10 Tips on How to Reach Plurk Nirvana and Still Have a Life
Two weeks ago I hit the highest stage attainable in Plurk - Nirvana. To reach this, you have to have a Karma rating of 81 and above. While many of you are already mumbling thoughts of “he has too much time on his hands”, “no life” and quite possibly “loser”, I accomplished this in just under 2 months with very minimal impact on my life. I’ll share 10 tips to helping you reaching this top level of Plurk further down.
For those who don’t know what Plurk is, it is a micro-blogging tool; kind of like a journal of your life. Very similar to Twitter, with 140 characters you can let your friends and world know what you’re thinking, doing or ranting about. I for one, use it more as a networking tool to connect with like-minded bloggers, developers and just fun-to-be with people! We share ideas, stories, feelings and every-day life events. Through Plurk I am now friends with some of the world’s most active social media experts!
In the early days (June 2008), I would plurk just for the sake of raising Karma levels. I soon found out that there was a method to the madness and that plurking lots, didn’t exactly equate to soaring Karma scores.While many on Plurk discourage you to just focus on Karma (me being one of them), I’ve come up with a list of 10 tips you can follow to help you reach the higher echolons of Plurk without destroying your social life.
10 Tips to help you reach Plurk Nirvana
1.Plurk at least 5 times a day: Yup that’s right, that’s all it takes to get the default Karma increase, however you have to Plurk at the right times; at least once between Karma updates. When are these? Here’s a table of Karma update times (@ August 7th,2008):
As you can see from the table the update happens every 4 hours, so you need to get one in between these times. I’ve listed three of the major timezones that my friends are in for easy readability.
One of my Plurk friends, wildx, uses this strategy as she moves between university lectures. Another Plurk buddy, mikefarho, tells how he Plurks at 12:05am GMT so that he can sleep knowing that he hasn’t lost any Karma between the 12am-4am period.
2. Create quality Plurks: this tip is especially important if you’re only going to plurk the minimum amount. Think before your say something and make your Plurk interesting and engaging. One of the best ways to do this is to ask a general question such as “Are you a dog or cat person?” or “What do you think of the new iPhone?”
3. Invite real life friends: convincing your real life (RL) friends to join Plurk can be a difficult task, as some of you may have found. However, if you’re able to do a good sales job and get them on board, you’ll not only get extra Karma but you also get additional emoticons and star icons next to your name.
Having a popular blog will allow you to leverage your current readership by placing a Plurk invite link - get this from your Plurk profile page (bottom right hand corner). That way when they join up Plurk you’ll automatically receive credit. One good example of this is Darren Rowse from Problogger. He has used his readership effectively to build up his Plurk friends and fans into the thousands which means that he hardly has to Plurk at all and still get Karma boosts.
If you have a blog, you can also install the Plurk widget on your page:
4. Get creative with Plurks: use images, hyperlinks and emoticons to spice up what you’re saying and to get your buddies interested. 
5. Update your Profile: allow your friends and fans to learn a little bit more about you so that they’ll visit your Plurk page more often. If you have a website/s, make sure you list those. Also, pimp your Plurk template with something other than the default. If you have some CSS skills, add a nice background image or pattern to differentiate yourself from the pack. You also get extra Karma for personalising.
6. Get a good headset or profile image: since I use Plurk as a networking tool, I wanted to put a headshot so people would recognize me quickly and then hopefully reply to my Plurks. Here’s a link to help you take a Basic Headshot.
7. Respond to other peoples Plurk: not only does this help your Karma but it also helps those you are replying to. Having a good list of active Plurk friends means that they can effectively help you maintain and increase your Karma even while you are sleeping, by simply replying to your Plurks!
8. Use Plurk like an instant messenger program: since you get Karma by plurking and responding, one of the easiest ways to raise it, is to chat to your friends on Plurk just like you would on GoogleTalk, Aim or MSN. You can create private Plurks where only you and the friends you choose, can see. I have a couple of my online friends that I chat with on Plurk - easy Karma.
9. Be polite: self-explanatory really.
10. Don’t just focus on Karma; focus on making friends: when you’re engaged with people and discussing their stories, jokes, bad days, links and the like, your Karma score will grow naturally - especially if you learn to use it as a daily communications tool. You’ll also find these genuine interactions to be much more rewarding and enriching than a virtual score.
Hope these tips help my current and soon-to-be Plurk buddies!
If you haven’t added me on Plurk already ADD ME.
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4 Responses to “10 Tips on How to Reach Plurk Nirvana and Still Have a Life”
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Nice post and tips, Arnie. Especially the update table
I just joined plurk a few days ago. Quite active in there but maybe can’t be bothered to reach the nirvana lol
[...] un billet intéressant pour les obsédés du Karma dans Plurk. Arnold Aranez partage sa méthode pour atteindre le Nirvana facilement et tout en ayant une vie à côté. Il y a des obsédés du karma, d’autant que [...]
I’m quite confused..I’m only 54 Karma and I have the blue yinyang sign already which says You have reached Plurk Nirvana?..Is this an error or something?..How did it happen?
Hi Jennie, I think it’s a bug. I’ve noticed that with other people who aren’t over 81 yet which is officially the Nirvana mark. The Plurk badges are new.
See you around Plurk!