Blog carnivals for writers
What is a blog carnival?
A blog carnival is a type of blogging event. One blogger (the carnival organiser) will name a topic, and call for others to write blog entries on that topic and send in their links.
Once submissions close, the organiser publishes an entry with a description of the carnival and a list of links. You can see this in action at a post called ‘Writers from across the blogosphere’ over at The Writer’s Block blog.
Why should I submit entries to a blog carnival?
First a disclaimer: blog carnivals are another topic that’s new to me. However, after researching them for this entry, I’ve decided to take part in a few over the next month and will write a follow up post once I’ve seen the results.
For now, I can say that blog carnivals look like a good way to publicise your blog and drive traffic to your site – both from other carnival participants and from other readers who chance upon the list of links.
It also seems to be a good way to discover other writers who have similar interests to you.
In his post about how he became an A-list blogger, Scott Allen writes that he ‘can’t say enough about the value of blog carnivals.’ He suggests that in any given week, a blogger should be able to find at least five carnivals to which they can submit a recent post.
Where can I find open blog carnivals to join?
The Blog Carnival website provides a list of carnivals, which can be sorted by category (eg. writers) or searched by keyword.
Your thoughts
Have you participated in a blog carnival? Did you find that you had more visitors to your site as a result?
Yup - I use them - not as regularly as I should, but still, often enough to have some definite positive impact.
But then, you already knew that!
I also read my incoming links and go comment on the blogs that actually had something useful to say.
But then, you probably already figured that out too!
Thanks for the link and for encouraging good writers to participate in blog carnivals.