I recently signed up to SocialSpark. SocialSpark allows bloggers and advertisers to come together in hopes to “spread” the word and to “make money”. In their code of ethics they:
- Allow bloggers to create in-post disclosure policies
- Allow bloggers to see other bloggers and which opportunities they are working on.
- Allows bloggers freedom of speech as the blogger has the freedom to keep it 100% real & honest.
- Also allows each sponsored link in SocialSpark automatically carries the “no-follow” attribute so as not to affect search engine rankings.
By showing your audience, in a very visible and proactive manner, that you are being paid for that content, you will maintain the trust of your readers and avoid any appearance of impropriety.
This is designed to keep the community honest and open about the transactions that occur.
SocialSpark itself has no restrictions on how you express your genuine thoughts on an advertiser’s product or service. It’s up to you to pick the Opportunities that best suit you and your blog. If it doesn’t feel right, if you don’t own the product, or if you can’t be honest we ask you to pass on the Opportunity
This is designed to protect bloggers and advertisers from search engine penalties based on paid linking. Bloggers and Advertisers participating in the marketplace agree not to circumvent this practice and manually remove the “no-follow” attribute.
Which means you don’t have to worry about being penalized for having paid linkings. This sold me because google’s pagerank recently “Zeroed” out my status and left me with a broken heart.
April 30th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
That sounds cool. I think I’m going to join.
May 4th, 2008 at 7:29 am
Lol! I didn’t pass the math when I first made a comment. Anyway, I missed this opp.
May 5th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Sorry to post this here, but I couldn’t find a general contact place or email. I’m getting the same exact fatal error messages you posted about at the WordPress forum now that I’ve upgraded my WP, and I was wondering if you’d share with me what you did to fix the errors. Thanks for any help you can send my way.