Why Aspiring Bloggers Should Participate in Blog Carnivals (Part 1)

Let me start by saying I'm a huge believer of blog carnivals. Of course, they're not without their drawbacks, but the benefits completely outweigh the amount of time and effort that you give them.

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

• Increase your authority
• Immediately get regular, profitable subscribers of your partner blogs
• Get an immediate surge of traffic to blog posts
• Get a long term increase in search engine rankings

Carnivals: What are They?

A blog carnival is a web event consisting of a group of bloggers writing about a predefined subject. The articles created (or linked to) during a carnival frequently resulting in a magazine-like format. The carnival has a theme, title, 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.

Every carnival has one host, and the host's blog is where all the blog posts for that specific carnival are stored. In reply to the submission call, each blogger participating in the carnival submits 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 smaller posts. Obviously, you should know how to create blog posts that are compelling and effective to get the most benefit.

Carnivals usually draw loads of qualified 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 receives links from each of the member 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 their turn to host.

Now that you know what a carnival is, we'll talk about how you can get the most out of your carnival participation . . . in our next post!