Why New Bloggers Must Participate in Blog Carnivals (Part 1)

Let me just say that I'm a huge fan of blog carnivals. They're not without their drawbacks, of course, but the benefits completely outweigh the investment of time and effort that you give them.

That's why it shocks me that blog carnivals aren't more popular. Granted, the first few times that you participate in them, it might take you a little extra time to get used to how they work. And new carnival networks can sometimes be less reliable than you would like. But get connected with a solid group of bloggers in your market, and carnivals are great ways to:

• Increase your authority
• Quickly gain regular, profitable readers of your partner blogs
• Get an immediate surge of traffic to blog posts
• Get a longer term improvement in search engine rankings

Carnivals: What are They?

A blog carnival is a web event consisting of a group of bloggers writing about a specific subject. The articles created (or linked to) during a carnival usually end up looking like a magazine. The carnival has a title, theme, writers, editors, and consumers. Most carnivals are held on a regular basis with rotating hosts.

A carnival usually has an owner, who is the organizer of the overall carnival, deciding or collaborating on things like frequency, rules, 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 one host, and the host's blog is where all the blog articles for that particular carnival are stored. In response to the submission call, each blogger involved in the carnival submits their post to the host, where it is reviewed, edited, and published in the host blog as one large linkbait post 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 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 initial readers. The carnival host receives links from each of the participating bloggers who have teamed together to publicize 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 review how you can maximize your carnival participation . . . in our next post!