What Are Blog Carnivals and Why You Should Participate

A blog carnival is a collection of links to blog posts from various blogs focused on a certain topic. A blog owner will write a blog post linking to posts that cover the topic of that carnival, usually accompanied with a small description so visitors can get an idea about the article before going to read it. Other bloggers can submit their blog post if they think it’s a good fit for the blog carnival. Blog carnivals are so popular there are specific websites dedicated to simplify the process.

Some bloggers do something similar to blog carnivals in their blogs. “Friday Links”, “Best reads of the week”, “Blog posts I loved this month” etc. are some examples of this. However the difference between them and blog carnivals is that they don’t focus on a certain topic and others are not allowed to submit their posts to be included like in blog carnivals.

Advantage for Other Bloggers

• Traffic – If your blog post gets selected to be published in the blog carnival you will definitely get some traffic from that blog. The amount of traffic depends on the number of readers of that blog so it is always a good idea to submit your posts to an active blog. Also you can increase your traffic levels by helping to promote the blog carnival post via social media and social bookmarking sites.
• New Audience – You will be getting a set of visitors highly targeted towards your blog post. So it will be much easier to convert them into email subscribers or RSS readers. Make sure to have few more excellent posts to entice them more.
• SEO Benefits – You are getting a link from another blog and if the anchor text has the right keywords it is even better. Additionally blog carnival posts are linked by other participating blogger so that page acquires lot of authority giving you a quality link.
• Connecting with the blogger – If you are to succeed in any business venture you need to have the right connections. Blog carnivals give you the opportunity to connect with a like-minded blogger. Even if your blog post doesn’t get selected you can still make an effort to build a powerful connection.

Advantage for Blog Hosts

• Increased Traffic – When you host a blog carnival you get traffic in multiple ways. First you get an initial wave of traffic from people who are coming to check out the carnival requirements. If you have a good website layout then you can get more traffic to popular posts etc. Also after you publish your carnival blog post the people who submitted will check it out and likely to share your post on their social networks which will bring you even more traffic.
• SEO Advantages – Search engines appreciate quality content and linking to quality content is a sign that you are producing quality content. This will give you a boost in authority. Also once you link to others via your carnival post they are likely to return the favor by linking to it from their blogs. This will give you additional links and help you rank better in search engines.
• Happy Readers – Your readers will appreciate the fresh posts and consider you an authority on that topic.

As you can see blog carnivals are beneficial for blog owners, article submitters and readers. Finding them is not that hard, just set up a Google alert and Google will do the finding for you. So the next time you hear about a blog carnival make sure to check out if you can submit your blog posts. If you own a blog consider the benefits of hosting a carnival and give it try.