It’s been more than two years since the initial release of our premium blog monetization platform, SocialSpark.com. Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in SocialSpark’s history: the roll out of version 2.0.
We’ve listened to your incredible feedback via Get Satisfaction, Twitter, and our company blog and have completely rewritten and redesigned the SocialSpark application from the ground up with that feedback in mind. We’re really excited to introduce the basics to you today, and we hope you like it as much as we do.
The purpose of early registration is to migrate publishers to the new platform so advertisers can start making offers. You will not see any Opps day one; it will be a few days before we start doing any of that. This is the first step.
SocialSpark v1.0 Users
If you are already registered as a blogger with SocialSpark v1.0 you can login with your same email and password. You will see the blogs you have already claimed. You will need to go in and update your information, allow Direct Publishing and authorize Google Analytics (see below).
What’s New in SocialSpark v2.0
Simplicity
We have stripped out everything that isn’t needed. The new experience is lighter, faster and focused on matching advertisers and publishers in the most efficient manner possible.
Direct Publishing
Advertisers have asked for a way to check content for factual errors before it’s published, and publishers have asked for a simpler way to include required elements like our Disclosure Badge and required links in their posts. The solution to both is Direct Publishing.
With the power of OAuth and other platform-specific publishing mechanisms, we are able to accept content directly through the SocialSpark interface and publish it upon approval, with all of the required links, disclosure elements, and ad tags automatically included behind the scenes.
Your content will never be edited by anyone else – only you decide what gets published to your blog. This process also ensures that your post will never be rejected for payment after it has already been published. Nothing goes live until both parties are satisfied. Once it goes live payment is guaranteed. This is the same process we follow in Sponsored Tweets and it has worked out great for both advertisers and publishers.
Google Analytics Integration
SocialSpark 2.0 eliminates the need for the IZEA Toolkit (so long, old friend)! We’ve recognized that Google provides a better tool for site analytics, and have designed SocialSpark to take advantage of the data most bloggers are already gathering. The data used to segment blogs for Opportunities comes directly from Google Analytics, eliminating issues with data discrepancies between ITK and third party analytics providers. It also puts an end to the extra bit of code bloggers were asked to add to their blog templates, instead using the Google Analytics code most bloggers already have installed.
If you’re new to Google Analytics, don’t fret. It is super easy to use and you install it in 5 minutes.
Blogger Privacy
While SocialSpark 1.0 was totally public, blogs in SocialSpark 2.0 will be visible only to advertisers looking to make offers for Opportunities. We’ve done away with the public blog and blogger profiles, commenting, propping, and other features not central to blog monetization. The only time other users will see your blog is when they are ready to get down to business!
More to Come.
What you’ll see today is only the beginning. In the coming days and weeks we’ll be opening the site up to advertisers, transferring open Opportunities into the new system, and completing a blog audit that will prune the blogs in the system down to the ones that continue to meet our Terms of Service and quality standards.
Check out SocialSpark v2.0
