Sponsored reviews are usually characterized by love/hate emotions among bloggers and readers. Some feel they pollute a blogger’s writing, others don’t mind. Personally, I don’t mind sponsored reviews as long as they are adequately marked and are still a benefit to the reader. Enter SocialSpark.

Note: for the sake of up front disclosure, this article itself is a sponsored review, you can tell by the graphic that appears below the post.

SocialSpark is a relatively new service created by Izea (the makers of PayPerPost). Luckily for bloggers and readers alike, SocialSpark has set up a strict code of ethics that governs sponsored posts. For example, all links automatically carry a “no follow” tag. This protects bloggers against search engine penalization for paid links. Also, all posts require the “Sponsored by…” image that you see at the bottom of this post. This transparency assures that visitors know when they are reading sponsored content. Bloggers are also told to write honest opinions and reviews.

SocialSpark feels almost like a social networking site revolving around sponsored reviews. Members are given public profiles which they can edit. Members can add other users as friends, send private messages, leave public comments on their profile, or give “props”, a thumbs up/down way of saying which other users you like.

A nice feature about SocialSpark is the variety of listings it has. Members can choose from the regular “Sponsored Posts,” “Blog Sponsorships,” or “Sparks.” Blog sponsorships are pop-up advertisements that say “This blog sponsored by…” that appear the first time a reader visits your blog. The ad is hidden on subsequent visits. These type of ads pay a small daily rate (typically $0.30-$5.00) for up to 30 days. Sparks are free opportunities that bloggers can arrange, such as a “blog you back” arrangement or review exchanges. Both are nice additions that increase the earning potential of a blogger and the potential reach of an advertiser.

Overall SocialSpark seems to be a well designed advertising service. I wish payouts scaled based on a blogs rank (right now they are usually pretty low), and the website has a few bugs to be ironed out. But it looks like a service that has a lot of potential.

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SocialSpark homepage	Sponsored Post Offer	Accepting an offer

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