How To Drive Traffic To Your Blog Through Blog Carnivals

In short, a blog carnival is a blog promotional event where one blogger acts as the host and other bloggers act as participants. The host announces the carnival date and topic then other bloggers who write about that topic on their own blogs write a post related to the blog carnival's topic and publish it on their blogs. Each participating blogger sends the host the link to their specific blog carnival post entry.

On the date of the blog carnival, the host publishes a post with links to each of the participants' entries. Typically, the host will write a summary of each link, but it's up to the host how he or she wants to display the links to the various entries. When the blog carnival post is published by the host, readers of the host's blog will have easy access to a variety of posts related to a topic of interest to them.

Each participant is expected to promote the blog carnival on their own blogs in advance of the carnival thereby driving traffic to the host's blog. The assumption is that when the carnival date arrives, the host's readers will want to read the various participants' entries to the carnival and will click on those links to visit the participants' blogs thus driving new traffic to the participants' blogs.

Often a blog carnival is an ongoing event with the host running the carnival weekly, monthly or quarterly, but they can be one-time events as well. Blog carnival hosts may put out a call for content on their own blog or by contacting other bloggers they know that blog about the carnival's topic.

       Blog carnivals are a great way to increase traffic to your blog, promote your blog, and network with other bloggers. Keep reading to learn how to start your own blog carnival.

 *Difficulty: Average

 *Time Required: Varies

Here's How:

Step 1: Choose a Topic

Make sure you choose a blog carnival topic that is closely related to your blog, so people who visit your carnival post will be most likely to click through and read more of your related content. Also, choosing a topic related to your blog's topic makes the networking that you do with other bloggers who participate in the carnival that much more valuable to you.

Step 2: Name Your Blog Carnival

It's important to give your blog carnival a name, so all participants refer to it in the same way. This helps with search engine optimization, particularly if the carnival is ongoing. It also helps to raise awareness and recognition of your blog carnival, again, particularly is it is an ongoing carnival. You can also create a graphic to help other bloggers publicize their participation and to further boost awareness and recognition.

Step 3: Write Your Blog Carnival Post

You can't have a blog carnival unless you start it with your own blog post. This is the post that other carnival participants will link to in their own posts, meaning, this is the post on your blog that will get all of the incoming link benefits from the blog carnival. Make sure it's a great post, and be sure to update it with links to the other participants' posts for reciprocal linking -- that's what makes a blog carnival successful.

Step 4: Promote Your Blog Carnival

For your blog carnival to be most successful, you need to promote it and recruit other bloggers to participate. You can do this through blogger outreach by emailing other bloggers who could benefit from the "link love" a blog carnival provides. You can also announce your carnival on forums related to your blog topic. Don't be afraid to get creative!

Step 5: Follow up and Try Again

Blog carnivals are most effective when a lot of bloggers participate. It can take many attempts and a lot of hard work to grow an ongoing blog carnival. Don't give up after your first try. Be sure to follow up to thank all participants and stay in touch with them! So much of blogging success comes from building relationships, and blog carnivals are a great way to do just that.

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7 Tips To Do To Get Traffic From Yahoo! Answers To Your Blog

     Do you know that you can drive traffic to your blog/website via Yahoo! Answers? It allows common people to ask questions, which are then answered by expert or experienced readers. The asker can rate answers, and the best rated answer comes first in the roster. Website owners and internet marketers should never ignore this seemingly trivial section of Yahoo! because they can actually use it to their own advantage. Using Yahoo Answers has two guaranteed benefits: it will help you establish authority in your niche and give you highly targeted traffic.
                                                     
                                                 

                                            How Yahoo Answers Works?
Its system is easy to use. People ask questions?-you answer them,very simple. A link to your website/blog appears at the end of your answer. Yahoo Answers users who find your answers helpful are likely to click on your link to see what your website/blog offers.
   Tips On Using Yahoo Answers;
*You must have a Yahoo account to make use of this forum. Once you have created an account, go to  Yahoo Answers and search for questions that pertain to your niche. *The search function uses keywords  just like a search engine, so try looking for the keywords you target on your website.
*Using the advanced search allows you to choose only ‘open’ questions.
* ‘Closed’ questions are those that have already been voted on, therefore, even if you did answer, your        response could not be rated.
*You can also use advanced search to look for questions by date. If it’s a recent question, you can be the  first to answer it.
*Once you find questions in your niche, read them carefully. Put thought into your answers. Make sure your  responses are well-written and professional to ensure the questioner will choose your answer as the most  helpful.
*When you first start using Yahoo Answers, you can’t leave a clickable link. You can submit your URL in  text format
*To leave a clickable link, you must have answered at least 250 questions.
*You can elevate your answer quotient by answering questions in any category – they don’t all have to be    relevant to your niche
*You can use content from your website to come up with questions for posting. Simply look at your articles,   blog posts, etc., and take any statement to turn into a question.
* Stick to your niche. The point is to build authority in your topic.
* If you are going to answer in multiple niches, create multiple profiles.If you are not cautious, however, your  account could be suspended for misuse.
* Use keyword research to find or create questions. Look for low competition keywords because Yahoo    Answers questions show up in the SERPs(search engine result pages).
NOTE:You can use content from your website to come up with questions for posting. Simply look at your articles, blog posts, etc., and take any statement to turn into a question.

                             7 Tips to do to get traffic from Yahoo! Answers?

1.Search For Your Category
Since Yahoo Answer is categorized, you can look for the category which is relevant to your blog’s title. There are so many categories, so obviously your blog will fit into one. Each category also has many subcategories but these are closely related. To have a huge margin, stick to the main category.

2.Make Yourself Known
Many people coming to that online Q&A hub don’t care about setting up nice profiles.When you answer questions related to your field, readers will see you as a reliable person, and they will tend to check out your profile to know more about you. When you answer, don't just give a link, answer it in brief but you should convince the reader that by clicking the link he would get more detailed answer. Also giving just a link would look more like a spam and the reader would not trust it. But don’t forget to give the link to your site in the source section. When you give the link, give it to the related post and not to the main page. If the reader gets the answer, he is sure to probe around to see what is this site anyway?This is when the trick comes, because you can promote yourself subtly on your profile when have a link to your blog or site on your profile, which can drive traffic to your website.

3.Answer Unanswered Questions
Being the first person to answer the question works to your advantage. Many people who look at answers to posted questions only look at the first few answers and ignore all the rest below. But it’s not enough that you give the first answer. You must give a relevant answer, because some onlookers can be critical. A lot of people who read answers are critical enough to identify good responses from trash.Responding to a question on Yahoo! Answers is your chance to prove your credibility and show your expertise in your niche. Also, keep in mind that not all readers are technical. The mere fact that they are asking questions means they are not the geeks in the field. So you might want to use vivid explanations and clear descriptions.
NOTE:When answering a particular question, make it as the first one to answer. If others answer to that question, it will be added to the bottom of what you have answered. So if you write your answer somewhere in-between, your effort may be lost.

4.Be Knowledgeable
As you are blogging about a particular field or subject, you must be having a fair and sound idea about the subject even if you are not specialized. Try to study more about your subject and get more knowledge.  Read both the questions and answers in your category, so you will know what the nature of question you can expect there is.

5.Be Straight In Your Answers
Cut the chase and go straight to the point.If you can answer the query in 4 sentences, don’t make it 9. Online readers are not after a 2-page essay on the inquiry. They basically have limited time to spend online and they like quick answers.And don’t bash the asker for being too dumb. You don’t build a good reputation by demeaning them for not knowing something that you find too easy.Harsh responses will never gain credits regardless of how helpful and informative they are.

 6.Be a Top Contributor
Yahoo Answers  gives credits for your answers. 2 credits for an answer, 10 credits for the best answer and 1 credit for voting an answer. As your credits grow you become the top contributor. When you answer a particular question, you will be seen as a top contributor near your avatar. By this readers may trust your answers more than others and they are more likely to click your avatar and see what other questions you have answered- more traffic to your site.

 7.Lead Generation
Yahoo Answer also gives lead generation. As you are browsing to answer questions, you will come across some questions that will interest and you would like to post it in your site. Answer the question in your site and give the link to that post as answer in Yahoo. These are questions asked by a genuine person and there are many people with the similar question, so when you post it in your site there are chances you will receive hits for that post from search engine as well.

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6 Tips To DriveTraffic To Your Blog Using Keyword Research

    Google in particularly,is one of the biggest search engines  sources of traffic to your blog that you will need. You can boost the traffic that comes to your blogs from search engines by implementing search engine optimization (SEO) tips into your blog layout and writing.  You can get started by doing some keyword research and determining which keywords are likely to drive the most traffic to your blog.  Then focus on incorporating those keywords into your blog posts using the following six simple tips below.

                              
1. Use keywords in your blog post title.
One of the best ways to incorporate keywords into your blog posts is to use them in your blog post titles.  However, don't kill a title's ability to make people hungry to click through and read your entire blog post.

2. Make sure to use one or two keyword phrases in each blog post.
To maximize the traffic that comes to your blog through search engines, focus on optimization each of your blog posts for just one or two keyword phrases.  Too many keyword phrases dilutes the content of your post for readers and can look like spam to both readers and search engines.  You can learn more about using specific keywords to maximize search traffic by reading about long tail search engine optimization.

3. Use keywords throughout your blog posts.
Try to use your keywords (without keyword stuffing) multiple times in your blog post.  For best results, use your keywords within the first 180 characters of your blog post, several times throughout your post, and near the end of the post.  Take some time to learn more about keyword stuffing and other search engine optimization don't s.

4. Use keywords in and around links in your blog post.
Search engine optimization experts believe that search engines like Google place more weight on linked text than unlinked text when ranking search engine results.  Therefore, it's a good idea to include your keywords in or next to the links within your blog posts when it's relevant to do so.  Be sure to read about how many links are too many for SEO before you start adding links to your posts.

5. Use keywords in image Alt-tags.
When you upload an image to your blog to use in your blog post, you usually have the option of adding alternate text for that image which appears if a visitor cannot load your images in their Web browsers.  However, this alternate text, can also help your search engine optimization efforts.  That's because the alternate text appears within the HTML of your blog post content as something called an Alt-tag.  Google and other search engines crawl that tag and use it in providing results for keyword searches.  Take the time to add keywords that are relevant to the image and post in the Alt-tag for each image you upload and publish on your blog.

6. Write content rich in links and key words.
Incorporate plenty of key words into your blog, the same ones a reader might type into a search engine like Google. Mix it up with some quotes from notable people, click-able links to other articles (or blogs you've written) and mentions of famous people, organizations, companies, etc. But don't go overboard until your blog is no longer organic and easily readable -- "Do it, but don't over do it," is the general consensus of social media and SEO experts.

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