In the previous article in this series, I discussed what blog carnivals are and why all new bloggers should be participating in them. In case you missed that post, let me recap quickly the benefits to participating in blog carnivals:

* They increase your authority

* You immediately gain regular, profitable readers of your partner blogs

* You get a quick surge of traffic to blog entries

* You get a long term improvement in search result rankings

What I’m going to review in this article is how you can get the most out of your carnival participation. Let’s be real, carnivals take effort and time, so you should get as much benefit and good will from them as you can. Here’s how you can do just that:

1) Add your articles early. There will be a call for entries deadline, but it’s likely that the host already has some idea on how the article will be structured before the deadline, so you want your article available during this planning stage.

2) Make the host’s job simple: Learn how to create blog article titles that are catchy, and brainstorm two or three powerful, compelling titles that can be used for the anchor text in links. Good headlines are hard to craft, so create them yourself. You’ll save the host the effort and get more visitors from a stronger heading.

3) Follow the submission guidelines.

4) Get organized: Organize the information you submit. Include your e-mail address, name, blog name, article title, article summary, several sample headings, trackback URL, and permalink. Place this information in an e-mail above the full article itself, unless told to do otherwise.

5) Promote: Once submitted, be sure to advertise the carnival. What goes around comes around, and your collaborative efforts to drive traffic will payoff for everyone in the long run. That’s the point of these carnivals: all participants are sharing readers, giving each the opportunity to attract the others’ regular subscribers.

6) Make sure your blog can handle your traffic: Prepare your blog for any traffic surges that might occur, and optimize the page that the carnival readers will be viewing. You’ll want to target the offers or ads to your audience, provide a very conspicuous subscribe link, and follow-up with at least one week’s worth of strong articles to capitalize on any lingering traffic you might have.

Blog carnivals are a terrific way to attract relevant, qualified, profitable, long-term readers. Use them intelligently and you’ll reap the rewards. But you must be prepared to put your best foot forward. Pick up a good blogs how to if you have any doubts on how you can prepare your blog for this kind of traffic.

In the earlier article in this series, I discussed what blog carnivals are and why all aspiring bloggers should be participating in them. In the event that you missed that post, let me review briefly the benefits of participating in blog carnivals:

* They improve your authority

* You quickly get profitable, regular readers of your partner blogs

* You get a quick boost of traffic to blog articles

* You get a long term improvement in search result rankings

What I’m going to review in this article is how you can get the most out of your carnival participation. Let’s be real, carnivals take effort and time, so you should get as much benefit and good will from them as you can. Here’s how you can do just that:

1) Submit your articles early. There will be a call for entries deadline, but in all likelihood the host already has some idea on how the post will be structured before the deadline, so you want your article available during this planning stage.

2) Make the host’s job easy: Learn how to create blog post titles that are clever, and brainstorm two or three powerful, compelling headings that can be used for the anchor text in links. Good headings are hard to create, so create them on your own. You’ll save the host the effort and get more traffic from a better headline.

3) Follow the submission guidelines.

4) Get organized: Organize the information you submit. Include your e-mail address, name, blog name, post title, article summary, several sample headings, trackback URL, and permalink. Place this information in an e-mail above the full post itself, unless otherwise directed.

5) Promote: Once submitted, be sure to advertise the carnival. What goes around comes around, and your collaborative efforts to drive traffic will payoff for everyone in the long run. That’s the point of these carnivals: all participants are sharing readers, giving each the opportunity to attract the others’ regular subscribers.

6) Make sure your blog can handle your traffic: Prepare your blog for any traffic surges that might occur, and optimize the page that the carnival readers will be viewing. You’ll want to target the offers or ads to your audience, provide a very conspicuous subscribe link, and follow-up with at least one week’s worth of strong articles to capitalize on any lingering traffic you might have.

Blog carnivals are a terrific way to attract relevant, qualified, profitable, long-term readers. Use them intelligently and you’ll reap the rewards. But you must be prepared to put your best foot forward. Pick up a good blogs how to if you have any doubts on how you can prepare your blog for this kind of traffic.

In the previous article in this series, I discussed what blog carnivals are and why all new bloggers should be participating in them. In case you missed that post, let me recap quickly the benefits to participating in blog carnivals:

* They improve your authority

* You immediately gain regular, profitable readers of your partner blogs

* You get an immediate boost of traffic to blog posts

* You get a long term improvement in search result rankings

What I’m going to review in this post is how you can derive the most benefit out of your carnival participation. Let’s face it, carnivals take effort and time, so you should get the most good will and benefit from them as possible. Here’s how you can do just that:

1) Submit your articles early. There will be a call for entries deadline, but in all likelihood the host already has some idea on how the post will be structured before the deadline, so you want your article available during this planning stage.

2) Make the host’s job easy: Learn how to create blog post titles that are clever, and brainstorm two or three powerful, compelling headings that can be used for the anchor text in links. Good headings are hard to create, so create them on your own. You’ll save the host the effort and get more traffic from a better headline.

3) Follow the submission guidelines.

4) Get organized: Organize the information you enter. Include your name, e-mail address, blog name, post title, article summary, several sample headings, permalink, and trackback URL. Place this information in an e-mail above the full article itself, unless otherwise directed.

5) Promote: Once submitted, be sure to advertise the carnival. What goes around comes around, and your collaborative efforts to drive traffic will payoff for everyone in the long run. That’s the point of these carnivals: all participants are sharing readers, giving each the opportunity to attract the others’ regular subscribers.

6) Make sure your blog can handle your visitors: Prepare your blog for any traffic spikes that might occur, and optimize the page that the carnival readers will be viewing. You’ll want to target the ads or offers to your audience, provide a very visible subscribe link, and follow-up with at least one week’s worth of powerful articles to capitalize on any repeat traffic you might have.

Blog carnivals are a superb way to attract profitable, relevant, qualified, long-term readers. Use them properly and you’ll reap the rewards. But you must be ready to put your best foot forward. Pick up a good blogs how to if you have any doubts on how you can prepare your blog for this kind of traffic.

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:

* Increase your credibility

* Immediately gain regular, profitable readers of your partner blogs

* Get a quick surge of traffic to blog entries

* Get a long term improvement in search result rankings

What is a Blog Carnival?

A blog carnival is a web event consisting of a loose partnership of bloggers writing about a specific topic. The articles created (or linked to) during a carnival usually 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.

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 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 review how you can maximize your carnival participation . . . in our next post!