I'll start by saying that I'm a big fan of blog carnivals. They're not without their disadvantages, of course, but the benefits entirely outweigh the investment of time and effort that you give 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, 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 a specific host, and the host's blog is where all the blog articles for that specific carnival are located. In response to the call for submissions, every blogger participating in the carnival sends 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 posts. Obviously, you'll need to know how to create blog posts that are compelling and effective to get the most benefit.
Carnivals usually draw a lot 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 gets links from each of the member bloggers who have teamed together to advertise the carnival, knowing that the better the carnival is, the better the links will be when it comes time for their turn 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!
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, 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 a specific host, and the host's blog is where all the blog articles for that specific carnival are located. In response to the call for submissions, every blogger participating in the carnival sends 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 posts. Obviously, you'll need to know how to create blog posts that are compelling and effective to get the most benefit.
Carnivals usually draw a lot 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 gets links from each of the member bloggers who have teamed together to advertise the carnival, knowing that the better the carnival is, the better the links will be when it comes time for their turn 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!
About the Author:
Jared is the creator of a popular plugin suite for WordPress blogs and a partner in the publishing company that created the best-selling blogging course Blogging in Action. Jared helps people learn how to create blog properties the right way, and coaches them on effective methods to bring traffic to blogs.
No comments:
Post a Comment