I'll start by saying that I'm a huge believer of blog carnivals. They're not without their disadvantages, of course, but the advantages entirely outweigh the investment of effort and time 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 couple times that you participate in them, it might take you a little 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 solid group of bloggers in your market, and carnivals are excellent ways to:
* Improve your authority
* Immediately gain profitable, regular readers of your partner blogs
* Get an immediate surge of traffic to blog posts
* Get a long term improvement in search result rankings
Carnivals: Just the Facts
A blog carnival is a virtual event consisting of a group of bloggers writing about a specific subject. The posts produced (or linked to) during a carnival frequently 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 converns like frequency, rules, editorial guidelines, how to blog in the carnival, 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 posts for that specific carnival are held. In response to the call for submissions, each blogger involved in the carnival sends their post to the host, where it is reviewed, edited, and published in the wild as one large post (link bait) or a series of 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 a lot of relevant traffic, so bloggers participating in the carnival receive a valuable backlink from the host and the immediate traffic surge associated with the original readers. The carnival host gets links from each of the contributing bloggers who have partnered together to publicize the event, knowing that the better the carnival is, the better the links will be when it comes time for them to host.
Now that you know what a carnival is, we'll discuss how you can get the most out of your carnival participation . . . in our next post! - 16069
That's why it confounds me that blog carnivals aren't as popular as they should be. Yes, the first couple times that you participate in them, it might take you a little 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 solid group of bloggers in your market, and carnivals are excellent ways to:
* Improve your authority
* Immediately gain profitable, regular readers of your partner blogs
* Get an immediate surge of traffic to blog posts
* Get a long term improvement in search result rankings
Carnivals: Just the Facts
A blog carnival is a virtual event consisting of a group of bloggers writing about a specific subject. The posts produced (or linked to) during a carnival frequently 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 converns like frequency, rules, editorial guidelines, how to blog in the carnival, 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 posts for that specific carnival are held. In response to the call for submissions, each blogger involved in the carnival sends their post to the host, where it is reviewed, edited, and published in the wild as one large post (link bait) or a series of 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 a lot of relevant traffic, so bloggers participating in the carnival receive a valuable backlink from the host and the immediate traffic surge associated with the original readers. The carnival host gets links from each of the contributing bloggers who have partnered together to publicize the event, knowing that the better the carnival is, the better the links will be when it comes time for them to host.
Now that you know what a carnival is, we'll discuss how you can get the most out of your carnival participation . . . in our next post! - 16069
About the Author:
Jared is the programmer of a popular plugin suite for WordPress blogs and a partner in the publishing company that created the successful blogging course Blogging in Action. Jared helps people learn how to create blog properties the right way, and teaches them on effective methods to bring traffic to blogs.
