Simple Randomness

Everyone’s Starting a Blog

So in the last few weeks I’ve learned about a bunch of different friends that have blogs up and running.  It seems like everyone these days is starting a blog!  Well, it’s probably a good thing.  I’ve actually found that it can be very therapeutic at times…

One thing I always wonder is if people know about all the different options for setting up their blog.  I know that a lot of them will just do a blog hosted by the blogging company, but even better in my opinion is to host it separately so you can do more with your blog.  But then I guess that depends on what you’re after.

Well, if you’re thinking of starting a new blog and want the most felxibility out of it, you really should go with hosting it somewhere else.  It’s a good idea to check out some web host rating websites to see which ones are currently the best to work with.  This way you can be sure to get the best deal and also know what you should be getting in the first place.

My Thoughts on SocialSpark

So a couple months ago I wrote about a new service that IZEA started for making money from your blog called SocialSpark. I have to first admit that I haven’t used it as much as I would like to, but even so I think that there are a few things that they could be doing better with it.

First of all, it seems like the site always loads really really slowly. Not sure why this is, probably too many scripts (or just my computer lol!), but that would be one thing to change.

Also, it seems like because of their ‘wait for slot’ feature, it is really quite hard to get an opportunity with them. It’s one of those things that I’m not entirely sure how they could do it better, but my thought is that when you reserve a spot they do it on a first come first serve basis. But I also know that some advertisers aren’t going to do more than one run, so you might be waiting for a slot that is never going to come.

Now, there are also a few things that I really like about SocialSpark. I think the idea of making it into a social network as well as a money making site is pretty cool. I still haven’t taken full advantage of this feature, but I really like the idea. Just for fun, here’s my own profile if anyone wants to be ‘friends’!

So I’m thinking that overall SocialSpark is a good idea. Give it a little more time and I think it will become one of the better paying blogging social sites.

Simple Monetization of a Blog

If you haven’t noticed, the last couple of days I’ve been including a few sponsored posts. Hopefully you don’t find these annoying, and my intent is to still make them as entertaining and random as I can. But let’s face it, we all want to be able to monetize our blogs right? Well, one really easy way to do that is to sign up for paid posting programs like payperpost.

If any of you aren’t familiar with the idea behind paid posting, basically you sign up for their marketplace and each day you can go in and see what opportunities are available for you to write about. They tell you what you need to do and how much you’ll be paid. And as long as you meet the requirements, you’ll get paid for it. It’s a pretty simple way to monetize a blog.

My goal for this with SimpleRandomness is to use the paid postings to help fund other projects that I have going. Or hey, do a post or 3 and it could help pay for a date with my wife! That is, as soon as she is over her gallbladder surgery and RSV season is over so we feel comfortable leaving the newborn with a babysitter.

So if you have a blog and need to monetize it a little bit, consider giving payperpost a try!