This is another new idea I spontaneously had, it goes like this…
Comments here often make me think of questions I would ask you if we were sitting across the table from each other. Sometimes it’s inspired directly from a comment, but most of the time it’s through a train of thought. I’ll answer the question myself, then I would love if you would answer in the comments area. If you link to this post (through trackback or from a post), let me know so I can update this post with a link to your comment.
To make things interesting, I’m also going to tell you a bit about the author of the post and link to them if they have a site, so please leave a link when you make a comment. 
Thanks.
You’ll see this post weekly on Saturdays, though most of the time I’ll be writing the post during the week sometime.
Today’s question came from a comment made by Andy Beard, the writer of a very successful blog about a subject I wish there were more resources for – niche marketing, among other things like “Blog Search Engine Performance, Wordpress, … Affiliate Marketing Tips and Social Media.” He has some wonderful posts at his site, and is also editor of the BUMPzee community, No NoFollow. You can subscribe to his blog via email or by RSS. I think he’s a great guy from what I’ve seen, though I don’t know him that well.
Here’s the part of the comment he made that inspired me: “I am always fighting my insular tendencies with blogs and some of the widgets, in fact most of the ones I see related to sharing other blogs I tend to bypass.” That part of the comment made me think of when I Don’t fight my insular tendencies. Which made me think, how would the blogosphere work if everyone acted like I often have a tendency to act – like it’s all about me, and each blog is an island? Isn’t it reciprocation that makes the blogosphere work? And if that’s true, then is giving without reciprocation saintly or just dumb?
Isn’t that what I’m doing sometimes when I write about another site or give a tip? Or do I always have the ulterior motive that if I write about someone, they’ll write about me, that if I give a tip away, I can lure a purchase where there might not have been one before?
Which led to the following ultimate question:
Do You Feel That The More You Give to the Blogosphere, The More You Get Back?
My answer, after a lot of soul searching, is yes. I believe the trick is not to think you’re necessarily going to get back what you give from the place you give it to.
When I first got sick and was in the hospital, I posted under an alias at another site (using Dragon Naturally Speaking as I am now, and having someone put in the links and do the editing later). I meant to start a blog and make it successful enough to sustain a small income, without the backing of my name, or using any more special expertise than I have in any of my books, investing less than a thousand dollars. Half way through I became even sicker, so I had to abandon the project early. And I learned a lot from the experience.
One of the best lessons I learned from that experience is that I am much more of a philosophical philantropist than I give myself credit for – that is, I am willing to share free advice, my experiences, etc and expect nothing back. I learned that part of my love for blogging is just to reach out to people when I can’t physically socialize. And people can be very receptive, and respect knowledge that makes sense, above the word of an expert whose methods they haven’t tested.
The most surprising thing, though, was that if people can’t clearly understand your motives for doing something, they won’t trust you. So I ended up having to reveal a lot more about myself and what I was trying to do. The question of “why” eases things a lot, even if you’re just admitting to being selfish, or disabled, or sick, or an @ss, or lazy.
Back in 2003, I was occassionally bitter that I was giving away free information that later on people would sell (one time I saw someone sell access to the free keyword tool over at Search Guild. No kidding), but here I was trying to make an honest living, only to have most of my money eaten up by health care costs. Now, I’m grateful that I stayed true to my believe that as you give, so shall you receive. The deal I made with my wonderful partners will allow me to take it easy for a year to be healed, and yet not be broke.
Everything that happened before that had to happen in a precise way for us to meet. Funny how the world works.
So now I pose the question to you – do you believe that you’ll get more of the blogosphere by giving to it freely? Or do you believe that there’s a strict limit to how much linking you can do, and how much you can do for others without being sure they will do the same for you?
edit 5.30: Thanks so much to the Carnival of Blogging Success for including me. A great honor. After you leave your thoughts, please stop by the other blogs in this carnival.
