Jul 05 2007

An Introduction to Blog Karma and Blogging Benevolence

Published by at 5:05 pm under blogging,karma

I’ve been thinking a lot in the last week about blogging karma and benevolence. This week notched up six months of this blog, so I thought it a good (milestone) opportunity to consolidate my thoughts on this topic.

I’m not a religious person, nor am I overly spiritual, but I like the notion of “karma“, a concept that is often tossed around in everyday conversation:

[Karma] is believed to be a sum of all that an individual has done, is currently doing and will do…. Karma is not about retribution, vengeance, punishment or reward; karma simply deals with what is. The effects of all deeds actively create past, present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one’s own life, and the pain and joy it brings to others.

Why is blogging karma so important? Because blogging is all about community, and I don’t think you can effectively build community without good karma. That’s not to say you can’t build a “successful”, profitable blog without good karma. Sure you can, and I’ve seen plenty of examples. Usually it’s a sterile, “I’m just here to make money” type of a blog that probably doesn’t contribute much to the overall well-being of the blogosphere (except of course to teach others how to replicate these types of blogs).

And of course community encourages conversations, another building block of a successful blog.

In relation to blogging, I believe karma is effectively built by

  1. The actions of a blogger in the blogosphere
  2. The actions of a blogger on social networking sites
  3. The blog itself (as directed by the blogger)

I’ll be looking a each more closely in a series of four posts. Before I continue, however, I should point you to an excellent post that I have used as a reference. It’s entitled “10 Ways to Improve Your Blog Karma” by Rohit Bhargava, who I believe was one of the first to expand on the term “blog karma” (and who I found while researching this term). Have a read of this, before you read my next post.

Next Part Two – The Actions of a Blogger in the Blogosphere

15 responses so far

15 Responses to “An Introduction to Blog Karma and Blogging Benevolence”

  1. # Weekly Update 6th July | Dipping into the Blogpondon 06 Jul 2007 at 2:51 pm

    […] also ties in nicely with my blog karma series this week, as Gavin includes community, reputation and ethics as the top three levels (with […]

  2. # Meg on Blog Karmaon 09 Jul 2007 at 9:33 pm

    […] over at Blogpond has just completed a great series on Blog Karma and Blogging Benevolence. Four posts in all. Meg’s worth a read on this… she’s one of the most relationally […]

  3. # Life Learning Todayon 10 Jul 2007 at 5:21 am

    Karma definitely is at play in the blogging sphere! Good topic! Best regards, AgentSully

  4. # Megon 10 Jul 2007 at 1:30 pm

    Hi AgentSully

    Thanks for stopping by. Glad you enjoyed the topic :)

  5. # Life Learning Todayon 10 Jul 2007 at 2:17 pm

    Just subscribed to your blog! Glad to have found it!

  6. # links for 2007-07-12 — Alpesh Nakars’ Blogosphereon 12 Jul 2007 at 11:15 am

    […] Blog Karma and Blogging Benevolence 4 Part Series on Blog Karma and Blogging Benevolence. (tags: blog) […]

  7. # Blogging Karma will take you a long wayon 19 Jul 2007 at 10:18 am

    […] An Introduction to Blog Karma and Blogging Benevolence […]

  8. # Blog Strokeson 19 Jul 2007 at 2:00 pm

    I just hope my blogma doesn’t drive off in my karma. 😉

    I’ve thought people for some time now that there are basically three types of blogs, the traffic blog, that just posts whatever might draw in the most traffic and then funnels that traffic to another place, the Filter blog which brings in traffic from a wide sphere and then filters it through reader selection to narrower focuses, and of course, the Relationship blog. This blog engages the reader and builds a relationship with him or her. It seeks to deposit much good karma into an emotional account that will bring the reader back and get them actively involved with the blog and by extension the blogger. This is the most valuable type of blog.

    Looking forward to how you expand this topic. Adding you to my reader too since you’ve puled comments out of me with two posts in the short time since i found you. :)

  9. # Megon 19 Jul 2007 at 2:19 pm

    Hi Dane

    “I just hope my blogma doesn’t drive off in my karma” 😀

    I’ve been thinking about the types of blogs too, but more from the angle of the motivation of the blogger. I think that as we evolve (as bloggers), it’s quite possible that our motivation for blogging changes too.

    You might be interested in this post: http://servantofchaos.typepad.com/soc/2007/06/bloggers-hierar.html

    Thanks for adding me – oh! the pressure…. 😉

    (PS the next 3 posts are already available, I don’t know how much more I can expand…)

  10. # Blog Strokeson 19 Jul 2007 at 8:58 pm

    Yep. I missed that. I found this post in the BUMPzee discussion list and everything conspired to make me think I was reading a brand new post. I somehow completely missed the link to part two.

  11. # Brown Baronon 20 Jul 2007 at 6:15 am

    Interesting read. I think you’re perfectly right about blogging karma. Something to remember.

  12. # Jayon 24 Jul 2007 at 7:59 am

    Glad to find another Aussie in the blogosphere! Keep up the good Karma!

  13. # Megon 24 Jul 2007 at 10:28 am

    Hi Brown Baron & Jay

    Thanks for dropping in with your comments :)

  14. # Copyright and Plagiarism on Blogs | Dipping into the Blogpondon 09 Aug 2007 at 1:50 pm

    […] increasing your blog karma, […]

  15. # Blogging Karma will take you a long way : Small Office Australiaon 06 Sep 2007 at 8:12 pm

    […] An Introduction to Blog Karma and Blogging Benevolence […]