In the earlier article in this series, I discussed what blog carnivals are and why all new bloggers should be participating in them. In the event that you missed that post, let me recap briefly the benefits to participating in blog carnivals:
- They improve your credibility
- You quickly get profitable, regular subscribers of your partner blogs
- You get a quick boost of traffic to blog entries
- You get a long term improvement in search result rankings
What I’m going to review in this article is how you can get the most benefit out of your carnival efforts. Let’s face it, carnivals take time and effort, so you should get as much benefit and good will from them as you can. Here’s how you can accomplish that:
1) Submit your posts early. There will be a call for entries deadline, but it’s likely that the host already has a good idea on how the post will be structured before the deadline, so you want your post submitted during this early stage.
2) Make the host’s job easy: Learn how to create blog article titles that are compelling, and come up with two or three powerful, compelling headings that can be used for the anchor text in links. Good headlines are difficult to create, so craft them yourself. You’ll save the host the effort and get more visitors from a stronger headline.
3) Follow the submission guidelines.
4) Get organized: Organize the information you enter. Include your name, e-mail address, blog name, article title, article summary, several sample headings, permalink, and trackback URL. Place this information in an e-mail above the full post itself, unless told to do otherwise.
5) Advertise: Once submitted, make sure to advertise the carnival. What goes around comes around, and your collaborative efforts to drive traffic will payoff for all of you in the long run. That’s the concept behind these carnivals: all participants are sharing subscribers, giving each the opportunity to attract the others’ regular readers.
6) Make sure you can handle your traffic: Ready your blog for any traffic surges that might occur, and optimize the page that the carnival readers will be viewing. You’ll want to aim the offers or ads to your audience, provide a very conspicuous subscription link, and follow-up with at least one week’s worth of strong articles to capitalize on any repeat traffic you might have.
Blog carnivals are an excellent way to bring qualified, relevant, profitable, long-term readers. Use them properly 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 optimize your blog for this kind of traffic.
Good luck!
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