As many of you know, I sometimes write and do advertising on my blog for a company called IZEA. Those of you not familiar, IZEA is a social marketing solutions company. In hard times, businesses are failing, advertising budgets are shrinking, and as a result, less people hear about your business. It’s not that people aren’t up for spending their money on your product; They just don’t know enough about you yet. People are on tighter budgets, making more informed decisions about their purchases. That’s just not something people are going to get from a 30 second TV or Radio spot. It might be enough to pique their interest, but then they have to find you and ask their friends about you and read website reviews about you.
Nowadays, especially in niche markets like tech gadgets and gear, people are going to tech blogs and review sites to find out what’s the best bang for their dollar. They want the best deals on the best brands. When they go to do their homework, are they going to find that YOUR business or product are the hottest thing out there?
There used to be a very sketchy smog surrounding the concept of “sponsored conversation” – because it harbored the odious stench associated with product placement in movies or television. People would steer clear of any such form of promotion, especially content publishers like bloggers, because they didn’t want to risk their integrity. Here’s where SocialSpark comes in:
- 100% Honest Opinions. If a SocialSpark blogger doesn’t like something, they’re going to tell you. It’s not all glowing product-worship reviews – but a client’s product or service will get to be a topic of conversation amongst the blogger and their readers.
- 100% Full Disclosure. Every SocialSpark blogger is required to have a disclosure policy (like mine in the links at the top of the page). This lets our readers know that there is sometimes compensation for talking about something in our posts, but this is always identified with a badge at the end of each sponsored post.
- 100% Transparency. Sponsored posts or affiliate ads are chosen by the blogger from available opportunities, and if a blogger doesn’t like an opportunity, they are not required to take it. Blogs in the SocialSpark system are categorized, so that bloggers don’t post on irrelevant topics just to earn money.
SocialSpark helps the economy in two ways: first of all, it helps your business grow by leaps and bounds harnessing the power of social media like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and traditional web page ads. Secondly, SocialSpark lets tech bloggers like me monetize their blogs (yes, PLURAL, you can register more than one blog with SocialSpark). Being able to earn profit while doing something I enjoy gives me motivation to write more often and to write relevant and informative (or at least entertaining!) content. It’s encouraged me to try to build my readership, learn the ropes of social marketing, and build relationships around the blogging community.
If you’re a tech blogger and you’ve been wondering how to get involved in monetizing your blog, SocialSpark is your invitation to the Big Show. If you’re a business owner or advertiser and you’ve been trying to find a non-shady way to break into the social marketing niche, SocialSpark is your inside man.
EDIT: If you sign up for SocialSpark, be sure and get your blog verified, then leave a comment here letting me know you signed up so I can find you and add you as a friend. Or DM me on Twitter @ragingtech.
