Get Traffic by Taking Part in Blog Carnivals (Part 1)

I'll start by saying that I'm a big believer of blog carnivals. They're not without their drawbacks, of course, but the advantages entirely outweigh the amount of time and effort that you put into them.

That's why it amazes me that blog carnivals aren't more widely used. Granted, 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 might like. But get hooked up with a solid group of bloggers in your field, and carnivals are effective ways to:

• Increase your authority
• Immediately gain profitable, regular readers of your partner blogs
• Get a quick boost of traffic to blog entries
• Get a longer term improvement in search engine rankings

Carnivals: What are They?

A blog carnival is a virtual event consisting of a group of bloggers writing about a specific topic. The articles produced (or linked to) during a carnival frequently resulting in a magazine-like format. The carnival has a theme, title, editors, writers, 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, collaborating or deciding on converns 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.

Every carnival has one host, and the host's blog is where all the blog articles for that specific carnival are located. In reply 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 large post (link bait) or a series of smaller posts. Obviously, you had better know how to create blog posts that are compelling and effective to get the maximum benefit.

Carnivals usually draw a lot of qualified traffic, so bloggers participating in the carnival receive a powerful 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 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 talk about how you can get the most out of your carnival participation . . . in our next post!