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Exclusive First Look At SocialSpark, Formerly PayPerPost, A “Social Network” For Advertisers & Publishers
I just got a private first-look at the new Izea system (PayPerPost) from Ted Murphy himself at his Postiecon event (where I’m speaking shortly, full disclosure). I was asked not to print the entire press release, so here’s what I can tell you.
It’s called SocialSpark (which now forwards to PayPerPost.com so don’t bother looking). Click image for bigger version.
What Is SocialSpark?
So what is it? Well, it’s a “social network” for advertisers and publishers (bloggers). Wait, wait, wait… Who wants another social network, right? I don’t either, and that’s what I said to Ted. SocialSpark is different. From what I can see, you don’t join to make friends… you join to meet advertisers. So it’s essentially a matchmaking network for the blogger and the advertisers. I guess a super, fancy marketplace, no? That was my first impression.
Now, you’re in the network, and you put their code in your blog and now advertisers (who are also in the network) can browse your blogs and pitch you on advertising their goods/services. They can name a price, and you can decide to accept it or not. The ads are in the form of pop-up, layered interstitials, and “paid to post” blog entries.
Whoa! It’s just like PayPerPost, lame, right? That’s what I said. It’s not. A few things Ted told me.
1. Every link in your post is nofollow.
2. You are required to put a disclosure badge… in the post… or you don’t get paid.
An Alexa Killer?
On another note, Ted showed me something called “realrank”. Which is essentially the stats your blog gets in the network that can be seen by anyone else in the network. I took this as something like an Alexa ranking. Ted said bloggers in the network will eventually have little traffic widgets they can put on their blog to “show off” their realrank. An Alexa killer that we all finally wanted? Maybe.
Open Source
Looks like third-party developers will have access to an api to do with what they want, which can only be a good thing?
What Will Happen To PayPerPost? Will It Die?
I asked Ted frankly if PayPerPost is going to die and fade away, and he would not commit to that. However, it’s my opinion that that is his intent down the road. He used the negative press for a year to drive the company’s growth, then smartly changed the name to Izea, and is now launching a new brand under the umbrella. I see no reason why PayPerPost will live on, do you?
Summary
I’m trying to think of reasons why SocialSpark will suck, but I can’t yet. I mean, I’m really trying to shoot the business model down but so far all of my red flags are gone. Of course, we’ll have to wait to see it in live action to judge it, and I know the bloggers will. :) Ted said it doesn’t go live until Jan, 2008.
Filed Under Online Marketing, PayPerPost, Social Networking
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This will definitely be interesting to watch. Thanks for the update.
Excellent! This is going to be so huge.
this is big Jim…very big…the first social network for advertisers, for engagement across all social media, with real demographics and ROI built-in…
[...] and and the amazingly fast Jim have already got posts up before [...]
It will be interesting to watch. The demographic thing is neat but it’s just those of other paid to post bloggers, so I’m not sure how that helps anyone in the end.
Jim:
It was great being on the panel with you at PostieCon. You’re a class act with great insights. Traffic is BS! Yeah!
I’ll be in touch via email to connect soon. PostieCon kicked off a west-coast speaking tour so I’ll be back in New York on the week of the 19th.
-Lena
[...] about SocialSpark: Colleen broke the story (before the unveiling, I might add) Jim Kukral almost had an exclusive (unfortunately Colleen beat him by minutes) Smuggle Me followed shortly [...]
I am really looking forward to the new program. I love payperpost and really feel this will be better.
Seriously?
What a lame Izea.
If people are tired of social networking with their friends, what’s to make a social network with “advertisers” that actually benefits the network and the advertisers much more than the actual bloggers appealing?
Sorry, Jim… this just looks silly.
Sam
It looks interesting. I live in Vegas and was sorry that I couldn’t make it down to the Strip one more day, but I was exhausted. Thursday & Friday were so rush, rush, rush, because there wasn’t much time to get to the booths before and in between sessions. Speaking of sessions, I wanted to thank you for your interesting Blogging for Profit Potential session. I was surprised at how much I learned in such a short period of time at the convention.
Every link in your post is nofollow. These guys are becoming Google friendly now. This is interesting :)
[...] some other blogs buzzing about SocialSpark: Colleen, Techie, Lisa, Jim Kukral, and [...]
WOw,
SocialSpark.com looks really promising. I will make sure I get some further info about it.
Awesome blog by the way!
John
Interesting idea by the creator. I’ll be taking a look at this when it launches.
-Mike
This is a really good idea and I am sure it will please the Google Gods as well. The next big goal is to build up the traffic to our blogs. Cheers for the preview.
Looking forward to January next year and hoping to see the sparks fly… BTW, looking at the Blogs Analytic Overview sample chart I see Google PR is still in the mix.
[...] Which got me thinking… one of the people that I listen to the most when it comes to all things web, Jim Kukral, has similar things to say about SocialSpark. [...]
This is very promising. Let’s just wait and see this January 2008.
[...] Jim Kukral gave everyone a great first look at Social Spark. [...]
[...] managed to get first hand information from Jim Kukral’s blog. Jim is one of the speakers at the PostieCon event. He reveals that Ted Murphy told him that with [...]
We can judge the popularity of these sites by seeing their ranking in http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?url=www.fortunehotels.in Alexa. Orkut has been steadily rising on the Alexa charts but MySpace is still significantly bigger than Orkut.com.
Anyone using this yet and if so did you lose pagerank?
L7 worlds last blog post..MONKEYS ARE PEOPLE TOO!?
[...] managed to get first hand information from Jim Kukral’s blog. Jim is one of the speakers at the PostieCon event. He reveals that Ted Murphy told him that with [...]
Good News for bloggers!