Anytime you give, and it doesn't matter what the object of the giving is, you almost always receive something in return. Objects in this context include:

  • Link love (oh, how some people hate that phrase). Linking to blogs that have content related to your own or content that you've written about.
  • Charity. Giving to everyone from family to people you don't even know.
  • Favors. "Digging" and "Stumbling" without being asked to do so.

Link love (or blog appreciation as I like to call it now) results in two things: 1) Pingbacks and trackbacks to your own blog, and 2) Visitors to the blogs that you link to will sometimes see your ping and visit your blog as a direct result. There's a good chance the author(s) of a particular blog will visit your blog as well.

Charity comes in all shapes and sizes and doesn't necessarily mean money. You can give your time, your labor, your knowledge, and (of course) money. When you give any of these things away, it's human nature to reciprocate with something and that something is usually worth far more to you than what you gave in the first place.

Favors are also a form of giving, as long as you don't ask for anything in return. Digging and stumbling for blogs can be used as favors. If you don't know what I'm talking about because you're new to all this, just visit Digg and StumbleUpon and get involved.

As far as I'm concerned, giving means nothing if I always tell people that I'm doing it at the time. I don't need my ego stroked and I don't require anything in return, ever. It amazes me how I almost always receive something in return, regardless of how anonymous I choose to be.

Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows that I link to almost every blog I visit, in one way or another, at one time or another. It doesn't matter if I agree with their written words or not. If I took the time to read or even just look at something, it had to be worth it or I wouldn't have gone there in the first place. I attribute this as one of the things that continues to propel my rankings in an upward direction.

I'm not bragging, because I have a fixed income, that I support two families here — both families are related to me through my wife. I would love to get more involved in other charitable projects, but my income (at this time) and my banking situation doesn't give me that flexibility. Members of both families know how I feel and still aggressively attempt to do things for me that they know I can't do or don't like to do.

I have a lot of "digg friends" now as well as a lot of "stumble friends". I digg almost every submission made by my friends on Digg and I have my StumbleUpon toolbar set to stumble pages for "Friends". I'm sure other people do the same thing. How else can I explain the sudden bursts of traffic that I get?

These are just some examples of the effects of giving that I've experienced. What kind of effects have you experienced as the result of giving?