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In the prior article in this series, I discussed what blog carnivals are and why all up and coming bloggers should be participating in them. In the event that you missed that article, let me review quickly the benefits to participating in blog carnivals:
* They improve your credibility
* You quickly get profitable, regular readers of your partner blogs
* You get an immediate boost of traffic to blog posts
* You get a long term improvement in search result rankings
What I'm going to review in this post is how you can derive the most benefit out of your carnival participation. Let's face it, carnivals take effort and time, so you should get the most good will and benefit from them as possible. Here's how you can do just that:
1) Submit your articles early. There will be a call for entries deadline, but it's likely that the host already has some idea on how the post will be structured before the deadline, so you want your article available during this early stage.
2) Make the host's job easy: Learn how to create blog post titles that are clever, and brainstorm two or three powerful, compelling headings that can be used for the anchor text in links. Good headings are hard to create, so create them on your own. You'll save the host the effort and get more traffic from a better headline.
3) Follow the entry guidelines.
4) Get organized: Organize the information you enter. Include your name, e-mail address, blog name, post title, article summary, several sample headings, permalink, and trackback URL. Place this information in an e-mail above the full article itself, unless otherwise directed.
5) Promote: Once submitted, be sure to advertise the carnival. What goes around comes around, and your aggregate efforts to drive traffic will payoff for everyone in the long run. That's the point of these carnivals: all participants are sharing subscribers, giving each the opportunity to attract the others' regular readers.
6) Make sure your blog can handle your traffic: Prepare your blog for any traffic spikes that might occur, and optimize the page that the carnival readers will be viewing. You'll want to target the offers or ads to your audience, provide a very visible subscription link, and follow-up with at least one week's worth of solid articles to capitalize on any repeat traffic you might have.
Blog carnivals are a terrific way to attract relevant, qualified, profitable, long-term readers. Use them intelligently and you'll reap the rewards. But you must be prepared to put your best foot forward. Pick up a good blogs how to if you have any doubts on how you can prepare your blog for this kind of traffic.
* They improve your credibility
* You quickly get profitable, regular readers of your partner blogs
* You get an immediate boost of traffic to blog posts
* You get a long term improvement in search result rankings
What I'm going to review in this post is how you can derive the most benefit out of your carnival participation. Let's face it, carnivals take effort and time, so you should get the most good will and benefit from them as possible. Here's how you can do just that:
1) Submit your articles early. There will be a call for entries deadline, but it's likely that the host already has some idea on how the post will be structured before the deadline, so you want your article available during this early stage.
2) Make the host's job easy: Learn how to create blog post titles that are clever, and brainstorm two or three powerful, compelling headings that can be used for the anchor text in links. Good headings are hard to create, so create them on your own. You'll save the host the effort and get more traffic from a better headline.
3) Follow the entry guidelines.
4) Get organized: Organize the information you enter. Include your name, e-mail address, blog name, post title, article summary, several sample headings, permalink, and trackback URL. Place this information in an e-mail above the full article itself, unless otherwise directed.
5) Promote: Once submitted, be sure to advertise the carnival. What goes around comes around, and your aggregate efforts to drive traffic will payoff for everyone in the long run. That's the point of these carnivals: all participants are sharing subscribers, giving each the opportunity to attract the others' regular readers.
6) Make sure your blog can handle your traffic: Prepare your blog for any traffic spikes that might occur, and optimize the page that the carnival readers will be viewing. You'll want to target the offers or ads to your audience, provide a very visible subscription link, and follow-up with at least one week's worth of solid articles to capitalize on any repeat traffic you might have.
Blog carnivals are a terrific way to attract relevant, qualified, profitable, long-term readers. Use them intelligently and you'll reap the rewards. But you must be prepared to put your best foot forward. Pick up a good blogs how to if you have any doubts on how you can prepare your blog for this kind of traffic.
About the Author:
Jared is the programmer of a blog extension suite for WordPress blogs and a partner in the publishing company that created the best-selling blogging course Blogging in Action. Jared helps people learn how to create blog properties the right way, and coaches them on effective methods to bring traffic to blogs.
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