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I run a mailing / discussion list with over 1600 members. They are all women who love to make hair bows, and most them have take their hobby one more step and started small businesses selling the bows that they craft.

Anyway, last week there was a discussion about blogging on the list and it turns out that a good many of the list members have blogs. Most were curious about how people monetize their blogs. I have been anxious to share with the group members the ways I make money blogging, but I have also been reluctant to give them any tips that might jeopardize the integrity of their blogs.

Yesterday the social networking site called SocialSpark went live! I have been chomping at the bit about this project and, in fact, was fortunate enough to be in as an Alpha tester. I signed up as soon as I was invited, and now that Social Spark is open to the public, I have been urging my friends, colleges, and fellow group members to follow suit.

Writing product and site reviews for monetary compensation is nothing new, but a system that has finally found a way to combat the negative views some people have about blogging for money is indeed new. Social Spark is unique, in that it offers bloggers ways to make money blogging, connect with other bloggers and the advertisers, drive traffic to your blog, and to do all of this while maintaining a completely open and ethical line of communication with your readers.

There are companies out there who will pay you to post positive reviews on any number of products, but they will also urge you to be a little shady while doing it. Social Spark, on the other hand, requires that each paid post that you write contain an In-Post Disclosure. They also ask that you let your readers know, via a posted Disclosure Policy, that you sometimes are compensated for wring a review. While other companies may insist that you only post glowing reviews, Social Spark wants your real thoughts and opinions.

And, best of all, all outgoing links that you are asked to include in your reviews will contain the “nofollow” tag, which means that you are making the search engines happy at the same time that you are providing your readers with useful information. This also means that your paid links, when paired with the use of No Follow, should comply with even Google’s stringent guidelines. If Google is true to their word, that means that any posts you make via Social Spark will not cause ranking penalties.

My favorite part of Social Spark is that is it not simply a site focused on transactions and money. It is also a fully functioning social networking site. You can connect with other bloggers and the advertisers that are out there looking for great writers to help them spread the word about their sites and products.

It is the open nature of the blogger-advertiser relationship that really makes Social Spark ground-breaking.
Not only can bloggers and advertisers see my blogger account, they can also click through and view more detailed information about each of my blogs, including specific stats regarding my traffic: age and gender demographics, where in the world my readers reside, and how people are finding my blog. Although I can find and take blogging assignments in the marketplace, advertisers can also contact me directly via the Social Spark interface and create assignments for me.

Here you can see some specific demographic info about the readers of this particular blog:

If you have been looking for ways to make your blog work for you, please take a minute and look around the site. It will be worth your while. And, while you are there, look me up.