If you have a blog and want to make money by writing sponsored posts, then you should register with SocialSpark. You will noticed that the link to SocialSpark has the nofollow tag. And that's what IZEA, the company behind SocialSpark, want to bring to the blogging community.

They have learned a lot from their other services that SocialSpark has a new code of ethics. They want: 100% Audit-able In-Post Disclosure, 100% Transparency, 100% Real Opinions and be 100% Search Engine Friendly. You can now write a sponsored post without the fear of losing your PageRank or be de-index by search engines.

A sponsored post is not the only way you can make money. If the quality or ROI(return on investment) of the post is better than the others, you will get a bonus or split a bonus with other bloggers.

They also offer Blog Sponsorship. It's a way for an advertiser to pay for publicity on your blog with text, images or video. The advertiser will pay on a per day basis.

A blogger(mostly)  can create a Spark thus giving you an ideal for a post by linking to the blogger. That is a free opportunity.
That's not all, SocialSpark wants to build a community where other bloggers can be friends with you. You can sent a message or request to be a friend with another blogger. I uploaded my own avatar to make me different than standard .

RealRank is how the ranking is calculated. I had to installed a piece of java code in my blog header to claimed my blog and to also offer statistical data about my blog.

Conclusion

SocialSpark is a good thing for the blogging community with it's new code of ethics. Plus, it gives bloggers another revenue source but it should not be you only way anyway.

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I'm always interested to see how other countries do business or offers. Well, if they would do like this UK mobile phone shop here in Canada, many would had a mobile, or cellular like we say here, a long time ago. With the HD format officially over now, I bet that many would prefer to take the free 40GB PS3 versus the XBox 360 arcade deal. You may pay more, but you can play movies too. I was expecting a 36 months term but it was only 18 months.

I guest the rules are the same for most mobile phone shops around the world, your are under a contract or you pay as you go. But on the site I was checking out, I thought it was layout better than here. For fun, I click on the PS3 offer and saw that 512MB Memory stick was also included. I could see the term, the number of minutes, the number of texts and line rental. The line rental column, I did not understand. When I clicked on it for help, I got this text in a window:

Payment by direct debit is mandatory.
Itemised billing is also included with this deal.
This is a minimum 18 month contract.

I checked the FAQ but it did not explained it. Is it that you must rent the phone number over in the UK?

Something that is great is that real clients were able to rate their phone in the package they had be leaving a review. That should help others when they do choose a phone.

They were not a one phone network store like most stores are here. They offered plans to 5 mobile networks. Some, I knew because they sponsored international events and with the most known to me: T-Mobile(US based).

Anyway, phone shops should learn from them. I do like the extra offer.

The first person to answer me by leaving a comment about my line rental question, you will be able to add your blog in my blog directory for life. Hey! I'm curious and patient

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I never took the time to really write about PayPerPost since I got in. I only took 1 $5 review for a trial run and the review was worth more than that. I can say that the advertiser got more than he bargain for. But, I consider myself a newbie for PayPerPost but not for the ideal of paid reviews. Of course, I was missing the $20.00 they were giving me just to write a review.

PayPerPost change much and will in the future and that's a fact. Okay, some may have lost their Google PageRank recently and it's a real shame for bloggers or posties. Tomorrow, I will tell you how you can do paid reviews without losing your PageRank. I hope more people start doing paid reviews again after reading that.

Back PayPerPost now

Once you login, you see the Blogger Dashboard. There, you will some of your information, Featured opportunities, Big Green(more money), Top earners($18 382.74 by Colleen), Blog of the day and the PayPerPost Blog(news title).

You will need to add your blog and you will then have access to many tools(banners) for your blog.

Opportunities knocking

You can see all the Open Opportunities. Unfortunately, many opportunities are more for low ranking blogs. You can also filter them to see what you can do and so, you will have many $5 opportunities if your blog is new. It's not much but if you do a few every month, it could make a nice little extra.

For smaller opportunities, it's often a small startup sites or another blogger that want some honest feedback. They may have $100 and went with 20 opportunities to drive traffic.

Don't get me wrong, the Big Green showed a $235 opportunity. So, they do exist but you need a high ranking blog.

What's my share?

They will take 35% of each opportunity or 10% is you do a PPPDirect.

To rank or not to rank

PayPerPost used to use the PageRank as one of the variables to calculate the ranking. But now, new opportunities are using RealRank instead. You will need to add some code to calculate the number of visitors to your site and pageviews. The last is the amount of ACTIVE inbound links per day. Hopefully, it should help new blogs that may gain a surge in visitors and won't have to wait 3 months for Google to update PageRank.

Support me

Last August, I moved from stevesblogen.i2mfan.com to mcgrath.ca. I email them and they moved my information to the new domain. It needed 2 emails to make it work. The second email was that I had change the blog name from Steve's Tech Blog to McGrath Dot Ca. So, it was not a big deal.

Conclusion

Yes, you can make an easy $20 for writing a post like this. I know, I know, I went well over the minimum 200 words. I'm not against paid reviews and with the recent change at PayPerPost, you will be able to be Google friendly if you want. But only do opportunities related to your blog.

You should register on PayPerPost if you want to take a closer look and decide for yourself!

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With my recent announcements about 1 Cool File, I had inquiries asking if I will be doing a paid review service. The answer is yes and no. Let me explain.

A small yes

The Blog Directory will be a marketplace of bloggers where advertisers will find a category(150+) that will match a product or service. Unlike other services, the bloggers are visible to all advertisers. Once found, the advertiser can enter in direct contact with the blogger for a review. The Buy Now and the Price per review should be entered in the blog information thus showing that the blogger does reviews. An advertiser could also decide to buy advertisement on the blog instead of a review. My only small fee is the Blog Package that was bought when the blog was included in the Blog Directory.

I will offer paid review for software when the 1 Cool File Editor's awards will be used. For that, I will pick bloggers that can do software reviews.

I will offer, for 10% to cover my time plus PayPal fees, an escrow service to advertisers. The advertiser pay me and I pay the blogger once the review is done with no judgment on the review. This is only for amount larger than $100+ .

$100 * 2.9% + 0.30 = $3.20 in PayPal fees
$100 - 10% = $90 to the blogger
$10 - $3.20 = $6.20 for 1 Cool File(me)

Once done, I will give the blogger an Editor's Rating of 1/5 then 2, 3 .....If the review is not done, I will remove a 1 plus add a negative comment on the blog detail page. I see the escrow service as a way to gain trust of future advertisers. In time, the blogger's reputation will mean that no escrow will be needed. Of course, it's optional.

The advertiser may also leave a comment on the blog on the quality of the review.
A smaller no

If a blogger charge $200 for a review, I don't get anything thus not responsible. I don't offer any kind of protection by default if one don't pay or don't do the review. If they don't use my escrow service, they can still use a third party service if they want. I don't make a judgment on the quality of a review(negative, neutral, positive or even style).
Conclusion

For now, I don't plan on offering a full paid review service because other services can better fit that role. I can now understand why some charge more to offer full protection to advertisers and bloggers. But if I were to offer a full protection services, I would involved bloggers somehow. So instead, I'm counting on advertisers and mostly the bloggers to make it a trusting environment of quality reviews and be beneficial to both and me too .

Would you like to keep more money for you when doing reviews?

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This is a sponsored review

Backup is something many don't do until something bad happens to their files. The common way is to use a backup software or simpler yet, just burn the files to CD/DVD or copy them to an external hard drive. This method is better than no backup at all but still not safe. You must keep a copy to an external location(family, friend, office) or one other way would be to use Online Storage to make the steps more secure.

This is where IBackup come into play. They offer a secure drag-n-drop method of copying your files via a map drive. For example, the drive letter “I” in Windows Explorer could be you Ibackup drive. Because most files can be compressed(30-50%), the software will make uploading the files faster. It can compressed even more a database but not much multimedia files(mp3, avi, wmv...).

They have many pricing plans starting at $9.95/month for 5 GB. They also have many software options like: IBackup for Windows, IDrive for MAC, IDrive multimedia ....

I would recommend online storage for those that don't want a website and are looking for something simple.

Take a look!

Did you made a backup today?

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If you have a Zune, I don't, and are looking for Zune wallpapers then get them on Zune Art.

The site

On first look, the site is very simple and I liked that. It's separated in 5 sections: Top(home, search, top rated ...), Category(3D art, Babes, Movies/TV shows...), Random files, Last additions and various links(About, Site maps...).

You pick a category and it will display the available wallpapers. You can sort them by Title, Filename, Date and by Position. Each sorting order could be done in ascending or descending.

You select a picture and you see it. You can have information(hidden by default) like size, dimension, views, rating... at the bottom. You can click on the picture and get a bigger one(Underworld 2) in it's own window but not on all of them(Underworld).

Some part of the sites(Legal notice, Terms and conditions when you register...) had very professional legal text.

The gallery is powered by Coppermine Photo Gallery

Members

The images are uploaded by it's members and they must be 18 to register because some of the lovely images(Babes category) are not very suitable for young children. But, I did not see any nudity. A member can also comment and rate an image.

Note: I did not register to see what could be done.

Recommendations For Improvement

Of course, nothing is perfect and I will recommend a few things.

General

• The advantages of becoming a member should be shown before
• To attract more female members, a Hunk category could be added. This is only a suggestion and far from being an obligation
• Adding a PayPal account if the site grows quickly to get donations from members
• The Zune News link should be move at the top

Technical

Because it's using a third party gallery(open source), this may not be possible by the site owner(skills)

• The top menu(home, login ...) should be with a bigger font
• The search function URL could be used in an external third party tool like Info2MIS. I could searched if an image for a movie is available. (ex. http://www.imdb.com/find?q=underworld;tt=on;nm=off;mx=99 )
• The + and - , when sorting, could be replaced by up or down arrows
• I had trouble seeing images in Internet Explorer(error on page) but was able with Firefox(another reason to use it )

Monetization

Google AdSense is use on Zune Art. The Google ads are situated at the top only. I would not mind seeing some ads at the left or right and that would be a good reminder. If the site begins to get more traffic, then it will help to pay for the site.

Conclusion

The site is small for now but will grow in time thus giving more choices for Zune users. Someone could also use Zune Art to get a movie or a TV show wallpaper even if they don't own a Zune .

Sponsored Post: Get Reviewed At ReviewMe!

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