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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6 Tips To Use Digg To Drive Traffic To Your Blog

    Boosting your blog or website traffic is not easy without multifaceted techniques.  One of these venues is Digg, one of the most popular social news website. If you have an interesting news article, people on Digg will tend to share it. Users submit links to content they like, and other users comment on those submissions and add their own votes (called Diggs) to those links. Popular links will rise to the front page of Digg and are likely to get a lot of traffic. It's important to understand that you may submit your own content to Digg, but if you over submit your own content, you will be penalized and your submissions will not be readily available to other users. User caution and submit not just your own content, but other links of interest as well.
       

         How Does Digg Work?
      Digg operates under a very simple methodology. Users submit (or "digg") web pages or blog posts they like by entering the URL for the specific page as well as a short description and selecting a category that page fits in. Each submission is open for all Digg users to view through the "Upcoming Articles" page. Other users can then digg or "bury" those submissions (or completely ignore them). Submissions that get a lot of diggs will appear on the main page of the Digg website within the list of "Popular Articles" where other Digg users can find them and click on the links to visit the original articles.
      The Challenges Of Using Digg;
      When it comes to how effective Digg is at driving traffic to your blog, it's important to understand the power of the top users at Digg. The top Digg users have enormous influence on what shows up on the main page of Digg and what stories get buried quickly.
      The Positives Of Digg Are:
*Digg is the most popular social news site on the Internet.
*Digg can drive a lot of traffic to your blog if your blog post gets to the main page.
*Digg can help you find interesting blog posts and blogs.
*Digg can help you network with like-minded bloggers by sharing submissions and commenting on each other's submissions.
      The Negatives Of Digg Are:
 *It's hard to get your blog posts on the main page of Digg.
*Top users control much of what gets on the main page of Digg.
*Traffic that comes from Digg is generally short-lived
*Spam content finds its way on Digg frequently.
*People pay the top users and other companies to generate diggs for content and move it to the main page of Digg leaving less chance for your posts to get to the main page.
*Digg does not like it when users submit their own pages or blog posts and will penalize users who do so too frequently.
                                  6 Tips to Use Digg to Drive Blog Traffic
   1.Staying on Top of the Page
The ideal way to get much traffic is to make sure your content stays on top of the page, but such a feat is way too hard as a challenge for some. One thing to keep in mind is to write engaging, interesting, and fresh articles that tickle the pulse of the readers. It’s a challenge to come up with articles that people are willing to read and share. Writers often have to survey the social media for hot topics and write about these topics in their own perspective. Content in this case has to be catchy. The title has to be punchy. Then the writer should grab curious readers’ attention in the introduction. Thus, it’s vital to come up with powerful content.
   2. Don't Digg Your Own Posts
Digg will penalize users who submit their own content too frequently. If you want your blog posts to have a chance at making it to the main page of Digg (and generating a lot of traffic to your blog), don't be the first to submit your post. Ask a friend or colleague to submit it first.
  3.Digging Others’ Posts
SEOs, online marketers, and news writers who succeed in their game usually make connection with potential affiliates in the field. You don’t spend 100% of your energies trying to promote yourself. This is a poor way to build valuable connections that may just work for your favor at some point in the future. So, “Digg” the post of other members, because they may likely “Digg” yours back. This tactic takes time before becoming effective, but don’t fret. Continue expanding your Digg network. You will be surprised at the rise in the number of your website visitors.
  4.Be Active On Digg
In order to get your post on the homepage of Digg it is necessary for you to be active on Digg. Active users have more chances of getting their posts noticed as compared to inactive ones. To increase your chances of getting on the homepage of Digg, you will have to Digg news articles and posts from blogs and websites frequently, also try to make as many friends as possible and be active in commenting.The more active you are, the better you will understand about Digg. You will come to know about the best time for submitting your stories, it is recommended that you submit the stories in the peak hours to get your post noticed.
  5. Digg Several Articles at a Time
When you ask your friends to Digg your blog post, make sure they Digg more than just your post while they're at it. Digg keeps tabs on people who just Digg a single item while they're on the Digg website in order to penalize spammers (particularly those who are paid to Digg specific stories). Ask your friends to Digg your post as well as a few other stories of interest or on the main page of Digg at the same time.
  6.Add A “Digg This” Button To Your Posts
The very first step towards getting free blog traffic is by adding a “Digg this” button to all your blog posts. Your readers will Digg your blog posts if they really like your articles and your writing skills. Adding a “Digg this” button will also make it very easy for the logged-in users (Users logged-in to Digg) to share your blog posts. You can therefore increase the number of shares because most people don’t like to waste their two minutes to simply submit an article to Digg and that too that won’t be getting anything for doing this.
NOTE:
  If you want your blog post to be on the first page of Digg, it is highly recommended that you don’t submit it yourself, but ask one of your friend to submit it first.
   While Digg has the potential to drive a lot of traffic to your blog, it happens less frequently than users would like.It should be used with other promotion strategies and tactics (including other social bookmarking site submission) for you to drive the most traffic to your blog overall.

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9 TIPS ON USING GOOGLE PLUS TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG

Without great traffic to your blog site, your posts will not be get read, regardless of the quality of your articles.Getting traffic to your blog site is an integral part of marketing. The more you can cross-promote your content, the more eyeballs you will get. The more eyeballs you get, the more your content will be shared. The more your content is shared, the better your search rankings are, and so on, and so on.Google+ is one the fastest-growing social networking site. It's a perfect place to connect with people around the world, build relationships, and drive readers to your blog.And no matter what you feel about it, there’s no denying it’s good for your blog’s traffic, when used correctly.
                   

                          Here are nine tips on using Google Plus to drive traffic to your blog posts.
1. Create a Complete Profile or Page
If your blog can be identified as a business or brand, then create a Google+ Page for it. If not, use your personal Google+ profile to connect with your blog audience. The first step is to create a comprehensive profile or page that fully describes who you are, what expertise you bring to the table, how to find your blog, what your blog is about, and what makes it special.When you’re setting up your page (or revising one you already have), be sure to take advantage of the large cover photos. Your image can now be as large as 2120 x 1192 pixels, as indicated in this G+ cover image:
         And to drive traffic to your blog,do not forget to:
*include your blog URL in your introduction section, and give a good call to action (CTA)  as to why a user should visit.
*include your blog site in your Links section.
*create a profile image with an arrow or other CTA to your blog (there’s no restrictions on G+ cover page CTA’s)
2. Connect with People
Once you've created your Google+ profile or page, you need to start connecting with other Google+ members. Search for people you know first. Then look through the people they follow to find more interesting people to follow. As you spend time on blogs and other social web destinations, look for links to connect with interesting people on Google+.
3. Create Circles
Next, you should create circles to categorize your Google+ connections and then place people into appropriate circles. For example, create circles for your blog readers, your blog post sources, people who influence your target audience, people who can help you promote your blog or publicize it, and so on.
4. Share with your Circles
   Circles provide an amazing opportunity to share your blog posts to targeted people. They are a way to segment G+ users that you follow. You can kind of segment circles a bit like you might bluntly do so for an email list. For example, create circles for customers, industry leaders, partners, and team that suit your business needs.
        NOTE; People don’t know what circle you have them in, so you’re not going to offend.
To promote your blog posts, share them with targeted audiences, and connect with them by writing specific updates for your post.For example, say you’ve written a blog post about a new product. You can post specific updates to your segmented G+ Circles:
*If you want your customers to read it, you could share it to your ‘customer circle’ with an update written to include prices and why they need to buy it.
*If you want your industry leaders to read it, you could share it to your ‘industry leader circle’ with an update written with a requests for reviews.
5.Engage in Communities
Google+ Communities provide an amazing way to expand your reach and networking online.Communities are very different than Circles. Communities are groups online - kind of like really modern, interactive forums. For a blogger you can also think of them like a huge marketplace where you can branch out and network with readers.
There are tons of Google+ Communities, and you are sure to find ones that cater to your business needs. (If you can’t find groups for your niche, you can make your own-but you’ll need to develop your own members - which takes time and know how!)
Let’s say, for example, you have a blog that is all about driving traffic to sites and you write blog posts about all kinds of ways on and how-to tips. Here’s a quick run through of how to use G+ Communities to drive your ‘tribes’ to your blog site:

Do a search for 'driving traffic to sites’ in Communities, and you’ll find tons of results:
Then….
*join a few of the groups that are most relevant to your posts.
*take part in the dialogues that are happening.
*comment on the updates, share posts you like and G+ them.
and you will quickly get to know a lot of drivetrafficfolk.Once you’ve started to establish yourself, post links to your blog in your niche driving traffic  Communities.Your updates will get shared, G+ed, commented on, and clicked through. Not only that - but, if you do it right, by getting to know your angler groups online, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you develop new customers too!
When you share your blog posts in Communities, write a brief summary of your article, include questions to engage your reader and add specific hashtags to reach your niche market. Here’s an excellent example of a fishing update to get readers to click through to the blog:
6. Host Hangouts
Google+ hangouts are video chats between up to 10 Google+ members. You can host a hangout and promote it as a small virtual webinar or tuturial session. Think of how you can tie a video chat session with your blog topic and what kind of valuable information you could share in such a session. Then promote it on your blog as a special event!You can also share your Hangouts on your YouTube channel, so even more people can watch it.You can listen to most of them, and if there’s an open invite, you can join in and get to know your customers a lot more. The more you get to know a core group of business supporters, the more your blog post links will likely be shared by them.
7.Use Hashtags
Hashtags were introduced to Google+ recently. Use them as a way to better reach your niche market on the site.Hashtags enable you to kind of categorize your updates, and help you to get found in searches on the site.  When using hashtags, there are a number of key strategies to keep in mind:
*Include at least one to three tags in your blog post updates. Less is often more in hashtags. It shows you know who you want to reach, and you know the key elements of your blog post you are sharing in your update.
*Make tags to include really detailed subjects. The more granular you get in hashtagging, the more likely your post is going to be found, read and clicked on by your interested niche readers.For example, the hashtag “#howtodrivetraffic can be used.
*Make tags to promote a campaign. You can use hashtags to create a shared, interactive category about a marketing campaign your business is running. For example, if you are hosting a contest or promotion on your blog, create a campaign specific hashtag so that you generate more awareness of your contest, and your community can publicly participate in it too.
*Use hashtags when posting to public posts, circles and communities.
8.Share Your Google+ Posts Publicly
*When you share your Google+ posts publicly, it can be found in search engine results.
*Increase the probability of attracting search engine traffic to your blog via Google+.
*Sharing publicly also allows your post to be embeddable, therefore increasing the probability of traffic from other websites if your Google Plus post is embedded within a blog post .
*When sharing a post publicly, others are able to re-share your posts to their network. Google Plus users that you’re not connected to will be exposed to your post, therefore increasing traffic to your blog and adding to the size of your Google Plus network as new people who are introduced to your awesomeness circle you.
9.Include +1 Button
Last, but certainly not least, make sure you include a +1 button on all of your blog posts. This may be an obvious point, but don’t overlook it.
A G+ button makes it easy for your readers to share your posts to their public feed, their circles, and their communities.
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