May 11

Written by:
2009/05/11 11:55 PM 

A blog carnival is a blogging event where the participants submit their posts and the organizer features a selection of the submitted posts. It is a blog publishing event similar to a magazine. The organizer creates the blog carnival by providing a brief description, keywords, categories, and a publication date for the carnival.

Blogcarnival.com is the best place for blog carnivals. You can easily organize your editions, set up new ones and get the submitted articles automatically. And they also feature carnivals on the main page. Blogcarnival.com provides the platform to create blog carnivals and to submit posts to ongoing carnivals. The carnival editions are published as a post on the blog of the organizer and announced on Blogcarnival.com. An email is also sent out to those who are participating in the carnival when it is published.

Before you host a carnival, you should be a contributor. This post is aimed at the giving before receiving principal. If you want to create a successful carnival, you need to be a participator. You need to be a post reader, and a post commentator. A blog carnival is a two way street. You are the one to take the first step.

If you publish your own blog you should have no problem finding at least one carnival to contribute to. Finding your own niche is key. Once you’ve hung around the blog carnival scene, and contributed long enough, you’ll probably want to host one yourself.

The first step is to mosey on to the blog carnival list at blogcarnival.com. Then find a niche by selecting the categories in the dropdown list at the top, or using the search function. My carnival is listed under the “Technology” category. Then arrange the carnival list by order of “Next Edition”, by clicking on the order button/link provided at the top of the “Next Edition” column. You will then see when the next scheduled edition of various carnivals are. Some carnivals have various scheduled dates. Some are weekly, some are monthly, some are annually, or whatever schedule the host feels they can accommodate. Then choose a carnival that would best describes a post that you have in your chosen niche, as well as the best schedule that suites you.

My carnival is “Web Developers” and the next edition is 18 May 2009.

By clicking on the carnival of your choice, you will be taken to that carnivals index page. This is where the description of the carnival is, who the owner is, the host page, any previous post or editions, any upcoming editions, and current editions, etc. The Index page of the “Web Developers” carnival can be found at – Web developers carnival Index.

At the top right of the web page is a Link with an orange background entitled “Submit your Blog Article to this Carnival”. Click on that to take you to the submit form. Use Submit your Blog Article to this Carnival to submit to my carnival, web developers, next edition on the 18th of May. Fill in the needed information. Once submitted you will receive what is called a carnival receipt via email. Then you wait until the carnival is published. If your post is included in the host carnival, you will receive an email to that effect.

You would then go to the page indicated and read the list of posts, visiting those (or all of them) that interest you. You would also then leave comments. Others will do the same for your post.

For this week I would like you to go to Blogcarnival.com, find a niche and submit a post. Then visit and comment on the carnival and posts when it is submitted. Next week we will be looking at actually hosting a  blog carnival in your niche.

One lasting tip though, don’t expect too much too soon. Like every good thing in life, it takes time. But if you are consistent and work hard at it, you will be rewarded.

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