Isn't It About Time You Joined SocialSpark?

I just realized that, although I've had the SocialSpark widget in my Makin' the Bacon sidebar and I've frequently posted about SocialSpark over on my Roxiticus Desperate Housewives blog since I joined on April 8th, I haven't really given you the complete lowdown here on SocialSpark... kind of a combination of social networking (a la Blog Catalog or MyBlogLog or Zimbio, to name a few) and PayPerPost. Since then, I have really been enjoying the SocialSpark experience and, most importantly, I have made much more money from SocialSpark and PayPerPost than any of the other paid blogging services covered here at Makin' the Bacon...about 400 bucks over 3 months for SocialSpark, and another $500 since March on PayPerPost. While I have frequently joked at Roxiticus Desperate Housewives that I have "no friends" (if you're looking at MySpace or Friendster or Facebook), I have made all kinds of blogging friends at SocialSpark (closing in on 4,000 as I post today, but still less than half of the members), not to mention "faving" familiar faces from BlogExplosion like Mariuca, Tricia and Lady Java. Matt (Michigan Rafter) finally signed up last weekend. Check out SocialSpark by clicking the picture or one of the text links in this post, then swing by my profile and give my profile and my blog a PROP! I'll do the same for you.

Now is the time! There are lots and lots of new opportunities available for verified blogs. So get yourself over to SocialSpark and start the process! Or take a moment and read the steps I have outlined below.

To combat the problems other paid post services have had with Google PageRank, SocialSpark has a solid code of ethics:

• 100% Audit-able In-Post Disclosure


• 100% Transparency


• 100% Real Opinions


• 100% Search Engine Friendly

So joining SocialSpark and starting to post paid opportunities shouldn't cause Google to spank your blog....but if they do, IZEA, the owners of Social Spark, have created a new ranking system called RealRank to save the day. See my badge smiling at you from the sidebar??!! Go ahead, click on it and get a RealRank of your very own.

Now, let me take you through the steps for joining and getting to know Social Spark:

FIRST: Click any of my SocialSpark screenshots or text links in this post to sign up.

SECOND: Create your SocialSpark Blogger profile (I also have a SocialSpark Advertiser profile, but we'll get to that later). First, you'll choose a profile display name. This name should represent you as a Blogger, no matter how many blogs you have, but you can change it later if you decide your name no longer suits you. My name is Roxiticus Desperate Housewives since that's really my identity as well as my most popular blog. Then you'll fill in some basic demographic stuff, which you have the option of keeping private. After you enter the basics, it's time to upload an Avatar (of course, you'll see that my large avatar is Bree, but due to a funny cropping issue with SocialSpark, in my small square avatar only a glimpse of red hair shows up...just a little tease for all of my friends).

THIRD: It's time to register your blogs. You can add as many blogs as you have, even if they don't qualify for paid post opportunities. I have four blogs up on Social Spark (Roxiticus Desperate Housewives, Roxiticus Best Blogs, Makin' the Bacon Online, and Bay Head New Jersey Blog), but only Roxiticus Desperate Housewives qualified right away. I worked hard on developing content for my Bay Head Blog, and Customer Love just recently verified it for paid opportunities. Later, after you've met SocialSpark's criteria for your blog, there's a button you can hit to re-submit your blog for verification.

That's it...you're ready to go explore SocialSpark! Once you join, I'll send you a message asking you to be my friend, you'll say yes, and then you can click on that little glimpse of red hair square to hop over to my profile and give me a PROP! Leave me a comment on my profile, and I'll scurry right on over to your new profile to check out your blog(s) and give you a PROP!

Look for me out there and....Happy Sparking!

Fun, Games, and Maybe Some Moola

Double a penny 30 times and you have exactly $10,737,418.24.

When I first started blogging for dollars in earnest back in February, I signed up for quite a few different services, including Moola, a site where you play games for free, look at ads, and do various things involving sponsors to earn money. The Moola theme is that you can turn the pennies their sponsors give you into millions.

Moola never worked out for me, but if you've got more time on your hands and like to play games, it seems like a harmless way to make a few bucks while having some fun online.

Attention Hotties!!

If you are young and beautiful, Makin' the Bacon has a different way for you to make money today. Look of the Year http://www.lookoftheyear.com is offering you hotties a chance to get recognized and win a $10,000 prize. By entering this beauty contest, you could get spotted by an agency and launch your career as a model.

Look of the Year http://www.lookoftheyear.com is looking for beautiful people from all over the world to send in their best pictures. Take this chance to become the next top model...working in Paris, New York or Milan. Join Look of the Year today.

EntreCard

I just joined EntreCard...you'll see the EntreCard Blog of the Day in my sidebar. EntreCard does two things for me.

1. EntreCard drives traffic to my primary blog, Roxiticus Desperate Housewives.
2. EntreCard gives me a whole new set of blogs to read and enjoy. While I have my favorites on BlogExplosion, it starts to feel "same old, same old" and the EntreCard experience is refreshing....and addicting.

BloggerWave

One of the newer ways I have found to blog and make money is a European site called BloggerWave. Just like the U.S. sites that pay bloggers to promote advertisers on their blogs, BloggerWave offers opportunities to make a few bucks on your posts. I like to have several different options for finding paid content for my blogs, so Makin' the Bacon is going to add Bloggerwave to my list of blog employers. We'll keep you posted on the income stream....I think I have the option of receiving my money in British pounds.

Ning Social Networking

Ning Social Networking must be getting hot. Yesterday my friend Deb e-mailed me about her new social network, Jersey Biters, a companion to her Jersey food blog, Jersey Bites. After I joined Jersey Biters, Ning invited me to start my own social network, so I launched the Roxiticus Desperate Housewives social network (see link in sidebar) and invited a couple of friends to join. I suspect my Bestest Pal won't be far behind in launching his own social network. Then today, I visited my BlogExplosion friend Matt's blog, and found that he was promoting the FohBoh (Voice of the Global Restaurant Industry) social network on Ning....you can join it through a link on Matt's blog.

Improving Your Page Rank

I found a blog today called Everybody Go To with helpful tips on improving page rank.

Got Paid by Smorty

Got $54 in my PayPal account today thanks to Smorty. Sure hope the opportunities start showing up again soon...

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

Since I started my Roxiticus Desperate Housewives blog, I have signed up for a number of different sites for different purposes. At some point, I will come back here and post links, but for now, you'll find them all on Roxiticus Desperate Housewives in my sidebar:

• BlogExplosion: helps drive traffic to blogs, but also exposes bloggers to other people's blogs ("OPB") for ideas and fun along the way;
• Smorty:

  Get Paid to Write! http://www.smorty.com/?B=9790

  pays bloggers to write posts about advertisers. I earned $30 with Smorty during my first week of posting and I have another $54 pending from my second week's posts. However, it is clear from their online forums ("no opportunities in two weeks" or "when will we get paid") over the past week that Smorty is at least temporarily troubled;
• PayPerPost: pays bloggers to write posts about advertisers. PayPerPost will probably end up paying me the most. I've earned $94.87 in just four days and eight posts; PayPerPost's top earner is closing in on $20,000 after a little more than a year's work. However, PPP may also have caused the Google PageRank on my primary site to go from 2 to a big fat zero. To make it up to their posties, however, Izea (the company that owns PPP) has set up its own ranking system, IzeaRanks;
• Sponsored Reviews: pays bloggers to write posts about advertisers, who buy reviews on your site.

Making Money from Amazon

When I first got back to blogging in earnest this year, I added an Amazon affiliate widget to the sidebar of my primary site, Roxiticus Desperate Housewives. I also add Amazon links to various review posts (books, music, DVDs, Keurig coffee). Over a couple of months, I have earned $4.00 on just my own Amazon purchases. Now, I can't really complain about something for nuthin'. However, I have noticed that Amazon doesn't give me credit for purchases unless I click on the link or widget and use my Amazon one-click settings to pay for my purchase and ship it immediately. So now I'm smart, and that's what I'll do when I'm ordering my own stuff from Amazon via my blog. However, what are the odds that any of my loyal readers would actually take that route to purchase?

First Post -- Makin' The Bacon Online

Since I've spent a lot of time surfing other people's blogs to get idea for my primary site, Roxiticus Desperate Housewives, I have started to learn a bunch of tricks for making money by blogging. My new blog, Makin' the Bacon Online, will be devoted to helping others to earn money online.