As I’m surfing around the net today using Blog Explosion, I thought I’d take some time to identify some great blogs.  Some of these are new and some are not so new and some have been around since the beginning of the blogosphere maybe, but all share the characteristics of being great blogs that could benefit from fully disclosed revenue streams through Social Spark.

1. Scooby and His Meddling Family – This site is on blogger and relatively new (just like Scooby) but its a great little blog and has lots of potential.
2. Observing German(s)… – This social commentary almost politico blog does something in English that you don’t see very often, it talks about Germany.  Being of partial German descent myself and being completely bereft of the ability to speak or read German, it is not terribly easy to get a feel for the place and culture as it exists today, but this provides some interesting little snapshots.  Note it is on blog.com, has some good content but the site owner should really move to wordpress and own their own content. 
3. Anything But Wind Chimes – A lot of people come up with some pretty terribly profile bios on Blogger, hell I’m probably one of them, can’t even remember what I may have as a profile there, but I think this bio is cute and funny and does actually capture the essence of the blog articles that I read (cute and funny but also something more there than just cute and funny)
1. “I’m 19, Stressed as hell, and always striving for a chance to just goof around.”
4. Winged Emotion – Nice looking site and I knew I had to click away fast because this post with the Best Smart Ass Replies of 2008 was sure to make me lose a lot of time today.    Seriously, great site, could definitely benefit from a SEO upgrade and new permalink structure to drive more traffic, but doing a lot of things well.
5. runswithscissors – this is a great blog that I have followed for quite some time, more as a lurker reader.  This also one of those sites that has been around for a long long time.  I think this would make a great addition because this blogger is also a writer as in book writer.  I’ve thought for a long time that novelists could definitely get a big boost from both earning money through Social Spark but also the networking opportunity with a network of 200k + vocal bloggers, maybe even a little advertising from time to time.  On a makeover note, I think this blog might be on TypePad.  TypePad is good for many things, but I believe WordPress has eclipsed it with its power house of open source plugins and CMS functionality.  I just did a TypePad migration to WordPress for a friend and client, Dave Courvouisier, who is a blogger, voice over artist, an anchor man in Las Vegas on KLAS-TV, and an Emmy Award winning broadcaster/producer/writer.  I think runswithscissors could move to a higher level off of the TypePad plateau, an extra revenue stream wouldn’t hurt either, even if it is just used to pay for more marketing for the books on the site!

If you are looking for some examples of sites that could work well, make sure you check these blogs out.  A couple of them are so new that they would not yet qualify into Social Spark, but if they keep up what they are doing, I don’t think they would have any problems getting in if they chose.  Some may already be in the system even. 

Yesterday I received a request from the author of Chon’s Magazine.  Actually at the time the initial email didn’t have the blog url, but I got it today and took a look at the site and liked a lot of what I saw, but did see a couple things that could both help this site.

1. A lot of very good effort has gone into this site and it has generated an good result.  But the site is running on the blogger platform and will always be limited by that platform both in terms of functionality like communicating and commenting, but also for search engine optimization, SERP results, traffic, and that all means less potential ad revenue, or lower quality ads.  Please consider moving to self hosted WordPress!
2. If you stay on blogger for another day, week or whatever, please take a look at our blogger favicon tutorial.
3. To get approved by Social Spark, you need to install the stats tracking code that they provide, sometimes known as the itk code.  This has to be inserted into your template just before the </body> tag,  It can take a couple days for approval, so do this right away.  I can’t see anything other than this that will hold you back.
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   2. Update – I received a follow up email from this blogger, and it looks like they have actually properly installed the codes ( note, I could not see them in the source code on their blog when I checked, but they sent the following screen shots)
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   5. I looked again at the source code and was able to find the code installed.  Its located just after the opening <body> tag as opposed to before the closing </body> tag.  It has been my experience that it is better to put this code at the very end, so that nothing on the Izea servers slows down the loading of content or images on your site.  I would definitely move this code to increase loading time of the blog, but it should work.
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   7. Next Steps – Its time for a Social Spark Support Ticket!  Send in a ticket to support and ask them to review the situation.  Sometimes these things get stuck in the system, and just need to be pushed along with a little help from the large staff at Izea.
4. Note, you are already starting to get well connected via blogger, you’ve done a lot of things right.  Once you get setup with Social Spark and start earning some money for your blogging efforts, you can help point your friends in a similar direction and they can earn some money too.  Nothing better than helping a friend earn money.  Give a person some rice and they eat for a day, teach them how to grow and cook rice and they can eat for a lifetime.

Early this afternoon, I received the following request from Srini looking for some help on a blog titled ‘About Everything . . .’

HI Bret…I received your mail and thanks a lot for letting me know about the work that you do…Ur doing a great job by helping us guys in getting more money writing for the products…Thanks a lot for that…i started a blog some months ago and i had submitted it for approval it has a PR3 but still the site was rejected by Payperpost staff..can u help me with this? i will be really happy and thankfull…MY blog url is http://united.co.cc thnx and waitn4 ur reply

Currently this site is not old enough, but in about 2 weeks it will be ready.  It also needs a couple more blog articles to meet the minimum requirements of 20 articles.  To prove that it is old enough and that it has enough articles it also needs a archives section in the sidebar, easy to do with a WordPress Widget.

A more prickly situation revolves around Playboy.  The site links to a couple places that offer free downloads of Playboy content.  Not only is that a potential legal liability (ergo you could get sued by Playboy Enterprises!), but the type of content and the fact that it is 3rd party content could trigger a rejection.

My advice is to get rid of the download links (its ok to talk about the magazine or even an issue in your own words), but be careful with adult pictures if you want to be accepted into the Social Spark or PayPerPost market place.

Finally, I’d recommend to general things.  Write some more!  The site is a little verbage lite and could use some more content in the forms of words.  Playboy aside, you are doing good including images in your articles.

I’d also recommend using a more unique WordPress theme.  You can download and legally use many free themes, or you can even design your own theme without needing any programming experience these days.  I’d also suggest considering a domain that you own entirely and hosting it yourself.  co.cc sites are definitely good to get your feet wet and learn how things work without spending much, but just a little more money, time and effort with your own self hosted domain name on your server account  will generate much better results.

I put out a call for people looking for advice to help get their blog(s) approved through social spark.

One of the first few responses I received came from a blogger named Osuji

Hello Mr Brett,
Thank you so much for that wonderful enlightenment about SocialSpark and your Live Writers site, I have honestly been looking forward to meeting you and probably getting help from you.
I actually signed up for Social Spark, but i kept on receiving a declining message, that my blog each time gets declined.
I don’t know how else to get it approved as i have tried to update it every time with nice content and information.
So i will gladly appreciate your effort and assistance in helping get approved and making my blog reach that height it should be.
Its a blog site (http://www.busyhomes.blogspot.com) that blogs about business opportunities on the internet.
I really wish to hear from you as to how we can work together to first help me get approved on Social Spark and further enhance the quality of my blog business wise.
Thank you very much once again, for writing me.
Osuji Ogadimma
BusyHomes.

I took a look at Osuji’s blog and here are my initial recommendations. 

Making these improvements will definitely help Osuji’s chances for getting this or any other blog approved in Social Spark, but I want to point out that writing more unique content is really the key here.

Note a search on the first blog article title yields dozens of articles with the same exact title.

see Google Search on Five brilliant ideas for traffic generation

Most of the recommendations below can be resolved with a little more time, but the perception of unique & interesting content is really the main goal.  Currently the content feels a little too generic. 

Ads on the site from day 1 – Good or Bad?

There are several ads and sponsored articles on the site.  I don’t have a problem with that at all.  In fact, I encourage this.  However, I encourage this because I think bloggers need to learn from day one how to generate the right balance on their site between useful unique content and the advertising that funds their efforts.  Currently this site is too far out of balance and that will definitely hurt its chances of helping readers and performing well ($$) for the publisher and writer.

Don’t Forget to Verify Your Blog with Social Spark by Installing the Code!

Make sure your blog status looks like the example on the right.  You need to claim the blog to show that you control it, you need to install the code provided by Social Spark, and then it should take a couple days for Social Spark to ‘verify’ that the code is installed correctly.

I’ve recently noticed that there are a number of people that have not yet gotten their blogs approved with Social Spark.  I do understand that it is kind of a drawn out process to enter all that information into the market place system so that you can then be eligible to get matched to advertisers that might want to place spots on your blog, but guess what?

Make sure your blog status looks like the above example.  You need to claim the blog to show that you control it, you need to install the code provided by Social Spark, and then it should take a couple days for Social Spark to ‘verify’ that the code is installed correctly.

Those advertisers pay you for those spots and they can not select you if your blog is not approved!

I am here to help! 

If you have not yet gotten your blog approved by Social Spark, if you are having problems getting approved, if you do not know what to do next, or if you do not even have a blog yet, I can help!

Drop me a comment or email me at brettbum@yahoo.com with the subject:  Blog Approval Help

Include your name, your SocialSpark username, and your blog url plus a very quick comment about why you are stuck.

If I can help I will, and then we can get your blog up to speed and earning you some revenue this summer.  Just a thought, but the Izea 3 year anniversary is coming up in 6 days, I would not miss having your blog in the system and approved by that deadline . . . .