I’ve been a member of IZEA’s PayPerPost for several months now. The experience with the IZEA community has been nothing short of wonderful. Not only have I made dozens upon dozens of new friends, learned more about the art and science of blogging and web design, and honed my writing skills, I’ve been getting paid for writing opportunities (opps, in the IZEA lingo) while enjoying the community!

SocialSpark is the latest release from this extremely innovative company. It’s been their baby for many months, and they were quick to release it and open it to bloggers and advertisers alike. I’d seen many “behind the scene” videos that detailed the development and the woes of deadlines, technical problems, and exhilaration of this new idea. So, my history with SocialSpark goes back a little ways.

I love IZEA. Do I love SocialSpark? Yes! with a few reservations. I joined SocialSpark in early April. The website, while beautiful and loaded with goodies, is slow and confusing to navigate. I’m trying to be fair and not compare it too much to the minimal PayPerPost experience. I very much like the ease of using the PayPerPost website, so I found the SocialSpark design a shock– a lot like culture shock, lol!

Navigating SocialSpark is difficult. A lot of computer newbies have found it somewhat painful to use. Just to get to my inbox of messages or view opps, I have to click a series of links. It would be a great improvement to redesign the site slightly, with fewer clicks, more options, and many more shortcuts. Right now, the cumbersome design and elongated chain of clicks is a large hurdle that dampens the glitzy SocialSpark experience. But don’t take me wrong– SocialSpark is still very navigable. I’ve been spending a few weeks at the site and can now say I’m becoming comfortable with the site.

Also, there’s a definite learning curve to SocialSpark, with its own unique language– queue, opps, sparks, props. It’s not for the faint of heart! However, IZEA has one of the best– nay, THE best– public forums I have ever seen. The IZEA boards have been my lifeline to understanding everything there is to know about IZEA, and more. And I’ve made a good many very dear friends there. The community is the best blogging community I’ve ever had the pleasure of joining. So that makes the annoying problems sting a little less. So overall, I believe SocialSpark is sorely lacking when it comes to intuitive navigation. But SocialSpark is truly still developing, and there are a lot of things still on the table. And that takes us to the very beauty of SocialSpark. Just the fact that I can offer my input and they will listen to it is what makes you say WOW about SocialSpark.

SocialSpark is exactly what the word means– it’s social. It was created to be a conglomerate mega-pool of users, bloggers and advertisers alike, to share ideas, create ideas, listen, and be listened to. You can create a profile (see mine) and make friends- even with advertisers! You can send and receive messages, share and write non-sponsored opps called “sparks” to get the word out (or to use as an impetus for a bad case of writer’s block)! SocialSpark is the big boy in the social networking neighborhood, kind of like a networked Starbucks. You converse, hash out ideas, and enjoy the refreshments with others. I love SocialSpark for this, and especially for bridging the vast desert land that had existed between blogger and advertiser.

SocialSpark is still a tween, in my opinion. It’s not quite full grown, and is still budding. There are some bugs to be worked out and of course there are tweaks needed to make it more friendly (better clickability and better linking). But I think these will all be resolved. And judging by the incredible support by the people at IZEA and the community in general, I think SocialSpark will absolutely shine in the near future. If you are interested in joining, I highly recommend it.

this review is sponsored by SocialSpark

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