Establish Expert Credibility with Blog Carnivals (Part 2)
In the prior article in this series, I reviewed what blog carnivals are and why all up and coming bloggers should be participating in them. In the event that you missed that post, let me review briefly the advantages of participating in blog carnivals:
- They improve your credibility
- You immediately get regular, profitable readers of your partner blogs
- You get a quick boost of traffic to blog articles
- You get a longer term increase in search result rankings
What I’d like to review in this article is how you can get the most benefit out of your carnival participation. Let’s face it, carnivals require effort and time, so you should get as much benefit and good will from them as possible. Here’s how you can accomplish that:
1) Add your posts early. There will be a submission 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 post available during this early stage.
2) Make the host’s job simple: Learn how to create blog post titles that are catchy, and brainstorm two or three powerful, compelling headlines 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 trouble and get more visitors from a better heading.
3) Follow the entry guidelines.
4) Get organized: Organize the information you enter. Include your e-mail address, name, blog name, article title, post summary, several sample headings, permalink, and trackback URL. Place this information in an e-mail above the full article itself, unless otherwise directed.
5) Advertise: Once submitted, be sure to promote the carnival. What goes around comes around, and your collaborative efforts to generate 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 subscribers.
6) Make sure you 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 ads or offers to your audience, provide a very visible subscription link, and follow-up with at least one week’s worth of powerful posts to capitalize on any lingering traffic you might have.
Blog carnivals are an excellent way to bring profitable, relevant, qualified, 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!
