Guide to Blog Carnivals 2020

Guide to Blog Carnivals 2020 .elementor-19992 .elementor-element.elementor-element-19992{text-align:center}Last Updated on January 5, 2020So you want to share MORE content with your audience about a particular topic, but have trouble finding that MUCH content on a regular basis?Instead of hiring a bunch of writers to your blog, theres an easier way Blog carnivals. Disclosure As an independent review site, we get compensated if you purchase through the referral links or coupon codes on this page â€" at no additional cost to you. Dismiss alert In this post, Im going to share with you what blog carnivals are, how you can use them and how you can use them to boost your traffic and visitor figures. Heres the guide breakdown:What is a blog carnival?Whats the benefit?How to participate in a blog carnival?How to host a blog carnival?How about guidelines?Promoting your blog carnival. but first, lets see the full definition.Table of Contents What is a Blog Carnival?So whats IN it for me? Traffic and more visitorsHow to Participate in a Blog CarnivalHow can I host my OWN blog carnival?Create Your Blog Carnival and guidelinesPromote Your Blog CarnivalWas it a success? Determine it.What is a Blog Carnival?A blog carnival is an online event where bloggers come together to write about a specific theme or topic. (wiki)In a nutshell,The host of the blog carnival creates a blog post outlining the theme or topic, guidelines, and a deadline.Bloggers who wish to participate must publish a blog post on their own blogs that fit the theme or topic, link back to the hosts blog post, and submit their post by the deadline.The host then links to all of the blog posts that meet the guidelines for the carnival.But, keep the linking within Google TOS. Heres my point of view: Join the FREE TrainingDo You Want To Learn How To Build 6 Figures Authority Sites?Join This Free Training To...Finally have a proven method to finding profitable nichesGet access to a foolproof keyword research methodLearn how to outsource quali ty contentLearn how to build white hat links to your site without headaches Why you should use a nofollow tag?From an SEO standpoint, most blog carnivals ask for participants to link back to the blog carnival announcement post. The main purpose of this should be for traffic, and not for SEO. To stay on Googles friendly side, you can offer a specific piece of code people should use to link back to your blog carnival announcement, and that code should include a nofollow tag.So whats IN it for me? Traffic and more visitorsBlog carnivals have many benefits for both participants and the host.Participants: For starters, any bloggers who participate in the blog carnival will receive traffic from new audiences who learn about the blog carnival from one blog and then go on to read posts from other blogs in the carnival. New bloggers will get the chance to become part of a network of established blogs within a specific niche. Other bloggers in the carnival will likely spend some time visi ting the other blogs to read their content and engage in the discussion, boosting each blogs traffic and comments.Host: The host of the blog carnival will get additional benefits. First, they will get a lot of links back to their original post. They will also get traffic from each of the participating bloggers from those looking to read all of the posts submitted.To summarize, your blog will get more exposure and visibility.How to Participate in a Blog CarnivalThe first step to participating in a blog carnival is to find one in your niche. Google is a great place to start by searching for keywords in your niche plus the phrase blog carnival in quotes. You will want to narrow your search by using the Search Tools box and filtering the results down to the last month or last year to find blogs that are hosting blog carnivals now. While youre waiting for the next blog carnival to start up, you can invest some time in building a relationship with the host by commenting on their other b log posts and networking with them on social media. This will ensure that the host will notice your blog post submission and hopefully ensure that it is accepted into the blog carnival.For blog carnivals that are currently accepting submissions, you will want to start networking with the host immediately using the above tactics. When youre ready to start working on your submission, be sure that you have thoroughly read the guidelines. Things to note in the guidelines are the following.What is the main topic or theme of the blog carnival?Are there multiple topics or themes that you must claim or publish on a specific date?Should posts be a certain length?Should posts include a specific type of media, such as a custom blog header image that relates to the blog carnival?Does the post need to be tagged or categorized a certain way?What should the post link back to?When does the post need to be published by?How should the post be submitted to the host?In most cases, blog carnivals will h ave one theme to focus upon. In some, there might be several themes with the option to write multiple blog posts that can be submitted to the carnival.How can I host my OWN blog carnival?Unless you have a lot of traffic theres not much to get from hosting a blog carnival. Why so? Well, people who are in your niche find that your blog doesnt get much traffic, they arent motivated for it.However, when you cant find a blog carnival in your niche, or you find some that arent that popular, then you may want to start one by hosting it yourself. To ensure that your blog carnival is a success, you will want to do the following.Network with Bloggers in Your NicheIf you do not already have a strong audience within their niche, then your first step in launching a blog carnival will be to network with other bloggers in your niche. If there are blog carnivals happening in your niche, you will want to start by networking with the people who participate in these blog carnivals. Beyond that, you c an use Google search, sites like Alltop, or premium tools like BuzzSumo to find blogs that write about topics within in your niche.Note that smaller blogs are going to be the ones most likely to participate in blog carnivals. Blogs like Entrepreneur, Inc, Mashable, and similar sized blogs should be left out of the mixOnce you find blogs that are receiving adequate amounts of traffic (note whether they are receiving regular social shares and comments on their blog posts), you will want to start networking with the blog owner and/or popular writers on the blog. In particular, you will want to comment on their blog posts and interact with them on social media.Twitter is usually the best network to choose for networking with bloggers, as you can chat with people without them having to friend or follow you. If bloggers are replying to comments on Facebook or Google+, those are good alternatives. The goal is to find the networks where bloggers are most engaged and interact with them there .You will also want to look into social media groups for bloggers. Facebook offers groups for all types of bloggers as well as niche-specific bloggers. Look for the social groups where people are truly engaging with each other as opposed to the ones that are full of link shares, but no comments or engagement.In addition to Facebook, you can look into LinkedIn groups, Google+ communities, and forums to connect with bloggers in your niche who may be interested in participating in a blog carnival.As you build blogging connections from your niche, you should notice that your blog benefits through increased traffic, social shares, and comments. This will tell you if you are networking with the right people as a whole.Create Your Blog Carnival and guidelinesWhen you feel confident that you have a good niche blogging audience, youre ready to start your first blog carnival. You will need to come up with an overall plan for your blog carnivals, a good theme or topic for your first blog carn ival and blog post guidelines for participants.The Overall PlanThe overall plan for your blog carnivals should cover how often you plan on hosting blog carnivals, a specific hashtag for your blog carnivals, and a way for bloggers to subscribe for notices about your blog carnivals. You should establish this from the start so every blogger you bring into your first blog carnivals can get excited about upcoming blog carnivals and subscribe.The Theme or TopicYou can plan a theme or topic for your first blog carnival only and adjust it for upcoming blog carnivals, or you can plan several themes / topics for a years worth of blog carnivals. If you do the latter, you can post it to your blog so that bloggers who may not have a good post idea for this months blog carnival will know to check back in for the next one.The theme or topic you choose should be broad enough that people will be able to write unique posts, but not so broad that it loses its flow. For example, if you have a book revi ew club, you could ask everyone to write a post reviewing their favorite self-improvement book so that all of the posts match the self-improvement theme.If youre looking for an easy way to generate a ton of topic ideas checkout Long Tail Pro.The GuidelinesFrom both a visitor and an SEO standpoint, you only want to link to blog posts that are of the highest quality. One of the problems with blog carnivals in the past is that anyone and everyone who wanted to participate could, leading to long posts with mediocre content at best.Your blog carnival guidelines should match the quality that you set for your own blog. Dont feel shy about asking for blog posts that are at least 1,000 words (or whatever is standard in your niche), that include at least one image, and that includes standard formatting elements, such as headers and bolded text when appropriate.Your guidelines should end with a specific deadline for submissions and how submissions should be sent. You can use your email address or contact form, or you can use a free Google Docs form that will put answers into a spreadsheet for easier management.This way, instead of opening email after email, you can just open one spreadsheet each time you run a blog carnival.Promote Your Blog CarnivalOnce you have defined your plan, topic or theme, guidelines, and submission policy, you are ready to publish your post and promote your blog carnival. Here are some ways to make sure you get the word out and get the most participants possible!If you already have an email list, or once you build your blog carnival-specific email list, email everyone on it when the blog carnival is announced. Then remind your email list one week before the submission deadline.Reach out to specific bloggers about your blog carnival through their contact form or email address.Announce your blog carnival on your social media profiles. Be sure to pin your announcements to the top of your Twitter profile and Facebook page until the submission deadli ne.If you belong to groups or forums where people can make self-promotional announcements, announce your blog carnival in those groups and forums.Once the submission deadline arrives, review and compile all of the blog posts you receive, then update your blog carnival page. Once your page is updated, promote it again to let people know they can come to see the entries and subscribe to get notified about the next blog carnival.Was it a success? Determine it.How will you know your blog carnival is a success? It will start with the number of good submissions you get. In the beginning, it may only be a few. But as you continue to run blog carnivals, the number should increase. Even if you only get five each time, thats still five blogs sending traffic back to yours. Plus, its five great pieces of content you get to share with your audience. Both will equal a win!