If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Let me start by saying I'm a huge fan of blog carnivals. Of course, they're not without their disadvantages, but the advantages entirely outweigh the investment of effort and time that you give them.
That's why it shocks me that blog carnivals aren't more popular. Granted, the first several times that you participate in them, it might take you some extra time to learn the ropes. And new carnival networks can sometimes be less reliable than you might like. But get connected with a good group of bloggers in your niche, and carnivals are superb ways to:
- Increase your authority
- Quickly gain profitable, regular readers of your partner blogs
- Get a quick boost of traffic to blog posts
- Get a long term gain in search engine rankings
What is a Blog Carnival?
A blog carnival is a virtual event consisting of a loose partnership of bloggers writing about a predefined topic. The posts produced (or linked to) during a carnival usually end up looking like a magazine. The carnival has a title, theme, editors, writers, and consumers. Most carnivals are held regularly with rotating hosts.
A carnival usually has an owner, who is the organizer of the overall carnival, collaborating or deciding on things like rules, frequency, editorial guidelines, how to blog in the carnival, and such. The owner also acts as the coordinator, determining the hosting schedule for the carnival.
Every carnival has one host, and the host's blog is where all the blog posts for that particular carnival are held. In response to the submission call, every blogger involved in the carnival sends their post to the host, where it is reviewed, edited, and published in the wild as one giant post (link bait) or a series of smaller posts. Obviously, you should know how to create blog posts that are compelling and effective to get the greatest benefit.
Carnivals usually draw loads of qualified traffic, so bloggers participating in the carnival get a valuable one-way link from the host and the immediate traffic boost associated with the original readers. The carnival host gets links from each of the member bloggers who have teamed together to advertise the event, knowing that the better the carnival is, the more powerful the links will be when it comes time for them to host.
Now that you know what a carnival is, we'll review how you can get the most out of your carnival participation . . . in our next post!
Jared is co-author of Blogging in Action, a popular package that teaches others how to create blog properties the right way. He is also the programmer of the Six-Figure Plugin Suite, used by hundreds of people to drive traffic to blog posts and sites.
More Resources for Blogs How To
Leave a Comment
