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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