There is nothing new about sponsored posts. However, IZEA is attempting to reinvent the wheel with their new service, SocialSpark, currently in private alpha testing.

Due out back in January, SocialSpark has been in development for quite sometime. It wasn’t until mid-March that access keys were actually being handed out to those “promised” at the first look. At the end of March, my invitation key arrived via email where I jumped into the system not for actual use but to look.

Let me state at this point that I haven’t done much with the site. No, I won’t be accepting sponsored posts via SocialSpark, there will be no site sponsors here, nor will I be using IZEA’s RealRank system.

The following is information based on having access to the website and saying up-to-date on all things SocialSpark.

For the first time, SocialSpark has made promises of creating unity between advertisers and bloggers. This is something that hasn’t been done unless you privately sell advertising space on your blog. With a slew of features, SocialSpark brings social networking and sponsored posts together.

This is not your MySpace or Facebook application while some of the features may seem the same: profile messaging, private messaging, friend requests, and the ability to comment on blogger and advertiser profiles.

Features

Blog Sponsorship

From the first announcement at PostieCon, I knew that Blog Sponsorships were something that I would never be using. The intrusive advertisement acts as a pop-up window before your visitor even reaches your blog. With a blackout screen to your blog’s content, an advertisement will display to your visitors once per week when visiting your blog:

The advertisement calls an action to your visitor to close the window. As an alternative, your visitor can wait 10 seconds for the advertisement to disappear. Once it has, your blog will now carry a thick bar at the very bottom of the blog’s screen:

Actual Height

This bar will sit at 100% width on your blog. Thus reducing the amount of real content above the fold. To make it worse, it’ll follow your visitor around your blog and while scrolling blog pages. You can see it in action at Drew’s blog, The Wired Kayaker.

This may be one of the most debated features of SocialSpark with an ever increasing thread about it on IZEA’s forum. [ View Thread ]

Sponsored Posts

Just as PayPerPost, SocialSpark enables the good ‘ol sponsored post opportunity. However, as a leg up to PayPerPost’s system, SocialSpark’s sponsored posts come with pre-coded links that carry the nofollow attribute thus reducing your chances of being hit by Google for selling PageRank.

While this system is initially good for bloggers that actually carry traffic to help an advertiser out with clicks, blogs that used to have sponsored posts simply for SEO purposes, will no longer have the opportunity to take sponsored posts based on low traffic trends (as reported through the IzeaRanks system).

That minor set back doesn’t seem to be an issue. By viewing the threads in the IZEA forum, bloggers and PayPerPost users are ready, willing, and excited for the use of the nofollow attribute in SocialSpark.

Since SocialSpark is still in private alpha, the only advertiser available to give out SocialSpark opportunities is IZEA themselves. Here’s a look at the current opportunities available for SocialSpark alpha testers.

As you can see by the screen shot, payouts are set as low as $5.50 USD. Just $.50 above what the competitor, PayU2Blog pays for just a single link in an everyday post on a blog. Hardly worth the time and effort.

To make the low payout even more unique, as more bloggers take the opportunity available, the payout beings to drop. For the real money making potential, a blogger would have to prey on SocialSpark for opportunities to come available and be one of the firsts to accept the opportunity and post to their blog. Competition, just like in PayPerPost, will be stiff for the higher payouts.

Incentive is available however to make unique, quality posts on sponsored posts with a bonus payout for every opportunity. However, bonus payout is paid at the advertiser’s discretion and thus could end up being only a teaser.

Sparks

Used to promote other bloggers, Sparks are free opportunities placed by both bloggers and advertisers and are taken without pay. Currently being used to review blogs, promote non-profits, and give other blogger’s post inspiration, Sparks are a great way to interact with other bloggers and begin to create a community within SocialSpark.

One of the more interesting features of a Spark opportunity is the “Blog U Back” feature.

By creating a free Spark opportunity, the option can be included to have the creator of the Spark “blog u back” which means they’ll post about you on their blog. This is an interesting system for trading blogger reviews, asking questions and answering on your own blog, or exchanging links in a unique manner.

Changes from PayPerPost

PayPerPost was innovative, just as SocialSpark today. With an ever growing blogosphere and desire to earn a passive income with blogs, new media concepts have to be truly innovative and unique. Two years ago, that was PayPerPost. But with the slow launch of SocialSpark on the horizon, it’s now SocialSpark’s turn to shine and correct some features within PayPerPost that became an issue.

Here’s a brief and incomplete scan of those corrections:

1. The use of no follow tags (as previously mentioned).
2. Ability to connect with an advertiser, especially useful when a blogger doesn’t qualify for an opportunity. A blogger can appeal to the advertiser to be allowed into an opportunity that the qualifications segmented the blogger out of.
3. All posts are “natural in tone” meaning the tone of “positive, neutral, or buzz” will no longer be dictated. You’re free to say what you wish and will still get paid!

Disclosure

IZEA took major grief in the beginning of PayPerPost by not requiring disclosure for sponsored posts. From the public roar about no disclosure, PayPerPost answered the call with their website DisclosurePolicy.org which led bloggers and webmasters through a serious of questions to create the perfect disclosure policy. However, no freedom was given to the blogger to use or not use a disclosure. Payment for taken opportunities would not be issued without an in-post disclosure (as required by the advertiser) or a site-wide disclosure policy (a condition in the PayPerPost terms of service).

SocialSpark requires in-post disclosure for every paid opportunity taken. This means without fail, you’ll be announcing to your visitors, search engines, and critics every time you take a sponsored post. I hate it.

Taking a sponsored post should require seamless integration within your blog. Being a blogger’s resource blog, I wouldn’t go and take a sponsored post about skin care. It’s not my niche and it’s not natural. By following this personal code of ethics for my blog, a in-post disclosure shouldn’t be required as a sponsored post should be something I’d be willing to write about… with or without the looming payment.

TechCrunch was the biggest voice in the lack of required disclosure in the PayPerPost marketplace. Ted Murphy answered their call by making it a requirement. Yet, TechCrunch doesn’t follow their own advice with no disclosure policy on their website for any of their more than obvious advertisements.

Analytics

Unlike PayPerPost that relied on the Alexa rank and PageRank of a blog to segment blogs in or out of opportunities, SocialSpark will utilize IZEA’s own RealRank. Enabling advertisers to view the specs of each blog right on the SocialSpark website.

Izea’s Analytics include information such as page views, visitors, RealRank average, Alexa rank, Google PageRank, and ROI (return on investment) rank. While it’s complete, I have concerns about the accuracy reports based on the inaccuracy reports generated from the public use of the IzeaRanks website. The good news for bloggers however, is that it’s rumored that PageRank will not at all be used in SocialSpark as a means of segmenting bloggers out of opportunities. Since Google removed PageRank for a lot of these bloggers, that’s good news.

Final Thoughts

It appears to me that SocialSpark will best be used with smaller niche bloggers or the “Mommy Bloggers,” clearly their target market based on a current SocialSpark opportunity posted by IZEA.

The headline of this opportunity currently available for the taking reads “SocialSpark is Great for Mommy Bloggers.”

At the moment, I have no intentions of using SocialSpark as a monetization method on I’m Blogging That. However, I may participate in Sparks depending on the requirement for disclosure in these opportunities. It’ll be interesting to watch the future development of this site. And I’m looking forward to more reactions when SocialSpark goes public beta.

My information for this post was gained through browsing the posts on IZEA’s blog about SocialSpark, reading through the IZEA forum boards, and actually browsing through the SocialSpark website. While I cannot guarantee the accuracy of every opinion stated here, I feel that I’m being more clear and straight forward about SocialSpark than IZEA themselves have been. Should I discover that I have not stated something here correctly, modifications will be made to this post.

What are your thoughts on SocialSpark? At this point, does it look like something you’re interested in using for monetizing your blog?

SocialSpark alpha testers were bound by non-disclosure agreement at the start of alpha testing. However, I’m feeling free to post this information on my blog based on Ted Murphy’s post on the IZEA forums which may be viewed here.

This post was written by I’m Blogging That’s former owner, Katy Castro who can now be found blogging at Unedited Life.