Blogging rediscovered

Korea`s blogosphere has witnessed an explosive growth in recent months, reshaping the way people interact with each other on the internet. But there are only a handful of books fully devoted to the new communications media here.

"Blog Textbook," written by Kim Joong-tae, is a welcome exception. The author first published the book about blogging in 2004, and revamped the content to reflect the latest developments in the blogging field in Korea.

Kim argues that blogging is gaining rapid popularity in Korea and elsewhere largely because of its ease of use. Unlike personal homepages, bloggers do not have to learn about complicated HTML language or other cumbersome technical knowledge to run their digital diaries.

The initial momentum, Kim says, came in 2004, when Naver.com, the country`s largest portal site, ran a massive advertisement campaign about its blogging service, featuring Korean Wave star Jun Ji-hyun. Up until then, the public had little awareness about blogs.

As Naver.com`s blogging took off, Korean Web users began to use home-grown installation-based blogging solutions such as Tattertools. Naver.com`s blog allowed users to sign up with a couple of mouse clicks to kick-start its template-based blogging service with some restrictions in interface and content. But Tattertools and other installation-based blogging tools allow for greater freedom in organizing blog pages and content details.

In September 2004, Allblog kicked off its service, setting the stage for Korea`s meta-blog services. Meta-blog services interconnect individual blog sites in different portal services, leading to greater traffic and Web exposure. Following the success of Allblog, other meta-blog sites jumped into the fast-growing blogging bandwagon.

Despite the impressive growth of bloggers in Korea, the author claims that many blog sites run their course too quickly, resulting in countless cyberspace desert islands. To nurture a long-running blog, Kim says that users should develop a new perspective.

"There are millions of blogs in Korea, and people have different views about the role of blogs. But the ultimate objective of blogs remains the same: happiness," Kim says.

Kim`s idea about happiness and blogging is intriguing. With the expansion of blogging, some users become obsessive about their blog, always trying to increase traffic and attract visitors. But such excessive efforts to promote individual blogs can be easily overdone.

"We should remember that blogging is just one tool to enrich our life, so we shouldn`t devote too much energy and time to blogging," Kim says. Ironically, such a relaxed attitude often leads to a blog that lasts longer and produces betters content, Kim adds.

Kim also introduces what he calls "good-natured blogger complex." It refers to users who cannot stop thinking about new articles for their blogs, constantly seeking new writing items and feeling sorry about slow updates.

"A lot of bloggers are suffering because they want to be seen as hard-working and faithful bloggers. But this is clearly a result of their excessive desire to gain a better online reputation," Kim says.

If the desire to secure a better cyber reputation goes unchecked, bloggers in question might come under enormous pressure about their updates, which in turn puts a damper on their motivation to add more content. Eventually, they give up on their updates altogether largely because of the pressure they create themselves.

To overcome the complex, Kim says that bloggers should focus on themselves, not others. Being aware of other users or visitors is sometimes necessary, but longer term bloggers should develop an independent view about blogging in order to enjoy the process.

"You have to stop blogging when your private life gets busy or you have more important things to do, and don`t pay attention to negative comments and delete any malicious messages right away," Kim says.

True to its title, the book touches all the major fields related to blogging in the first chapter, starting from basic concepts to a brief overview of the growth of blogging to technical tips for setting up individual blogs.

In the second chapter, Kim unveils a range of tips that he claims will help increase Web traffic through trackback and meta-site registrations.

In the third chapter, corporate blogging services and related issues are presented. Notable is Kim`s argument that many companies do not understand the true nature of blogging and its relation to marketing. For instance, there is a concept called "flog," a term derived from "fake blog." Some companies launch blog-based marketing but try to disguise their marketing tool as a benign individual blog, a shortsighted practice that misleads the public and often backfires in terms of marketing effects.

"Blogging, if mishandled, can bring irreversible damage to corporate image," Kim says. "Companies should be aware of hidden dangers in running blogs for marketing and other purposes."

In the fourth chapter, the author focuses on the potential of bloggers as journalists. Already a number of power bloggers quit their daily jobs and switched to full-time bloggers who make a living through online advertisement like Google Adsense.

But there is widespread misunderstanding about blogging and journalism, Kim says. For starters, bloggers and blogging should not be judged by existing journalism principles. "Bloggers, in fact, do not care whether their writing is classified as journalism or not. Many professional bloggers are interested in getting a better online reputation and earning more money from online advertisement," he says.

While print media downplays the role of blogging as a new media, influential bloggers continue to expand their coverage with their new skill sets, outsmarting print counterparts in traffic and news impact.

In the fifth chapter, the author discusses what is called "blog culture." A growing number of companies recognize the importance of power bloggers, a trend that is expected to reconfigure both online and offline marketing. At the same time, however, spam blogs and malicious digital logs are also on the rise, producing skeptics about the long term outlook of blogging. What`s certain, however, is that blogging will evolve in a way that embraces more functions for individuals and companies as a key communication and information tool in the coming years, Kim says.

By Yang Sung-jin



(insight@heraldm.com)