Let me just say that I’m a huge fan of blog carnivals. They’re not without their drawbacks, of course, but the benefits entirely outweigh the investment of time and effort that you put into them.
That’s why it confounds me that blog carnivals aren’t as popular as they should be. Yes, the first few times that you participate in them, it might take you some extra time to learn the ropes. And new carnival networks can sometimes be more unreliable than one would like. But get hooked up with a good group of bloggers in your field, and carnivals are effective ways to:
- Increase your authority
- Immediately get profitable, regular subscribers of your partner blogs
- Get a quick boost of traffic to blog posts
- Get a longer term improvement in search result rankings
Carnivals: Just the Facts
A blog carnival is a web event consisting of a loose partnership of bloggers writing about a predefined topic. The posts created (or linked to) during a carnival usually resulting in a magazine-like format. 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, deciding or collaborating on concerns like rules, frequency, how to blog in the carnival, editorial guidelines, and such. The owner also acts as the coordinator, determining the hosting schedule for the carnival.
Each carnival has a specific host, and the host’s blog is where all the blog articles for that particular carnival are held. In reply to the submission call, every blogger participating in the carnival submits their post to the host, where it is reviewed, edited, and published in the host blog as one giant post (link bait) or a series of smaller posts. Obviously, you’ll need to know how to create blog posts that are effective and compelling to get the most benefit.
Carnivals usually draw loads of qualified traffic, so bloggers participating in the carnival receive a powerful back link from the host and the immediate traffic surge associated with the initial readers. The carnival host receives links from each of the participating bloggers who have teamed together to advertise the carnival, 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 talk about how you can maximize your carnival participation . . . in our next post!