I recently did an article about blog carnivals.
Recap
In brief, blog carnival occurs when one blog “hosts” writers from other blogs, who write on a topic specified by the host. The blog host will post links to participating writers, and perhaps some description of the work.
In my mind, there are a few benefits.
- You get link(s) from other blogs, so you’re traffic will increase. Even if this is temporary, you may attract some permanent readers.
- You will provide links back to the blog host. This is a polite thing to do for your carnival host, and it gives your readers an opportunity to see other blogs they might be interested in.
Results
I’ve participated in a few blog carnivals, mostly in May, and I’ve seen a significant traffic jump. It’s almost impossible to really know what the true effect was, but I have to think that was a large part of it. My hits, visitors, and page views have all nearly doubled this month.
That’s good for several reasons. If you blog, I’m guessing you’d like someone to read it, and the more someones, the better! Since way less than one percent of readers comment (my stats, at least), more readers theoretically means more comments. Discussions will, over time, build a blog community.
If you’re trying to make money from your blog, more traffic is obviously good. If you want, you can turn the pennies you make from pay-per-click ads like AdSense into real advertising as traffic builds.
Of course, being able to contribute something to the “blogosphere” discussion on your topic of choice is great. I enjoy knowing that others read my blog and get some benefit from it. In my opinion, that should be the first goal for anyone creating a blog, whether for love or money. If you focus on providing something really worth reading, then the traffic will come along.
Blog Carnival Thanks
Here’s a list of blog carnivals that have included one or more of my blog entries. If you’re interested in hosting a carnival on your own site, you might want to take a look at these and see how they’ve approached it.
Some do a really good job of putting together a nice-looking page, and others do a quick cut/paste. So far, I haven’t known if my work would actually appear until I saw the link tracked in my blog software, so don’t be surprised if you submit and don’t hear anything.
DigitalRichDaily: Carnival of the Storytellers
I’m pretty sure I’m missing one entry, but I can’t find anything in my referrer’s list. If you published something of mine and I’ve missed you here, please let me know in comments, and I’ll fix the error. Thanks to everyone!