I recently joined SocialSpark, another paid blogging website. This one is a little different however. It is more focused on creating a community rather than cut and dry paid posting.
At SocialSpark you can meet other bloggers and advertisers on a more personal level. It’s good for bloggers because it creates great opportunities to build traffic and get great networking. You can view other’s profiles, read their blogs and give them props to boost their profile. Advertisers can hand pick blogs for their opportunities, getting better traffic and
There are three kinds of oppourunities on SocialSpark: sponsored posts, blog sponsored and sparks. Sponsored posts work like any other, the advertiser states what they want and the blogger fulfills the requirements. Blog sponsorship is when an advertiser pays a blogger to display some form of advertisement on their blog; a pay per day thing. The last are sparks, these are free opportunities that give inspiration to bloggers (and advertisers) for posts.
Also, SocialSpark has a unique code of ethics. There is the 100% Audit-able In-Post Disclosure, where you have to have a disclosure badge in your posts. Then the 100% Transparencey, everyone can see who you’re working with and on what. Also there is 100% Real Opinions, you can write whatever you want based on the advertiser’s conditions. Lastly, 100% Search Engine Friendly, where every link contains “no-follow” so as not to hurt search engine rankings.
The only minor problem I have had is that this opportunity was approved at midnight and I woke up at 10AM giving me only 2 hours to work on this. I’m not sure if it was unique to me getting approved at midnight or if that’s how the system is set up. I woke up and was like “Yay! I was approved! Oh wait, what time was it approved? Damn!”
It seems like there’s always something for me to stress about. Earlier this week Rob and I went looking at apartments. Then we learned that the place that was on the top of our list had a murder the night after we visited it. So, needless to say that place got chucked. It’s funny because while we were there, Rob was like “I like that it’s gated, that makes it a little more safe.” Ha ha! 
On top of that, the people who control our lease are being slooooow as hell getting back to us about re-signing the lease. We refuse to live here without a lease stating that we legally live here. Without it, we’re in a really dangerous legal position. If they don’t contact us by the end of next week I’ll be pretty upset. If we don’t have this settled by the 15th of next month, we’re moving out.
So, right now it’s a toss up between an expensive one bedroom apartment, or a slightly more expensive two bedroom townhouse. That is, if we have to move out in the next month. Gah!!!
I’m also trying to get a move on making stuff for MetroCon. 
Sorry I haven’t updated in a while, busy, blah, blah, etc. Anyway, here are some random updates.
I had a job interview with a staffing company. Not sure if anything will come of that. I’m starting to get depressed about job hunting.
Rob and I went apartment hunting yesterday. Why is a one bedroom apartment nearly half the rent of a 5 bedroom house? And if it’s not, it’s because it’s in a crappy neighborhood or the size of a closet.
Yesterday Rob and I also donated a lot of stuff to Salvation Army. Now, I’m doing something really nice, and the people there were incredibly rude. It seems like more and more lately I really don’t want to do nice things for people because they’re all assholes who take advantage of it or are completely ungrateful. Like the children at Halloween, or the people that came to our garage sale.
Anyway, it seems like every day there is something new to stress about. My chest pain has come back. It went away for nearly a month and now it’s back.
I’m going to go make more stuff for the artist alley table. Hopefully that will work out.
