerning opportunities for bloggers on SocialSpark is their queuing system. If there’s a certain opportunity that recently closed and you feel that your blog is perfect for the listed opportunity, you can add yourself to the queue so that you can be next in line when the advertiser continues with that specific advertising campaign. it’s a nice feature for those bloggers who don’t have to time to hang around the SocialSpark website waiting for opps to drop.

another nice aspect of SocialSpark is the transparency of it. IZEA understands the sensitive issues surrounding paid blogging and has made major efforts to make the service as transparent as possible. this runs the full spectrum – from upfront disclosure on paid posts down to the specific assignments on SocialSpark being accessible to the general public. that’s right, you don’t even need to be a member of SocialSpark to browse through the site and see all the opportunities available as well as all the bloggers and advertisers that are participating in the service. IZEA has also made the service search engine friendly by allowing “no-follow” tags on all required links. and bloggers, don’t worry about voicing your own opinion on these paid opps. SocialSpark opps won’t require a “positive” tone in your posts. so if you don’t like a certain product or service by an advertiser, no problem, just post your well thought out and honest opinion about it and you’ll still get paid. that’s definitely a good thing in my book.
now, there still are a few kinks here and there and that’s to be expected since the service is still in beta. the IZEA team are hard at work trying to make SocialSpark the best it can be. All I can say at this point is so far, so good. head on over to SocialSpark to see for yourself.

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miscellaneous by retroDan