Note: The following article is a guest post by a blogger:
I recently applied for a social spark, and I wanted to review it here. I submitted my website and then waited for them to approve (or “verify”) my blog. This is a manual review process that the social spark employees perform to make sure your blog is up to standards. I was hoping to get approved quickly, because I was interested in making a post and seeing how the service worked. I also wanted to give an in-depth review of how the service worked. So I waited and waited. I signed up on March 7th, and I didn’t hear a response until March 11th. A little long for a review, but I dealt with it.
Unfortunately, my blog was REJECTED! What?! I was a little surprised. Then I read the reasoning:
Your blog does not contain at least 20 posts within the past 90 days
I remembered it saying something about 90 days in their terms and conditions, but I assumed it meant your blog must have a total of 20 posts, and be at least 90 days old. I didn’t think twice about it because this site is nearly 3 years old, with almost 300 posts. So I just skimmed over that part, assuming it was a rule to filter out brand new blogs. I was wrong.
I didn’t realize it meant you had to post 20 times within the past 90 days of them reviewing it. That works out to nearly 7 posts per month. Not very many, but it does add up when you run several blogs (like me), and write other stuff on the side. Oh well.
So it looks like I may be able to make a few more posts, and then resubmit my blog for review, and apparently wait another week for them to approve or reject it. I have read a lot of mixed feedback about this company so far, but I am still willing to give them a shot because they seem to be the leader in paid post programs right now. Therefore, I will try one more time to submit my blog(s) to see if they get approved (after I ensure 20 posts have been made on each within the last 90 days).
I guess it goes to show you that you really have to read those terms and conditions with a microscope.
I Re-Submited My Blog for Social Spark Verification
As I mentioned in a previous post, I signed up for SocialSpark.com and submitted my blog for review. After a few days, I received notice that my blog was rejected. At first I was a little surprised, but after reading their terms more closely, I realized I did make a mistake.
The reason my blog was rejected is because you must have 20 posts written within the last 90 days. I had not quite written that many (partly because my wife and I just moved into our new house and I was blogging a lot less). I had glanced over the terms, and I did read that requirement. However, I thought it meant your blog must have at least 20 posts and be more than 90 days old. I was wrong. It means you must have written at least 20 posts in the past 90 days.
Anyway, I have now made sure that I have more than enough posts within the last 90 days to meet the requirement. So today I went ahead and submitted my blog for re-verification. I hope it gets approved this time quickly, because I am very excited to try their service.
The reason it is so important to get verified is you will not be able to find as many opportunities unless your blog has been verified. So I have now met all of their terms, and I am excited about getting placed in the marketplace.
Here is a brief overview of their terms, which can be found on their terms and conditions page.
- Blogs only–Check. This is a blog, so I am good there.
- English or Spanish Only. Check.
- Original Blog Content–Check. All posts have been made by me. It takes me anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours to write them (depending on length).
- Appropriate Content–Check. No cursing, no porn, nothing bad at all will be found on ANY of my blogs.
- Minimum Blog Age–Check. The blog is over 3 years old, has nearly 300 posts, and over 20 in the past 90 days.
- No 3rd party paid to blog, blogs–Check. I have idea what those even are.
So everything should be good now. I am excited and I will be posting on how my experience works out. I will also do my first review today, which is a review of SocialSpark.com itself. Pretty cool.