The Importance of Fair Blogging

After publishing last Saturday’s Blogging Workshop, Akemi Gaines, a reader and contributor, called my attention to a submission from another blogger which clearly was not the blogger’s original content. The submission was immediately removed.

The subject of protecting the intellectual property of other bloggers came up in my email exchanges with Akemi. As a result, I invited her to be a guest blogger today on the topic of fair blogging.

Akemi’s blog, Gratitude-Magic, is very well-written and provides useful personal development content for her readers. I believe you will find her article today to be useful as it sheds lights on this very important topic.

Protection of Intellectual Property and Other Considerations for Fair Blogging
by Akemi Gaines

Blogosphere is a new and free playground for writers, but there are still certain rules we want to keep to make it a fun and fair space. Today, I’d like to discuss three issues: protection of intellectual property, fair social bookmarking, and sound blog carnival participation and operation.

Protection of Intellectual Property

Your original writing is your valuable asset, and you deserve all the benefits your writing brings in, whether it is monetary or something more intangible. This means we need to respect one another’s copyright and other forms of intellectual property.

The writing is copyrighted whether it bears the copyright mark or not, and whether it is registered for copyright or not. Your creative work is yours, period. When you quote someone else’s writing or saying, please make it clear that it is a quote and not your own writing. There are three points that need to be clearly indicated:

1) Name of the original writer
2) Source info. If it is online, please link to the original. If it is in print, note the title of the book or article.
3) Clearly show exactly what is quoted. Use quotation marks (“ “) or say the following is a quote and use colon mark (:). Don’t mix your writing with the quote.

In academic essays, more detailed info such as the exact page number where the quoted part can be found, the date of the original publishing, and so forth are required, but in a more casual setting of the blog, I think the above three points would provide sufficient information.

If you honestly just cannot find the source data, say so and provide as much information as you can. The point is never to present someone else’s work as yours. And when you spot plagiarism, please report to the original writer! You don’t want to let the thief pass. If you do so, you are endorsing the crime, and you may become the victim who lose income your writing is making — without knowing. Be a proud member of the blogosphere and honor one another’s creativity!

Fair Social Bookmarking

Stumble Upon and other social bookmarkings are great ways to increase traffic to your blog. And yes, I have asked people to please SU on my blog – but I make sure they actually like my blog to do this. Only bookmark what you find to be valuable. Don’t mindlessly trade bookmarking.

Sound Blog Carnival Participation and Operation

Currently there are over 3000 carnivals according to blogcarnival.com. Not all are active, and not all are run well. I predict that those carnivals that are not run properly will soon be shunned by conscientious blog writers and readers.

Carnivals are intended to provide opportunities to new bloggers show off their work, like open mic for aspiring musicians. Bloggers should follow the guidelines for entry, and carnival hosts need to actually read all submitted posts to make sure they are compliant. My suggestion of basic guidelines are:

1) The post is relevant to the carnival theme
2) The post is written recently (Say, in the last three months)
3) The blog is less than two years old

Authors of older, more established blogs should have other ways to market. For instance, they may choose to be guests of the carnival, just as open mic may have guest band. They may also want to utilize their network they have made in the first two years and ongoing.

I have seen carnival hosts mandating link back and social bookmarking. To me, such request doesn’t make business sense. Do good open mic events mandate participants to market for them? No. Good open mics are sought out both by prospective participants and general audience because they provide value by showcasing wonderful up-an-coming talents.

Social bookmarking (and links) happens, as I pointed out above, voluntarily because the readers value what they see. It is fine for carnival hosts to suggest links and bookmarking, and to provide tools to do so easily, but don’t mandate them as if the carnival won’t get noticed without such requirements.

I voluntarily link and SU good carnivals, in which the submitted posts are organized well with comments by the host that intrigue readers to read the original posts. Hosting carnivals is a lot of work, and good carnivals deserve such rewards. Moreover, when people notice good carnivals because of my bookmarking, they may come to my blog, too, so it is mutually beneficial.

Now this is beyond just being fair, but I wonder why carnival hosts don’t SU on the submitted blog posts themselves. If they actually read the submitted posts, and they really like some of them, it would make sense to SU them. When that good blog gets increased traffic thanks to bookmarking, it will eventually send traffic to the carnivals the blog participates, especially when the blog lists all incoming links. Again, the blog and the carnival it participates build mutually beneficial relationship this way.

It is easy for bloggers to be carried away and start doing unethical things in their attempt to get more traffic. But it is suicidal. If you desire sustainable growth, you need to establish credibility and build trusting relationships with readers and fellow bloggers, like any good business does.

First and foremost, write good posts. Build your brand and be the only person who can say what you have to say (content) in your unique way of saying (style). Then market in fair and effective ways. I am not a marketing specialist, but at least, I can say this: identify your target audience as clearly as possible. Then brand your blog accordingly.

Excellent product (= good writing) that fulfills the specific needs of the target audience is the best marketing tool. Readers will happily share your blog, either by social bookmarking systems or by word-of-mouth, when they love your blog. They are likely to subscribe. They may even send you donation. Your great original posts will bring in readers years to come. And you will have friends who adore you. When you can achieve so much, why would you do something stupid like stealing (and get busted and sued) or tricking (your traffic may increase with bookmarking, but if the visitors don’t find your blog valuable, they will leave quickly)?

Contributing writer’s greeting:

Thank you, Alex, for the honor to contribute to your Blogging Workshop. I love writing and I am so happy to have a media that delivers the fruits of my joyous labor to everyone in the world, 24-7! Gratitude Magic discusses various aspects of our life from spiritual but not religious perspective. Topics include the Law of Attraction, life and death, self-love, and more. Please check gratitude-magic.com and Uncover Your Magical Power Within!

Akemi Gaines
Writer & Life Coach

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