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 immediately gain regular, profitable readers of your partner blogs
* You get a quick surge of traffic to blog entries
* You get a long term improvement in search engine 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 in all likelihood the host already has some idea on how the post will be structured before the deadline, so you want your article available during this planning stage.
2) Make the host's job simple: Learn how to create blog article titles that are catchy, and brainstorm two or three powerful, compelling titles that can be used for the anchor text in links. Good headlines are hard to craft, so create them yourself. You'll save the host the effort and get more visitors from a stronger heading.
3) Follow the entry guidelines.
4) Get organized: Organize the information you submit. Include your e-mail address, name, blog name, post title, article summary, several sample headings, trackback URL, and permalink. Place this information in an e-mail above the full post itself, unless otherwise directed.
5) Advertise: Once submitted, be sure to advertise the carnival. What goes around comes around, and your collaborative efforts to attract traffic will payoff for all of you in the long run. That's the concept behind these carnivals: all participants are sharing readers, giving each the opportunity to attract the others' regular subscribers.
6) Make sure your blog can handle your traffic: Prepare your blog for any traffic surges 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 conspicuous subscribe link, and follow-up with at least one week's worth of strong articles to capitalize on any lingering 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.