This is a guest post by Damien Riley
Blog Carnivals are online communities. They are also a great way to see that your posts get more attention than just one day. They provide you valuable backlinks and potentially a slough of new readers. They are a “win win” for bloggers and carnival hosts all around. When I started blogging, they were mysterious to me, even tedious. Now, I think I get them and I am becoming more at ease. Participating in them basically takes three steps:
1. Find a Carnival you are interested in: I have been basing these first on publish date. If the carnival isn’t set to publish for another three months or so, I am not interested. I look for fast publishing, carnivals that are set to go live within days or weeks at the most. The topic is also a concern. I start by looking at the dates and then examine the topics to see which ones I want to enter.
2. Choose the post you want to submit: In my case, this is usually posts from my archives. I really enjoy seeing a forgotten post of mine get new life and they often do through this process. In other cases, you may like the topic as a new post and write a post with the intent to submit it into a carnival. Blog Carnivals are great for topic starters.
3. Fill out the necessary hoopla and rigamorol: BlogCarnival.com has a pop up system that guides you through this process. The cool thing is that it fills in a lot of the stuff automatically for you just by pinging the post you specify.
I’ve been trying my hand lately at hosting a recurring Blog Carnival. I have also found the benefits in being a part of one another is hosting. It’s sort of like stepping away from your sense of self-importance, that we bloggers seem to often fall victim to, and becoming part of a greater whole. I like Blog Carnivals for that.
To browse or enter my ongoing Blog Carnival entitled “Amazing Vision” visit the page on Blog Carnival.
Damien Riley is an author/teacher in Southern California. He writes on psychology and inspiration and keeps an online diary. Many of his writings are based on experiences as a teacher.
[...] I got when I started my “Amazing Visions” carnival, I was able again to write a guest post over at the Fuelmyblog Blog. I tell why I like Blog Carnivals, explain the steps to get involved [...]
I’ve never heard of these – it does sound like yet another ‘complication’ though.
I’ll be interested to hear what other people have to say …….
I have never participated in any but like DP would like to hear the opinions of other bloggers who may have tried it. Thanks Damien for sharing your experience and views on Blog Carnivals with the rest of us.
Never heard of them, but they do sound quite interesting.
I think they can be a good way of “sharing the love”. Lots of sites do them from time to time but probably don’t call them specifically carnivals. Basically just rounding up a collection of articles from other related blogs. As Duncan said it seems to be a win-win situation. Driving more folks to your blog and those of the “host”. And maybe also finding yourself some new blogs to read in the process. So long as the hosting of the carnival doesn’t impose some crazy wild widget on tyour nice clean blog design, why not?
@Sylvie: You are most welcome. When I get an idea that I think applies to this community I rush over. You are very gracious to have me guest blog.
As to the rest of the commenters (apart from Richard): Wow! Never heard of Blog Carnivals? They are an excellent hub of community and I am glad to hear maybe now you are going to try one out!
@Richard: There are no wodgets involved and you are correct in saying they exist in many forms. BlogCarnival.com has it down to a science though. That’s not a solicited plug either, I just recommend sites and services that are good when I can.
I’ve participated in several NBA Carnivals; they’re great fun. Sometimes we write to a theme suggested by the host and sometimes the host creates a theme from our submission. Each time, I’ve met new people and gained new readers.
The host posts links to all participating entries; each participant posts their entry on their own blog with a link to the host’s complete list of entries.
This is a wonderful post – I wish more people knew about the Carnivals.
Not sure if things have improved at the Blog Carnival site as I gave up on it a long time ago due to often battling to submit, having finally submitted the Carnival host not being informed etc etc. I can’t even remember getting one respose to tickets submitted about problems. Even though I visited all sites submitted to a particular Carnival and commented I got very little traffic back.
Much happier with systems like FuelMyBlog and Entrecard as I DO get regulars and many take the time to comment.
Hopefully the gliches are sorted and those who enjoy Carnivals have fun, and I know many do, but truthfully it is not for me.
[...] recent guest post at FuelmyBlog on Blog Carnivals. addthis_url = [...]
[...] of Sylvie Dixie, I have launched the FuelMyBlog Blog Carnival. Recently I wrote a post about them (refresh your mind here!) and since doing so I have heard a lot of interest in such an undertaking. It is basically a [...]