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Let me just say that I'm a big fan of blog carnivals. They're not without their disadvantages, of course, but the advantages entirely outweigh the investment of time and effort that you give them.

That's why it amazes 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 how things work. And new carnival networks can sometimes be more unreliable than you might like. But get connected with a reliable group of bloggers in your niche, and carnivals are excellent ways to:

• Increase your credibility
• Quickly get regular, profitable readers of your partner blogs
• Get a quick boost of traffic to blog posts
• Get a long term increase 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 created (or linked to) during a carnival usually resulting in a magazine-like format. The carnival has a title, theme, 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 particular carnival are located. In response to the call for submissions, every blogger participating in the carnival submits their post to the host, where it is reviewed, edited, and published in the wild as one giant linkbait post or a series of posts. Obviously, you'll need to know how to create blog posts that are compelling and effective to get the maximum benefit.

Carnivals usually draw loads of qualified traffic, so bloggers participating in the carnival get a powerful backlink from the host and the immediate traffic boost associated with the initial 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 them 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!

Jared is co-author of Blogging in Action, a popular package that teaches others how to create blog properties the right way. He is also the programmer of the Six-Figure Plugin Suite, used by hundreds of people to drive traffic to blog posts and sites.

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